Chapter 92

[2777]And is approvingly cited to that effect by Arnald of Villanova,Regulae generales curationis morborum. Doctrina IV.[2778]Ashmole 361, mid 14th century, fols. 158v-159.[2779]BN 7337, 14-15th century, p. 75. Ad-Damîrî states in his zoological lexicon, (ed. A. S. G. Jayaker, 1906, I, 134) that Mohammed is reported to have said, “Be cautious of twelve days in the year, because they are such as cause the loss of property and bring on disgrace or dishonor.”[2780]M. Hamilton,Greek Saints and Their Festivals, 1910, p. 187, states that “in all parts of (modern) Greece on certain days of August and March it is considered necessary to abstain from particular kinds of work in order to avoid disaster.”[2781]Mention may perhaps be made in this connection of the “Tobias nights,” three nights of abstinence which newly wedded couples were sometimes accustomed to observe in the middle ages in order to defeat the demons. The practice is mentioned in the Vulgate, but not in most ancient versions of theBook of Tobit. In 1409 the citizens of Abbeville won a lawsuit with the bishop of Amiens who claimed the right to grant dispensations from the observance of the Tobias nights and required that fees be paid him for that purpose. See J. G. Frazer (1918), I, 498-520, where analogous practices of primitive tribes are listed.[2782]Bateson,Medieval England, 1904, p. 72; I have in the main followed the fuller account in DNB “Gerard,” from which the previous quotation is taken. William of Malmesbury,Gesta Pontificum Anglorum, III, 118 (ed. N. E. S. A. Hamilton, RS, vol. 52, 1870) does not say definitely that the book found under Gerard’s pillow was Firmicus. Also he says nothing of boys stoning the bier or of Gerard’s enemies interpreting his death as a divine judgment, and in his autograph copy of theGesta Pontificumhe afterwards erased the statements that rumor accused Gerard of many crimes and lusts, and that he was said to practice sorcery because he read Julius Firmicus on the sly before the midday hours, and that people say that a book of curious arts was found beneath his pillow when he died. This, the late medieval chroniclers say, was Firmicus: see Ranulf Higden, ed. Lumby, VII, 420, and Knyghton, ed. Twysden, X, SS., 2375.[2783]Firmicus Maternus, ed. Kroll et Skutsch, II (1913), p. iv; and F. Liebermann, ed.Quadripartitus, Halle, 1892, p. 36, andDie Gesetze der Angelsachsen, Halle, 1903-1906, I, 548.[2784]C. Jourdain,Nicolas Oresme et les astrologues à la cour de Charles V, inRevue des Questions Historiques, 1875, p. 136.[2785]English translation, ed. of 1898, p. 508.[2786]N. Valois (1880), p. 305.[2787]Additional 17,808, a narrow folio in vellum with all the treatises written in the same large, plain hand with few abbreviations. A considerable part of the MS is occupied by the work on music of Guido of Arezzo (c. 995-1050). This MS is not noted by Wickersheimer or by Bubnov, although it includes treatises on the abacus and the astrolabe which are perhaps by Gerbert.[2788]BN 17,868, from the chapter of Notre Dame of Paris, 21 leaves. Wickersheimer (1913), 321-3, states that it has all the marks of the writing of the tenth century: Delisle so dated it. Bubnov (1899), LXVII, regards fols. 14ret seq.as by a slightly older hand than the first portion.[2789]Bubnov (1899), 124-6, note.[2790]CLM 560, described in Bubnov,Gerberti opera mathematica, 1899, p. xli.[2791]Ibid., fols. 16r-19, Fragmentum libelli de astrolabio a quodam ex Arabico versi. Incipit, “Ad intimas summe phylosophie disciplinas et sublimia ipsius perfectionis archisteria.” Printed by Bubnov (1899), pp. 370-75.[2792]Incipit “Quicumque astronomiam peritiam disciplinae”; the printed editions insert adiscereafterastronomiam, but it has not been there in the MSS which I have seen and is not needed. Printed by Pez,Thesaurus Anecdotorum Noviss.III, ii, 109-30, (1721) and incorrectly ascribed by him to Hermannus Contractus, because it often occurs in the MSS together with another treatise on the astrolabe by a “Herimannus Christi pauperum peripsima et philosophiae tyronum asello imo limace tardior assecla.” Of this last we shall have more to say presently. The edition of Pez reappears in Migne, PL vol. 143. Bubnov (1899), 114-47, gives a new edition, and at pp. 109-13 a list of the MSS of the work, in which, however, he fails to note the following: and they are also absent from his general index of 153 codices at pp. xvii-xc. BM Additional MS 17808, 11th century, fols. 73v-79r, under the title as in other MSS of “Regulae ex libris Ptolomei regis de compositione astrolapsus.” Yet Bubnov says, p. cxvi, “Catalogues of Additional MSS (omnia volumina inspexi, quae ante a. 1895 edita sunt).” BM Egerton 823, 12th century, fol. 4r. BN 7412, 12th and 13th centuries, fols. 1-9, “Waztalkora sive tract. de utilitatibus astrolabii.” Professor D. B. Macdonald suggests thatWaztalkorais forrasmu-l-kura, “the describing of the sphere in lines.”[2793](1899), p. 370.[2794](1899), p. 374.[2795]Ep. 24.[2796](1899), p. 370.[2797]P. 109.[2798]Bubnov (1899), 370.... “Hoc opusculum ex Arabico versum ad manum habuit, retractavit dicendique genere expolivit.”[2799]Printed by Pez.Thesaur. Anecdot. Noviss.III, ii, 95-106. “Herimannus Christi pauperum peripsima et philosophiae tyronum asello imo limace tardior assecla.” The MSS are numerous.[2800]Digby 174, fol. 210v; also noted by Bubnov (1899), p. 113. Hermann’s dedicatory prologue, however, does not give his friend’s name in full, but reads in this MS, “B. amico suo.”[2801]See Clerval,Hermann le Dalmate, Paris, 1891, inCompte rendu du Congrès scientifique international des catholiques, Sciences Historiques, 163-9. Also, I believe, published separately asHermann le Dalmate et les premières traductions latines des traités arabes d’astronomie au moyen âge, Paris, Picard, 1891, 11 pp. Clerval adduced only one MS in support of his contention and took up the untenable position that Arabic astronomy was unknown in Latin until the twelfth century. He also did not distinguish between the different works on the astrolabe.[2802]Munich CLM 14836, fols. 16v-24r. BM Royal 15-B-IX, fol. 51r-: in both cases followed by the treatise of twenty-one chapters.[2803]Professor Haskins has announced as in preparation an article on Hermann the translator which will perhaps solve the difficulties.[2804]In a Berlin manuscript of the twelfth century (Berlin 956, fol. 11) there is added a note in a thirteenth century hand recounting the legend that this Hermann was the son of a king and queen and that, his mother having been asked before his birth whether she would prefer a handsome and foolish son or a learned and shamefully ugly one and she having chosen the latter alternative, he was born hunchbacked and lame. It was from this MS of the treatise on the astrolabe that Pertz edited the legend in theMonumenta Germaniae(Scriptores, V, 267). Rose (1905), p. 1179, calls the writer of this note Berengar, too, asking anent the opening words of the note, “De isto hermanno legitur in historia,” “Aus welcherhistoriahat der Schreiber (Berengarius) seine Fabeln?” The note at the close of the treatise in Digby 174, fol. 210v, gives a different version of the legend, stating that Hermann was a good man and dear to God and that one day an angel offered him his choice between bodily health without great wisdom and the greatest science with corporal infirmity. Hermann chose the latter and afterwards became a paralytic and gouty.[2805]This treatise, in which Hermann expresses amazement that Bede has so underestimated the duration of the moon, immediately precedes the one on the astrolabe in BN nouv. acq. 229, a German MS of the twelfth century, fols. 17r-19r (formerly pp. 265-269). After the treatise on the astrolabe follows a third work by Hermann, “de quodam horologio,” fols. 25v-28r. Then follows the treatise in twenty-one chapters on the astrolabe.These citations alone are sufficient to demonstrate the error of Clerval’s assertion: (1891), 165. “On ne peut invoquer aucune preuve sérieuse en faveur d’Hermann Contract. Jacques de Bergame et Trithème ... sont les premiers qui aient attribué au moine de Constance les traités en question.”[2806]Bubnov (1899) 372. “Habet etiam ex divinitatis archana institutione et physica lata ratione cum omnibus mundanis creaturis concordiam in rebus omnibus, secundum phisiologos non parvam congruentiam....” Bubnov unfortunately used only one of his four MSS in printing this text, and there often seems to be something wrong with it or with his punctuation. This criticism applies more especially to the passage quoted in the following footnote.[2807]Ibid., “Et ut Chaldaicas reticeam gentilogias (sic) qui omnem humanam vitam astrologicis attribuunt rationationibus et quosdam constellationum effectus per xii signa disponunt, quique etiam conceptiones et nativitates, hominumque mores, prospera seu adversa ex cursu siderum explicare conantur. Quod illorum tamen frivolae superstitiositati concedendum est, dum omnia divinae dispositioni commendanda sint. Illud est ovum a nullo forbillandum (Bubnov suggests the readingfurcillandumin parentheses, butsorbillandumseems to me the obvious reading), nisi prius foetidos inscitiae exhalaverit ructus et feces mundialium evomerit studiorum.” The passage is rather incoherent as it stands, but I hope that I have correctly interpreted its meaning.[2808]III, 43-45.[2809]Ademarus Cabannensis, who died about 1035 (Bubnov, 1899, 382-3). For Gerbert’s sources in Barcelona see J. M. Burnam, “A Group of Spanish Manuscripts,” inBulletin Hispanique, Annales de la Faculté des Lettres de Bordeaux, XXII, 4, p. 329.[2810]III, 48-53.[2811]“Plurima me docuit Neptanebus ille magister” (Bubnov, 381).[2812]De rebus gestis regum Anglorum, II, 167-8.[2813]Bodleian 266, fol. 25r.[2814]Bubnov (1899), 391. On Gerbert as a magician see further J. J. I. Döllinger,Die Papst-Fabeln des Mittelalters, Munich, 1863, pp. 155-59.[2815]Digby 83, quarto in skin, well written in large letters with few abbreviations and illustrated with many figures in red, 76 leaves. For theIncipitsof the four books and their prologues see Macray’s Catalogue of the Digby MSS.[2816]Another indication of mathematical activity in tenth century England is provided by some old verses in English in Royal 17-A-I, fols. 2v-3, which state that Euclid’s geometry was introduced into England “Yn tyme of good kyng Adelstones day.” Usually the first Latin translation of Euclid is supposed to have been that by Adelard of Bath in the early twelfth century. Halliwell (1839), 56.[2817]Digby 83, fol. 24, “Epistola Ethelwodi ad Girbertum papam. Domino summo pontifici et philosopho Girberto pape athelwoldus vite felicitatem.. ..” Gerbert of course did not become pope until long after Ethelwold’s death, but this Titulus and Incipit are open to suspicion anyway, since if Gerbert had become pope he should have been addressed as Pope Silvester. The article on Ethelwold (DNB) states that “a treatise on the circle, said to have been written by him and addressed to Gerbert, afterwards Pope Silvester II, is in the Bodleian Library (1684, Bodl. MS. Digby 83, f. 24).” William of Malmesbury mentioned “Adelboldum episcopum, ut dicunt, Winterbrugensem” as the author of the letter to Gerbert, quoted by Bubnov (1899), 388.[2818]It has always been so printed: by Pez, Olleris, Curtze, and Bubnov, and seems to be ascribed to him in most MSS, for which and other evidence pointing to the bishop of Utrecht as author see Bubnov (1899), 300-309, 41-45, 384, etc. Bubnov, however, failed to note Digby 83 either in connection with this letter or at all in his long list of mathematical MSS (XVII-CXIX). It may therefore be well to note that the letter as given in Digby 83 differs considerably from the version printed by Bubnov. It in general omits epistolary amenities which do not bear directly on the mathematical question in hand, notably the entire first paragraph of Bubnov’s text and the close of the second and third paragraphs. It also abbreviates portions of the fifth paragraph and the last sentence of the eighth and last paragraph. On the other hand after the first sentence of the fifth paragraph of Bubnov’s text it inserts the following passage which seems to be missing in Bubnov’s text of the letter: “Si quis ergo vult invenire quadraturam circuli dividat lineam in VII partes spatiumque unius septime partis semotim ponat. Deinde lineam in VII divisam in duo distribuat et spatium alterius duorum separatim ponat. Post hoc lineam in VII partitam triplicet cui triplicate spatium unius septime quod semoverat adiciat. Ipsa denique totam in IIII partiatur quarum quarta angulis directis per lineam quadrangulam metiatur. Ad ultimum sumpto spatio alterius duorum quod prius reposuerat deposito puncto in medio quadranguli eodem spatio circumducat circinum (circulum) et sic inveniet circuli quadraturam.”[2819]Bubnov (1899), 41-42, “quod tantum virum quasi conscolasticum iuvenis convenio.”[2820]Bubnov does not include it in his edition of the mathematical works of Gerbert, but as we have seen he was unaware of the existence of this MS, i.e., Digby 83.[2821]And also to theIncipitof a treatise in a tenth century MS at Paris, BN 17,868, fol. 14r, “Quicumque nosse desiderat legem astrorum....” The treatise or fragment in this Paris MS seems to end at fol. 17r, or at least at fol. 17v, after which most of the few remaining leaves of the MS, which has only 21 leaves in all, are blank. There is some similarity of contents, but the Paris MS is more astrological. Possibly, however, it is a different part of, or rather extracts from the same work, since we shall see reasons for thinking that the text in Digby 83 is incomplete.[2822]At least such seems to me to be the meaning of the passage, fol. 21r, “Quippe cum aliquando per situm gentium ipsarum positionem stellarum demonstrati simus precognita populorum habitatione rei effectus ad faciliorem curret eventus.”[2823]Fol. 22r.[2824]Fol. 76r, the closing words are, “Quod autem de elementis diximus idem de temporibus deque humoribus intellige sicut hec figura evidentissime designat.” But the figure is not given.[2825]Fol. 27v.[2826]Fol. 31v, “per que predicti planete revoluti diversa in diversis possunt et etiam secundum genethliacos bonum quidam in quibusdam malum vero in quibusdam quidam nativitatibus hominem astruunt.”[2827]Fol. 32r.[2828]Fol. 36r.[2829]Fol. 59r, “Herastotenes.”[2830]Fol. 21r-v.[2831]Fol. 32r.[2832]De rebus gestis regum Anglorum, II, 167.[2833]Addit. 17808, fols. 85v-99v, “Mathematica Alhandrei summi astrologi. Luna est frigide nature et argentei coloris / oculis descriptio talis subiciatur”: and CLM 560, fols. 61-87, which I have not seen but which from the description in the catalogue is evidently the same treatise and has the sameIncipit, although no author or title seems to be given.[2834]Bodleian 266, fol. 179v, “libellum fortune faciens mentionem de tribus faciebus signorum et planetis regnantibus in eisdem ... mulieres docte.”[2835]BN 2598, 15th century, fol. 108r.[2836]BN 17868, fols. 2r-12v. “Incipit liber Alchandrei” (Wickersheimer) or Alchandri (Bubnov) “philosophi. Luna est frigide nature et argentei coloris.” In a passage of Addit. 17808, fol. 86v, where the years from the beginning of the world are being reckoned, the year of writing is apparently given as 1040 A. D., but the existence of the treatise in BN 17868 shows that it was written before 1000. Also there is something wrong with the passage mentioned in Addit. 17808—as is very apt to be the case with such figures in medieval MSS—for the number of years from the beginning of the world to the birth of Christ is given as 4970 and then the sum of the two as 6018 instead of 6010 years, while at fol. 85v other estimates are given of the number of years between the Creation and the Incarnation.[2837]The spellings of such proper names vary in the different MSS or even in the same one.[2838]Steinschneider (1905) 30, briefly notes “Alcandrinus,” however. See below, p. 715 of the present chapter.[2839]Addit. 17808, fol. 85v; BN 17868, fol. 2r.[2840]Addit. 17808, fols. 86r-87r; BN 17868, fol. 3v.[2841]Addit. 17808, fols. 87v-88r.[2842]BN 17868, fol. 2r; Addit. 17808, fol. 85v; “Iuxta que quia omnia humana secundum nutum dei disponuntur per septem planetas que subter (subtus) feruntur eorum nobis potestas innuitur”: BN 17868, fol. 3r; Addit. 17808, fol. 86v, “Per has autem vii planetas quia ut diximus et adhuc probabimus humana fata disponuntur regulam certam demus qua in quo signo queque sit pronoscatur.” Only in a third passage does he attribute such views to the mathematici; Addit. 17808, fol. 88v, “Cum sint signa xii in zodiaco cumque iuxta mathematicos et secundum horum diversissimos potestates fata omnium ita volente sapientissimo domino disponantur....”[2843]Addit. 17808, fol. 89r, “Que quum ita discernuntur non falsa opinio persuasit istis humana principaliter gubernante domino moderari cum itaque ut mundus homo unusquisque ex his iiii compaginetur elementis.”[2844]Addit. 17808, fol. 89v. But the lists are left incomplete and a blank leaf, which is also left unnumbered, follows in the MS.[2845]BN 17868, fol. 5r: Addit. 17808, fol. 90r, “Hec sunt xxviii principales partes vel astra per que omnium fata disponuntur et indubitanter tam futura quam presentia prenuntiantur a quocumque itus reditus ortus occasus horum horoscoporum iocundissimo auxilio diligenter providentur.”[2846]BN 17868, fol. 5v.[2847]BN 17868, fol. 6r.[2848]BN 17868, fol. 9r-; Addit. 17808, fols. 94v-95v.[2849]BN 17868, fol. 10r; Addit. 17808, fol. 96r.[2850]Addit. 17808, fol. 97r.[2851]Addit. 17808, fol. 97v. In BN 17868, fol. 11r, we read, “Explicit liber primus. Incipit liber secundus.” And then begins the letter of Argafalaus with the words, “Regi macedonum Alexandro astrologo et universa philosophia perfectissimo Argafalaus servuus suus condicione et nacione ingenuus caldeus, professione vero secundus ab illo astrologus.”[2852]Addit. 17808, fol. 99r-v. This does not appear in BN 17868 which goes on to discuss various astrological influences of the 12 hours of the day and of the night. After this there is a space left blank in the middle of fol. 12v: then more is said concerning hours of the planets and interrogations until at the bottom of fol. 13r comes the letter of Phethosiris to Nechepso. But no definite ending is indicated either of the letter of Argafalaus or the Liber Secundus of Alchandrus.In a MS now missing but listed in the late 15th century catalogue of the MSS in the library of St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury (No. 1172, James 332) was a “Breviarium alhandredi su’m astrologi et peritissimi de soia (scienda?) qualibet ignota nullo decrete.” This was one of the MSS donated to the monastery by John of London.BN 4161, 16th century, #5, Breviarium Alhandriae, summi Astrologi de scientia qualiter ignota nullo indicante investigari possit.[2853]Addit. 17808, fol. 89r, “figuram quam super hac re Alexander Macedo composuit diligentissime posterius describemus”; fol. 95r, “Hinc Alexander macedo dicit eclipsin solis et lune certissima ratione colligi”; fol. 96r. “Aut iuxta alexandrum macedonem draco quasi octava planeta.”[2854]Ashmole 369, late 13th century, fols. 77-84v. “Mathematica Alexandri summi astrologi. In exordio omnis creature herus huranicus inter cuncta sidera XII maluit signa fore .../ ... nam quod lineam designat eandem stellam occupat. Explicit.” A further discussion of the contents of this work will be found below in Chapter 48, vol. II, p. 259.[2855]BN 17868, fol. 17r. The Incipit is the same as in Ashmole 369. The work here seems to be incomplete, since after fol. 17v most of the remaining leaves of the MS (which has 21 fols. in all) are blank.[2856]The vowels being represented by the consonants following, a common medieval cipher.[2857]All Souls 81, 15th century, fols. 145v-164r. “Cum sint 28 mansiones lune....” Coxe was mistaken in thinking that the work of Alkandrinus continued to fol. 188 and was in two parts, for at fol. 163r we read, “Expliciunt iudicia libri Alkandrini que sunt in divisione triplici 12 signorum que sunt apparencie per certa tempora super terram.” Moreover, the seven chapters on the planets which follow end at fol. 183v “ ... finem fecimus. Completa fuit hec compilatio in conversione sancti pauli apostoli anno domini 1350 (1305?) vacante sede per mortem Benedicti undecimi cuius anima requiescat in pace. Amen.” It would therefore seem that some compiler has made an extract from Alchandrus on the twenty-eight mansions.[2858]BN 10271, fols. 9r-52v, “Incipit liber alchandrini philosophi de nativitatibus hominum secundum compositionem duodecim signorum celi, quem reformavit quidem philosophus cristianus prout patet, quia in quibusdam differt iste liber ab antiquo primordiali. Primo facies arietis in homine sive in masculo. Alnaliet est prima facies arietis....”[2859]Steinschneider (1905), 30.[2860]Theeditio princepsseems to be “Arcandam doctor peritissimus ac non vulgaris astrologus, de veritatibus et praedictionibus astrologiae et praecipue nativitatum seu fatalis dispositionis vel diei cuiuscunque nati, nuper per Magistrum Richardum Roussat, canonicum Lingoniensem, artium et medicinae professorem, de confuso ac indistincto stilo non minus quam e tenebris in lucem aeditus, re cognitus, ac innumeris (ut pote passim) erratis expurgatus, ita ut per multa maxime necessaria et utilissima adiecerit atque adnotaverit modo eiusdem dexteritate praelo primo donatus.” Paris, 1542.The British Museum also contains another Latin edition of Paris, 1553; French editions of Rouen, 1584 and 1587, Lyons 1625; and English versions printed at London, 1626 (translated from the French), 1630, 1637, and 1670.[2861]BN 7349, 15th century, fol. 56r, seems only a fragment of the work; BN 7351, 14th century, takes up the various signs.[2862]CLM 527, 13-14th century, fols. 36-42, de physica signorum et supernascentium et aegrotantium.[2863]Addit. 15236, English hand of 13-14th century, fols. 130-52r “libellus Alchandiandi.” BN 7486, 14th century, “Incipit liber alkardiani phylosophi. Cum omne quod experitur sit experiendum propter se vel propter aliud....”[2864]The set in which the first line reads, “Tuum indumentum durabit tempore longo.”[2865]Very probably this title was derived from theIncipitjust given in note 4, p. 716.[2866]See Sloane 2472, 3554, 3857.[2867]BN 17868, fol. 14r-16v. The letter of Petosiris on the sphere of life and death at fol. 13r-v “Incipit epistola Phetosiri de sphaera” separates this treatise or fragment from the precedingliber Alchandri philosophi. Also this treatise is in a different and slightly older hand than fols. 2-13 are, or at least such was Bubnov’s opinion (1899), 125, note.[2868]BN 17686, fol. 14v, “que sarraceni nuncupant ita.”[2869]Berlin 165 (Phillips 1790), 9-10th century. I have not seen the MS, but follow Rose’s full description of it in hisVerzeichnis der lateinischen Handschriften, I, 362-9.[2870]Cod. Casin. 97 Gal. I, 24-51.[2871]Berlin 165, fol. 88.[2872]Ibid., fols. 40-2.[2873]Ibid., fol. 39v.[2874]Edited with an English translation, which I employ in my quotations, by Rev. Oswald Cockayne in vol. II of hisLeechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England, in RS vol. 35, in 3 vols., London, 1864-1866. The relation of Bald and Cild to the work is indicated by the colophon at the close of the second book: “Bald habet hunc librum, Cild quem conscribere iussit,”—“Bald owns this book; Cild is the one he told to write (or copy?) it.” The following third book is therefore presumably of other authorship.[2875]J. F. Payne,English Medicine in Anglo-Saxon Times, 1904, p. 155.[2876]Book I, cap. 87.[2877]I, 45.[2878]I, 85.[2879]III, 47.[2880]I, 86.[2881]I, 68.[2882]II, 66.[2883]I, 45.[2884]I, 63.[2885]II, 65.[2886]III, 61.[2887]Sloane 475 (olim Fr. Bernard 116), 231 leaves, including two codices, one of the 12th century, which is also medical but with which we shall not deal at present, and the other of the 10th or 11th century and written in different hands. The MS is mutilated both at the beginning and the close.Sloane 2839, 11th century, 112 leaves.[2888]Sloane 2839, fols, iv-3, “Liber Cirrurgium Cauterium Apollonii et Galieni.” James,Western MSS in Trinity College, Cambridge, III, 26-8, describes fifty drawings, chiefly of surgical operations, in MS 1044, early 13th century. By that date cauterization seems to have become less common.[2889]Professor T. W. Todd thinks that I am too severe upon the practice of cauterization, and that it may sometimes have served as a counter-irritant like mustard plasters and the blister.[2890]Sloane, 2839, fols. 79v-80v.[2891]“Ad stomachum ubi ferro operare non oportes sansugias apponas.”[2892]Imbrocare.I have not discovered exactly what it means.[2893]Sloane 475, fol. 224r; Sloane 2839, fol. 97r.[2894]Sloane 475, fol. 133,et seq.

[2777]And is approvingly cited to that effect by Arnald of Villanova,Regulae generales curationis morborum. Doctrina IV.

[2778]Ashmole 361, mid 14th century, fols. 158v-159.

[2779]BN 7337, 14-15th century, p. 75. Ad-Damîrî states in his zoological lexicon, (ed. A. S. G. Jayaker, 1906, I, 134) that Mohammed is reported to have said, “Be cautious of twelve days in the year, because they are such as cause the loss of property and bring on disgrace or dishonor.”

[2780]M. Hamilton,Greek Saints and Their Festivals, 1910, p. 187, states that “in all parts of (modern) Greece on certain days of August and March it is considered necessary to abstain from particular kinds of work in order to avoid disaster.”

[2781]Mention may perhaps be made in this connection of the “Tobias nights,” three nights of abstinence which newly wedded couples were sometimes accustomed to observe in the middle ages in order to defeat the demons. The practice is mentioned in the Vulgate, but not in most ancient versions of theBook of Tobit. In 1409 the citizens of Abbeville won a lawsuit with the bishop of Amiens who claimed the right to grant dispensations from the observance of the Tobias nights and required that fees be paid him for that purpose. See J. G. Frazer (1918), I, 498-520, where analogous practices of primitive tribes are listed.

[2782]Bateson,Medieval England, 1904, p. 72; I have in the main followed the fuller account in DNB “Gerard,” from which the previous quotation is taken. William of Malmesbury,Gesta Pontificum Anglorum, III, 118 (ed. N. E. S. A. Hamilton, RS, vol. 52, 1870) does not say definitely that the book found under Gerard’s pillow was Firmicus. Also he says nothing of boys stoning the bier or of Gerard’s enemies interpreting his death as a divine judgment, and in his autograph copy of theGesta Pontificumhe afterwards erased the statements that rumor accused Gerard of many crimes and lusts, and that he was said to practice sorcery because he read Julius Firmicus on the sly before the midday hours, and that people say that a book of curious arts was found beneath his pillow when he died. This, the late medieval chroniclers say, was Firmicus: see Ranulf Higden, ed. Lumby, VII, 420, and Knyghton, ed. Twysden, X, SS., 2375.

[2783]Firmicus Maternus, ed. Kroll et Skutsch, II (1913), p. iv; and F. Liebermann, ed.Quadripartitus, Halle, 1892, p. 36, andDie Gesetze der Angelsachsen, Halle, 1903-1906, I, 548.

[2784]C. Jourdain,Nicolas Oresme et les astrologues à la cour de Charles V, inRevue des Questions Historiques, 1875, p. 136.

[2785]English translation, ed. of 1898, p. 508.

[2786]N. Valois (1880), p. 305.

[2787]Additional 17,808, a narrow folio in vellum with all the treatises written in the same large, plain hand with few abbreviations. A considerable part of the MS is occupied by the work on music of Guido of Arezzo (c. 995-1050). This MS is not noted by Wickersheimer or by Bubnov, although it includes treatises on the abacus and the astrolabe which are perhaps by Gerbert.

[2788]BN 17,868, from the chapter of Notre Dame of Paris, 21 leaves. Wickersheimer (1913), 321-3, states that it has all the marks of the writing of the tenth century: Delisle so dated it. Bubnov (1899), LXVII, regards fols. 14ret seq.as by a slightly older hand than the first portion.

[2789]Bubnov (1899), 124-6, note.

[2790]CLM 560, described in Bubnov,Gerberti opera mathematica, 1899, p. xli.

[2791]Ibid., fols. 16r-19, Fragmentum libelli de astrolabio a quodam ex Arabico versi. Incipit, “Ad intimas summe phylosophie disciplinas et sublimia ipsius perfectionis archisteria.” Printed by Bubnov (1899), pp. 370-75.

[2792]Incipit “Quicumque astronomiam peritiam disciplinae”; the printed editions insert adiscereafterastronomiam, but it has not been there in the MSS which I have seen and is not needed. Printed by Pez,Thesaurus Anecdotorum Noviss.III, ii, 109-30, (1721) and incorrectly ascribed by him to Hermannus Contractus, because it often occurs in the MSS together with another treatise on the astrolabe by a “Herimannus Christi pauperum peripsima et philosophiae tyronum asello imo limace tardior assecla.” Of this last we shall have more to say presently. The edition of Pez reappears in Migne, PL vol. 143. Bubnov (1899), 114-47, gives a new edition, and at pp. 109-13 a list of the MSS of the work, in which, however, he fails to note the following: and they are also absent from his general index of 153 codices at pp. xvii-xc. BM Additional MS 17808, 11th century, fols. 73v-79r, under the title as in other MSS of “Regulae ex libris Ptolomei regis de compositione astrolapsus.” Yet Bubnov says, p. cxvi, “Catalogues of Additional MSS (omnia volumina inspexi, quae ante a. 1895 edita sunt).” BM Egerton 823, 12th century, fol. 4r. BN 7412, 12th and 13th centuries, fols. 1-9, “Waztalkora sive tract. de utilitatibus astrolabii.” Professor D. B. Macdonald suggests thatWaztalkorais forrasmu-l-kura, “the describing of the sphere in lines.”

[2793](1899), p. 370.

[2794](1899), p. 374.

[2795]Ep. 24.

[2796](1899), p. 370.

[2797]P. 109.

[2798]Bubnov (1899), 370.... “Hoc opusculum ex Arabico versum ad manum habuit, retractavit dicendique genere expolivit.”

[2799]Printed by Pez.Thesaur. Anecdot. Noviss.III, ii, 95-106. “Herimannus Christi pauperum peripsima et philosophiae tyronum asello imo limace tardior assecla.” The MSS are numerous.

[2800]Digby 174, fol. 210v; also noted by Bubnov (1899), p. 113. Hermann’s dedicatory prologue, however, does not give his friend’s name in full, but reads in this MS, “B. amico suo.”

[2801]See Clerval,Hermann le Dalmate, Paris, 1891, inCompte rendu du Congrès scientifique international des catholiques, Sciences Historiques, 163-9. Also, I believe, published separately asHermann le Dalmate et les premières traductions latines des traités arabes d’astronomie au moyen âge, Paris, Picard, 1891, 11 pp. Clerval adduced only one MS in support of his contention and took up the untenable position that Arabic astronomy was unknown in Latin until the twelfth century. He also did not distinguish between the different works on the astrolabe.

[2802]Munich CLM 14836, fols. 16v-24r. BM Royal 15-B-IX, fol. 51r-: in both cases followed by the treatise of twenty-one chapters.

[2803]Professor Haskins has announced as in preparation an article on Hermann the translator which will perhaps solve the difficulties.

[2804]In a Berlin manuscript of the twelfth century (Berlin 956, fol. 11) there is added a note in a thirteenth century hand recounting the legend that this Hermann was the son of a king and queen and that, his mother having been asked before his birth whether she would prefer a handsome and foolish son or a learned and shamefully ugly one and she having chosen the latter alternative, he was born hunchbacked and lame. It was from this MS of the treatise on the astrolabe that Pertz edited the legend in theMonumenta Germaniae(Scriptores, V, 267). Rose (1905), p. 1179, calls the writer of this note Berengar, too, asking anent the opening words of the note, “De isto hermanno legitur in historia,” “Aus welcherhistoriahat der Schreiber (Berengarius) seine Fabeln?” The note at the close of the treatise in Digby 174, fol. 210v, gives a different version of the legend, stating that Hermann was a good man and dear to God and that one day an angel offered him his choice between bodily health without great wisdom and the greatest science with corporal infirmity. Hermann chose the latter and afterwards became a paralytic and gouty.

[2805]This treatise, in which Hermann expresses amazement that Bede has so underestimated the duration of the moon, immediately precedes the one on the astrolabe in BN nouv. acq. 229, a German MS of the twelfth century, fols. 17r-19r (formerly pp. 265-269). After the treatise on the astrolabe follows a third work by Hermann, “de quodam horologio,” fols. 25v-28r. Then follows the treatise in twenty-one chapters on the astrolabe.These citations alone are sufficient to demonstrate the error of Clerval’s assertion: (1891), 165. “On ne peut invoquer aucune preuve sérieuse en faveur d’Hermann Contract. Jacques de Bergame et Trithème ... sont les premiers qui aient attribué au moine de Constance les traités en question.”

These citations alone are sufficient to demonstrate the error of Clerval’s assertion: (1891), 165. “On ne peut invoquer aucune preuve sérieuse en faveur d’Hermann Contract. Jacques de Bergame et Trithème ... sont les premiers qui aient attribué au moine de Constance les traités en question.”

[2806]Bubnov (1899) 372. “Habet etiam ex divinitatis archana institutione et physica lata ratione cum omnibus mundanis creaturis concordiam in rebus omnibus, secundum phisiologos non parvam congruentiam....” Bubnov unfortunately used only one of his four MSS in printing this text, and there often seems to be something wrong with it or with his punctuation. This criticism applies more especially to the passage quoted in the following footnote.

[2807]Ibid., “Et ut Chaldaicas reticeam gentilogias (sic) qui omnem humanam vitam astrologicis attribuunt rationationibus et quosdam constellationum effectus per xii signa disponunt, quique etiam conceptiones et nativitates, hominumque mores, prospera seu adversa ex cursu siderum explicare conantur. Quod illorum tamen frivolae superstitiositati concedendum est, dum omnia divinae dispositioni commendanda sint. Illud est ovum a nullo forbillandum (Bubnov suggests the readingfurcillandumin parentheses, butsorbillandumseems to me the obvious reading), nisi prius foetidos inscitiae exhalaverit ructus et feces mundialium evomerit studiorum.” The passage is rather incoherent as it stands, but I hope that I have correctly interpreted its meaning.

[2808]III, 43-45.

[2809]Ademarus Cabannensis, who died about 1035 (Bubnov, 1899, 382-3). For Gerbert’s sources in Barcelona see J. M. Burnam, “A Group of Spanish Manuscripts,” inBulletin Hispanique, Annales de la Faculté des Lettres de Bordeaux, XXII, 4, p. 329.

[2810]III, 48-53.

[2811]“Plurima me docuit Neptanebus ille magister” (Bubnov, 381).

[2812]De rebus gestis regum Anglorum, II, 167-8.

[2813]Bodleian 266, fol. 25r.

[2814]Bubnov (1899), 391. On Gerbert as a magician see further J. J. I. Döllinger,Die Papst-Fabeln des Mittelalters, Munich, 1863, pp. 155-59.

[2815]Digby 83, quarto in skin, well written in large letters with few abbreviations and illustrated with many figures in red, 76 leaves. For theIncipitsof the four books and their prologues see Macray’s Catalogue of the Digby MSS.

[2816]Another indication of mathematical activity in tenth century England is provided by some old verses in English in Royal 17-A-I, fols. 2v-3, which state that Euclid’s geometry was introduced into England “Yn tyme of good kyng Adelstones day.” Usually the first Latin translation of Euclid is supposed to have been that by Adelard of Bath in the early twelfth century. Halliwell (1839), 56.

[2817]Digby 83, fol. 24, “Epistola Ethelwodi ad Girbertum papam. Domino summo pontifici et philosopho Girberto pape athelwoldus vite felicitatem.. ..” Gerbert of course did not become pope until long after Ethelwold’s death, but this Titulus and Incipit are open to suspicion anyway, since if Gerbert had become pope he should have been addressed as Pope Silvester. The article on Ethelwold (DNB) states that “a treatise on the circle, said to have been written by him and addressed to Gerbert, afterwards Pope Silvester II, is in the Bodleian Library (1684, Bodl. MS. Digby 83, f. 24).” William of Malmesbury mentioned “Adelboldum episcopum, ut dicunt, Winterbrugensem” as the author of the letter to Gerbert, quoted by Bubnov (1899), 388.

[2818]It has always been so printed: by Pez, Olleris, Curtze, and Bubnov, and seems to be ascribed to him in most MSS, for which and other evidence pointing to the bishop of Utrecht as author see Bubnov (1899), 300-309, 41-45, 384, etc. Bubnov, however, failed to note Digby 83 either in connection with this letter or at all in his long list of mathematical MSS (XVII-CXIX). It may therefore be well to note that the letter as given in Digby 83 differs considerably from the version printed by Bubnov. It in general omits epistolary amenities which do not bear directly on the mathematical question in hand, notably the entire first paragraph of Bubnov’s text and the close of the second and third paragraphs. It also abbreviates portions of the fifth paragraph and the last sentence of the eighth and last paragraph. On the other hand after the first sentence of the fifth paragraph of Bubnov’s text it inserts the following passage which seems to be missing in Bubnov’s text of the letter: “Si quis ergo vult invenire quadraturam circuli dividat lineam in VII partes spatiumque unius septime partis semotim ponat. Deinde lineam in VII divisam in duo distribuat et spatium alterius duorum separatim ponat. Post hoc lineam in VII partitam triplicet cui triplicate spatium unius septime quod semoverat adiciat. Ipsa denique totam in IIII partiatur quarum quarta angulis directis per lineam quadrangulam metiatur. Ad ultimum sumpto spatio alterius duorum quod prius reposuerat deposito puncto in medio quadranguli eodem spatio circumducat circinum (circulum) et sic inveniet circuli quadraturam.”

[2819]Bubnov (1899), 41-42, “quod tantum virum quasi conscolasticum iuvenis convenio.”

[2820]Bubnov does not include it in his edition of the mathematical works of Gerbert, but as we have seen he was unaware of the existence of this MS, i.e., Digby 83.

[2821]And also to theIncipitof a treatise in a tenth century MS at Paris, BN 17,868, fol. 14r, “Quicumque nosse desiderat legem astrorum....” The treatise or fragment in this Paris MS seems to end at fol. 17r, or at least at fol. 17v, after which most of the few remaining leaves of the MS, which has only 21 leaves in all, are blank. There is some similarity of contents, but the Paris MS is more astrological. Possibly, however, it is a different part of, or rather extracts from the same work, since we shall see reasons for thinking that the text in Digby 83 is incomplete.

[2822]At least such seems to me to be the meaning of the passage, fol. 21r, “Quippe cum aliquando per situm gentium ipsarum positionem stellarum demonstrati simus precognita populorum habitatione rei effectus ad faciliorem curret eventus.”

[2823]Fol. 22r.

[2824]Fol. 76r, the closing words are, “Quod autem de elementis diximus idem de temporibus deque humoribus intellige sicut hec figura evidentissime designat.” But the figure is not given.

[2825]Fol. 27v.

[2826]Fol. 31v, “per que predicti planete revoluti diversa in diversis possunt et etiam secundum genethliacos bonum quidam in quibusdam malum vero in quibusdam quidam nativitatibus hominem astruunt.”

[2827]Fol. 32r.

[2828]Fol. 36r.

[2829]Fol. 59r, “Herastotenes.”

[2830]Fol. 21r-v.

[2831]Fol. 32r.

[2832]De rebus gestis regum Anglorum, II, 167.

[2833]Addit. 17808, fols. 85v-99v, “Mathematica Alhandrei summi astrologi. Luna est frigide nature et argentei coloris / oculis descriptio talis subiciatur”: and CLM 560, fols. 61-87, which I have not seen but which from the description in the catalogue is evidently the same treatise and has the sameIncipit, although no author or title seems to be given.

[2834]Bodleian 266, fol. 179v, “libellum fortune faciens mentionem de tribus faciebus signorum et planetis regnantibus in eisdem ... mulieres docte.”

[2835]BN 2598, 15th century, fol. 108r.

[2836]BN 17868, fols. 2r-12v. “Incipit liber Alchandrei” (Wickersheimer) or Alchandri (Bubnov) “philosophi. Luna est frigide nature et argentei coloris.” In a passage of Addit. 17808, fol. 86v, where the years from the beginning of the world are being reckoned, the year of writing is apparently given as 1040 A. D., but the existence of the treatise in BN 17868 shows that it was written before 1000. Also there is something wrong with the passage mentioned in Addit. 17808—as is very apt to be the case with such figures in medieval MSS—for the number of years from the beginning of the world to the birth of Christ is given as 4970 and then the sum of the two as 6018 instead of 6010 years, while at fol. 85v other estimates are given of the number of years between the Creation and the Incarnation.

[2837]The spellings of such proper names vary in the different MSS or even in the same one.

[2838]Steinschneider (1905) 30, briefly notes “Alcandrinus,” however. See below, p. 715 of the present chapter.

[2839]Addit. 17808, fol. 85v; BN 17868, fol. 2r.

[2840]Addit. 17808, fols. 86r-87r; BN 17868, fol. 3v.

[2841]Addit. 17808, fols. 87v-88r.

[2842]BN 17868, fol. 2r; Addit. 17808, fol. 85v; “Iuxta que quia omnia humana secundum nutum dei disponuntur per septem planetas que subter (subtus) feruntur eorum nobis potestas innuitur”: BN 17868, fol. 3r; Addit. 17808, fol. 86v, “Per has autem vii planetas quia ut diximus et adhuc probabimus humana fata disponuntur regulam certam demus qua in quo signo queque sit pronoscatur.” Only in a third passage does he attribute such views to the mathematici; Addit. 17808, fol. 88v, “Cum sint signa xii in zodiaco cumque iuxta mathematicos et secundum horum diversissimos potestates fata omnium ita volente sapientissimo domino disponantur....”

[2843]Addit. 17808, fol. 89r, “Que quum ita discernuntur non falsa opinio persuasit istis humana principaliter gubernante domino moderari cum itaque ut mundus homo unusquisque ex his iiii compaginetur elementis.”

[2844]Addit. 17808, fol. 89v. But the lists are left incomplete and a blank leaf, which is also left unnumbered, follows in the MS.

[2845]BN 17868, fol. 5r: Addit. 17808, fol. 90r, “Hec sunt xxviii principales partes vel astra per que omnium fata disponuntur et indubitanter tam futura quam presentia prenuntiantur a quocumque itus reditus ortus occasus horum horoscoporum iocundissimo auxilio diligenter providentur.”

[2846]BN 17868, fol. 5v.

[2847]BN 17868, fol. 6r.

[2848]BN 17868, fol. 9r-; Addit. 17808, fols. 94v-95v.

[2849]BN 17868, fol. 10r; Addit. 17808, fol. 96r.

[2850]Addit. 17808, fol. 97r.

[2851]Addit. 17808, fol. 97v. In BN 17868, fol. 11r, we read, “Explicit liber primus. Incipit liber secundus.” And then begins the letter of Argafalaus with the words, “Regi macedonum Alexandro astrologo et universa philosophia perfectissimo Argafalaus servuus suus condicione et nacione ingenuus caldeus, professione vero secundus ab illo astrologus.”

[2852]Addit. 17808, fol. 99r-v. This does not appear in BN 17868 which goes on to discuss various astrological influences of the 12 hours of the day and of the night. After this there is a space left blank in the middle of fol. 12v: then more is said concerning hours of the planets and interrogations until at the bottom of fol. 13r comes the letter of Phethosiris to Nechepso. But no definite ending is indicated either of the letter of Argafalaus or the Liber Secundus of Alchandrus.In a MS now missing but listed in the late 15th century catalogue of the MSS in the library of St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury (No. 1172, James 332) was a “Breviarium alhandredi su’m astrologi et peritissimi de soia (scienda?) qualibet ignota nullo decrete.” This was one of the MSS donated to the monastery by John of London.BN 4161, 16th century, #5, Breviarium Alhandriae, summi Astrologi de scientia qualiter ignota nullo indicante investigari possit.

In a MS now missing but listed in the late 15th century catalogue of the MSS in the library of St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury (No. 1172, James 332) was a “Breviarium alhandredi su’m astrologi et peritissimi de soia (scienda?) qualibet ignota nullo decrete.” This was one of the MSS donated to the monastery by John of London.

BN 4161, 16th century, #5, Breviarium Alhandriae, summi Astrologi de scientia qualiter ignota nullo indicante investigari possit.

[2853]Addit. 17808, fol. 89r, “figuram quam super hac re Alexander Macedo composuit diligentissime posterius describemus”; fol. 95r, “Hinc Alexander macedo dicit eclipsin solis et lune certissima ratione colligi”; fol. 96r. “Aut iuxta alexandrum macedonem draco quasi octava planeta.”

[2854]Ashmole 369, late 13th century, fols. 77-84v. “Mathematica Alexandri summi astrologi. In exordio omnis creature herus huranicus inter cuncta sidera XII maluit signa fore .../ ... nam quod lineam designat eandem stellam occupat. Explicit.” A further discussion of the contents of this work will be found below in Chapter 48, vol. II, p. 259.

[2855]BN 17868, fol. 17r. The Incipit is the same as in Ashmole 369. The work here seems to be incomplete, since after fol. 17v most of the remaining leaves of the MS (which has 21 fols. in all) are blank.

[2856]The vowels being represented by the consonants following, a common medieval cipher.

[2857]All Souls 81, 15th century, fols. 145v-164r. “Cum sint 28 mansiones lune....” Coxe was mistaken in thinking that the work of Alkandrinus continued to fol. 188 and was in two parts, for at fol. 163r we read, “Expliciunt iudicia libri Alkandrini que sunt in divisione triplici 12 signorum que sunt apparencie per certa tempora super terram.” Moreover, the seven chapters on the planets which follow end at fol. 183v “ ... finem fecimus. Completa fuit hec compilatio in conversione sancti pauli apostoli anno domini 1350 (1305?) vacante sede per mortem Benedicti undecimi cuius anima requiescat in pace. Amen.” It would therefore seem that some compiler has made an extract from Alchandrus on the twenty-eight mansions.

[2858]BN 10271, fols. 9r-52v, “Incipit liber alchandrini philosophi de nativitatibus hominum secundum compositionem duodecim signorum celi, quem reformavit quidem philosophus cristianus prout patet, quia in quibusdam differt iste liber ab antiquo primordiali. Primo facies arietis in homine sive in masculo. Alnaliet est prima facies arietis....”

[2859]Steinschneider (1905), 30.

[2860]Theeditio princepsseems to be “Arcandam doctor peritissimus ac non vulgaris astrologus, de veritatibus et praedictionibus astrologiae et praecipue nativitatum seu fatalis dispositionis vel diei cuiuscunque nati, nuper per Magistrum Richardum Roussat, canonicum Lingoniensem, artium et medicinae professorem, de confuso ac indistincto stilo non minus quam e tenebris in lucem aeditus, re cognitus, ac innumeris (ut pote passim) erratis expurgatus, ita ut per multa maxime necessaria et utilissima adiecerit atque adnotaverit modo eiusdem dexteritate praelo primo donatus.” Paris, 1542.The British Museum also contains another Latin edition of Paris, 1553; French editions of Rouen, 1584 and 1587, Lyons 1625; and English versions printed at London, 1626 (translated from the French), 1630, 1637, and 1670.

The British Museum also contains another Latin edition of Paris, 1553; French editions of Rouen, 1584 and 1587, Lyons 1625; and English versions printed at London, 1626 (translated from the French), 1630, 1637, and 1670.

[2861]BN 7349, 15th century, fol. 56r, seems only a fragment of the work; BN 7351, 14th century, takes up the various signs.

[2862]CLM 527, 13-14th century, fols. 36-42, de physica signorum et supernascentium et aegrotantium.

[2863]Addit. 15236, English hand of 13-14th century, fols. 130-52r “libellus Alchandiandi.” BN 7486, 14th century, “Incipit liber alkardiani phylosophi. Cum omne quod experitur sit experiendum propter se vel propter aliud....”

[2864]The set in which the first line reads, “Tuum indumentum durabit tempore longo.”

[2865]Very probably this title was derived from theIncipitjust given in note 4, p. 716.

[2866]See Sloane 2472, 3554, 3857.

[2867]BN 17868, fol. 14r-16v. The letter of Petosiris on the sphere of life and death at fol. 13r-v “Incipit epistola Phetosiri de sphaera” separates this treatise or fragment from the precedingliber Alchandri philosophi. Also this treatise is in a different and slightly older hand than fols. 2-13 are, or at least such was Bubnov’s opinion (1899), 125, note.

[2868]BN 17686, fol. 14v, “que sarraceni nuncupant ita.”

[2869]Berlin 165 (Phillips 1790), 9-10th century. I have not seen the MS, but follow Rose’s full description of it in hisVerzeichnis der lateinischen Handschriften, I, 362-9.

[2870]Cod. Casin. 97 Gal. I, 24-51.

[2871]Berlin 165, fol. 88.

[2872]Ibid., fols. 40-2.

[2873]Ibid., fol. 39v.

[2874]Edited with an English translation, which I employ in my quotations, by Rev. Oswald Cockayne in vol. II of hisLeechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England, in RS vol. 35, in 3 vols., London, 1864-1866. The relation of Bald and Cild to the work is indicated by the colophon at the close of the second book: “Bald habet hunc librum, Cild quem conscribere iussit,”—“Bald owns this book; Cild is the one he told to write (or copy?) it.” The following third book is therefore presumably of other authorship.

[2875]J. F. Payne,English Medicine in Anglo-Saxon Times, 1904, p. 155.

[2876]Book I, cap. 87.

[2877]I, 45.

[2878]I, 85.

[2879]III, 47.

[2880]I, 86.

[2881]I, 68.

[2882]II, 66.

[2883]I, 45.

[2884]I, 63.

[2885]II, 65.

[2886]III, 61.

[2887]Sloane 475 (olim Fr. Bernard 116), 231 leaves, including two codices, one of the 12th century, which is also medical but with which we shall not deal at present, and the other of the 10th or 11th century and written in different hands. The MS is mutilated both at the beginning and the close.Sloane 2839, 11th century, 112 leaves.

Sloane 2839, 11th century, 112 leaves.

[2888]Sloane 2839, fols, iv-3, “Liber Cirrurgium Cauterium Apollonii et Galieni.” James,Western MSS in Trinity College, Cambridge, III, 26-8, describes fifty drawings, chiefly of surgical operations, in MS 1044, early 13th century. By that date cauterization seems to have become less common.

[2889]Professor T. W. Todd thinks that I am too severe upon the practice of cauterization, and that it may sometimes have served as a counter-irritant like mustard plasters and the blister.

[2890]Sloane, 2839, fols. 79v-80v.

[2891]“Ad stomachum ubi ferro operare non oportes sansugias apponas.”

[2892]Imbrocare.I have not discovered exactly what it means.

[2893]Sloane 475, fol. 224r; Sloane 2839, fol. 97r.

[2894]Sloane 475, fol. 133,et seq.

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