FOOTNOTES:

“Sweet meat of Apples. My Lady Barclay makes her fine Apple-gelly with slices of John apples. Sometimes she mingles a few pippins with the Johns to make the gelly. But she liketh best the Johns single and the colour is paler. You first fill the glass with slices round-wise cut, and then the Gelly is poured in to fill up the vacuities. The Gelly must be boiled to a good stiffness. Then when it is ready to take from the fire, you put in some juyce of Lemon, and of Orange too, ifyou like it, but these must not boil; yet it must stand a while upon the fire stewing in good heat, to have the juyces incorporate and penetrate well. You must also put in some Ambergreece, which doth exceeding well in this sweet-meat.”“Wheaten Flommery. In the West Country they make a kind of Flommery of wheat flower, which they judge to be more harty and pleasant then that of Oat-meal, thus; take half, or a quarter of a bushel of good Bran of the best wheat (which containeth the purest flower of it, though little, and is used to make starch), and in a great wooden bowl or pail, let it soak with cold water upon it three or four days. Then strain out the milky water from it, and boil it up to a gelly or like starch. Which you may season with Sugar and Rose or Orange-flower-water and let it stand till it be cold, and gellied. Then eat it with white or Rhenish-wine, or Cream, or Milk, or Ale.”“A Flomery Caudle. When Flomery is made and cold, you may make a pleasant and wholesome caudle of it by taking some lumps and spoonfuls of it, and boil it with Ale and White wine, then sweeten it to your taste with Sugar. There will remain in the Caudle some lumps of the congealed flomery which are not ungrateful.”“Conserve of Red Roses. Doctor Glisson makes his Conserve of red Roses thus: Boil gently a pound of red Rose-leaves (well picked, and the nails cut off) in about a pint and a half (or a little more, as by discretion you shall judge fit, after having done it once; the Doctor’s Apothecary takes two pints) of Spring water; till the water have drawn out all the Tincture of the Roses into itself, and that the leaves be very tender, and look pale like Linnen; which may be in a good half hour, or an hour, keeping the pot covered whiles it boileth. Then pour the tincted Liquor from the pale leaves (strain it out, pressing it gently, so that you may have Liquor enough to dissolve your Sugar) and set it upon the fire by itself to boil, putting into it a pound of pure double refined Sugar in small Powder; which as soon as it is dissolved, put into it a second pound, thena third, lastly a fourth, so that you have four pounds of sugar to every pound of Rose-leaves. (The Apothecary useth to put all the four pounds into the Liquor altogether at once.) Boil these four pounds of Sugar with the tincted Liquor, till it be a high Syrup, very near a candy height (as high as it can be not to flake or candy). Then put the pale Rose-leaves into this high Syrup, as it yet standeth upon the fire, or immediately upon the taking it off the fire. But presently take it from the fire, and stir them exceeding well together, to mix them uniformly; then let them stand till they be cold, then pot them up. If you put your Conserve into pots whiles it is yet thoroughly warm, and leave them uncovered some days, putting them in the hot Sun or stove, there will grow a fine candy on the top, which will preserve the conserve without paper upon it, from moulding, till you break the candied crust to take out some of the conserve.“The colour both of the Rose-leaves and the Syrup about them, will be exceedingly beautiful and red, and the taste excellent, and the whole very tender and smoothing, and easie to digest in the stomack without clogging it, as doth the ordinary rough conserve made of raw Roses beaten with Sugar, which is very rough in the throat. The worst of it is, that if you put not a Paper to lie always close upon the top of the conserve, it will be apt to grow mouldy there on the top; especially après que le pot est entamé.”

“Sweet meat of Apples. My Lady Barclay makes her fine Apple-gelly with slices of John apples. Sometimes she mingles a few pippins with the Johns to make the gelly. But she liketh best the Johns single and the colour is paler. You first fill the glass with slices round-wise cut, and then the Gelly is poured in to fill up the vacuities. The Gelly must be boiled to a good stiffness. Then when it is ready to take from the fire, you put in some juyce of Lemon, and of Orange too, ifyou like it, but these must not boil; yet it must stand a while upon the fire stewing in good heat, to have the juyces incorporate and penetrate well. You must also put in some Ambergreece, which doth exceeding well in this sweet-meat.”

“Wheaten Flommery. In the West Country they make a kind of Flommery of wheat flower, which they judge to be more harty and pleasant then that of Oat-meal, thus; take half, or a quarter of a bushel of good Bran of the best wheat (which containeth the purest flower of it, though little, and is used to make starch), and in a great wooden bowl or pail, let it soak with cold water upon it three or four days. Then strain out the milky water from it, and boil it up to a gelly or like starch. Which you may season with Sugar and Rose or Orange-flower-water and let it stand till it be cold, and gellied. Then eat it with white or Rhenish-wine, or Cream, or Milk, or Ale.”

“A Flomery Caudle. When Flomery is made and cold, you may make a pleasant and wholesome caudle of it by taking some lumps and spoonfuls of it, and boil it with Ale and White wine, then sweeten it to your taste with Sugar. There will remain in the Caudle some lumps of the congealed flomery which are not ungrateful.”

“Conserve of Red Roses. Doctor Glisson makes his Conserve of red Roses thus: Boil gently a pound of red Rose-leaves (well picked, and the nails cut off) in about a pint and a half (or a little more, as by discretion you shall judge fit, after having done it once; the Doctor’s Apothecary takes two pints) of Spring water; till the water have drawn out all the Tincture of the Roses into itself, and that the leaves be very tender, and look pale like Linnen; which may be in a good half hour, or an hour, keeping the pot covered whiles it boileth. Then pour the tincted Liquor from the pale leaves (strain it out, pressing it gently, so that you may have Liquor enough to dissolve your Sugar) and set it upon the fire by itself to boil, putting into it a pound of pure double refined Sugar in small Powder; which as soon as it is dissolved, put into it a second pound, thena third, lastly a fourth, so that you have four pounds of sugar to every pound of Rose-leaves. (The Apothecary useth to put all the four pounds into the Liquor altogether at once.) Boil these four pounds of Sugar with the tincted Liquor, till it be a high Syrup, very near a candy height (as high as it can be not to flake or candy). Then put the pale Rose-leaves into this high Syrup, as it yet standeth upon the fire, or immediately upon the taking it off the fire. But presently take it from the fire, and stir them exceeding well together, to mix them uniformly; then let them stand till they be cold, then pot them up. If you put your Conserve into pots whiles it is yet thoroughly warm, and leave them uncovered some days, putting them in the hot Sun or stove, there will grow a fine candy on the top, which will preserve the conserve without paper upon it, from moulding, till you break the candied crust to take out some of the conserve.

“The colour both of the Rose-leaves and the Syrup about them, will be exceedingly beautiful and red, and the taste excellent, and the whole very tender and smoothing, and easie to digest in the stomack without clogging it, as doth the ordinary rough conserve made of raw Roses beaten with Sugar, which is very rough in the throat. The worst of it is, that if you put not a Paper to lie always close upon the top of the conserve, it will be apt to grow mouldy there on the top; especially après que le pot est entamé.”

Under another “conserve of red roses” we find this note:—“Doctor Bacon useth to make a pleasant Julip of this Conserve of Roses, by putting a good spoonful of it into a large drinking glass or cup; upon which squeeze the juyce made of a Lemon, and slip in unto it a little of the yellow rinde of the Lemon; work these well together with the back of a spoon, putting water to it by little and little, till you have filled up the glass with Spring water: so drink it. He sometimes passeth it through an Hypocras bag and then it is a beautiful and pleasant Liquor.”

These still-room books are as much part of a vanished past as the old herb-gardens, those quiet enclosures full of sunlight and delicious scents, of bees and fairies, which we foolish moderns have allowed to fall into disuse. The herb garden was always the special domain of the housewife, and one likes to think of the many generations of fair women who made these gardens their own, tending them with their own hands, rejoicing in their beauty and peace and interpreting in humble, human fashion something of the wonder and mystery of Nature in the loveliness of a garden enclosed. For surely this was the charm of these silent secluded places, so far removed from turmoil that from them it was possible to look at the world with clear eyes and a mind undisturbed by clamour. And what of the fairies in those gardens? We live in such a hurrying, material age that even in our gardens we seem to have forgotten the fairies, who surely have the first claim on them. Does not every child know that fairies love thyme and foxgloves and the lavish warm scent of the old cabbage rose? Surely the fairies thronged to those old herb-gardens as to a familiar haunt. Can you not see them dancing in the twilight?

The dark elves of Saxon days have well-nigh vanished with the bogs and marshes and the death-like vapours which gave them birth. With the passing of centuries the lesser elves have become tiny of stature and friendly to man, warming themselves by our firesides and disporting themselves in our gardens. Perhaps now they even look to us for protection, lest in this age of materialism they be driven altogether from the face of the earth. As early as the twelfth century we find mention of creatures akin to the brownies, whom we all love; for the serious Gervase of Tilbury tells us of these goblins, less than half an inch high, having faces wrinkled with age, and dressed in patched garments. These little creatures, he assures us, come and work at night in the houses of mankind; but they had not lost their impish ways and elvish tricks, “for at times when Englishmen ride abroad in the darkness of night, anunseen Portunos [Brownie?] will join company with the wayfarer; and after riding awhile by his side will at length seize his reins and lead his horse into the slough wherein he will stick and wallow while the Portunos departs with mocking laughter, thus making sport of man’s simplicity.” Perhaps they still make sport of our simplicity, but we shall be the losers if they vanish altogether from the earth. If in impish mood they lead the wayfarer into sloughs, do not the sheen-bright elves lighten some of the darkest paths of pain which human beings are forced to tread? Are not these Ariel-like creatures links between the flowers of earth which they haunt and the stars of heaven whence they seem to derive their radiance? The fairies have almost deserted us, but perhaps they will one day come back to our gardens and teach us that there is something true, though beyond what we can know, in the old astrological lore of the close secret communion between stars and flowers. Do not flowers seem to reflect in microscopic form those glorious flowers which deck the firmament of heaven? In many flowers there is something so star-like that almost unconsciously our minds connect them with the luminaries in the great expanse above us, and from this it seems but a short step to the belief that there is between them a secret communion which is past our understanding.

“This is the enchantment, this the exaltation,The all-compensating wonder,Giving to common things wild kindredWith the gold-tesserate floors of Jove;Linking such heights and such humilities,Hand in hand in ordinal dances,That I do think my tread,Stirring the blossoms in the meadow-grassFlickers the unwithering stars.”[134]

“This is the enchantment, this the exaltation,The all-compensating wonder,Giving to common things wild kindredWith the gold-tesserate floors of Jove;Linking such heights and such humilities,Hand in hand in ordinal dances,That I do think my tread,Stirring the blossoms in the meadow-grassFlickers the unwithering stars.”[134]

Mystics of all ages and of all civilisations have felt this secret bond between what are surely the most beautiful of God’s creations—flowers and stars; and its fascination is in no smallpart due to the exquisite frailty and short-lived beauty of the flowers of earth and the stupendous majesty of the flowers in the heavens, those myriad worlds in whose existence a thousand years is but as a passing dream.

Goddis grace shall euer endure.

(Inscription at the end of “The vertuose boke Of Dystyllacyon of the waters of all maner of Herbes.” 1527.)

FOOTNOTES:[124]John Archer (one of the Physicians in Ordinary to Charles II.) also asserts in hisCompendious Herbal(1673) that “the Sun doth not draw away the Vertues of Herbs, but adds to them.” Archer gives full astrological directions for the gathering of herbs:—“I have mentioned in the ensuing Treatise of Herbs the Planet that Rules every Herb for this end, that you may the better understand their Nature and may gather them when they are in their full strength, which is when the Planet is especially strong, and then in his own Hour gather your Herb; therefore that you may know what hour belongs to every Planet take notice that Astrologers do assign the seven days of the week to the seven planets, as to the Sun or ⊙ Sunday; to the Moon or ☽ Monday; to Mars or ♂ Tuesday; to Mercury or ☿ Wednesday; to Jupiter or ♃ Thursday; to Venus or ♀ Friday; to Saturn or ♄ Saturday. And know that every Planet governs the first Hour after Sun Rise upon his day and the next Planet to him takes the next Hour successively in this order, ♄, ♃, ♂, ⊙, ♀, ☿, ☽, ♄, ♃. So be it any day every Seventh Hour comes to each Planet successively, as if the day be Thursday then the first hour after Sun Rising is Jupiter’s, the next ♂, the next ⊙, next ♀. So on till it come to ♃ again. And if you gather Herbs in their Planetary Hour you may expect to do Wonders, otherwise not; to Astrologers I need say nothing; to others this is as much as can easily be learnt.”—The Compendious Herbal, by John Archer, One of his Majesties Physicians in Ordinary.[125]In this connection he quotes Dr. Pinck, Warden of New College, Oxford, who, when he was “almost fourscore yeares old, would rise very betimes in the morning and going into his Garden he would take a Mattock or Spade, digging there an hour or two, which he found very advantageous to his health.”[126]Published 1651. The earliest copy in the British Museum is the second edition, 1653.[127]SeeArcana Fairfaxiana.[128]Lord Fairfax had only a daughter (who married the Duke of Buckingham), and the son of Henry and Mary Fairfax succeeded to the title.[129]Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1913.[130]Dr. Stephens was the author of theCatalogue of the Oxford Botanical Gardens.[131]Sloane 27466.[132]The competition for “Doggett’s Coat and badge” amongst Thames Watermen still takes place every August.[133]This house is to be seen in Hogarth’s “Morning.”[134]Francis Thompson,An Anthem of Earth.

[124]John Archer (one of the Physicians in Ordinary to Charles II.) also asserts in hisCompendious Herbal(1673) that “the Sun doth not draw away the Vertues of Herbs, but adds to them.” Archer gives full astrological directions for the gathering of herbs:—“I have mentioned in the ensuing Treatise of Herbs the Planet that Rules every Herb for this end, that you may the better understand their Nature and may gather them when they are in their full strength, which is when the Planet is especially strong, and then in his own Hour gather your Herb; therefore that you may know what hour belongs to every Planet take notice that Astrologers do assign the seven days of the week to the seven planets, as to the Sun or ⊙ Sunday; to the Moon or ☽ Monday; to Mars or ♂ Tuesday; to Mercury or ☿ Wednesday; to Jupiter or ♃ Thursday; to Venus or ♀ Friday; to Saturn or ♄ Saturday. And know that every Planet governs the first Hour after Sun Rise upon his day and the next Planet to him takes the next Hour successively in this order, ♄, ♃, ♂, ⊙, ♀, ☿, ☽, ♄, ♃. So be it any day every Seventh Hour comes to each Planet successively, as if the day be Thursday then the first hour after Sun Rising is Jupiter’s, the next ♂, the next ⊙, next ♀. So on till it come to ♃ again. And if you gather Herbs in their Planetary Hour you may expect to do Wonders, otherwise not; to Astrologers I need say nothing; to others this is as much as can easily be learnt.”—The Compendious Herbal, by John Archer, One of his Majesties Physicians in Ordinary.

[124]John Archer (one of the Physicians in Ordinary to Charles II.) also asserts in hisCompendious Herbal(1673) that “the Sun doth not draw away the Vertues of Herbs, but adds to them.” Archer gives full astrological directions for the gathering of herbs:—

“I have mentioned in the ensuing Treatise of Herbs the Planet that Rules every Herb for this end, that you may the better understand their Nature and may gather them when they are in their full strength, which is when the Planet is especially strong, and then in his own Hour gather your Herb; therefore that you may know what hour belongs to every Planet take notice that Astrologers do assign the seven days of the week to the seven planets, as to the Sun or ⊙ Sunday; to the Moon or ☽ Monday; to Mars or ♂ Tuesday; to Mercury or ☿ Wednesday; to Jupiter or ♃ Thursday; to Venus or ♀ Friday; to Saturn or ♄ Saturday. And know that every Planet governs the first Hour after Sun Rise upon his day and the next Planet to him takes the next Hour successively in this order, ♄, ♃, ♂, ⊙, ♀, ☿, ☽, ♄, ♃. So be it any day every Seventh Hour comes to each Planet successively, as if the day be Thursday then the first hour after Sun Rising is Jupiter’s, the next ♂, the next ⊙, next ♀. So on till it come to ♃ again. And if you gather Herbs in their Planetary Hour you may expect to do Wonders, otherwise not; to Astrologers I need say nothing; to others this is as much as can easily be learnt.”—The Compendious Herbal, by John Archer, One of his Majesties Physicians in Ordinary.

[125]In this connection he quotes Dr. Pinck, Warden of New College, Oxford, who, when he was “almost fourscore yeares old, would rise very betimes in the morning and going into his Garden he would take a Mattock or Spade, digging there an hour or two, which he found very advantageous to his health.”

[125]In this connection he quotes Dr. Pinck, Warden of New College, Oxford, who, when he was “almost fourscore yeares old, would rise very betimes in the morning and going into his Garden he would take a Mattock or Spade, digging there an hour or two, which he found very advantageous to his health.”

[126]Published 1651. The earliest copy in the British Museum is the second edition, 1653.

[126]Published 1651. The earliest copy in the British Museum is the second edition, 1653.

[127]SeeArcana Fairfaxiana.

[127]SeeArcana Fairfaxiana.

[128]Lord Fairfax had only a daughter (who married the Duke of Buckingham), and the son of Henry and Mary Fairfax succeeded to the title.

[128]Lord Fairfax had only a daughter (who married the Duke of Buckingham), and the son of Henry and Mary Fairfax succeeded to the title.

[129]Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1913.

[129]Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1913.

[130]Dr. Stephens was the author of theCatalogue of the Oxford Botanical Gardens.

[130]Dr. Stephens was the author of theCatalogue of the Oxford Botanical Gardens.

[131]Sloane 27466.

[131]Sloane 27466.

[132]The competition for “Doggett’s Coat and badge” amongst Thames Watermen still takes place every August.

[132]The competition for “Doggett’s Coat and badge” amongst Thames Watermen still takes place every August.

[133]This house is to be seen in Hogarth’s “Morning.”

[133]This house is to be seen in Hogarth’s “Morning.”

[134]Francis Thompson,An Anthem of Earth.

[134]Francis Thompson,An Anthem of Earth.

Manuscripts written in Latin after 1400 are not included in this List.

9th (?) century.Liber dialogorum Gregorii cum libro medicinali in duabus partibus quarum altera tractat de virtutibus herbarum et “Herbarium” vulgo dicitur altera de virtutibus lapidum.Hutton 76. Bodleian.(This is the translation of Gregory’s Dialogues made by Bishop Werefirth of Worcester. The MS. formerly belonged to Worcester Cathedral.)10th century (Lacnunga).Liber medicinalis de virtutibus herbarum.Harleian 585. British Museum.10th century.S. Columbarii Epist. versibus Adonicis scripta. Ad frontem prima paginæ hujus codicis scribuntur manu contemporanea quæ dam de virtutibus herbarum et versiculi nonnuli.Harleian 3091. British Museum.10th century.Leech Book of Bald.Royal 12 D. British Museum.11th century.Peri Didaxeon. (Saxon translation.)Harleian 6258. British Museum.11th century.Herbarium Apuleii Platonici quod accepit ab Ascolapio.Cott. Vit. C. III. British Museum.11th century.Incipiunt Capites (capita) libri medicinalis.Payne 62. Bodleian.(This is a version of Herbarium Apuleii Platonici.)11th (?) century.De herba Betonica. Apuleius or Antonius Musa.CLXXXIX. Corpus Christi College, Oxford.11th century.Herbarium Apuleius.Ashmole 1431.11th (?) century.Herbarium Apuleius.CLXXX. Corpus Christi College, Oxford.(This copy once belonged to John Holyngborne.)11th century.Incipiunt nomina multarum rerum Anglice.Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.(In the list occurs Nomina herbarum.)12th (?) century.Dioscorides de virtutibus herbarum.Jesus College, Cambridge.(Formerly at Durham.)12th century.Exceptiones de libro Henrici de herbis variis.Digby 13 (VIII). Bodleian.(The above was compiled, according to Leland and others, by Henry of Huntingdon.)12th century.Herbarium Apuleius.Harleian 4986. British Museum.12th century.Herbarium Apuleius.Harleian 5294. British Museum.12th century.De virtutibus herbarum.Sloane 1975. British Museum.Late 12th century.Imago Medici Conjurantis Herbas.Harleian 1585. British Museum.12th century.De viribus herbarum.Harleian 4346. British Museum.(In verse, commonly ascribed to Macrus.)12th century.Macer de viribus herbarum.Sloane 84. British Museum.12th century.De viribus herbarum. Liber Omad.Digby 13 (VII). Bodleian.(It is not known who Omad was.)12th century.Macer de virtutibus herbarum.Digby 4 (XI). Bodleian.(The last folio is in thirteenth-century hand.)12th century.Macer de virtutibus herbarum.Library of Lincoln Cathedral.12th century.Herbarium Apuleius.Library of Eton College.12th or 13th century.De negociis specierum. Inc. circa instans negocium in simplicibus.Trinity College, Cambridge.13th century.Epistola antonii muse ad agrippam de herba betonica.Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.13th century.Antonii Musæ libellus de virtutibus herbæ betonicæ.Ashmole 1462 (VIII). Oxford.13th century.[Synopsis libelli Antonii Musæ.]Ashmole 1462 (II).13th century.Synopsis Herboralii Apuleii.Ashmole 1462 (III).13th century.Herboralium Apuleii Platonis.Ashmole 1462 (IX).(The names of the herbs are given in English in rubric by a hand of the fourteenth century.)13th century.Herbarium apuleii platonici.Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.13th century.Aemilii Macri de viribus Herbarum.Royal 12 B. British Museum.13th century.Aemilii Macri Carmen de viribus herbarum.Ashmole (1398. II. v).13th century.Liber Macri de viribus Herbarum.Ee. VI. 39. II. Cambridge University Library.Late 13th century.Aemilii Macri de Herbarum viribus.(Formerly belonged to St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury.)Royal 12 E. XXIII. (III). British Museum.Late 13th century.Liber Macri de Naturis herbarum.Kk. IV. 25. (XVI). Cambridge University Library.13th (?) century.Liber Macri de viribus herbarum.438 (III). Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.13th century.De simplicibus medicinis.505 (II. 2). Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.13th century.Poema de virtutibus herbarum macro vulgo adscriptum.Arundel 283 (I). British Museum.13th century.Aemilius Macri (Fragment).Library of Lord Clifden, Lanhydrock, Cornwall.13th century.Le livre de toutes herbes appele “Circa instans.”Sloane 1977. British Museum.13th century.Le livre de toutes herbes appele “Circa instans.”Sloane 3525. British Museum.Incipit [liber de simplicibus medicinis ordine alphabetico qui appellatur] “Circa Instans” Platearii.Ashmole 1428 (II).Late 13th century.Circa Instans.All Souls College, Oxford.13th century.De medicinis simplicibus sive de virtutibus Herbarum libellus.Balliol College, Oxford.Late 13th century.De simplicibus medicinis.Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.13th-14th century.Liber cogitanti michi de virtute simplicium medianarum.Trinity College, Cambridge.13th-14th century.Herbarium.Addit. 22636 (XIII). British Museum.13th-15th century.[Lines on the virtues of the scabious plant.]Addit. 33381 (XXXVIII). British Museum.Late 13th century.De collectione herbarum.Arundel 369 (II). British Museum.13th century.De Naturis Herbarum.Royal 8c IX. (X). British Museum.(From St. Mary’s, Reading.)13th century.De virtutibus herbarum rhythmice.Sloane 146 (III). British Museum.13th century.Præfatiuncula in totum præsens volumen.Inc.In hoc continentur libri quattuor medicine Ypocrates Platonis Apoliensis urbis de diversis herbis.Ashmole 1462 (I).Late 13th century.Hic sunt virtutes scabiose distincte.Digby 86 (LXXXV). Bodleian.13th (?) century.De proprietate herbarum.Laud Latin 86 (XIII). Bodleian.13th-14th century.Liber qui vocatur “Circa Instans.”Peterhouse College, Cambridge.13th-14th century.Circa instans Platearii.Trinity College, Cambridge.13th-14th century.Versus de Ysope (Hyssop).Harleian 524 (CLXI). British Museum.Circ. 1300.De herba Basilisca seu Gentiana.Harleian 2851 (XXIX). British Museum.(Written in England.)13th century.Beginning of a history of trees and plants which ends abruptly on page 3.Harleian 4751. British Museum.Late 13th-14th century.[Verses—including 19 lines on various herbs.]Royal 12 c. VI. (VI). British Museum.(Belonged to Bury St. Edmunds Abbey.)Circ. 1360-70.Le liure de herberie en français qui est apele “Circa Instans,” translated from Johannes Platearius,De simplici medicina.Bodley 76 I. Bodleian.14th century.MS. on the virtues of herbs.Library of Eton College.14th century.Macri pœma de Viribus herbarum; præmittitur tabula.Harleian 2558 (XXIV). British Museum.14th century.De viribus herbarum pœma.Sloane 420 (XL). British Museum.14th century.De viribus herbarum.Rawl. C. 630. British Museum.14th century.Macer de virtutibus herbarum.Sloane 340 (XV). British Museum.14th century.De virtutibus herbarum.Digby 95. Bodleian.Early 15th (?) century.Macer. Of virtues of herbis.Hutton 29. Bodleian.14th century.Aemilii Macri de Herbarum viribus.Royal 12 B. III (I). British Museum.14th century.Aemilii Macri Carmen de viribus medicinalibus herbarum cum nominibus earum Anglia explicatis.Ashmole 1397 (E. XV). Oxford.14th century.Macer de viribus herbarum.Ff. VI. 53 (X). Cambridge University Library.14th century.Macer de Herbarum viribus.36 (I. i). Emmanuel College, Cambridge.Early 14th century.Aemilius Macer. Carmen de viribus herbarum.Arundel 225 (II). British Museum.14th century.De viribus herbarum.Harleian 3353 (I). British Museum.14th century.[De virtutibus Ros marine in English.]759 (XI). Trinity College, Cambridge.14th century.Herbal in alphabetical order with descriptions.Arch. Selden 335. Bodleian.14th century.On simples. Latin and English.1398 (III). Trinity College, Cambridge.Late 14th century.Herbarium.C. XIII (IV). St. John’s College, Oxford.14th century.Here begynnyt a tretys of diverse herbis and furst of Bytayne (Old English poem of 43 couplets).Begins—“To tellyn of bytayne I have grete myndeAnd sythen of othur herbys os I fynde.Furst at bytayne I wyl begynneYat many vertues berys wt inne.”Last line—“Yche stounde whyle it mai on erthe be founde.”Ashmole 1397 (II-IV).Early 14th century.Experimenta Alberti Magni de herbis lapidibus et animalibus.Addit. 32622. British Museum (III).14th century.Secreta fratris Alberti de Colonia ordinis fratrum predicatorum super naturis quarundum herbarum et lapidum et animalium in diversis libris philosophorum reperta et in unum collecta.Digby 147 (XXIV). Bodleian.14th century.Secreta fratris Alberti ordinis fratrum predicatorum (i) de herbis xvi (ii) de lapidibus (iii) de animalibus (xviii).Digby 153 (IX). Bodleian.14th century.Bartholomæus Anglicus de proprietatibus rerum.Royal 12 E. III. British Museum.14th century.Bartholomæi Mini de Senis Tractatus de herbis figuris quam plurimis coloratiō instructus.Egerton 747 I. British Museum.14th century.? Gardener. Of the virtues of the herb rosemary, etc.In the Earl of Ashburnham’s library at Ashburnham Place. 122 (2. II).14th century.Diversitates herbarum omnium que ad medicinas pertinent.Addit. 29301 (III). British Museum.(The above has fine pen-and-ink drawings of 68 English wild plants, with their names written in English. The MS. belonged to the Countess of Hainault, Philippa, Queen of England, and, lastly, to Mr. Pettiford.)14th century.Herbal.Dd. VI. 29. VII. University Library, Cambridge.14th (?) century.List of herbs: English names also given.198 (III). Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.(The above once belonged to John Argenteux, Provost of King’s.)14th (?) century.A list of remedies with English equivalents and marginal additions in another hand.200. Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.14th century.[Recipes in Physicke] Glossary containing many herbs.Pepys Library 1661. Magdalene College, Cambridge.14th century.Here begynneth medecines gode for divers euelys on mennes bodys be callen erchebysschopes auicenna and ypocras Icoupon̄ (? cophon)i. e.de and on hole materie aȝen brouȝt and ferst of herbis.Pepys Library 1661. Magdalene College, Cambridge.(Various simples are described. After the “vertues of rose maryne” a series of sections in verse written as prose beginning “I wil ȝou tellyn by & bi as I fond wretyn in a book. Þat in borwyng I be took of a gret ladyes prest þat of gret name þe mest.” The following sections are on centaurea, solsequium, celidonia, pipernella, materfemia, mortagon, pervinca, rosa, lilium, egrimonye. Ends “Oyle of mustard seed is good for ache and for litarge and it is mad on þe same maner.”)Circ. 1400.A treatise in rhyme on the virtues of herbs.Sloane 147 (V). British Museum.It begins—“Of erbs xxiiij I woll you tell by and byAls I fond wryten in a boke at I in boroyng tokeOf a gret ladys preste of gret name she barestAt Betony I wol begyn at many vertuos het within.”14th century.De virtutibus herbarum quarundam.Ashmole 1397.(On the medical uses of some herbs. Begins, “Bytayne and wormewode is gode for woundes.”)14th (?) century.List of names of herbs in Latin and English.1377 II. Trinity College, Cambridge.Begins, “Apium Commune Smalache.”1352.De preperacione herbarum. A treatise on the medicinal qualities of and modes of preparing herbs, quoting Serapion. A short list giving first the Latin and then the Irish name, etc.23 F. 19. Royal Irish Academy.14th century.Vocabulary of herbs in Latin and Welsh.Addit. 14912. British Museum.14th century.Meddygon myddfai or the Practice of Physic of the Myddvai Doctors: a collection of Recipes for various diseases and injuries, prognostics, charms, virtues of herbs, etc., by the physicians of Myddvai co. Caermarthen.Addit. 14912 (I). British Museum.(In Welsh.)14th century.Nomina herbarum. Latin and English.Addit. 17866. British Museum.14th century.De virtutibus herbæ.Arundel 507. British Museum.(The above once belonged to Richard Seybrok, a monk of Durham.)14th-15th century.Nomina quarundam ... plantarum arborum.Harleian 210 (XI). British Museum.(In French and English.)14th-15th century.Names of herbs in Latin and English.Harleian 2558 (I). British Museum.14th century.Herbal. Latin and English.(Directions in gathering herbs, flowers, roots, etc.)Sloane 2584. British Museum.14th century.Liber cinomorum (synonomorum) de nominibus herbarum.(Latin, French, English.)Bodleian 761.1360-70.Nomina herbarum. (Latin, French, English.)Bodleian 761 (VI. B.).Two texts from this MS. were published by E. Mannele Thompson,Chronicon Galpedi de Baker de Swynebroke. Clarendon Press, 1889. He gives a list of the contents of this volume, calling this item fol. 158, “Medicinal notes from Roger Bacon in Latin.” Interpolated by fifteenth-century writer in spaces left vacant by the fourteenth-century scribe are many recipes and much astrology.14th century.Virtues of rosemary in prose and verse.Digby 95 (VII). Bodleian.14th century.Of the virtues of herbs.Digby 95 (VIII). Bodleian.Late 14th century.Herbarium Anglo-Latinum, with many recipes interpolated in a later hand.MS. Grearerd. Bodleian.Late 14th century.Names of herbs in alphabetical order with a few English interpolations. The MS. comes from Llanthony Priory and was given by R. Marchall.312 (X). Library of Lambeth Palace.14th century.De simplici medicina John Platearius.(This MS. is supposed to have belonged to the Countess of Hainault and subsequently to Queen Philippa of Hainault.)Addit. 29301 (IV). British Museum.14th century.Nomina Herbarum Medicinalium, with some English and French names.Phillipps MS. 4047 (II) now in the library of T. Fitzroy Fenwick, Esq., Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham.14th century.Here ben the virtues of Rosemarye (purporting to be taken from “the litel boke that the scole of Sallerne wroat to the Cuntasse of Henowd and sche sente the copie to hir douȝter Philip the quene of England”).Inc.“Rosemarye is boþe tre and herbe hoot and drie.”Exp.“Wasche him þerwiþ and he schal be hool.”Royal 17 A. III. (III). British Museum.1373.Translation of MacerDe viribus herbarumby John Lelamour, Schoolmaster of Hereford.Sloane 5. British Museum.14th century.Particulars of simples arranged under the various months.754. Trinity College, Cambridge.14th century.A herbal in Latin and English beginning with Allium.(Given by Thomas Gale Dean of York.)759 (VII). Trinity College, Cambridge.15th century.Aemili Macri de virtutibus herbarum. The names of the plants are explained in English in the margins, and there are also some remedies in English.Ashmole 1481 (III).15th century.Macer. De Virtutibus Herbarum. The English names of the herbs are also given. (Written by Nicholas Kyrkeby of Saint Albans.)VI. 15. Bishop Cosin’s Library, Durham University.15th century.Herbal in three books.Inc.“Mogworte or brotheworte ys clepid archemisia ... and this medicine ys a nobil medycyne.”Ends, “Here endeth the third part of Macer. And here begynneth a fewe herbes which Macer foryete noȝt nor thei ben nort founden in his book.”Addit. 37786 (II). British Museum.15th century.The treatise of Macer intitled “De viribus Herbarum,” translated into English.“Here followeth the cunnynge and sage clerk Macer tretynge and opynly shewyththe vertuys worthy and Commendable propyrtes of many & dyuerse herbys and her vertuys of the whyche the firste is mugworte or modirworte.”Sloane 393. British Museum.15th century.The vertuys of Erbys aftyr Galyon Ypocras and Socrates.Lansdowne 680 I. British Museum.15th century.Here folwythe the vertu of Erbis. Isop is hoot and drie in ij degreis so seith Ipocrace if a man drynke it fastynge.Ashmole 1477 (III-IV).15th century.Aemilius Macer. Of the virtues of herbs. English translation.Sloane 140. British Museum.15th century.Aemilius Macer. Of the virtues of herbs. English translation.Sloane 2269. British Museum.15th century.Aemilius Macer. De virtutibus Herbarum. English translation.In the library of the Right Hon. Lord Amherst of Hackney at Didlington Hall, Norfolk.15th century.List of herbs in Latin and English.Sloane 3548. British Museum.15th century.Herbal.Inc.“Of herbys now IWill you telle by and by.As I fynde wryten in a bokeThat in borrowyng I betokeOf a gret ladyes preste,” etc.Expl.“It dryveth away all foul moysterisAnd distroyeth venym and wykyd humoursIt distroyeth the morfewAnd dispoyling to the leper.”Dd. X. 44 (VIII). Cambridge University Library.15th century.An Herbary þe whiche ys draw out of Circa Instans and hyt towcherþ schortlyche þeprincipal vertuys and þespecial effectes of herbis and droggis þtbe þemost comyne in use, and her dyvers grees of qualites or yher complexions and her propur and most special kynd of worcheyng.(At the end of every alphabetical division of this work is left a page ormore, blank, for the purpose of inserting additional matter. There are several additions by old hands. Some additions on the margins have been torn off.)Ashmole 1443 (IV).15th century.Treatise on herbs. 169 chapters, with table of Contents prefixed.Inc.“Agnus castus is a herbe that men clep Tutsayne or Park levis.”Arundel 272 (II). British Museum.15th century.An Herbal. Arranged alphabetically to the letter P.Inc.“Agnus castus is an herbe,” etc. Breaks off in “pulegium rurale.” (Other copies—both ending with S—are in Addit. 4698, f. 16b, and Arundel 272, f. 36.)Royal 18 A. VI. (VI). British Museum.15th century.A treatise on the virtues of Herbs; beginning “Agnus castus ys Anglice herbe that men cally the tutsayne or ells parkelenus.”Ashmole 1432 (V. i).Mid 15th century.Herbal with book of recipes.Inc.“Agnus castus is an herbe.”Bodleian 463 (A).15th century.Liber de Herbarum virtutibus.Inc.“Agnus castus ys an herbe that cleepeth Toussane.”Laud Misc. 553 (i). Bodleian.15th century.An Herbal with the properties of the different herbs in alphabetical order, with a table prefixed.Inc.“Agnus castus ys an herbe that me clapys Tustans or Porke levys.”329. Balliol College, Oxford.15th (?) century.“An English Herbal.”Begins, “Agnus Castus,” etc.Harleian 3840 (II). British Museum.15th century.A treatise on the virtues of herbs.Begins, “A bed ymade of Agnus Castus.”Sloane 297 (XVIII). British Museum.15th century.Latin-English dictionary of herbs.Inc.“Alleluya Wodsoure stubwort.”Expl.“Quinquefolium fyveleved gras.”Dd. XI. 45 (XII). Cambridge University Library.15th century.A book of the medical virtues of herbs, described in alphabetical order.Inc.“Anet ys an herbe that ys clepyt anet oþer dylle.”Expl.“doyth a way the fowȝe or the fragelys.”Ashmole 1447 (IV. i).15th century.“Yes ben yevertuse of betayn.”Ashmole 1438 (II. vii).15th century.A treatise of the virtues of certain herbs. Begins, “Betaigne is hot and drie in þre degrees, and so seyth Ypocras, and it is an herbe of many faire vertues.”Ashmole 1438 (XXV).15th century.Aemilius Macer. De virtutibus herbarum. (In French, Latin and English.)Digby 29 (XXXVII). Bodleian.15th century.Of the virtues of herbs—seemingly out of Macer. The following verse is prefixed:“This booke ys drawe be fesykeThat Macer made for hem that ben seekeThe vertu of herbis hēt descrieth ryght welAnd help of mannys helthe every del.”Sloane 963 (XVIII). British Museum.15th century.Macer on the virtues of herbs.Inc.“Mugworte or brotheworte is clepid Arthemisia.”Exp.“drynkys juse of thys erbe.”Ee. I. 15 (IIIa). University Library, Cambridge.15th century.Macer. “Vertues worthe & commendable propertees of many & diverse herbes.” In three books.Rawl. C. 81 (V). Bodleian.15th century.Part of the poem De virtutibus Herbarum. The English names of plants are occasionally given in the margin. In the volume containing Froucestre’s History of the Monastery.Library of Gloucester Cathedral.15th century.A treatise of the medical properties of herbs and other simples; arranged alphabetically, being a translation from the treatise of Johannes Platearius,De medicinis simplicibus.Sloane 706 (IV). British Museum.15th century.English Herbal, Secundum magistrum Gilbertum Kemor, arranged alphabetically.Sloane 770. British Museum.15th century.Of the virtues of Rosmaryne.Inc.“Rosmaryne is both tre and erbe.”Sloane 7 (VI). British Museum.15th century.The virtues of Rosmaryn.Inc.“Rosmaryn is bothe tre and herbe.”Sloan 962 (VI). British Museum.15th century.These ben sum of þe vertues of Rosemary, as the Clerke of Sallerne seyde and wrote tho the Cowntes of Hynde, and sche sende hem tho here dowȝtur Phylype þtwas weddyde tho þe Kyng of Engelond.Inc.“Rosmary ys bothe tre and herbe.”Ashmole 1438 (II-XX).15th (?) century.This is ye lityl boke of ye vertuys of rosmaryn yt yescole of Salerne gaderyd & compiled at instance of ye Cowntese of Henowde.... I danyel bain translatyd into vulgar ynglysch worde for werde as fonde in latyn. (The translator adds that before 1432 Rosemary was unknown in England and that it was first sent from the Countess of Hainault to her daughter Queen Philippa.)1037 (1) (XIV). Trinity College, Cambridge.15th or early 16th century.The medical virtues of Rosemary in prose. Begins, “Rosus marinus is called rose mary, the virtue of this herbe is goode.” Ends, “ne brennyng of unkynd hete be at þi stomake ne at þehert.” (At the foot of page 3 is written “Robert Hychys is the ower of thys boke.”)Ashmole 1379 (I).15th century.Here is vertues and seltyng of Rosmary by the ij doctours of fysyk followyng. per Galyen and Platery, and a poem beginning “As in a booke wretyne y fownd Of wise doctours in dyvers lond.”Ashmole 1379 (II).15th century.Here follwyth yewertues off ye rosses mare.Inc.“Take rosmare and bynd hem ynne a lynnene clothe.”Exp.“Allsso make a bathe off ye floure and ytwyll make ye yonglyche.”Ashmole 1432 (V. iii).15th century.The vertu of rose mary. Tak þe flower of þe rose mary and bynd hem.(The above is part of a series of herbal notes, etc., interspersed by a later hand in the course of and following on a fifteenth-century book of medicine.)Ashmole 1391 (VIII).15th century.“Here men may see þe vertus of dyuerse herbes, whiche ben hoot and whiche ben coold, and to how many þinges they arne goode.” (Other copies are in Sloane 393, f. 13; 1592, f. 39b; 3466, f. 78; Addit. 12056, f. 3; Lansdowne MS. 680, f. 2 and 17 B., XLVIII, f. 2, where, however, the arrangement is somewhat different. On page 2 there is the entry, “This is John Rice is boke, the which cost him xxv d.”)15th century.“Here men may se the vertu of dyverse herbes, and what thei be, and whiche ben hoote and which ben colde. And for howgh many thynges they ben goode.”(This MS. ends abruptly in “Calamynte.”)Ashmole 1444 (I. iii).15th (?) century.“The virtues of diuerse herbes which ben hoote and which ben coolde.” (With a large table of Contents prefixed.)Sloane 393 (I). British Museum.15th century.Treatise on the virtues of herbs. Begins, “Aristologia rotunda. The virtue of this herbe os Ypocras says.”Sloane 962 (XII). British Museum.15th century.An Herbary or alphabetical Materia Medica of herbs & other drugs; beginning with Aloen, Aloes, Aurum, and ending with Zelboarium.Inc.“Aloen. To purge fleume and malancoly and colore.”Exp.“Zelboarium. To moysten and to norschen and to clensen and wyth cold þinges to akelen. Amen.”Ashmole 1481 (II. ii).15th century.An alphabeticall catalogue of Herbes.Inc.“Aloen hath virtue to purge flewne.”Ee. I. 13 (I). Cambridge University Library.15th century.A collection of remedies in English (with additions in other handwritings). Begins with “Aloe” and ends with “verveyn.”609 (II). Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.15th century.In Latin and English. Herbal. Aloe—Zucarium, with notes on Egrimonia, Acacia, in Latin, and on Cassia lignea and Castorium in English.43. Jesus College, Cambridge.15th century.The makynge of oyles of divers herbys.905 (II. 4). Trinity College, Cambridge.15th century.These ben the precious watris & vertuous for diverse ejvellys.Inc.“Water of wormode is gode ... grete lordes among the Saracens usen to drink hitt.”Addit. 37786 (I). British Museum.15th century.Of the Herb Moon-wort.Inc.“I schal you tel of an Erbe þat men cal Lunarie,He ys clepit Asterion; wych ys an Erbe þat men calleth Lunarie.”Harleian 2407 (IX). British Museum.15th century.Virtues of the onion, garlic and pennyroyal.Begins, “Here beeth þe vertues of the Oynoun.”Royal 17 B. XLVIII. (II). British Museum.15th century.Miscellaneous recipes and extracts from herbals.Begins, “Rosa rebia [sic] ys an herbe that men clepyth rede rosys.”Royal 18 A. VI. (VII). British Museum.15th (?) century.A treatise of herbs and the several medicaments compounded from them.Begins, “The roose as saith the philosopher Plinius hath doble verteus.”Sloane 67 (II). British Museum.15th century.A treatise of herbs, alphabetically arranged. (Imperfect.)Begins, “Carabana id est wylde hempe.”Sloane 297 (I). British Museum.15th century.A treatise of the temperature and virtues of simples alphabetically arranged.Sloane 965 (VII). British Museum.15th century.“Here men may se the vertues of herbes.”Bodley 463 (B. iii).15th century.Liber de herbarum virtutibus.Inc.“Here may men se the vertu of herbes which ben hot and which ben colde.”Laud Misc. 553 (II). Bodleian.15th century.Vertues of Herbes.Inc.Apium is an herbe that men call smallache or marche.Addit. A. 106 (A. IV). Bodleian.15th century.“Here begynnythe to mak waters of erbys sondry and þer vertues and howe þei schalle be made in stillatorie.”Inc.“In þe fyrst of dyl. The water is of gret vertue.”Ashmole 141 B (II. v).15th century.Instructions for the proper time of gathering simples by name.Inc.“Medysines ben done, some by leves [som] bi sedis, som by flowres and some bi fretes.”Ashmole 1481 (II. iii). Oxford.15th century.The medical use “Of waters distilled from Sundry plants & flowers.”(The above belonged to Richard Saunders, the Astrologer.)Ashmole 1489 (II. ii).15th century.Alphabetical Herbary.Inc.“Agrymonia is an herbe.”Bodley 463 (B. ii).Late 15th century.Virtues of herbs.Inc.“Here a man maye see.”Selden,supra75 (E. VI). Bodleian.Late 15th century.A treatise on the properties of plants, fruits, meat and drinks as food and medicine. (In Welsh.)Jesus College, Oxford.15th century.Names of herbs.(Given by Humphrey Moseley, 1649).69. Emmanuel College, Cambridge.15th century.Verses in English and Latin on herbs and spices.(Given by W. Moore.)176 (I. 2). Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.15th century.Recipes in English and Latin.(Given by W. Moore.)230 (II). Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.15th century.Herbes for a saled.(This once belonged to Nicholas Butler.)414 (d). Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.15th century.Collection of recipes in English, probably all by John Ardern of Newark. Illustrated with rough coloured drawings of herbs, instruments and patients. It begins, “This is a mirrour of bloodletynge in þe weche þey þt wolen beholden it diligently,” etc. There is a recipe in French for Greek fire.Exp.“tabula libri Sirurgice.” Mag. Joh. Arderne de Newerk.(Given by Humphrey Moseley, 1649.)69. Emmanuel College, Cambridge.15th century.Here begynnythe an herball of namys & vertues of diverse herbys aftyr letterys of the a, b, c, etc.905 (I). Trinity College, Cambridge.15th century.Virtues of various plants.905 (II. 4). Trinity College, Cambridge.15th century.On the virtues of herbs.Inc.“This booke is drawe be Fesyk. That Macer made for hem þat been seck. Yevertu of herbis it discryeth ryght wel.”1637 (I. i). Trinity College, Cambridge.1485.A collection of the Latin and English names of plants with their descriptions and medical virtues.National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.15th century.Alphabetical list of herbs. (Names partly in Latin and partly in Irish.)2306. Royal Irish Academy.15th century.Alphabetical treatise on herbs and their uses. In Latin and Irish.1315. Trinity College, Dublin.15th-16th century.List of plants used in medicine. (In Latin and Irish.)1334 (V). Trinity College, Dublin.15th century.Vertues of rose maryne þat er contened & compyled in þis space & ar gadirde out of bukes of gude philosofirs & of oþer wyse clerkes.V. IV. 1. Durham University, Bishop Cosins Library.Late 15th century.Herbal in Welsh.In Mr. Wynne’s library at Peniarth, Merioneth.15th century.The vertu of Rose-marry & other Secrets.Harleian 1735 (XII). British Museum.15th century.Verses on the virtues of Rosmaryne.Sloane 3215. British Museum.15th century.Vertues of the herb betayne.Rawl. C. 211 (II). Bodleian.15th century.Treatise on the vertues of herbs.Addit. 12056. British Museum.15th century.Treatise on the vertues of herbs & metals in alphabetical order. In Irish.Addit. 15403. British Museum.Late 15th century.Herbal.Inc.Agnus Castus is an herbe.Harleian 3840 (III). British Museum.15th century.A fragment of a treatise on the virtues of herbs.Sloane 7 (III). British Museum.15th century.An alphabetical herbal.Sloane 297 (VII). British Museum.15th century.“Of the vyrtues of the Asche tree,” etc.Sloane 297 (XVII). British Museum.15th century.The first part of an intended complete body of Pharmacy in seven parts. The first part treats of herbs, which are alphabetically arranged in 150 chapters.Sloane 404 (I). British Museum.15th century.On the virtues of herbs, with recipes for various disorders. The last is a charm “for alle maner woundys.”Sloane 540 (I). British Museum.15th century.For to knowe the ix Sauge levys.Sloane 706 (VIII). British Museum.15th century.Treatise on the virtues of herbs alphabetically arranged.Sloane 1088 (I). British Museum.15th century.Herbes necessarie for a Gardyn.Sloane 120 (I). British Museum.15th century.On the virtues of herbs.Sloane 2403. British Museum.15th century.Poem on the virtues of herbs.Sloane 2457. British Museum.15th century.Treatise on the virtues of herbs.Sloane 2460. British Museum.Early 15th century.A fewe othre dyverse herbes with her vertues wich be not yfound in the bokes of Macer.Rawl. C. 212 (II). Bodleian.15th (?) century.A treatise on medicinal herbs. (In Irish.)Royal Irish Academy, 23 H 19.15th century.A fragment of a treatise on the medicinal properties of herbs. (In Irish.)Royal Irish Academy, 2306.15th (?) century.A treatise on herbs and their medicinal qualities and the mode of preparing and administering them. (In Irish.)Royal Irish Academy, 2395.15th-16th century.Alphabetical list of plants used in medicine and the manner of preparing them. (In Latin and Irish.)1334 (II). Trinity College, Dublin.1415.Alphabetical list of plants used in medicine. At the end is the transcriber’s name, “Aedh Buide O’Leigin,” and the date 1415. Also the name of the person from whom the original MS. was purchased—“Tad hg O’Cuinn bachelor in physic.” (In Irish.)1343 (II). Trinity College, Dublin.15th century.A dictionary of herbs in Latin and English.In the Marquis of Bath’s library at Longleat, Wilts.15th century.Treatise without title on the virtues of herbs.In Lord Leconfield’s library at Petworth House, Sussex.15th century.Medicinal qualities of herbs.Phillipps MS. 11077, now in the library of T. Fitzroy Fenwick, Esq., Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham.

9th (?) century.Liber dialogorum Gregorii cum libro medicinali in duabus partibus quarum altera tractat de virtutibus herbarum et “Herbarium” vulgo dicitur altera de virtutibus lapidum.

Hutton 76. Bodleian.

(This is the translation of Gregory’s Dialogues made by Bishop Werefirth of Worcester. The MS. formerly belonged to Worcester Cathedral.)

10th century (Lacnunga).Liber medicinalis de virtutibus herbarum.

Harleian 585. British Museum.

10th century.S. Columbarii Epist. versibus Adonicis scripta. Ad frontem prima paginæ hujus codicis scribuntur manu contemporanea quæ dam de virtutibus herbarum et versiculi nonnuli.

Harleian 3091. British Museum.

10th century.Leech Book of Bald.

Royal 12 D. British Museum.

11th century.Peri Didaxeon. (Saxon translation.)

Harleian 6258. British Museum.

11th century.Herbarium Apuleii Platonici quod accepit ab Ascolapio.

Cott. Vit. C. III. British Museum.

11th century.Incipiunt Capites (capita) libri medicinalis.

Payne 62. Bodleian.

(This is a version of Herbarium Apuleii Platonici.)

11th (?) century.De herba Betonica. Apuleius or Antonius Musa.

CLXXXIX. Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

11th century.Herbarium Apuleius.

Ashmole 1431.

11th (?) century.Herbarium Apuleius.

CLXXX. Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

(This copy once belonged to John Holyngborne.)

11th century.Incipiunt nomina multarum rerum Anglice.

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

(In the list occurs Nomina herbarum.)

12th (?) century.Dioscorides de virtutibus herbarum.

Jesus College, Cambridge.

(Formerly at Durham.)

12th century.Exceptiones de libro Henrici de herbis variis.

Digby 13 (VIII). Bodleian.

(The above was compiled, according to Leland and others, by Henry of Huntingdon.)

12th century.Herbarium Apuleius.

Harleian 4986. British Museum.

12th century.Herbarium Apuleius.

Harleian 5294. British Museum.

12th century.De virtutibus herbarum.

Sloane 1975. British Museum.

Late 12th century.Imago Medici Conjurantis Herbas.

Harleian 1585. British Museum.

12th century.De viribus herbarum.

Harleian 4346. British Museum.

(In verse, commonly ascribed to Macrus.)

12th century.Macer de viribus herbarum.

Sloane 84. British Museum.

12th century.De viribus herbarum. Liber Omad.

Digby 13 (VII). Bodleian.

(It is not known who Omad was.)

12th century.Macer de virtutibus herbarum.

Digby 4 (XI). Bodleian.

(The last folio is in thirteenth-century hand.)

12th century.Macer de virtutibus herbarum.

Library of Lincoln Cathedral.

12th century.Herbarium Apuleius.

Library of Eton College.

12th or 13th century.De negociis specierum. Inc. circa instans negocium in simplicibus.

Trinity College, Cambridge.

13th century.Epistola antonii muse ad agrippam de herba betonica.

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

13th century.Antonii Musæ libellus de virtutibus herbæ betonicæ.

Ashmole 1462 (VIII). Oxford.

13th century.[Synopsis libelli Antonii Musæ.]

Ashmole 1462 (II).

13th century.Synopsis Herboralii Apuleii.

Ashmole 1462 (III).

13th century.Herboralium Apuleii Platonis.

Ashmole 1462 (IX).

(The names of the herbs are given in English in rubric by a hand of the fourteenth century.)

13th century.Herbarium apuleii platonici.

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

13th century.Aemilii Macri de viribus Herbarum.

Royal 12 B. British Museum.

13th century.Aemilii Macri Carmen de viribus herbarum.

Ashmole (1398. II. v).

13th century.Liber Macri de viribus Herbarum.

Ee. VI. 39. II. Cambridge University Library.

Late 13th century.Aemilii Macri de Herbarum viribus.

(Formerly belonged to St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury.)

Royal 12 E. XXIII. (III). British Museum.

Late 13th century.Liber Macri de Naturis herbarum.

Kk. IV. 25. (XVI). Cambridge University Library.

13th (?) century.Liber Macri de viribus herbarum.

438 (III). Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

13th century.De simplicibus medicinis.

505 (II. 2). Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

13th century.Poema de virtutibus herbarum macro vulgo adscriptum.

Arundel 283 (I). British Museum.

13th century.Aemilius Macri (Fragment).

Library of Lord Clifden, Lanhydrock, Cornwall.

13th century.Le livre de toutes herbes appele “Circa instans.”

Sloane 1977. British Museum.

13th century.Le livre de toutes herbes appele “Circa instans.”

Sloane 3525. British Museum.

Incipit [liber de simplicibus medicinis ordine alphabetico qui appellatur] “Circa Instans” Platearii.

Ashmole 1428 (II).

Late 13th century.Circa Instans.

All Souls College, Oxford.

13th century.De medicinis simplicibus sive de virtutibus Herbarum libellus.

Balliol College, Oxford.

Late 13th century.De simplicibus medicinis.

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

13th-14th century.Liber cogitanti michi de virtute simplicium medianarum.

Trinity College, Cambridge.

13th-14th century.Herbarium.

Addit. 22636 (XIII). British Museum.

13th-15th century.[Lines on the virtues of the scabious plant.]

Addit. 33381 (XXXVIII). British Museum.

Late 13th century.De collectione herbarum.

Arundel 369 (II). British Museum.

13th century.De Naturis Herbarum.

Royal 8c IX. (X). British Museum.

(From St. Mary’s, Reading.)

13th century.De virtutibus herbarum rhythmice.

Sloane 146 (III). British Museum.

13th century.Præfatiuncula in totum præsens volumen.

Inc.In hoc continentur libri quattuor medicine Ypocrates Platonis Apoliensis urbis de diversis herbis.

Ashmole 1462 (I).

Late 13th century.Hic sunt virtutes scabiose distincte.

Digby 86 (LXXXV). Bodleian.

13th (?) century.De proprietate herbarum.

Laud Latin 86 (XIII). Bodleian.

13th-14th century.Liber qui vocatur “Circa Instans.”

Peterhouse College, Cambridge.

13th-14th century.Circa instans Platearii.

Trinity College, Cambridge.

13th-14th century.Versus de Ysope (Hyssop).

Harleian 524 (CLXI). British Museum.

Circ. 1300.De herba Basilisca seu Gentiana.

Harleian 2851 (XXIX). British Museum.

(Written in England.)

13th century.Beginning of a history of trees and plants which ends abruptly on page 3.

Harleian 4751. British Museum.

Late 13th-14th century.[Verses—including 19 lines on various herbs.]

Royal 12 c. VI. (VI). British Museum.

(Belonged to Bury St. Edmunds Abbey.)

Circ. 1360-70.Le liure de herberie en français qui est apele “Circa Instans,” translated from Johannes Platearius,De simplici medicina.

Bodley 76 I. Bodleian.

14th century.MS. on the virtues of herbs.

Library of Eton College.

14th century.Macri pœma de Viribus herbarum; præmittitur tabula.

Harleian 2558 (XXIV). British Museum.

14th century.De viribus herbarum pœma.

Sloane 420 (XL). British Museum.

14th century.De viribus herbarum.

Rawl. C. 630. British Museum.

14th century.Macer de virtutibus herbarum.

Sloane 340 (XV). British Museum.

14th century.De virtutibus herbarum.

Digby 95. Bodleian.

Early 15th (?) century.Macer. Of virtues of herbis.

Hutton 29. Bodleian.

14th century.Aemilii Macri de Herbarum viribus.

Royal 12 B. III (I). British Museum.

14th century.Aemilii Macri Carmen de viribus medicinalibus herbarum cum nominibus earum Anglia explicatis.

Ashmole 1397 (E. XV). Oxford.

14th century.Macer de viribus herbarum.

Ff. VI. 53 (X). Cambridge University Library.

14th century.Macer de Herbarum viribus.

36 (I. i). Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Early 14th century.Aemilius Macer. Carmen de viribus herbarum.

Arundel 225 (II). British Museum.

14th century.De viribus herbarum.

Harleian 3353 (I). British Museum.

14th century.[De virtutibus Ros marine in English.]

759 (XI). Trinity College, Cambridge.

14th century.Herbal in alphabetical order with descriptions.

Arch. Selden 335. Bodleian.

14th century.On simples. Latin and English.

1398 (III). Trinity College, Cambridge.

Late 14th century.Herbarium.

C. XIII (IV). St. John’s College, Oxford.

14th century.Here begynnyt a tretys of diverse herbis and furst of Bytayne (Old English poem of 43 couplets).

Begins—

“To tellyn of bytayne I have grete myndeAnd sythen of othur herbys os I fynde.Furst at bytayne I wyl begynneYat many vertues berys wt inne.”

“To tellyn of bytayne I have grete myndeAnd sythen of othur herbys os I fynde.Furst at bytayne I wyl begynneYat many vertues berys wt inne.”

Last line—

“Yche stounde whyle it mai on erthe be founde.”

“Yche stounde whyle it mai on erthe be founde.”

Ashmole 1397 (II-IV).

Early 14th century.Experimenta Alberti Magni de herbis lapidibus et animalibus.

Addit. 32622. British Museum (III).

14th century.Secreta fratris Alberti de Colonia ordinis fratrum predicatorum super naturis quarundum herbarum et lapidum et animalium in diversis libris philosophorum reperta et in unum collecta.

Digby 147 (XXIV). Bodleian.

14th century.Secreta fratris Alberti ordinis fratrum predicatorum (i) de herbis xvi (ii) de lapidibus (iii) de animalibus (xviii).

Digby 153 (IX). Bodleian.

14th century.Bartholomæus Anglicus de proprietatibus rerum.

Royal 12 E. III. British Museum.

14th century.Bartholomæi Mini de Senis Tractatus de herbis figuris quam plurimis coloratiō instructus.

Egerton 747 I. British Museum.

14th century.? Gardener. Of the virtues of the herb rosemary, etc.

In the Earl of Ashburnham’s library at Ashburnham Place. 122 (2. II).

14th century.Diversitates herbarum omnium que ad medicinas pertinent.

Addit. 29301 (III). British Museum.

(The above has fine pen-and-ink drawings of 68 English wild plants, with their names written in English. The MS. belonged to the Countess of Hainault, Philippa, Queen of England, and, lastly, to Mr. Pettiford.)

14th century.Herbal.

Dd. VI. 29. VII. University Library, Cambridge.

14th (?) century.List of herbs: English names also given.

198 (III). Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

(The above once belonged to John Argenteux, Provost of King’s.)

14th (?) century.A list of remedies with English equivalents and marginal additions in another hand.

200. Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

14th century.[Recipes in Physicke] Glossary containing many herbs.

Pepys Library 1661. Magdalene College, Cambridge.

14th century.Here begynneth medecines gode for divers euelys on mennes bodys be callen erchebysschopes auicenna and ypocras Icoupon̄ (? cophon)i. e.de and on hole materie aȝen brouȝt and ferst of herbis.

Pepys Library 1661. Magdalene College, Cambridge.

(Various simples are described. After the “vertues of rose maryne” a series of sections in verse written as prose beginning “I wil ȝou tellyn by & bi as I fond wretyn in a book. Þat in borwyng I be took of a gret ladyes prest þat of gret name þe mest.” The following sections are on centaurea, solsequium, celidonia, pipernella, materfemia, mortagon, pervinca, rosa, lilium, egrimonye. Ends “Oyle of mustard seed is good for ache and for litarge and it is mad on þe same maner.”)

Circ. 1400.A treatise in rhyme on the virtues of herbs.

Sloane 147 (V). British Museum.

It begins—

“Of erbs xxiiij I woll you tell by and byAls I fond wryten in a boke at I in boroyng tokeOf a gret ladys preste of gret name she barestAt Betony I wol begyn at many vertuos het within.”

“Of erbs xxiiij I woll you tell by and byAls I fond wryten in a boke at I in boroyng tokeOf a gret ladys preste of gret name she barestAt Betony I wol begyn at many vertuos het within.”

14th century.De virtutibus herbarum quarundam.

Ashmole 1397.

(On the medical uses of some herbs. Begins, “Bytayne and wormewode is gode for woundes.”)

14th (?) century.List of names of herbs in Latin and English.

1377 II. Trinity College, Cambridge.

Begins, “Apium Commune Smalache.”

1352.De preperacione herbarum. A treatise on the medicinal qualities of and modes of preparing herbs, quoting Serapion. A short list giving first the Latin and then the Irish name, etc.

23 F. 19. Royal Irish Academy.

14th century.Vocabulary of herbs in Latin and Welsh.

Addit. 14912. British Museum.

14th century.Meddygon myddfai or the Practice of Physic of the Myddvai Doctors: a collection of Recipes for various diseases and injuries, prognostics, charms, virtues of herbs, etc., by the physicians of Myddvai co. Caermarthen.

Addit. 14912 (I). British Museum.

(In Welsh.)

14th century.Nomina herbarum. Latin and English.

Addit. 17866. British Museum.

14th century.De virtutibus herbæ.

Arundel 507. British Museum.

(The above once belonged to Richard Seybrok, a monk of Durham.)

14th-15th century.Nomina quarundam ... plantarum arborum.

Harleian 210 (XI). British Museum.

(In French and English.)

14th-15th century.Names of herbs in Latin and English.

Harleian 2558 (I). British Museum.

14th century.Herbal. Latin and English.

(Directions in gathering herbs, flowers, roots, etc.)

Sloane 2584. British Museum.

14th century.Liber cinomorum (synonomorum) de nominibus herbarum.

(Latin, French, English.)

Bodleian 761.

1360-70.Nomina herbarum. (Latin, French, English.)

Bodleian 761 (VI. B.).

Two texts from this MS. were published by E. Mannele Thompson,Chronicon Galpedi de Baker de Swynebroke. Clarendon Press, 1889. He gives a list of the contents of this volume, calling this item fol. 158, “Medicinal notes from Roger Bacon in Latin.” Interpolated by fifteenth-century writer in spaces left vacant by the fourteenth-century scribe are many recipes and much astrology.

14th century.Virtues of rosemary in prose and verse.

Digby 95 (VII). Bodleian.

14th century.Of the virtues of herbs.

Digby 95 (VIII). Bodleian.

Late 14th century.Herbarium Anglo-Latinum, with many recipes interpolated in a later hand.

MS. Grearerd. Bodleian.

Late 14th century.Names of herbs in alphabetical order with a few English interpolations. The MS. comes from Llanthony Priory and was given by R. Marchall.

312 (X). Library of Lambeth Palace.

14th century.De simplici medicina John Platearius.

(This MS. is supposed to have belonged to the Countess of Hainault and subsequently to Queen Philippa of Hainault.)

Addit. 29301 (IV). British Museum.

14th century.Nomina Herbarum Medicinalium, with some English and French names.

Phillipps MS. 4047 (II) now in the library of T. Fitzroy Fenwick, Esq., Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham.

14th century.Here ben the virtues of Rosemarye (purporting to be taken from “the litel boke that the scole of Sallerne wroat to the Cuntasse of Henowd and sche sente the copie to hir douȝter Philip the quene of England”).

Inc.“Rosemarye is boþe tre and herbe hoot and drie.”

Exp.“Wasche him þerwiþ and he schal be hool.”

Royal 17 A. III. (III). British Museum.

1373.Translation of MacerDe viribus herbarumby John Lelamour, Schoolmaster of Hereford.

Sloane 5. British Museum.

14th century.Particulars of simples arranged under the various months.

754. Trinity College, Cambridge.

14th century.A herbal in Latin and English beginning with Allium.

(Given by Thomas Gale Dean of York.)

759 (VII). Trinity College, Cambridge.

15th century.Aemili Macri de virtutibus herbarum. The names of the plants are explained in English in the margins, and there are also some remedies in English.

Ashmole 1481 (III).

15th century.Macer. De Virtutibus Herbarum. The English names of the herbs are also given. (Written by Nicholas Kyrkeby of Saint Albans.)

VI. 15. Bishop Cosin’s Library, Durham University.

15th century.Herbal in three books.

Inc.“Mogworte or brotheworte ys clepid archemisia ... and this medicine ys a nobil medycyne.”

Ends, “Here endeth the third part of Macer. And here begynneth a fewe herbes which Macer foryete noȝt nor thei ben nort founden in his book.”

Addit. 37786 (II). British Museum.

15th century.The treatise of Macer intitled “De viribus Herbarum,” translated into English.

“Here followeth the cunnynge and sage clerk Macer tretynge and opynly shewyththe vertuys worthy and Commendable propyrtes of many & dyuerse herbys and her vertuys of the whyche the firste is mugworte or modirworte.”

Sloane 393. British Museum.

15th century.The vertuys of Erbys aftyr Galyon Ypocras and Socrates.

Lansdowne 680 I. British Museum.

15th century.Here folwythe the vertu of Erbis. Isop is hoot and drie in ij degreis so seith Ipocrace if a man drynke it fastynge.

Ashmole 1477 (III-IV).

15th century.Aemilius Macer. Of the virtues of herbs. English translation.

Sloane 140. British Museum.

15th century.Aemilius Macer. Of the virtues of herbs. English translation.

Sloane 2269. British Museum.

15th century.Aemilius Macer. De virtutibus Herbarum. English translation.

In the library of the Right Hon. Lord Amherst of Hackney at Didlington Hall, Norfolk.

15th century.List of herbs in Latin and English.

Sloane 3548. British Museum.

15th century.Herbal.

Inc.“Of herbys now IWill you telle by and by.As I fynde wryten in a bokeThat in borrowyng I betokeOf a gret ladyes preste,” etc.

Inc.“Of herbys now IWill you telle by and by.As I fynde wryten in a bokeThat in borrowyng I betokeOf a gret ladyes preste,” etc.

Expl.“It dryveth away all foul moysterisAnd distroyeth venym and wykyd humoursIt distroyeth the morfewAnd dispoyling to the leper.”

Expl.“It dryveth away all foul moysterisAnd distroyeth venym and wykyd humoursIt distroyeth the morfewAnd dispoyling to the leper.”

Dd. X. 44 (VIII). Cambridge University Library.

15th century.An Herbary þe whiche ys draw out of Circa Instans and hyt towcherþ schortlyche þeprincipal vertuys and þespecial effectes of herbis and droggis þtbe þemost comyne in use, and her dyvers grees of qualites or yher complexions and her propur and most special kynd of worcheyng.

(At the end of every alphabetical division of this work is left a page ormore, blank, for the purpose of inserting additional matter. There are several additions by old hands. Some additions on the margins have been torn off.)

Ashmole 1443 (IV).

15th century.Treatise on herbs. 169 chapters, with table of Contents prefixed.

Inc.“Agnus castus is a herbe that men clep Tutsayne or Park levis.”

Arundel 272 (II). British Museum.

15th century.An Herbal. Arranged alphabetically to the letter P.

Inc.“Agnus castus is an herbe,” etc. Breaks off in “pulegium rurale.” (Other copies—both ending with S—are in Addit. 4698, f. 16b, and Arundel 272, f. 36.)

Royal 18 A. VI. (VI). British Museum.

15th century.A treatise on the virtues of Herbs; beginning “Agnus castus ys Anglice herbe that men cally the tutsayne or ells parkelenus.”

Ashmole 1432 (V. i).

Mid 15th century.Herbal with book of recipes.

Inc.“Agnus castus is an herbe.”

Bodleian 463 (A).

15th century.Liber de Herbarum virtutibus.

Inc.“Agnus castus ys an herbe that cleepeth Toussane.”

Laud Misc. 553 (i). Bodleian.

15th century.An Herbal with the properties of the different herbs in alphabetical order, with a table prefixed.

Inc.“Agnus castus ys an herbe that me clapys Tustans or Porke levys.”

329. Balliol College, Oxford.

15th (?) century.“An English Herbal.”

Begins, “Agnus Castus,” etc.

Harleian 3840 (II). British Museum.

15th century.A treatise on the virtues of herbs.

Begins, “A bed ymade of Agnus Castus.”

Sloane 297 (XVIII). British Museum.

15th century.Latin-English dictionary of herbs.

Inc.“Alleluya Wodsoure stubwort.”

Expl.“Quinquefolium fyveleved gras.”

Dd. XI. 45 (XII). Cambridge University Library.

15th century.A book of the medical virtues of herbs, described in alphabetical order.

Inc.“Anet ys an herbe that ys clepyt anet oþer dylle.”

Expl.“doyth a way the fowȝe or the fragelys.”

Ashmole 1447 (IV. i).

15th century.“Yes ben yevertuse of betayn.”

Ashmole 1438 (II. vii).

15th century.A treatise of the virtues of certain herbs. Begins, “Betaigne is hot and drie in þre degrees, and so seyth Ypocras, and it is an herbe of many faire vertues.”

Ashmole 1438 (XXV).

15th century.Aemilius Macer. De virtutibus herbarum. (In French, Latin and English.)

Digby 29 (XXXVII). Bodleian.

15th century.Of the virtues of herbs—seemingly out of Macer. The following verse is prefixed:

“This booke ys drawe be fesykeThat Macer made for hem that ben seekeThe vertu of herbis hēt descrieth ryght welAnd help of mannys helthe every del.”

“This booke ys drawe be fesykeThat Macer made for hem that ben seekeThe vertu of herbis hēt descrieth ryght welAnd help of mannys helthe every del.”

Sloane 963 (XVIII). British Museum.

15th century.Macer on the virtues of herbs.

Inc.“Mugworte or brotheworte is clepid Arthemisia.”

Exp.“drynkys juse of thys erbe.”

Ee. I. 15 (IIIa). University Library, Cambridge.

15th century.Macer. “Vertues worthe & commendable propertees of many & diverse herbes.” In three books.

Rawl. C. 81 (V). Bodleian.

15th century.Part of the poem De virtutibus Herbarum. The English names of plants are occasionally given in the margin. In the volume containing Froucestre’s History of the Monastery.

Library of Gloucester Cathedral.

15th century.A treatise of the medical properties of herbs and other simples; arranged alphabetically, being a translation from the treatise of Johannes Platearius,De medicinis simplicibus.

Sloane 706 (IV). British Museum.

15th century.English Herbal, Secundum magistrum Gilbertum Kemor, arranged alphabetically.

Sloane 770. British Museum.

15th century.Of the virtues of Rosmaryne.

Inc.“Rosmaryne is both tre and erbe.”

Sloane 7 (VI). British Museum.

15th century.The virtues of Rosmaryn.

Inc.“Rosmaryn is bothe tre and herbe.”

Sloan 962 (VI). British Museum.

15th century.These ben sum of þe vertues of Rosemary, as the Clerke of Sallerne seyde and wrote tho the Cowntes of Hynde, and sche sende hem tho here dowȝtur Phylype þtwas weddyde tho þe Kyng of Engelond.

Inc.“Rosmary ys bothe tre and herbe.”

Ashmole 1438 (II-XX).

15th (?) century.This is ye lityl boke of ye vertuys of rosmaryn yt yescole of Salerne gaderyd & compiled at instance of ye Cowntese of Henowde.... I danyel bain translatyd into vulgar ynglysch worde for werde as fonde in latyn. (The translator adds that before 1432 Rosemary was unknown in England and that it was first sent from the Countess of Hainault to her daughter Queen Philippa.)

1037 (1) (XIV). Trinity College, Cambridge.

15th or early 16th century.The medical virtues of Rosemary in prose. Begins, “Rosus marinus is called rose mary, the virtue of this herbe is goode.” Ends, “ne brennyng of unkynd hete be at þi stomake ne at þehert.” (At the foot of page 3 is written “Robert Hychys is the ower of thys boke.”)

Ashmole 1379 (I).

15th century.Here is vertues and seltyng of Rosmary by the ij doctours of fysyk followyng. per Galyen and Platery, and a poem beginning “As in a booke wretyne y fownd Of wise doctours in dyvers lond.”

Ashmole 1379 (II).

15th century.Here follwyth yewertues off ye rosses mare.

Inc.“Take rosmare and bynd hem ynne a lynnene clothe.”

Exp.“Allsso make a bathe off ye floure and ytwyll make ye yonglyche.”

Ashmole 1432 (V. iii).

15th century.The vertu of rose mary. Tak þe flower of þe rose mary and bynd hem.

(The above is part of a series of herbal notes, etc., interspersed by a later hand in the course of and following on a fifteenth-century book of medicine.)

Ashmole 1391 (VIII).

15th century.“Here men may see þe vertus of dyuerse herbes, whiche ben hoot and whiche ben coold, and to how many þinges they arne goode.” (Other copies are in Sloane 393, f. 13; 1592, f. 39b; 3466, f. 78; Addit. 12056, f. 3; Lansdowne MS. 680, f. 2 and 17 B., XLVIII, f. 2, where, however, the arrangement is somewhat different. On page 2 there is the entry, “This is John Rice is boke, the which cost him xxv d.”)

15th century.“Here men may se the vertu of dyverse herbes, and what thei be, and whiche ben hoote and which ben colde. And for howgh many thynges they ben goode.”

(This MS. ends abruptly in “Calamynte.”)

Ashmole 1444 (I. iii).

15th (?) century.“The virtues of diuerse herbes which ben hoote and which ben coolde.” (With a large table of Contents prefixed.)

Sloane 393 (I). British Museum.

15th century.Treatise on the virtues of herbs. Begins, “Aristologia rotunda. The virtue of this herbe os Ypocras says.”

Sloane 962 (XII). British Museum.

15th century.An Herbary or alphabetical Materia Medica of herbs & other drugs; beginning with Aloen, Aloes, Aurum, and ending with Zelboarium.

Inc.“Aloen. To purge fleume and malancoly and colore.”

Exp.“Zelboarium. To moysten and to norschen and to clensen and wyth cold þinges to akelen. Amen.”

Ashmole 1481 (II. ii).

15th century.An alphabeticall catalogue of Herbes.

Inc.“Aloen hath virtue to purge flewne.”

Ee. I. 13 (I). Cambridge University Library.

15th century.A collection of remedies in English (with additions in other handwritings). Begins with “Aloe” and ends with “verveyn.”

609 (II). Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

15th century.In Latin and English. Herbal. Aloe—Zucarium, with notes on Egrimonia, Acacia, in Latin, and on Cassia lignea and Castorium in English.

43. Jesus College, Cambridge.

15th century.The makynge of oyles of divers herbys.

905 (II. 4). Trinity College, Cambridge.

15th century.These ben the precious watris & vertuous for diverse ejvellys.

Inc.“Water of wormode is gode ... grete lordes among the Saracens usen to drink hitt.”

Addit. 37786 (I). British Museum.

15th century.Of the Herb Moon-wort.

Inc.“I schal you tel of an Erbe þat men cal Lunarie,He ys clepit Asterion; wych ys an Erbe þat men calleth Lunarie.”

Inc.“I schal you tel of an Erbe þat men cal Lunarie,He ys clepit Asterion; wych ys an Erbe þat men calleth Lunarie.”

Harleian 2407 (IX). British Museum.

15th century.Virtues of the onion, garlic and pennyroyal.

Begins, “Here beeth þe vertues of the Oynoun.”

Royal 17 B. XLVIII. (II). British Museum.

15th century.Miscellaneous recipes and extracts from herbals.

Begins, “Rosa rebia [sic] ys an herbe that men clepyth rede rosys.”

Royal 18 A. VI. (VII). British Museum.

15th (?) century.A treatise of herbs and the several medicaments compounded from them.

Begins, “The roose as saith the philosopher Plinius hath doble verteus.”

Sloane 67 (II). British Museum.

15th century.A treatise of herbs, alphabetically arranged. (Imperfect.)

Begins, “Carabana id est wylde hempe.”

Sloane 297 (I). British Museum.

15th century.A treatise of the temperature and virtues of simples alphabetically arranged.

Sloane 965 (VII). British Museum.

15th century.“Here men may se the vertues of herbes.”

Bodley 463 (B. iii).

15th century.Liber de herbarum virtutibus.

Inc.“Here may men se the vertu of herbes which ben hot and which ben colde.”

Laud Misc. 553 (II). Bodleian.

15th century.Vertues of Herbes.

Inc.Apium is an herbe that men call smallache or marche.

Addit. A. 106 (A. IV). Bodleian.

15th century.“Here begynnythe to mak waters of erbys sondry and þer vertues and howe þei schalle be made in stillatorie.”

Inc.“In þe fyrst of dyl. The water is of gret vertue.”

Ashmole 141 B (II. v).

15th century.Instructions for the proper time of gathering simples by name.

Inc.“Medysines ben done, some by leves [som] bi sedis, som by flowres and some bi fretes.”

Ashmole 1481 (II. iii). Oxford.

15th century.The medical use “Of waters distilled from Sundry plants & flowers.”

(The above belonged to Richard Saunders, the Astrologer.)

Ashmole 1489 (II. ii).

15th century.Alphabetical Herbary.

Inc.“Agrymonia is an herbe.”

Bodley 463 (B. ii).

Late 15th century.Virtues of herbs.

Inc.“Here a man maye see.”

Selden,supra75 (E. VI). Bodleian.

Late 15th century.A treatise on the properties of plants, fruits, meat and drinks as food and medicine. (In Welsh.)

Jesus College, Oxford.

15th century.Names of herbs.

(Given by Humphrey Moseley, 1649).

69. Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

15th century.Verses in English and Latin on herbs and spices.

(Given by W. Moore.)

176 (I. 2). Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

15th century.Recipes in English and Latin.

(Given by W. Moore.)

230 (II). Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

15th century.Herbes for a saled.

(This once belonged to Nicholas Butler.)

414 (d). Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

15th century.Collection of recipes in English, probably all by John Ardern of Newark. Illustrated with rough coloured drawings of herbs, instruments and patients. It begins, “This is a mirrour of bloodletynge in þe weche þey þt wolen beholden it diligently,” etc. There is a recipe in French for Greek fire.Exp.“tabula libri Sirurgice.” Mag. Joh. Arderne de Newerk.

(Given by Humphrey Moseley, 1649.)

69. Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

15th century.Here begynnythe an herball of namys & vertues of diverse herbys aftyr letterys of the a, b, c, etc.

905 (I). Trinity College, Cambridge.

15th century.Virtues of various plants.

905 (II. 4). Trinity College, Cambridge.

15th century.On the virtues of herbs.

Inc.“This booke is drawe be Fesyk. That Macer made for hem þat been seck. Yevertu of herbis it discryeth ryght wel.”

1637 (I. i). Trinity College, Cambridge.

1485.A collection of the Latin and English names of plants with their descriptions and medical virtues.

National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.

15th century.Alphabetical list of herbs. (Names partly in Latin and partly in Irish.)

2306. Royal Irish Academy.

15th century.Alphabetical treatise on herbs and their uses. In Latin and Irish.

1315. Trinity College, Dublin.

15th-16th century.List of plants used in medicine. (In Latin and Irish.)

1334 (V). Trinity College, Dublin.

15th century.Vertues of rose maryne þat er contened & compyled in þis space & ar gadirde out of bukes of gude philosofirs & of oþer wyse clerkes.

V. IV. 1. Durham University, Bishop Cosins Library.

Late 15th century.Herbal in Welsh.

In Mr. Wynne’s library at Peniarth, Merioneth.

15th century.The vertu of Rose-marry & other Secrets.

Harleian 1735 (XII). British Museum.

15th century.Verses on the virtues of Rosmaryne.

Sloane 3215. British Museum.

15th century.Vertues of the herb betayne.

Rawl. C. 211 (II). Bodleian.

15th century.Treatise on the vertues of herbs.

Addit. 12056. British Museum.

15th century.Treatise on the vertues of herbs & metals in alphabetical order. In Irish.

Addit. 15403. British Museum.

Late 15th century.Herbal.

Inc.Agnus Castus is an herbe.

Harleian 3840 (III). British Museum.

15th century.A fragment of a treatise on the virtues of herbs.

Sloane 7 (III). British Museum.

15th century.An alphabetical herbal.

Sloane 297 (VII). British Museum.

15th century.“Of the vyrtues of the Asche tree,” etc.

Sloane 297 (XVII). British Museum.

15th century.The first part of an intended complete body of Pharmacy in seven parts. The first part treats of herbs, which are alphabetically arranged in 150 chapters.

Sloane 404 (I). British Museum.

15th century.On the virtues of herbs, with recipes for various disorders. The last is a charm “for alle maner woundys.”

Sloane 540 (I). British Museum.

15th century.For to knowe the ix Sauge levys.

Sloane 706 (VIII). British Museum.

15th century.Treatise on the virtues of herbs alphabetically arranged.

Sloane 1088 (I). British Museum.

15th century.Herbes necessarie for a Gardyn.

Sloane 120 (I). British Museum.

15th century.On the virtues of herbs.

Sloane 2403. British Museum.

15th century.Poem on the virtues of herbs.

Sloane 2457. British Museum.

15th century.Treatise on the virtues of herbs.

Sloane 2460. British Museum.

Early 15th century.A fewe othre dyverse herbes with her vertues wich be not yfound in the bokes of Macer.

Rawl. C. 212 (II). Bodleian.

15th (?) century.A treatise on medicinal herbs. (In Irish.)

Royal Irish Academy, 23 H 19.

15th century.A fragment of a treatise on the medicinal properties of herbs. (In Irish.)

Royal Irish Academy, 2306.

15th (?) century.A treatise on herbs and their medicinal qualities and the mode of preparing and administering them. (In Irish.)

Royal Irish Academy, 2395.

15th-16th century.Alphabetical list of plants used in medicine and the manner of preparing them. (In Latin and Irish.)

1334 (II). Trinity College, Dublin.

1415.Alphabetical list of plants used in medicine. At the end is the transcriber’s name, “Aedh Buide O’Leigin,” and the date 1415. Also the name of the person from whom the original MS. was purchased—“Tad hg O’Cuinn bachelor in physic.” (In Irish.)

1343 (II). Trinity College, Dublin.

15th century.A dictionary of herbs in Latin and English.

In the Marquis of Bath’s library at Longleat, Wilts.

15th century.Treatise without title on the virtues of herbs.

In Lord Leconfield’s library at Petworth House, Sussex.

15th century.Medicinal qualities of herbs.

Phillipps MS. 11077, now in the library of T. Fitzroy Fenwick, Esq., Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham.

(Printed books)


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