Collection ID: 0002 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Vade mecum

Call number

Ms. Codex 1552
(Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Rare Book & Manuscript Library)

Alternate identifiers

• bibid: 4526275
• http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/medren/4526275

Publisher

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries

Language

English, with lists and a few cures in Latin

Origin

Date

ca. 1624-1640

Place

London?, England

Summary

The bulk of the manuscript (f. 12-100) consists of a large number of plant-based cures for a variety of complaints and illnesses, including plague, sciatica, vomiting, spleen and liver problems, worms, and squinting. The pages at the beginning of the manuscript include a list of those cures that are in Latin or have headings in Latin (f. 1r), with folio references; a difficult-to-read sequence that may give a brief account of a journey (f. 3r-9r) and includes the names Simion (f. 6r) and George Hodgshon (f. 9r); and a table of contents for the cures in English (f. 9v-11v). The pages at the end of the manuscript include a section of numbered but blank pages (f. 100v-109v); a small collection of ten Bible verses (f. 110r-110v); a critical list of ten dogmatic developments in the Catholic (referred to as papist) church, such as the prohibition of marriage for priests (f. 111r); a description of prognostication by oak apple (f. 114v-115r); a 10-line, anti-Parliament poem that begins, "We fasted first, then prayed that War might cease" (f. 115v); and a 20-line poem that begins, "Once had I money and a friend; I did them both preserve" (f. 116r). The two poems at the end are in the same hand and can be no earlier than 1640, when John Pym, referred to in the first poem, became head of the majority in Parliament. A small number of leaves have been torn or cut out.

Notes

• Ms. codex.
   
• Title and subtitle from title page (f. ii recto), with subtitle added in a different hand.
   

Extent

115 leaves : 95 x 65 mm. bound to 100 x 75 mm

Foliation

Paper, 115; [ii, 1-2], 3, 5-74, 77-78, 81-107, [108-116 (contemporary pagination as 108-125),117-118]; contemporary foliation in ink, upper right recto; contemporary pagination in ink, upper outer corners; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto.

Support

Paper

Binding

Contemporary calf, stamped gilt rose and crown in the center of both boards (Gedge).

Script

Written in a secretary hand for English and an italic hand for Latin (Gedge).

Provenance

• Sold by Samuel Gedge Ltd. (Mundesley, England), 2009.
   

Subjects topical

• Traditional medicine--Formulae, receipts, prescriptions--Early works to 1800
• Herbs--Therapeutic use--England--17th century
• Political poetry, English

Genres

• Codices
• Poems
• Prescriptions
• Manuscripts, European
• Manuscripts, English--17th century

Licenses

• Text

  This description is ©2016 University of Pennsylvania Libraries. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License version 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. For a description of the terms of use see the Creative Commons Deed https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

• Text

  All referenced images and their content are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

Table of contents

• fol. 1r — List of cures in Latin, f. 1r
• fol. 3r — Brief account of a journey[?], f. 3r