London, British Library, Sloane MS 513

Written in English, French, and Latin in the fifteenth century (and possibly part in the late fourteenth century) for Richard Dove, a monk of Buckfast Abbey, with later marginal notations and additions.

Date: s. xv

Scribes:

Medieval owners: Richard Dove

Original location or linguistic profile: Buckfast, Devon

Magic Category: ritual magic

ars notoria

Specific magic texts: Ars notoria (ff. 192r-200r)

Charm motifs:

Online Information: British Library catalogue of illuminated manuscripts

British Library catalogue

Entry in the DIMEV

Digitised: No. Two images are available in the British Library catalogue entry and a copy of the microfilm can be viewed on the Europeana website.

Bibliography: These are some highlights. For a full bibliography see the British Library catalogue entry linked above.

David Bell, ‘A Cistercian at Oxford, Richard Dove of Buckfast and London BL Sloane 513’, Studia Monastica, 31 (1989), 69-87.

Sophie Page, Magic in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2004), pp. 44-45, pl. 43-45.

Laura Mitchell, ‘Cultural Uses of Magic in Fifteenth Century England (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Toronto, 2011), pp. 280-292, online at https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/31869/1/Mitchell_Laura_T_201111_PhD_thesis.pdf.

Frank Klaassen, The Transformations of Magic (Pennsylvania: Penn State University Press, 2013).

London, British Library, Harley MS 2558

The commonplace book of Thomas Fayreford, a fifteenth-century physician who worked in Gloucestershire, Oxford, Somerset and Devon. This manuscript is notable for including a list of his patients and medical cases.

Date: s. xvⁱⁿ

Scribes: Thomas Fayreford

Medieval owners: Thomas Fayreford

Original location or linguistic profile: Gloucestershire, Oxford, Somerset and Devon

Magic Category: charms, medical

natural magic

Specific magic texts: Charms for blessing an herb; wounds; pain of head, abscess, gout; spot in the eye; nosebleed; toothache; bone caught in the throat; sore throat; poison; paralysis and epilepsy; excessive menstrual flow; childbirth; conception; epilepsy; demon; fevers; staunching blood; bite or puncture; spasm; gout; a miracle cure. There is also directions to fix a toothache using natural magic.

Charm motifs: Adonay. Emanuel
Ananizapta
Caro caruce
ecce crucem
ililir.ilililr.ilililr.
Jaspar Melchior Balthasar
Longinus miles
Pater est
Recede demon
Rex Pax Nax
St. Nicasse
Tres boni fratres
Virga Apollonia

Online Information: A detailed record from the BL Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts

Digitised: Yes, on the British Library Digitised Manuscripts site

Bibliography: Laura Mitchell. “The Cultural Uses of Magic in Fifteenth-century England.” PhD dissertation, University of Toronto, 2011.

Peter Murray Jones. “Harley MS 2558: A Fifteenth-Century Medical Commonplace Book”. Manuscript Sources of Medieval Medicine: A Book of Essays. Ed. Margaret R. Schleissner. Garland Medieval Casebooks, 8 (New York: Garland, 1995), 35-54.

—. “Thomas Fayreford: An English Fifteenth-Century Medical Practitioner”. Medicine from the Black Death to the French Disease. Ed. Roger French and others (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998), 156-83 (pp. 166-67).

—. “Witnesses to medieval medical practice in the Harley collection.” Electronic British Library Journal 8 (2008): 1-13.

Lea T. Olsan. “Charms and Prayers in Medieval Medical Theory and Practice.” Social History of Medicine 16:3 (2003): 343-366.

—. “Charms in Medieval Memory.” In Charms and Charming in Europe. Edited by Jonathan Roper. Great Britain: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, 59-90.

London, British Library, Harley MS 2378

A collection of medical, culinary and alchemical texts and recipes, possibly compiled by its 15th-century owner, Nicholas Spalding.

Date: s. xiii-xviii

Scribes: Nicholas Spalding

Medieval owners: Nicholas Spalding; Johannes Lundon or Luverdon

Original location or linguistic profile:

Magic Category: charms, medical

magic tricks

natural magic

recipes and experiments

secrets

Specific magic texts: 17th c. charm to extract a thorn (fol. 16v); 15th c. charm against toothache or wounds in 21 couplets (fols. 143v-144r); 14th c. charms relating to bleeding and bloodletting in French and Latin; a text of magic tricks titled Ludi nature regis Salomonis (fols. 182v-183); Johannes Paulinus, De corio serpentis, a text on the magical properties of snakes. It also contains the Secreta Alberti on herbs, stones, and animals.

Charm motifs: Flum Jordan
Tres boni fratres

Online Information: Entry in the Middle English Compendium HyperBibliography

Digitised: Yes, available on the British Library Digitised Manuscripts site

Bibliography: Rossell Hope Robbins. “Medical Manuscripts in Middle English.” Speculum 45:3 (1970): 393-415.

Bruno Roy. “The Household Encyclopedia as Magic Kit: Medieval Popular Interest in Pranks and Illusions*.” The Journal of Popular Culture 14:1 (1980): 60-69.

London, British Library, Harley MS 1735

The notebook of John Crophill,  a part-time medical practitioner in Wix in northeast Essex and bailiff for Wix Priory, a small community of Benedictine nuns.  Harley 1735 was originally two separate books bound together. The first book is made up of prognostications and cooking recipes from the first half of the fifteenth century. The second book contains astrological and medical texts copied for Crophill in the second half of the fifteenth century. Crophill’s notebook also contains charms and a list of patients he treated.

Date: s. xv

Scribes: John Crophill

Medieval owners: John Crophill

Original location or linguistic profile: Essex/Norfolk

Magic Category: charms, medical

Specific magic texts: Charms for wounds (fol. 52v) and for childbirth (fol. 40r).

Charm motifs: Sancta Maria peperit
Tres boni fratres

Online Information: Entry in the DIMEV

Digitised: Yes, on the British Library’s Digitised Manuscripts page

Bibliography:  Lois Ayoub. “John Crophill‟s Books: An Edition of British Library MS Harley 1735.” PhD dissertation, University of Toronto, 1994.

Laura Mitchell. “The Cultural Uses of Magic in Fifteenth-century England.” PhD dissertation, University of Toronto, 2011.

London, British Library, Harley MS 941

A miscellany containing texts relating to history, astrology, magic, astronomy, geography, rhetoric, and medicine.

Date: s.xv^ex

Scribes: “Johannes plenus amoris” (colophon, fol. 21r)

Medieval owners: Johannes Edwards? (written in two different hands on fols. 49v and 101v)

Original location or linguistic profile:

Magic Category: Treatises on magic

Specific magic texts: From the British Library’s description: “Short treatises on magic (fols. 58r-61r) including Dorotheus Sidonius, Capitulum de occultatione anuli (fol. 58r), Messahala, De occultis (fols. 58v-59v), and Tractatus Dorothei in occultis (fols. 59v-61r)”

Charm motifs:

Online Information: Entry in the DIMEV

Entry in the Middle English Compendium HyperBibliography

Digitised: Yes: at the British Library’s Digitised Manuscripts site

Bibliography:

New York, The Pierpont Morgan Library, Glazier MS 39

A prayer roll made between 1484 and 1500 by Canon Percevall of the Premonstratensian Abbey of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Date: s. xv^ex

Scribes: Canon Percevall

Medieval owners: Canon Percevall 

Original location or linguistic profile: Coverham, Yorkshire

Magic Category: charms, medical

charms, protection

talismans

Specific magic texts: A charm based on the Tau cross that offers protection from suffering, against peril and all evils, and will help a woman in childbirth if she wears it on her head.

Charm motifs: Measure of Christ
Sts. Quiricus and Julitta

Online Information: Entry in the DIMEV

Catalogue entry on the online library catalogue

Digitised: Yes, images are available at the CORSAIR website (section 7 is the relevant one).

Bibliography: Curt F. Bühler. “Prayers and charms in certain Middle English scrolls.”Speculum 39:2 (1964): 270-278.

Suzanne Eastman Sheldon. “Middle English and Latin Charms, Amulets, and Talismans from Vernacular Manuscripts.” PhD diss., Tulane University, 1978.

Don C. Skemer. Binding words: Textual amulets in the Middle Ages. Penn State Press, 2006.

New Haven, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library MS 163

The Wagstaff miscellany. Contains excerpts of historical tracts, medical recipes, charms, prayers, notes on parliament, philosophy, and dream interpretation, proverbs, poems, notes on horses and hunting, and excerpts from astronomical and religious tracts.

Date: s. xv, s. xiv

Scribes:

Medieval owners: Whittokesmede? (written in red on fols. 59r and 101v)

Original location or linguistic profile: possibly Southwest Midlands

Magic Category: charms, medical

charms, protection

charms, thieves

conjurations

Specific magic texts: A charm to staunch blood (“Rogers blode”) and another whose purpose is unclear that uses words and characters written down, as well as the name of the patient (fol. 14v). A charm for general protection that has been partly crossed out and rewritten at the end (fol. 15r). Verse charm against thieves (see below) titled “Coniuracio contra latrones” (fols. 15v-16r).

Charm motifs: Almighty God in Trinity

Fare nare

Five Wounds

Flum Jordan

Online Information: Manuscript description and digitisation at the Beinecke library website

More complete description from the Beinecke library

Entry in the DIMEV

Digitised: Yes, images available here.

Bibliography: Kurt Bühler. “Middle English Verses Against Thieves.”Speculum 33 (1958): 371-2.

J. Daniel Vann III. “Middle English Verses Against Thieves: A Postscript.” Speculum 34 (1959): 636-7.

Manchester, John Rylands University Library, English MS 404

A medical manuscript containing mostly recipes, some charms, a list of the perilous days, and notes on urines. Also contains a few recipes for making invisible ink.

Date: s. xv

Scribes:

Medieval owners:

Original location or linguistic profile: Kent

Magic Category: charms, medical

charms, protection

talismans

Specific magic texts: Charms for fevers, toothache? or fever again, protection from all evil, to avoid ill fortune (by carrying certain letters with you), overcome enemies (fols. 34r; 35v; 36v; 46r). Folio 36v is much torn and the beginning of the charm is mostly worn away.

Charm motifs: ante portam

Online Information: Manuscript description at the John Rylands library

Digitised: Yes, images are available on LUNA

Bibliography:

Cambridge, Trinity College Library MS O.1.57 (1081)

The family notebook of a lower gentry family from Northamptonshire. Contains a number of technical treatises, texts on chiromancy, prognostications, medical and technical recipes, the virtues of plants and animals, and set of magic tricks titled The Tricks of Solomon.

Date: s. xv

Scribes: John Haldenby; William Haldenby

Medieval owners: the Haldenby family

Original location or linguistic profile: Isham, Northamptonshire

Magic Category: charms, love

charms, medical

charms, other

charms, protection

charms, thieves

magic tricks

natural magic

recipes and experiments

secrets

Specific magic texts: Charms for a fire (fol. 1v) (“pro igne sessandi scribatur ad euangelium in festo sancte Agathe et iactatur super ignem”), to catch a thief (fol. 126v) using a loaf of bread, for love (in a later hand) (fol. 20r), for a sore, to staunch blood, for sleep (fols. 76v-77r). The sleep charm uses a seven sleepers motif unique in the fifteenth-century record.

Natural magic: texts on the virtues of snake skin (Serpentium coris) and plants and animals with a number of magical recipes and experiments. cf. Huntington Library, HM 1336.

Magic tricks using gunpowder in an Ad hoc book of secrets (fol. 127v; 128r-128v).

Charm motifs: Loaf of bread
Seven sleepers
Tres boni fratres

Online Information: Manuscript description and digitisation in the James Catalogue

Entry in the DIMEV

Entry in the Middle English Compendium HyperBibliography

Digitised: Yes

Bibliography: Laura Mitchell. “The Cultural Uses of Magic in Fifteenth-century England.” PhD dissertation, University of Toronto, 2011.

–. “The Disappearance of Charms from a Fifteenth-century Notebook“. The Recipes Project blog, October 31, 2013.

–. “Love and the Longevity of Charms“. The Recipes Project blog, March 19, 2013.

Cambridge, Trinity College Library MS R.14.51 (921)

Manuscript contains medical recipes, a veterinary treatise, and a work on astronomy.

Date: s. xv

Scribes:

Medieval owners: Russell

Original location or linguistic profile:

Magic Category: charms, medical

charms, protection

charms, thieves

conjurations

talismans

Specific magic texts: Charms for the ‘foule euell’ (one is worn as a talisman), against thieves (fol. 28r), healing a wound with a lead plate (fol. 25r); charm to staunch bleeding with a conjuration (fols. 25v-26r).

Charm motifs: Jaspar Melchior Baltasar
Longinus miles
Plate of lead

Online Information: Manuscript description and digitisation at the James catalogue

Entry in the DIMEV

Digitised: Yes

Bibliography: