Rex Pax Nax

Stockholm, Royal Library, MS Holm X. 90

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Date: s. xv med (c. 1425-1450)

Scribes:

Medieval owners:

Original location or linguistic profile: Norfolk

Magic Category: charms, medical
charms, other
natural magic
talismans

Specific magic texts: Charms for bleeding, epilepsy, against enemies, against fiends, the devil, and wicked or evil spirits, for pain in sides, sage leaf charm for fevers, toothache, sleep, headache, the eyes. Natural magic/talismans: Rosemary against lightning, Betony against venom, Rosemary for good dreams, for fever, against bad sleep, for wounds, for happy marriage, for love, youth, beauty, to make trees barren, prevent sleep, cause a swoon, cause dissension, detect virgins, vervain to predict death, against venomous beasts, gout, hot dropsy, bite of a mad dog.

Charm motifs: Ananizapta
Christ was of the virgin Mary born
Christus Tonat
Flum Jordan
Helpe crosse fayrest of tymbris thre
Longinus miles
Plate of lead
Rex Pax Nax
St. Nicasse
Who so wele on Lammas day

Online Information: Entry in the DIMEV

Digitised: No.

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

London, British Library, Harley MS 2558

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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.

San Marino, Huntington Library HM 64

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An astrological and medical compilation with many charms and incantations.

Date: s. xvex

Scribes:

Medieval owners: John Eccam or Ekam

Original location or linguistic profile:

Magic Category: charms, animal

charms, medical

charms, other

charms, protection

talismans

Specific magic texts: Charms numbered 1-5, consisting of crosses inscribed in circles (fols. 17v, 21v, 34, 51): against enemies; for victory; for a fire; against demons; for victory. These must be worn or put in specific places as talismans. Charms to staunch blood (fols. 23, 102v, 111v, 158, 162r-v), for the falling evil (fols. 110-111v), to cure dog bite (fol. 138r), to heal a wound (verse) (fol. 163), prose charms for wounds (fols. 144v-145, 162v-163), for toothache (fol. 149v) and a verse charm for sore teeth (fols. 145r-v), for childbirth (fols. 111v, 163r-v), against fevers (fol. 168), for headache (fols. 191r-v), for nosebleeds (fol. 192), verse charm for wrists or ankles (fol. 145), for worms (fol. 141v (crossed out)), against evil spirits (fol. 163). To protect sheep (fols. 137v-138). Against moles (fol. 170).

Charm motifs: Apple
Beronix
Coniuro te vermiculum
Five Wounds
Flum Jordan
Gate of Galilee
Jaspar Melchior Baltasar
Longinus Miles
oceanum age
ouere a don roode
Plate of lead
Rex Pax Nax
Sage leaf
Sancta Maria peperit
Sator Arepo
St. Peter
St. Susanne
Tres boni fratres
Wafer charm
Y conjure

Online Information: Manuscript description in the online catalogue

Entry in the DIMEV

Digitised: No, but some images are available with the manuscript description.

Bibliography: Don C. Skemer. Binding words: Textual amulets in the Middle Ages (University Park, PA: Penn State Press, 2006).