London, British Library, Sloane MS 962

Medical miscellany

Date: s. xiv-xv

Scribes:

Medieval owners:

Original location or linguistic profile: Nottinghamshire?

Magic Category: charms, medical
charms, other
charms, protection

Specific magic texts: Against elves and demons (“Coniuro vos elves et omnia gravamina demoniorum nocturna sive diuturna per patrem et filium et spiritum sanctum”), serpents, malignant spirits, and toothache. The charm of St. William that Gabriel brought from Our Lord, childbirth (Sancta Maria peperit), Longinus miles, Flum Jordan. The charm against elves and demons uses a Seven Sleepers motif.

Charm motifs: Flum Jordan
Longinus miles
Sancta Maria peperit
Seven sleepers
St. Gabriel?

Online Information: Entry in the British Library catalogue

Digitised: No. Several images in the British Library catalogue entry. The blog post includes an image of the charm against elves and demons.

Bibliography: See the British Library catalogue for a full bibliography.

“How to Survive Halloween.”Medieval Manuscripts blog. October 31, 2019. https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2019/10/how-to-survive-halloween.html.

Tony Hunt, Popular Medicine in Thirteenth-Century England: Introduction and Texts (Woodbridge: Brewer, 1990).

Laura Mitchell, ‘Cultural Uses of Magic in Fifteenth Century England (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Toronto, 2011), https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/31869/1/Mitchell_Laura_T_201111_PhD_thesis.pdf.

Linne R. Mooney, ‘Diet and Bloodletting: A Monthly Regimen’, in Popular and Practical Science of Medieval England, ed. by Lister M. Matheson, Medieval Texts and Studies, 11 (East Lansing: Colleagues Press, 1994.

Catherine Rider. “Following a Recipe through Different Manuscripts.” The Recipes Project. https://recipes.hypotheses.org/2628

T.M. Smallwood. “The Transmission Charms, Medieval and Modern.” In Charms and Charming in Europe. Edited by Jonathan Roper. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, 11-31.

London, British Library, Sloane MS 374

Contains notes on uroscopy (fol. 5v) (cf. Harley MS 1735), the Leechcraft discussed by Lea Olsan (see below) (fol. 14) and cookery recipes.

Date: s. xv

Scribes:

Medieval owners:

Original location or linguistic profile:

Magic Category: charms, medical

charms, protection

charms, thieves

Specific magic texts: The medical treatise contains 23 charms for fevers (2), hawe, toothache (2), to stop bleeding, sleep, childbirth, worm in the ear, falling evil, wicked spirits, and thieves. As Olsan notes, all of the charms have been censored with thick, heavy lines so that only the headings and a few words to identify the charms remain.

Charm motifs: Ante portam
Coniuro te vermiculum
El elþe
Five wounds
Flum Jordan
Iesus sedebat
Iesus that was in
In Bedlam God
Jaspar Melchior Balthasar
Longinus miles
Pater est
Sancta Maria peperit
Stabat Iesus
Toby
Tres boni fratres
Virgo Apollonia
Ysmael

Online Information: Entry in the Middle English Compendium Hyperbibliography

Entry in the DIMEV

Digitised: No

Bibliography:  Lea T. Olsan. “The Corpus of Charms in the Middle English Leechcraft Remedy Books.” In Charms, Charmers and Charming: International Research on Verbal Magic. Edited by Jonathan Roper. Great Britain: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, 214-237.

London, British Library, Royal MS 12. B. XXV

A largely medical manuscript including texts on the humours, herbs, as well as texts on wines, astrology, and fireworks. The manuscript is largely 14th century, but three of the Latin charms were added in a fifteenth-century hand.

Date: s. xiv, xv

Scribes:

Medieval owners:

Original location or linguistic profile: Ireland

Magic Category: charms, animal

charms, love

charms, medical

charms, protection

charms, thieves

talismans

Specific magic texts: Fourteenth-century charms (fols. 59r-65v): for fevers, for toothache, for dog bite, for snake bite, to capture snakes, for the falling evil, for sick cattle, for an eye ache, to remove mice and rats from the house, to staunch bleeding, against fire, for childbirth, to learn a woman’s secrets, for pigs with swollen throats. One of the fever charms adapts the St. Peter motif more commonly found in toothache charms. Another charm to stop bleeding is on folios 253r-v.

Fifteenth-century charms (fol. 283): three charms to extinguish lust,

Charm motifs: Ante portam
Flum Jordan
Sancta Maria peperit
St. Agatha
St. Columcille
St. Laurence
St. Nicasse
To the holy goste

Online Information: Entry in the DIMEV

Digitised: No

Bibliography: Lea T. Olsan. “Latin Charms in British Library, MS Royal 12. B. XXV.”Manuscripta 33.2 (1989): 119-128.

—. “Latin Charms of Medieval England: Verbal Healing in a Christian Oral Tradition.” Oral Tradition 7:1 (1992): 116-142.

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, Additional MS 34111

A medical manuscripts with copies of the Liber Trotuli and Speculum medicine in Middle English.

Date: s. xv (charms 1420-1450)

Scribes:

Medieval owners:

Original location or linguistic profile:

Magic Category: charms, animal

charms, medical

charms, protection

charms, thieves

natural magic

recipes and experiments

Specific magic texts: Charms and natural magic/experiments (I use both terms since some of these recipes are labelled as experiments but could conceivably fall within the category of natural magic) to catch a thief (fol. 75r); for lost articles (fol. 71v); against thieves (fol. 70v); for capture (fol. 71v); for success in battle (fol. 72v); for wounds (fol. 71v); for the fester (fol. 185v); for bruises (fol. 33r); for bleeding (fol. 70r); for epilepsy (3) (fols. 74v, 174r); for toothache (fol. 70r); to prevent conception (fol. 72v); to conceive (fol. 73r); for childbirth (fol. 73r); for the foundering of a horse (fol. 71v); to protect fields (fol.168r).

Natural magic text on the virtues of the eagle (fols. 195r-196v).

Charm motifs: Eye of Abraham
Jaspar Melchior Baltasar
Sancta Maria peperit

Online Information: Entry in DIMEV

Entry in the Middle English Compendium HyperBibliography

Digitised: No

Bibliography: Klaus-Dietrich Fischer. “A Mirror for Deaf Ears? A Medieval Mystery“. Electronic British Library Journal (2008): article 9.

Suzanne Eastman Sheldon. “The Eagle: Bird of Magic and Medicine in a Middle English
Translation of the Kyranides.” Tulane Studies in English 22 (1977): 1-20.

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

London, British Library, Additional MS 12195

Contains a variety of medical recipes and medical astronomy, natural magic, charms, and experiments.

Date: s.xv, xvi

Scribes: John Leke

Medieval owners: John Leke of North Creake

Original location or linguistic profile: North Creake, Norfolk

Magic Category: charms, medical

charms, thieves

magic tricks

natural magic

recipes and experiments

Specific magic texts: Natural magic to catch a thief; to become invisible; tricks; to learn things in a dream vision; to have anything of someone; to make a woman love you; to make a candle that never burns down, etc.

Charms for fevers, for gout, cankers, palsy,  for childbirth, to catch a thief.

Charm motifs: Saint William
sancta maria peperit
sator arepo
wafer charm

Online Information: Entry in the DIMEV

Digitised: No

Bibliography:

San Marino, Huntington Library HM 64

An astrological and medical compilation with many charms and incantations.

Date: s. xv^ex

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).

San Marino, Huntington Library HM 58

A copy of the Agnus Castus along with various added recipes.

Date: s. xv^ex

Scribes:

Medieval owners:

Original location or linguistic profile:

Magic Category: charms, medical

charms, other

charms, protection

charms, thieves

conjurations

Specific magic texts: Charms against worms in verse (later addition) (fol. 19v); to staunch blood (75v); for speedy deliver (fol. 84); for a stillborn (fol. 84v); against thieves (fol. 69). A charm to win at dice (later addition) (fol. 41v). In the margins beside these charms the same hand has added in red “Prohibitum est exercicium ab Ecclesia catholica“.

The table of contents (which may have been copied from another book) lists “A charme for woundes with wolle & oyle” on folio 76r that is not there (although there is a space for it).

Charm motifs: Christus te uocat
Coniuro vos fures
Job in a dunghill lay
Longinus miles
Sancta maria peperit

Online Information: Description in the online catalogue

Entry in the DIMEV

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

Bibliography:

Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, MS Ee.i.15

Various medical texts and recipes, cooking recipes, list of plants, etc.

Date: s. xv

Scribes:

Medieval owners: Robert Steele?

Original location or linguistic profile:

Magic Category: charms, medical

Specific magic texts: Charms to staunch bleeding, for fever, childbirth, for wounds.

Charm motifs: Beronix/Beronixa
Flum Jordan
Longinus miles
plate of lead
sage leaf
Sancta Maria peperit

Online Information: Entry in the DIMEV

Digitised: No

Bibliography:

Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, MS Dd.v.76

One of the “Leechcraft” manuscripts discussed by Lea Olsan (see below).

Date: s. xv

Scribes: John Bradley?

Medieval owners: John Bintreth?

Original location or linguistic profile:

Magic Category: charms, medical

charms, protection

Specific magic texts: Charms for the hawe, bloody flux, staunch bleeding, if a person will live or die, sleep, childbirth, worm in the ear, wounds (2), wicked spirits. Two charms, including one to staunch bleeding by writing “Agla” on the forehead are not in the other “Leechcraft” manuscripts.

Charm motifs: Agla
Coniuro te vermiculum
Five croppes
Five wounds
Flum Jordan
Sancta Maria peperit
St. Susanne
Stabat Jesus
Toby
Tres boni fratres
Y conjure
Ysmael

Online Information: Entry in the DIMEV

Middle English HyperCompendium Bibliography

Middle English HyperCompendium Bibliography (2)

Digitised: No

Bibliography: Lea T. Olsan. “The Corpus of Charms in the Middle English Leechcraft Remedy Books.” In Charms, Charmers and Charming: International Research on Verbal Magic. Edited by Jonathan Roper. Great Britain: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, 214-237.

T.M. Smallwood. “Conformity and Originality in Middle English Charms.” In Charms, Charmers, and Charming: International Research on Verbal Magic. Edited by Jonathan Roper. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, 87-99.