Old English Illustrated Pharmacopoeia

Old English Illustrated Pharmacopoeia

This manuscript, one of the rarest and most important specimens of Anglo-Saxon book culture and, along with the 10th century manuscript of Bald’s Leechbook, represents the only Old English medical compendia to survive today. It was bound together for the famous antiquarian Sir Robert Cotton (1570/1–1631) in the early 17th century and has a frontispiece from the Cotton Library with his signature as well as an early modern table of contents. The manuscript was damaged by a fire in 1731 and each leaf is mounted separately. Today it represents one of the highlights of the impressive collections of the British Library.

Complex Origins

There is evidence of at least nine different hands in the manuscript and the scribe responsible for the second section used signs to indicate the spaces that were left for the artists. Chapter numbers were added to the table of contents and at the head of each column, indicating its regular use as a reference work. Despite its significance, the origin and ownership history of the manuscript are virtually unknown, and it likely spent most of its existence in a monastic library or perhaps even an infirmary.

A Splendid Compendium

The compendium of four volumes, the first two consisting of various English texts. Part 1 contains the Compendium Historiae in Genealogia Christi by Peter of Poitiers ending with a diagram of Jesus, his apostles, Paul and Barnabas, a list of chapter titles with English glosses from De viribus herbarum by Aemilius Macer, and includes some notes written in Anglo-Norman. These folios were copied sometime around the turn of the 13th century and include roundels and initials in red throughout.
Following a table of contents, Part 2 was copied during the early 11th century, possibly at Christ Church in Canterbury, and consists of the Herbarius Apuleii and Medicina de quadrupedibus. Glosses in Latin, Anglo-Norman, and English were added between the 12th and 16th centuries throughout the text and some 11th and 12th century recipes were written in Old English and Latin by various hands. This section is illustrated by two full-page miniatures, illustrations of plants and animals imbedded in the text, as well as red, green, and blue initials throughout.
Part 3 has the Latin text of Saturnalia by Macrobius, which was copied in northern France ca. 850–875 and is adorned by red initials and drawings of heads in the margins. Finally, Part 4 consists of unadorned medical notes and recipes copied by William Harvey (1578–1657), the first physician to fully describe the functions of the circulatory system.