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 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 I 
 
 AND THE 
 
 ROSA MEDICINAE 
 
 C.S 
 
 /f/Q 
 
 / BY '.* 
 
 H. P. CHOLMELEY, M.A., D.M. 
 
 OXFORD 
 
 AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 
 1912
 
 HENRY FROWDE, M.A. 
 
 PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD 
 
 LONDON, EDINBURGH, NEW YORK 
 
 TORONTO AND MELBOURNE
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THIS study is an attempt to give some account of 
 one who was, so far as is known, the first English- 
 man who was Court physician to an English monarch, 
 and of his chief work, the Rosa Anglica, as it is 
 generally called, though the name which he himself 
 gave it was the Rosa Medicinae. 
 
 The materials for an essay * dealing with medical 
 matters in England, or indeed in Europe during the 
 fourteenth century, are but scanty as compared with 
 the accounts of medicine, medical studies, and medical 
 men which we possess belonging to the twelfth and 
 thirteenth centuries, and the admirable FitzPatrick 
 Lectures of Dr. J. F. Payne and Dr. Norman Moore 
 have already made English readers acquainted with 
 the English medical men of that period. 
 
 In the section dealing with the general estimation 
 in which medical men were held during mediaeval 
 times I have had to consult works written so far 
 back as the twelfth century, but with the exception 
 of Guy de Chauliac, who was ahead of his times 
 in surgery, the medical art progressed but little 
 between 1150 and the date of Vesalius. Indeed, if 
 we can believe Moliere, the physicians of his time 
 were of much the same kidney as those so amusingly 
 satirized by John of Salisbury in about the year 1 180. 
 
 1 ' I was still possessed by the old-fashioned notion, that the 
 word " essay " meant an attempt and nothing more.' AUGUSTUS 
 JESSOP, preface to Studies by a Recluse. 
 
 A 2
 
 4 PREFACE 
 
 Little is known of John of Gaddesden apart from 
 his book. He was a member of Merton College, he 
 was in holy orders, but whether a priest or not is 
 uncertain. He was a prebendary of St. Paul's and 
 a Master of Arts, as well as a Bachelor in Theology 
 and a Doctor in Medicine. For his course at Oxford 
 I have had to depend upon the statutes quoted in 
 Anstey's Munimenta Academica and upon Hastings 
 Rashdall's Universities of the Middle Ages. For the 
 kind of learning which a well-educated ' Clerk ' 
 possessed in the fourteenth century I have taken 
 Chaucer's life and learning as exemplified in his 
 writings. 
 
 That the Rosa was held in high estimation by 
 some at least of John's contemporaries and im- 
 mediate successors is shown by the fact that Chaucer 
 mentions it as forming part of the library of his 
 typical physician, and by the way in which it is 
 praised by the editor of the first printed edition. 
 In his own preface Gaddesden remarks, quoting from 
 Galen : ' Quia tamen nullus liber est sine vituperio, 
 ideo nee iste liber sine vituperio erit. Rogo tamen 
 ut istum librum videntes non dente canino mordeant 
 . . . quia quicquid hie dicetur erit vel authenticum 
 vel longa experientia approbatum.' I would ask the 
 same indulgence, because hardly any of the book is 
 original, save the translations, but original works 
 have been consulted, and I have been careful, in 
 accordance with Dr. Routh's dictum, to verify my 
 references as far as possible.
 
 PREFACE 5 
 
 Mr. A. L. Smith gave me some valuable references 
 dealing with information about Grossetete and his 
 medical learning, acquired apparently at Oxford. 
 
 Mr. Falconer Madan has been unsparing of 
 himself in answering the many questions with which 
 I fear that I have troubled him ; and for advice as 
 to occasional difficulties in translation I have to 
 thank Mr. R. F. Cholmeley, Dr. P. H. Mackellar, and 
 Mr. C. C. J. Webb, who was kind enough to help me 
 in portions of the passage from John of Salisbury. 
 
 To the officials in the British Museum Reading 
 Room, especially to Sir G. Warner and his assis- 
 tant in the Manuscripts Room, I owe much ; and 
 I am indebted to Miss J. Lewis for having been 
 good enough to draw up the list of MSS. con- 
 taining medical pictures, and for inquiring of various 
 librarians as to manuscripts of the Rosa, inquiries 
 which they, too, were most courteous in answering. 
 
 I wish also to express the gratitude which I owe to 
 the experts of the Clarendon Press, for all the care 
 and trouble which they have taken, in making many 
 most helpful suggestions and for aiding me to fill gaps 
 in my deficient Latinity. 
 
 As these pages were being finally revised for 
 press, the death of Dr. J. F. Payne occurred. Of the 
 blank which his passing makes in the ranks of those 
 who write on the history of medicine there is no need 
 to speak. But as one who had the honour of his 
 friendship, who is, as he was, a member of Magdalen 
 College, and who strives to follow him, longo inter-
 
 6 PREFACE 
 
 vallo, in an essay on a bygone period of British 
 medicine, I must here record that without his ever- 
 ready aid, and his desire that I should attempt the 
 task, this study would probably have never been 
 written. In the identification of the various writers 
 whom Gaddesden quotes, and in the account of their 
 works, Dr, Payne's wide knowledge of mediaeval 
 writers on medicine was invaluable, and he spared 
 neither time nor trouble, even when the shadow of 
 death was lengthening upon him, in giving me in- 
 formation. No words of mine can express Payne's 
 character better than these of Ennius in describing 
 the friend of Servilius Geminus : 
 
 Cui res audacter magnas parvasque jocumque 
 Eloqueretur, cuncta simul malaque et bona dictu 
 Evomeret, si qui vellet, tutoque locaret. 
 Quocum multa volup ac gaudia clamque palamque ; 
 Ingenium cui nulla malum sententia suadet 
 Ut faceret facinus, levis aut malu', doctu', fidelis, 
 Suavis homo, facundu', suo contentu', beatus, 
 Scitu',secunda loquens in tempore,commodu',verbum 
 Paucum, multa tenens antiqua sepulta, vetustas 
 Quern fecit mores veteresque novosque tenentem 
 Multorum veterum leges divumque hominumque; 
 Prudenter qui dicta loquive tacereve possit. 
 
 If this study be found to be a foundation upon which 
 some future investigator,better equipped than myself, 
 may build a revised and possibly corrected account 
 of our first English Court physician, I shall feel 
 that, however inadequately, it has been written in 
 the spirit in which Dr. Payne would himself have 
 written it.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 JOHN OF GADDESDEN : His EDUCATION . . 9 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA . . . .22 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN . . . -75 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE STUDY OF MEDICINE 
 IN OXFORD IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 
 AND PREVIOUSLY . . . . . . I IO 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 A. THE LATIN TEXT OF THE EDITOR'S 
 DEDICATION OF THE 'RosA* . . .127 
 
 B. REGULATIONS IN THE KINGDOM OF SICILY 
 AS TO UNQUALIFIED PRACTICE AND REGULAR 
 PRACTICE 131 
 
 C. TEXT OF DECREE OF BONIFACE VIII 
 
 CONCERNING THE MUTILATION OF BODIES . 134 
 
 D. 'THE ISAGOGE' . . . .,, . . 136 
 
 E. GADDESDEN'S AUTHORITIES 166
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 JOHN OF GADDESDEN: HIS 
 EDUCATION 
 
 JOHN OF GADDESDEN died in 1361, and was pro- 
 bably born about 1280, so that his active life quite 
 covers the first half of the fourteenth century. The 
 period in question was one which, although of 
 enormous importance in the political and social 
 history of the land, was not distinguished by learn- 
 ing to nearly the same extent as was the previous 
 century. In that century, after the coming of the 
 friars, Oxford had rivalled Paris as a centre of 
 learning ; but theology, as might be expected, was 
 the faculty which attracted the great intellects of 
 the age, although Roger Bacon has left an imperish- 
 able memory in his Opus Majus, which, to quote 
 Whewell, is ' at once the Encyclopaedia and the 
 Novum Organum of the thirteenth century '. No 
 such monument of intellect as this lightens the 
 fourteenth century, but we have evidence that the 
 ordinary clerk who had received the usual education 
 of the time was at all events well read. 
 
 Moreover, during the reign of Edward III English 
 began to be the national tongue to the exclusion of 
 French, and the poetry of Chaucer, with the prose
 
 ID" JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 of Wycliff, brought what they had to say home to 
 the hearts of the people in their common speech, so 
 that any one who could read or hear Chaucer's 
 works would obtain knowledge of a number of 
 authors. 
 
 Chaucer, who may be taken as a typical well- 
 educated fourteenth-century layman, 1 be it remem- 
 bered, was not of noble birth but the son of a vintner, 
 i.e. a member of what is now called the upper middle 
 class. Early in life, however, he seems to have been 
 at court; he bore arms in the campaign of 1359, 
 and was made prisoner. Later on he went to Italy 
 on diplomatic missions in 1372, 1374, and 1378, and 
 between 1374 and 1391 he was Comptroller of 
 Customs, a member of the Commons in Parliament, 
 and Clerk of the Royal Works. Thus he was 
 brought into contact with all classes of society, and 
 his training and habits of life were not moulded by 
 books or cloistral studies but by contact with his 
 fellows. 
 
 His writings show that he had read or was 
 acquainted with the works of a number of authors 
 which seems large even in these days, and which may 
 well be called enormous if we consider the difficulties 
 in his day of obtaining books. His learning, as 
 exhibited in his works, is that of a man who was an 
 omnivorous reader, who had what may be called 
 
 1 The word ' layman ', both here and below, is used to denote 
 one who, though a 'clerk', was not in full holy orders, nor a 
 medical man.
 
 EDUCATION ii 
 
 a good though not an accurate memory, that is to 
 say, he did not always 'verify his references'. 
 Probably, however, this was due in great part to the 
 fact that, owing to the scarcity of books, verification 
 was by no means easy, and many of his errors are 
 due to similar errors in the writings of authors from 
 whom he quoted. But he was acquainted with the 
 English literature, such as it was, of his own time ; 
 he knew Latin, French, and a certain amount of 
 Italian, and it is obvious that he had also read or 
 had some knowledge of a number of works now only 
 known to literary specialists, besides the classics. 
 
 In Professor T. R. Lounsbury's exhaustive essay 
 on ' The Learning of Chaucer ' 1 a list of close upon 
 a hundred books or authors is given concerning 
 which Chaucer shows more or less knowledge. 
 These works contain most of the knowledge of the 
 time, and they include what may be summarized 
 under the term ' letters ', astronomy, astrology, chem- 
 istry or alchemy, medicine and theology. 
 
 Such, then, was the learning possessed by a well- 
 educated layman of the fourteenth century. It was 
 the learning of a ' clerk ' of the era, and did not show 
 any out-of-the-way erudition such as that displayed 
 by Robert Burton or Jeremy Taylor some three 
 hundred years later ; neither need we inquire here 
 whether or no Chaucer had been at either of the 
 Universities. As, however, he is the type of the 
 
 1 Studies in Chaucer : his Life and writings (London : Osgood, 
 Mcllvaine & Co., 1892).
 
 12 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 educated layman, we may here enter upon the 
 question as to what was the amount of learning 
 possessed by the educated medical man of the time. 
 
 GADDESDEN'S COURSE AT OXFORD 
 
 John of Gaddesden held, among other degrees, 
 that of Master of Arts, and figures as having been 
 admitted as Prebendary or Canon of St. Paul's 
 Cathedral before 1333 (Papal Letters, Rolls Series). 
 
 According to Anthony a Wood he was a Doctor in 
 Physick and flourished at Merton College in 1320. 
 Six years' study was required before a M.A. could 
 gain a licence and incept in Medicine as D.M., so 
 that at the latest he must have become a Master in 
 1314. But most probably it was earlier than this, 
 for he was born about 1 280, and scholars in mediaeval 
 days entered at the University very young, e.g. at 
 Merton they were often only thirteen or fourteen 
 years old, so that it may be supposed that John of 
 Gaddesden would enter about 1294. The course in 
 Arts was as follows : 
 
 A child whose parents determined that he should 
 complete the Oxford course had first of all to be 
 instructed in grammar, and there were various 
 grammar schools in the city all connected with the 
 University, the most famous of which (although its 
 palmy days were at a somewhat later date namely, 
 1450 than when Gaddesden may be presumed to 
 have begun his course) was the school of the Angus-
 
 EDUCATION 13 
 
 tinians, a relic of which survived until some fifty 
 years ago in the phrase ' doing Austins '. 
 
 Merton, however, possessed a grammar master of 
 its own whose duty was to teach the parvuli, and 
 these children lived in Holywell and later close to 
 the college in Nun Hall. 
 
 The scholars were taught Latin, to compose verse, 
 and to compose essays (literas), which latter were to 
 be written 'verbis decentibus non ampullosis aut 
 
 sesquipedalibus et quantum possint sententia 
 
 refertis '. Of these verses and letters they had to 
 make a fair copy on parchment, learn them by heart 
 (corde tenus), and repeat them to their master. They 
 were to construe both in English and French, the 
 
 ERRATA 
 
 p.\j> note 2, for 424 read 438. This note refers to the end of the 
 third paragraph, not to the last paragraph, on p. 13 
 p. 23 /. \ofrom foot, for 7tmo read ymo 
 p. 68 note, for Anselm read Anselm ? 
 P. 74 /. 13, for Liege read Liege 
 p. 1 80 /. 8, for Methau- read Metheo- 
 
 Cholmeley : John of Gaddesden June, 1912 
 
 ' To face p. 12 
 
 1 Munimenta Academica, p. 437 et seq. 
 
 3 Munim. Acad., p. 424. Anstey, in his introduction to 
 Munimenta Academica, says : ' The statute in which this pre-
 
 14 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 these four years had to present himself for Respon- 
 sions, which were a kind of exercise preliminary to 
 the great disputations at Determination. 
 
 It is as regards Responsions that we meet with 
 the term parvisus. Thus the bachelors before 
 being admitted to Determination had to swear that 
 they had disputed ' Parvisum ... frequentantes V 
 and the testamur given until 1893 for the modern 
 Responsions testified that the candidate ( quae- 
 stionibus Magistrorum Scholarum in parviso pro 
 formci respondit'. 
 
 The next step in the Arts course was Determina- 
 
 caution is taken is unfortunately of the number of those which 
 are of utterly uncertain date so far as can be ascertained from the 
 MSS., it is, however, .... probably of the thirteenth century.' 
 French, or rather Anglo-Norman, did not finally give way to 
 English until the latter half of the fourteenth century, and for 
 some time previously ' French of Paris ' had ousted that of 
 'Stratford atte Bowe'. In 1362 English was ordered to be the 
 language in courts of law, for French was too unknown. Possibly, 
 then, the above quoted statute is later than Anstey puts it. 
 
 In MS. Sloane 1464, a French manuscript of the Book of Sir 
 John Mandeville written about the beginning of the fifteenth 
 century, is the following passage : ' Et sachetz que jeo usse mis 
 ceste liverette en Latyn pur plus briefment deviser, mes pur ceo 
 que plusours entendent mieultz Romanz que Latin, jeo 1'ai mys 
 en Romanz pur ceo que 1'entendent.' The Cotton MS. Tit. C. xvi, 
 written in English about the year 1400, speaks as follows, the 
 passage being an interpolation of the scribe : ' I have put this 
 boke out of Latyn into Frensch, and translated it agayn out of 
 Frensch into Englyssche that every man of my nation may undir- 
 stonde it.' These two passages, although not written by Mande- 
 ville, seem to show that French was well understood, although 
 beginning to be a ' foreign ' tongue in England in 1400. 
 
 1 In 1408.
 
 EDUCATION 15 
 
 tion, which ceremony or exercise was the practical 
 taking of the Bachelor's degree. Determinations 
 were held in the Schools by order of Congregation, 
 ' placet venerabili Congregation! Regentium et non 
 Regentium ne liceat eis (the determining bachelors) 
 extra scholas triginta duas infra "vicum scholarum" 
 situatas determinare acta sua '.* 
 
 Determinations lasted seven days, seven entire 
 days, that is, for the opening and closing days were 
 not considered as entire days, ' diebus primi introitus 
 et extremi exitus minime computatis'. The deter- 
 miners disputed every day from 9 till 1 2 and from 
 i till 5, so that the exercise was a severe test of 
 ability to argue and to defend propositions. A 
 determiner had to dispute Logic every day except 
 Friday, when Grammar was the subject ; and the 
 first and last days ' in quibus disputet questiones '. 
 
 The statutes do not seem to consider the question 
 of a determiner failing at Determination, but before 
 being admitted to determine the Bachelor had to 
 obtain a certificate of fitness from certain Masters 
 or Bachelors, and then had to appear before four 
 Regent Masters who had been appointed by Con- 
 gregation. Here he had to make oath that he had 
 complied with the necessary forms and had 'heard' 
 certain books, such as those of the old logic, twice, 
 and the logical works of Boethius except Book IV, 
 Topicorum, once. In the new logic the books 
 Priorum, Topicorum, and Elenchorum had to have 
 1 Munim. Academ., p. 240.
 
 16 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 been heard twice, but once was considered sufficient 
 for the liber Posteriorum. 
 
 The candidate also had to make oath that he had 
 ' heard ' certain books of Priscian and Donatus or 
 Natural Philosophy, by which was meant the Physica, 
 the de Anima, the de Generatione et Corruptione, 
 and the Historia Animalium. He also had to swear 
 that he had been through Responsions, i. e. ' publice 
 de sophismatis per annum integre debet respon- 
 disse/ or in lieu of this that he had heard the liber 
 Posteriorum twice instead of once. 
 
 The Bachelor being admitted to Determination 
 then proceeded as above described, and having 
 survived the ordeal of nine days' disputing found 
 himself barely at the threshold of the Arts course. 
 After determining as a Bachelor the scholar had to 
 study for three or possibly four more years, but the 
 statute is very obscure. 1 He could incept without 
 determining, but then he had to have studied for 
 eight years (?) in all. 
 
 The studies after determination as a Bachelor and 
 before inception as a Master were chiefly Logic 
 and Natural Philosophy. The authors to be studied 
 are laid down in various statutes, and differ from 
 time to time, but in I34O 2 two logical books were 
 prescribed at the least, ' unum de veteri logica, et 
 alterum de nova ' ; or both might be read from the 
 new logic together with one book on natural philo- 
 
 1 Munim. Acadetn., pp. 414, 416. 
 
 2 Munim. Academ., p. 142.
 
 EDUCATION 17 
 
 sophy, i.e. Aristotle's works, namely, four books, 
 Coeli et Mundi; or three books, de Anima; or four 
 books, Meteororum ; or two books, de Generatione et 
 Corruptione ; or the book, de Sensu et Sensato ; to- 
 gether with the treatise, de Memoria et Reminiscentia 
 and that de Somno et Vigilia \ or the de Motu 
 Animalium; together with two books, de Minutis 
 Naturalibus. 
 
 Shortly, it may be said that the full Arts course 
 included the seven Arts, namely, Grammar, Rhetoric, 
 Logic, Arithmetic, Music, Geometry, Astronomy ; 
 and the three Philosophies, namely, Natural, Moral, 
 and Metaphysical, although these do not appear to 
 have been laid down by statute before I43I. 1 
 
 So much for the studies, but before taking his 
 degree as a Master the candidate had to get a Master 
 to present him to the Chancellor and the Proctors, 
 which Master had to take oath that he believed the 
 candidate ' aptum et idoneum moribus et scientia ad 
 eum gradum ad quem praesentatur '. 2 More than 
 this, the Proctors, by the authority of the Chancellor, 
 were to summon eighteen Regent Masters ' per quos 
 veritas melius inquiri poterit ' ; and of these eighteen, 
 nine had to depose that of their certain knowledge, 
 and five that of their belief, their candidate was 
 a proper person to receive the degree. The present- 
 ing Master was not to be one of the eighteen. 3 
 
 These formalities being complied with, the candi- 
 
 1 Munim. Academ., p. 285. 3 Ibid., p. 378. 
 
 a Ibid., p. 424. 
 ijo-i B
 
 i8 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 date appeared before the Chancellor, with whom 
 the Proctors sat as assessors, and on taking the oath 
 of obedience to the University and that he would 
 ' incept ' within a year, received his degree. 1 
 
 'Inception' apparently meant that the newly 
 appointed Master began a course of official lectures, 
 and he had to continue these lectures during the 
 year of his inception and the year following, 2 and 
 if he did not do so, ' denuncietur nee inter Magistros 
 et Scholares Oxonienses recipiatur.' 
 
 The Arts course, then, was obviously a severe 
 training in intellectual studies ; it was mainly made 
 up of dialectic, 3 but to have passed through it with 
 success meant that a man could hold his own in or- 
 dinary life, that he had an understanding, so far as 
 was then known, of physical science, and that he had 
 mingled with his fellow men from various districts of 
 his native land and with foreigners for some seven 
 or eight years. 
 
 But of literary or artistic training as we now 
 understand it there was virtually none except one 
 term's study of music ' per terminum anni, videlicet 
 
 1 Munim. Academ., p. 383. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 419. 
 
 3 The ars logica or ars dialectica was, however, it must be 
 remembered, considered as a necessary part of a medical man's 
 training. See the decree of Frederick II quoted below, and the 
 requirements for a medical man laid down by Isidore of Seville. 
 Scholastic disputations were not always, it must be remembered, 
 of the 'Utrum Chimaera in vacuo bombinans possit comedere 
 secundas intentiones ' type.
 
 EDUCATION 19 
 
 Boethii V and probably music was but little under- 
 stood except by those trained in a religious house. 
 Greek, of course, was practically unknown. 
 
 Enough, however, has been said to show that 
 a Master of Arts possessed a very good mental 
 training, and if, as many graduates in arts did, he 
 proceeded to study in one of the higher faculties, it 
 is obvious that he would do so much better equipped 
 than many a student nowadays who begins the study 
 of medicine or even law. 
 
 John of Gaddesden was not only a Master of Arts 
 but also a Doctor in Medicinis 2 and a Bachelor in 
 Theology, and he presumably took his medical 
 degree before that in theology, for the course for 
 the latter was very long and the Rosa Anglica was 
 written about 1314. 
 
 Supposing him to have been born in 1280, he 
 would scarcely enter at the University before the 
 age of fourteen years, i.e. in 1294. He would then 
 spend at least two years in the study of ' grammar ', 
 and would then in 1296 begin his studies for the 
 Baccalaureate. This would bring him to the year 
 1 300, while in three more years he would be a Master. 
 Thus he would begin to study medicine in 1303. 
 
 1 Munim. Academ.^ p. 286. 
 
 z A. Wood, Antiq. Oxon., Lib. ii, 'Johannes de Gatisden de 
 quo sic Vetus Sociorum hujus Collegii (Merton) Catalogus 
 Doctor in Medicinis qui fecit Rosarium Medicinae. Claruit 1320.' 
 
 B 2
 
 20 JOHiN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 PRELIMINARY STUDIES FOR INCEPTION IN MEDICINE 
 
 The statutes concerning degrees in medicine and 
 the studies are by no means clear. For inception 
 in Medicine, tnceptio ad lecturam, which apparently 
 included the taking of the B.M. degree, 1 the candi- 
 date had to have ' read ' one book of the Tegni, i. e. 
 T *X VT l, f Galen, or one book of the Aphorisms of 
 Hippocrates, pro majori parte. These were to serve 
 as far as ' theory went '. As regarded practical medi- 
 cine, the candidate must have read one book of the 
 Regimentum Acutorumot Hippocrates, or the Liber 
 Febrium of Isaac, or the Antidotarium of Nicolaus 
 (Praepositus, of Salerno). A candidate must also 
 have responded to the Masters Regent in the faculty 
 for two years. 
 
 Before being allowed to practise in Oxford he 
 had, if he had previously graduated in Arts, to spend 
 four years in the study of medicine ; and to pass an 
 examination conducted by the Masters (Doctors) 
 Regent in that faculty. If he were not a graduate 
 in Arts, eight years' study were required. 
 
 For licence, candidates had to have heard Medi- 
 cinalia for six years, to have read cursorie one 
 medical book de practica and another de theorica, and 
 to have responded and opposed in all the medical 
 schools for two years. 
 
 The Statutes apparently mean that a graduate 
 had to spend six years' study in all and a non-graduate 
 
 1 Munim. Academ., p. 406, n. 2 : ' prius incipitur a Medicina et 
 gradu bachilariatus in eadem.'
 
 EDUCATION 21 
 
 eight years. Certain exercises known as Vesperiae 
 had also to be performed. When all the terms of 
 study had been duly kept and all the exercises per- 
 formed, the candidate was admitted to the Master's 
 (Doctor's) degree after the same form as that ap- 
 pointed in the Faculty of Arts. 
 
 Thus it seems that the fourteenth-century English 
 physician could enter upon practice without any 
 other knowledge than that derived from books. 
 
 Matters were very different at a somewhat earlier 
 date in some parts of the continent. In the kingdom 
 of Sicily, for instance, one of the glories of which 
 was the great school of Salerno, strict injunctions 
 were laid down from time to time by the Emperor 
 Frederick and others to insure, so far as might be, that 
 medical men should be soundly educated. More- 
 over, unqualified practice was strictly forbidden. 1 A 
 decree to which the date 1241 has been assigned, 2 
 provides, it will be seen, not only for a thorough 
 education, including human anatomy for a surgeon, 
 but also for a post-graduate course. 3 
 
 1 Appendix B, section i. 
 
 2 Huillard-Breholles, Hist. Diplom. Fred., vol. iv. pt. i, p. 235. 
 8 Appendix B, section 2.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 
 
 THE British Museum possesses four printed 
 editions of the Rosa Anglica. The first was printed 
 at Pavia in 1492, and is a folio printed in double 
 columns, black-letter with contractions. The second 
 was printed at Venice in I5O2. 1 This is also black- 
 letter, with contractions and in double columns. The 
 printing is clear and beautiful, and superior to that 
 of 1492. Another edition was printed in 1517. 
 Finally, an emended and rearranged edition was 
 printed at Augsburg in 1595. The editor was 
 Dr. Philipp Schopf, who altered John's Latinity 
 here and there and also the arrangement of the 
 subjects, which it must be said was somewhat con- 
 fused in the original editions. But he to a great 
 extent destroyed the quaintness of the work by 
 leaving out the preface and many of Gaddesden's 
 extremely curious derivations, although he kept 
 some of them. 
 
 In his preface, which will be found below, John 
 of Gaddesden says : ' Haec omnia ego Joannes 
 de Gadesden ymo anno lecturae meae compilavi.' 
 This gives us more or less an actual date for the 
 
 1 Not 1516. as is often stated.
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 23 
 
 book, although the dates are mostly provisional, 
 viz. : 
 
 1280. Birth of Gaddesden. 
 
 1294. Entered Oxford for grammar. 
 
 1296. Began studies for B.A. 
 
 1300. Graduated as B.A. 
 
 1303. Incepted as M.A., and began to study 
 
 medicine. 
 
 1307. Graduated B.M. ' Inceptio ad Lecturam.' 
 1309. Graduated D.M. ' Inceptio ad Licentiam.' 
 1314. Wrote Rosa Anglica, i.e., in the seventh 
 
 year of his 'lecture', which began in 1307. 
 
 THE PREFACE TO THE ROSA ANGLICA 
 
 Sicut dicit Galienus primo de ingenio sanitatis : 
 non visites curias et aulas principum : sicut nee ego 
 feci quousque sciverim libros; quia dicit Galienus 7mo 
 de ingenio in prohemio non est possibile per aliquod 
 fieri proximius deo quam per scientiam. Ideo humili- 
 bus optavi facere istum librum. Quia cum nullus liber 
 est sine vituperio ; sicut dicit Galienus 2ndo de crise ; 
 ideo nee iste sine vituperio erit. Rogo tamen ut 
 istum librum videntes non dente canino mordeant 
 sed humilitate pertractent, quia quicquid hie dicetur 
 erit vel authenticum, vel longa experientia approba- 
 tum : quae haec omnia ego Joannes de Gaddesden 
 7tmo anno lecturae meae compilavi. Circa quern 
 librum talem volo observare processum quod primo 
 volo nomen investigare cujuslibet morbi ; 2ndo 
 dirfinitionem ; 3to occasionem ejus et causam, juxta 
 illud Isaac 4to febrium et de icteritia : ' Omne quod 
 volumus investigare tribus modis intelligimus, aut 
 suo nomine quod est ad placitum, aut dififinitione 
 ejus natura (m) ostendente, aut actione ejus effectum 
 demonstrante, et ibi actio idem est quod occasio vel 
 causa.' 4to dicam signa generalia et specialia, quae
 
 24 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 accidentia infirm o sunt signa medico, ut dicit Joanitius 
 c(apitulo) de signis officialium membrorum. 510 
 prognosticationem, 6to curam et ibi sequendo Mesue, 
 dicam quae sunt facienda in cura cujuscunque morbi 
 periculosi et curabilis. Ante tamen capitulo primo 
 ista fiant volo nomen isti libro imponere, vocando 
 ipsum Rosam Medicinae propter quinque additamenta 
 quae sunt in rosa, quasi quinque digiti tenentes rosam, 
 de quibus scribitur. 
 
 Tres sunt barbati sine barba sunt duo nati. 
 
 i. e. tres articuli vel partes circumdantes rosam sunt 
 cum pilositate, duae sunt sine, et ideo erunt hie 
 quinque libri. Primi tres erunt barbati barba longa, 
 quia ad multa se extendent, quia erunt de morbis 
 communibus, et quot modis dicatur morbus communis 
 vel vilis vide in prohemio secundi. Duo sequentes 
 erunt de morbis particularibus cum declaratione 
 aliquorum omissorum in precedentibus, quasi sine 
 barba. Et sicut rosa excellit omnes flores, ita iste 
 liber excellit omnes practicas medicinae, quia erit 
 pro pauperibus divitibus chirurgicis et medicis, de 
 quo non opus multum recurrere ad alios libros, quia 
 hie videlicet sat de morbis curabilibus in speciali 
 videbitur et in generali. 
 
 The conclusion of the preface is simply a list of 
 headings of chapters in the first book. 
 
 TRANSLATION OF ABOVE PREFACE 
 
 As Galen says in the first book of his treatise de 
 Ingenio Sanitatis, ' Do not frequent courts and 
 princes' houses : ' as indeed I never did until I had 
 acquired a knowledge of books, for Galen in the 
 introduction to the seventh book of the de Ingenio 
 says that it is impossible to become nearer to God 
 by any other way than by the way of knowledge
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 25 
 
 therefore I have wished to write this book for the 
 humble to read. Because since no book is without 
 reproach, as Galen says in the second book of his de 
 Crise, so neither will this one be. But all the same, 
 I implore those who see it not to gnaw it with an 
 envious tooth, but to read it through humbly, for 
 nothing is set down here but what has been proved 
 by personal experience either of myself or others, and 
 I, John of Gaddesden, have compiled the whole in 
 the seventh year of my 'lecture'. And in regard to the 
 whole book I intend to observe the following order 
 of arrangement : first of all I try to investigate the 
 name of any disease, secondly its definition, thirdly 
 its incidence and cause. As Isaac says in the fourth 
 book of his Fevers and in his section on Jaundice : 
 * We can discuss everything which we wish to 
 investigate in a triple fashion : we can consider either 
 its name, which is a matter of arbitrary convention ; 
 or its definition, which indicates its nature ; or its 
 action, which indicates its effect, and in this use ' actio ' 
 is equivalent to incidence or cause.' In the fourth 
 place I give an account of the signs, both general and 
 special, and what happenings to the patient are signs 
 to the medical man, in accordance with Joanitius in 
 his treatise on the signs of the official members. 1 
 In the fifth place I give the prognosis and in the 
 sixth place the cure, and here following Mesue I 
 give all things which are to be done for the cure 
 of any dangerous disease which is capable of cure. 
 
 But before these matters are treated in the first 
 chapter, I wish to give a name to the book, namely, 
 the Rosa Medicinae, and I have so called it on account 
 of five appendages which belong to the rose, as it were 
 five fingers holding it, concerning which it is written : 
 
 Three are bearded and two are not. 
 
 1 Vide Appendix on the Isagoge.
 
 26 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 That is to say, three of the parts surrounding the 
 rose are hairy and two are smooth, and the same is 
 the case with the five parts of my book. The first 
 three are bearded with a long beard, for they treat 
 of many things and about general diseases, and for 
 a discussion of what constitutes a general or common 
 disease look in the introduction to the second book. 
 The two following books treat of particular diseases, 
 together with some matters omitted in the preceding 
 books, and they are as without a beard (shorter). 
 
 And as the rose overtops all flowers, so this book 
 overtops all treatises on the practice of medicine, and 
 it is written for both poor and rich surgeons and 
 physicians, so that there shall be no need for them 
 to be always running to consult other books, for here 
 they will find plenty about all curable disease both 
 from the special and the general point of view. 
 
 The copy of the 1492 edition, which is the one I 
 have used, is that belonging to the Library of the 
 Royal Society of Medicine, and originally belonged 
 to Dr. Mead. It is dedicated by the editor, Nicolaus 
 Scyllatius Siculus, in a delightfully fulsome preface, 
 to Ambrosius Varisius Rosatus Ducalis Physicus ac 
 Consiliarius. The duke was Ludovico Maria Sforza. 
 The full Latin text will be found in the appendix. 
 The editor begins by saying that, in his opinion, the 
 gods were originally men who had been elevated to 
 this position on account of benefits which they had 
 conferred on their fellow men. If Ambrose has not 
 quite attained to this height as yet, it is well known 
 that every one respects and honours him. He is 
 accomplished in the law, in diplomacy, in physic, and 
 in letters, and under his patronage the University of
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 27 
 
 Pavia has attained to an eminence never before 
 known. The editor therefore begs to dedicate the 
 Rosa as 'a learned and eminently instructive little 
 present' to Ambrosius. He continues : 
 
 ' Joannes Antonius Birreta (the printer) told me a 
 short time ago that he had obtained a Rosarium in 
 Medicina, an uncommon and scarce work, one of the 
 greatest use to young men, and one, too, specially 
 sought after by the old and experienced. He offered 
 me every opportunity of reading it, and therein I 
 discovered many recondite matters which these, after 
 some other modern writers, Nicolaus Florentinus, a 
 man skilled in every branch of medicine, had picked 
 out and embodied in his mighty volumes, just as a 
 bee picks out the more useful parts from roses. Now, 
 since the said Birreta, who is a model of old time 
 worth, as he is modest in demanding anything, asked 
 me to correct the book (though it was not for him 
 to request, to whom I owe my life), we have performed 
 the task at the expense of much trouble and research. 
 We have to the best of our ability restored that 
 which was maimed by the mouldiness of long lying by 
 and corrupted by the carelessness of scribes, the places 
 where old writers were wrongly quoted have been 
 diligently collated, and so far as possible the book has 
 been restored to its original shape. So that the real 
 old Rosarius, like a prodigal recognized on his return 
 from long and difficult wanderings, is restored at last 
 in his best robe to his friends. (" Ut qui Rosarius 
 olim fuisset, mine agnitus veluti ex horrida et 
 longa peregrinatione, domum tandem excultus ad 
 suos rediret.") 
 
 You, therefore, Ambrose Rosatus, he recognizes as 
 his patron and lord, and you who frequent kings' 
 houses and the palaces of princes he has gained as
 
 28 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 his defender. When you read him, you will not 
 mind reading him again, so varied and of such tried 
 worth, so many and so quick to cure, are the remedies 
 which he sets forth. Whence it comes, and that 
 rightly, that as it has been for a long time received 
 amongst us that the rose is the most beautiful of 
 flowers, so this book easily overtops the labours and 
 treatises of all the more recent authors who have 
 written on the same subject.' 
 
 Scyllatius then goes off into a digression upon the 
 beauty of the rose, and quotes a story from Libanius 
 of how Venus, wishing to make herself beautiful for 
 the judgement of Paris, supplied the place of the 
 cestus, which the jealousy of Juno and Minerva would 
 not allow her to wear, with roses. He concludes his 
 dedication with a high compliment to Birreta and his 
 partner Franciscus Girardengus for the care with 
 which they always did their work. 
 
 Unfortunately the opinion of Ambrose upon the 
 Rosa has not come down to us, but it is evident that 
 Scyllatius thought most highly of the work. 
 
 Nothing seems to be known of Ambrose, but 
 Dr. Payne kindly sent me the following note : 
 
 ' Ambrosius Varisius Rosatus. He does not seem 
 to be mentioned in any biographical dictionary. 
 Apparently he was a medical big-wig of the day, 
 being Physician to the Doge of Venice, &c., and was 
 a greater man than the editor Scyllatius. This latter 
 wrote a little tract on syphilis, and also dedicated it 
 to Ambrosius Rosatus (Pavia, 1496, 4to) according 
 to Hirsch, Biog. Lex. In a copy of the Articella 
 published at Pavia, 1510, there is a dedication to 
 Ambrosius Rosatus by a certain Rusticus Placentinus.
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 29 
 
 He says, " excellentissimo philosopho, consummatis- 
 simo medico, magnifico viro domino magistro Ambro- 
 sio Varisio Rosato, Rusticus Placentinus theorice 
 medicine in Ticinensi gymnasio lector ordinarius. 
 S. P. D." 
 
 I think it shows that Ambrosius was probably an 
 influential and wealthy man who might reward the 
 dedication with a handsome present.' 
 
 The Rosa commences with a treatise in two sections 
 on Fevers after the Galenic system, and then goes 
 on to consider the ' particular diseases '. A section 
 on .surgery follows, and the book ends with an 
 Antidotarium. 
 
 The work is largely a compilation from the Greek, 
 Arabian, and Jewish physicians, together with the 
 works of his immediate predecessors such as Gilber- 
 tus Anglicus and Bernard of Gordon, but it also 
 contains many personal observations which show 
 that Gaddesden must have had a large practice. 
 
 HYDROPS 
 
 As an example of Gaddesden's style the section 
 on Hydrops may be taken as characteristic. The 
 disease (for naturally he considers it a disease) is 
 very fully treated, and in the description we find 
 passages which show both his knowledge and his 
 limitations. It begins thus l : 
 
 ' Idropisis is a watery disease inflating the body. 
 The name "Idropisis" is derived from "idros", which 
 is water, and ' isis ', which is inflation, that is to say 
 
 1 Jtosa Anglica^ Pa via, ed. 1492, f. 36.
 
 30 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 a watery inflation. And so Haly in the third part 
 of the commentary on the Tegni, 192, says, "Subtile 
 and watery juices bring about watery sicknesses such 
 as hydrops." And it is thus denned : Hydro ps is 
 a material sickness of which the cause is a cold 
 matter, overflowing and entering into the limbs, and 
 thence arise either all its manifestations, or empty 
 spaces of those organs in which is carried on the 
 government of the food and the humour. (" Idro- 
 pisis est egritudo materials, cujus causa est materia 
 frigida, exuberans, ingrediens membra : et crescunt 
 per earn aut manifesta omnia, aut loca vacua partium 
 in quibus sunt (sic) regimen nutrimenti et humoris.") 
 So says Avicenna, Fen. 14, tract. 4, cap. de idrope. 
 Again he says, Hydrops is an error of the combining 
 energy (virtutis unitivae] in the whole of the body, 
 following on a change of the digestive energy in the 
 liver. So much we may gather from Avicenna, 
 Can. i, fen. i, doctrina 6, cap. 2, and also in book 6 
 de naturalibus virtutibus. For there he says that 
 when the nutriment is combined (unitur) in a limb, 
 there it remains and swells it up. And Avicenna 
 also says that when the nutriment does not cleave 
 (to the members) thence arise hydrops. For the 
 nutriment undergoes a triple dissolution : * in the 
 first it is digested and dispersed throughout the 
 members ; secondly, it is combined ; and thirdly, it 
 is assimilated. Others say that in the first place it 
 is distributed ; in the second it cleaves (adkaeret) 
 
 1 Macrobius, circa 380 A. D.,in his Saturnalia, Bk. VII, through 
 the mouth of Disarius, one of his characters, says that the food 
 undergoes four digestions : the first in the stomach ; the second 
 in the liver ; the third in the veins and arteries, where the watery 
 part is separated and goes into the bladder, while the pure fatten- 
 ing blood is distributed over the body ; and the fourth is that 
 process by which every member of the body takes up that which 
 is necessary for it.
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 31 
 
 and in the third becomes fit for nourishment and is 
 assimilated. When it is not distributed there arises 
 " sinthesis " or widespread emaciation ; when it does 
 not combine, or cleave to the members, there arises 
 hydrops ; when it is not assimilated there arise 
 leprosy (lepra) or morphea, as will be shown further 
 on.' 
 
 A few lines further down he repeats his former 
 definition, ' Idrops est error virtutis unitivae in toto 
 corpore, sequens mutationem virtutis digestivae in 
 epate ' ; but he adds, ' non est idropisis nisi epar 
 patiatur.' And so Galen, in the third part and fourth 
 chapter of his work on interior diseases, says, ' Epar 
 idropici non est epar.' 
 
 He then goes on to quote from Galen to show the 
 intimate sympathy which exists between the liver 
 and the other viscera, pointing out its anatomical 
 continuity with the stomach, the intestines, the 
 kidney, and many other parts of the body ' per venas 
 magnas ', while it is tied to the heart, ' cordi colligatur 
 per arterias.' 
 
 There are three kinds of Hydrops : hyposarca, 
 ascites, and tympanites. Hyposarca is that form in 
 which there is ' materia phlegmatica penetrans cum 
 sanguine in membra '. It was so called from inro and 
 <rap, ' quasi sub carne stans aqua et ideo in ista specie 
 hydropisis est inflatio universalis '. The complaint 
 was also called anasarca. 
 
 Ascites is that species of hydrops in which the 
 watery material is effused ' in spatium ventris in- 
 ferioris' and the effusion lies between Mirac and
 
 32 JOHN* OF GADDESDEN 
 
 Siphac. 1 These words Gaddesden explains as 
 follows : 
 
 ' Est autem Mirac pellicula gibbosa, sive pinguis 
 supra totum ventrem, propinquior cuti exterius. Sed 
 Siphac est pellicula adhaerens intestinis in medio, et 
 involvens ea, et supportans inferius dividens ea a 
 membris generativis ut videbitur infra ; et haec 
 aquositas intrat per poros illius Mirac rarefacti vel 
 extensi a multitudine materiae indigestae in hepate 
 quam non potest expellere et ideo ibi manet. . . ' 
 
 Tympanites, the third kind of hydrops, is, says 
 Gaddesden, wrongly called hydrops, for it is not 
 humidity but ventosity. So far, then, if for ' the 
 quantity of undigested material in the liver' we read 
 ' portal obstruction ', the pathology of the fourteenth 
 century is not far wrong, but when Gaddesden comes 
 to speak of the general causes of hydrops the same 
 cannot be said. He quotes Galen to show that 
 hydrops is a ' nocumentum virtutis generativae san- 
 guinis, quando deficit ab illo opere et deest comple- 
 mentum ejus'. 
 
 Another frequent cause is cold, and another is 
 retention of the wonted evacuations. Here he quotes 
 Hippocrates concerning the danger of curing old 
 haemorrhoids, for ' si non una relinquatur periculum 
 est hydropem fieri '. 
 
 With regard to the special causes of hydrops he 
 lays special stress upon all foods which cause ' Malam 
 complexionem hepatis calidam.' These are such 
 
 1 Mirac is the abdominal wall, minus the peritoneum. Siphac 
 is the peritoneum ; or sometimes, possibly, the great omentum.
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 33 
 
 things as foods salted or fried, spiced, overcooked ? 
 (assata), and highly flavoured things such as garlic, 
 chives, and leeks. This remark shows a certain 
 amount of observation, for although such articles of 
 food would probably have no direct causative influence 
 upon cirrhosis, yet they are the very things forbid- 
 den to lithaemic patients, and by causing indigestion 
 might not improbably be a factor in doing harm to 
 those of a gouty tendency or those who suffer from 
 arterial sclerosis. 
 
 It is when we come to the clinical picture of 
 a case of ascites with obstructive jaundice that Gad- 
 desden shines, for it is wonderfully vivid : 
 
 ' Signa ascitis futuri sunt : malus color faciei 
 tendens ad citrinitatem, urina tincta frequenter, 
 neque tamen patientes de morbo conqueruntur : 
 citrinitas oculorum frequens, et nocumentum lateris 
 dextri sub costis quando patiens movetur, vel statim 
 super cibum equitat ; post coitum, aut tussim. 
 
 Signa actualis ascitis sunt : inflatio pedum et 
 membrorum inferiorum : et umbilicus eminet extra, 
 et superiora fiunt gracilia ut brachia, collum, pectus : 
 pulsus est parvus et frequens, urina tincta, spissa, 
 in parva quantitate micta et frequenter, cum spuma 
 crocea et bicolor : aliquando oculi inflantur propter 
 fumos ascendentes ab hepate : adest anhelitus dif- 
 ficultas, tussis sicca, sitis fere inextinguibilis, appetitus 
 cibi diminutio, propter intensum appetitum potus, et 
 si venter agitetur, sonat velut uter semiplenus aqua.' 
 
 The clinical picture is complete, and worthy to be 
 compared with those drawn by Watson or Trousseau, 
 though naturally when Gaddesden ventured on patho-
 
 34 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 logy he failed. His remark that ' aliquando oculi 
 inflantur propter fumos ascendentes ab hepate ' is a 
 case in point, but in everything that he could observe 
 he is singularly accurate. 
 
 Gaddesden paid great attention to treatment, and 
 was evidently fully ready to meet the universal 
 demands of patients, that a medical man should ' do 
 something for them'. His prescriptions are innu- 
 merable; as Freind says, ' He seems to have made 
 a collection of all the receipts he had ever met with 
 or heard of : and I believe this book can afford us 
 the best history of what Medicines were in use, not 
 only among the Physicians of that time, but among 
 the common people of England, both in the Empiri- 
 cal and Superstitious way.' The cure of hydrops is 
 dealt with both from the general and the special 
 point of view. 
 
 The general cure he deals with as follows (f. 39 
 verso, first col.) : 
 
 * The cure of hydrops is of two kinds, common 
 and proper. The proper is by means of various 
 appropriate medicines and by local measures. The 
 common, as says Avicenna, is by extraction of the 
 watery humidity and its drying up, and this extrac- 
 tion may be carried out in four ways, as Constantine 
 lays down in the seventh book of his Practice. The 
 first method is by diuretic medicines which provoke 
 a flow of urine such as spica (? nardi), 1 cassia and 
 the like. The second method is to purge out the 
 
 1 Where plants are not well known by their Latin names I 
 have translated them according to the names given in Henslow's 
 Medical Works of the Fourteenth Century (Chapman & Hall, 1899)
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 35 
 
 yellow fluid by means of sweating and discharge from 
 the bowels. For this latter effect use purging drugs 
 such as succus ireos (Pmugwort) and succus laureolae 
 (spurge laurel). Emetics and clysters can also be 
 used. Sweating can be brought about by sulphur 
 bath or sea baths, or by suffumigations with water 
 in which have been boiled such roots or herbs as 
 pellitory or levisticus (ligusticum officinale), together 
 with bran ; or with inunctions of hot oil, with laurel 
 bark or a hot ointment such as arogon, agrippa, or 
 martiaton. The third method is for the patient to 
 drink his own urine. This remedy is good not only 
 in hydrops, but also in jaundice and in the splenetic 
 affection. The whey of goat's or cow's milk also 
 purges. The fourth method is by means of an in- 
 cision three fingers' breadth below the umbilicus, and 
 a deep perforation made therein, or by a perforation 
 made in the bursa testiculorum, or by intercutaneous 
 scarifications between the joints of the feet, or above 
 the feet or round the ankles. Incision, however, is 
 dangerous, and must not be performed unless the 
 patient is very strong. Avicenna says, " when the 
 belly is full of water and the strength is well main- 
 tained, then make an incision and let out the water, 
 but little by little and not all at once." ' 
 
 And it is specially to be noted that diuretics 
 should be of a hot nature, and of such are anise, 
 bishop's weed (ameos), marathrum (fennel), cumin, 
 peony, wild carrot, spikenard, cassialigni, assarabac- 
 cara (geum urbanum}. Hence the lines, 
 
 Assarabaccara, cassialignea, spicaque nardi 
 Idropisim curant de causa frigidiori. 
 
 And spica Celtica (lycopodium) balsam, squinanthum 
 (jzuicus communis) are also good. 
 
 c 2
 
 36 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 Diuretic herbs and roots of a hot nature are : 
 nasturtium, hyssop, ebulus (sambucus ebulus), apium 
 macedonicum, levisticum, eupatorium (wood sage), 
 wild parsley, fennel, juniper, aristolochia (both kinds), 
 savory, dittany, absinth. Also cinnamon, sweet 
 flag, and the like. Of a cold nature are all the 
 sandal woods, endive and its seed, sow-thistle, scariola 
 (this is apparently another kind of endive), epatica. 
 The four greater cold seeds are those of capillus 
 veneris (maiden hair), lettuce, portulacca, and scariola. 
 Lithospermum and ivory turnings are also good. 
 
 Of drugs which are valuable for either variety the 
 hot or the cold are : spikenard, wood sage, maiden 
 hair, endive, scolopendrium, hepatica, sandal wood, 
 mastich, nutmeg, goat's milk whey, rhubarb (per ac- 
 cidens),hr the liver is strengthened by all kinds of this 
 drug, and the same may be said of agaric and cassia. 
 
 The directions for treatment by incision are given 
 on f. 41, where, at the end of a long list of remedies 
 and treatment, he says : 
 
 ' If the dropsy is not cured by any of these, and 
 its energy seems still unabated, an incision must be 
 made three fingers ' breadth below the umbilicus. 
 Care must be taken not to draw all the water off 
 at once lest the patient suddenly die, as is laid down 
 by Messue in the sixth book of his Particular Affec- 
 tions in the Aphorism " Of those suffering from 
 empyema (empici] or who are hydropic ". 
 
 The manner of the incision is as follows : 
 
 Let the patient sit in a slightly elevated seat, and 
 let the belly be forcibly compressed by the hands so
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 37 
 
 that the watery matter may descend as far as pos- 
 sible. Then make an incision three fingers' breadth 
 below the umbilicus with a sharp knife, the external 
 skin being slightly elevated from the rest of the 
 body, as far as Siphac, if the hydrops be from the 
 intestines. If it come from the liver or the neigh- 
 bouring parts make your incision to the right of and 
 three fingers' breadth below the umbilicus. If from 
 the spleen, make it on the left side. Lift up the 
 skin lest Mirac be cut, then perforate Mirac, but make 
 the hole in Mirac somewhat lower down than that in 
 Siphac, so as to have them on different levels, that 
 the water come not out continuously. Then put in 
 a canula made of gold or silver or bronze. Then feel 
 the patient's pulse, and if he be weak take out the 
 canula and give medicine or dressing made of down 
 (?) (plumaceolum) dipped in wine or white of egg. 
 Make the patient lie down and give him chicken 
 broth with spicey medicines, or food of easy digestion 
 such as partridge, kid, or lamb. On the second day 
 take off the dressing, replace the canula, and draw 
 off some more water, and do this three or four times.' 
 
 On f. 39 urine, it will be noted, is used as a purga- 
 tive, but further on (f. 41 verso, col. i) he gives a 
 prescription for the cure of a hydropic child which 
 includes diuretics. This prescription being only for 
 wealthy persons, he recommends that if the patient 
 be poor he should drink his own urine in the morn- 
 ing of every day. Urea, it will be remembered, has 
 been comparatively recently introduced as a diuretic. 
 
 Another foreshadowing of modern therapeutics is 
 seen in his directions for the diet of hydropics (f. 40 
 verso, col. ii). The diet should be ' tenuissima quia 
 abstinentia hie est summa medicina '. Chicken broth
 
 38 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 made from an aged cock or hen is useful, and the 
 patient should only eat once in the day. He con- 
 tinues, ' Panis eorum non sit de tritico quia propter 
 viscositatem oppilat, sit de furfure et non azymus 
 cum modica salis quantitate.' Such bread ' concil- 
 iaret sitim patienti'. He does not, however, recom- 
 mend this bread in diabetes, although he notes that 
 this disease is accompanied by a ' sitis canina . 
 
 The mention of the small quantity of salt in the 
 above passage, together with the following a line or 
 two further on : ' et ideo panis de kokobeco decoctus 
 oxomiae (? oxoniae) non valet quia nimis est salsus/ 
 is worthy of note on account of the recently intro- 
 duced treatment by ' dechloridisation ' which has 
 been of late years much in evidence in France. 
 
 In a work by Dr. F. X. Gouraud with a preface 
 by Professor A. Gautier entitled Que faut-il 
 manger? published in Paris by Jules Rousset (1910), 
 there occurs the following passage, p. 253 : 
 
 ' Plus nombreuses sont les indications du regime 
 hypochlorure. C'est dans la nephrite, et surtout dans 
 la nephrite avec cedeme, qu'il a d'abord ete pre- 
 conise par Widal, et c'est la qu'il donne les plus beaux 
 resultats. 11 amene souvent une rapide r^sorption de 
 1'cedeme . . . Les beaux succes obtenus dans 1'oedeme 
 d'origine renale ont conduit autiliser le regime hypo- 
 chlorure dans tous les cas d'hydropisie, quelle qu'en 
 soit Forigine, chez les cardiaques, les hepatiques avec 
 ascite, meme dans les phlebites infectieuses (Chante- 
 messe). Pour les premiers il est souvent utile sans 
 etre curateur.'
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 39 
 
 Freind in his History of Physick notes Gaddes- 
 den's fondness for secrets, and it is true that he has 
 many. But the Rosa Anglica was written for 
 medical men in the first instance, a fact upon which 
 the author rather plumes himself in his preface, and 
 therefore he has no hesitation as a rule in disclosing 
 the composition of his secret remedies. 
 
 Thus he describes a course of a preparation of 
 Iris and of succus morellae. The iris was to be 
 given one day and the succus morellae on the following 
 day (f. 41 recto, col. i). He proceeds : 
 
 ' Hanc Medicinam Regalem voco et hae aquae 
 sunt pro delicatis, pro dominabus et pro divitibus et 
 sunt secretae et sine vituperio hominum ; nee debent 
 doceri laicis, quia sunt de summis meis secretis ; 
 quod si scirent homines vulgares vilipenderent artem 
 et Medicos contemnerent.' 
 
 Again, f. 40 recto, col. i, he says : 
 
 ' Pono aliquando loco ligni aloes spicam nardi, et si 
 substantia hepatis non sit resoluta procul dubio 
 liberator, sicut sum expertus in viginti et amplius et 
 est electuarium plus valens in quavis hydropis specie, 
 quam species Diatrionsantalon quia recipit tantum 
 quantum confectio Diatrionsantalon: Et est electua- 
 rium idropicorum mihi specialissimum nee debet 
 dari nee administrari nisi accepto salario.' 
 
 Had he known him, Gaddesden would have agreed 
 with Matthews Duncan, who used to say to his 
 students, ' If you don't believe in yourself, nobody 
 else will/ for he never fails to make the most of his 
 successes. On f. 124 recto, col. i, he gives a pre-
 
 40 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 scription for the stone which contains some thirty 
 different drugs, and this he says : ' ego voco syrupum 
 raphaninum, qui mihi fecit infinitum honorem in 
 quodam calculoso quern alii demiserunt et cum isto 
 solo curavi eum.' It must be owned that this reads 
 rather like the advertisements of modern quacks, but 
 then they do not disclose the ingredients of their 
 remedies, whereas Gaddesden does. 
 
 One of his specially valuable secrets was a pre- 
 scription for extracting teeth, for which he remarks, 
 ' grandem pecuniam accepi a barbitonsoribus,' and it 
 was this, ' Capiatur rana viridis quae de arbore in 
 arborem scandit, et in Provincia satis copiose reperi- 
 tur, sumatur ipsius adeps et eo liniatur dens quisquis 
 sit et statim excidet' (f. 155 verso, col. i). 
 
 He does not profess to have personal knowledge 
 of the efficacy of this remedy in human beings, but 
 he adds as a proof that cattle who eat these frogs in 
 the grass lose all their teeth. That tree-frogs do 
 not live in the grass is a small matter which does not 
 trouble him, and most likely the mediaeval patient 
 would prefer a trial of this remedy to the more 
 purely surgical one recommended, namely, to destroy 
 the tooth, ' stylo ferreo ignito.' This being applied, 
 the tooth 'post aliquod tempus cadit in frusta'. 
 Sundry charms for toothache are also given, which 
 will be found below. 
 
 Possibly the best known passage in the Rosa is 
 one which occurs in the section upon small-pox, for 
 the remedy, after having been in abeyance for
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 41 
 
 centuries, has now come in again in a modified form 
 and has both supporters and detractors ; x namely, 
 the red light treatment. Gaddesden was probably 
 led to try it owing to the mention of it by Gilbertus 
 Anglicus, who notes it as an old woman's remedy as 
 follows. The passage can be found in the Lyons 
 edition of the Compendium Medicinae, 1510, fol. 348 
 verso, col. i : 
 
 ' Vetulae provinciales dant purpuram combustam 
 in potu, habet enim occultam naturam curandi vari- 
 olas. Similiter pannus tinctus de grano.' 
 
 Anyway, Gaddesden met with success in at least 
 one case, and, moreover, his patient was a scion of 
 Royalty. Here is his account (fol. 51 recto, col. ii) : 
 
 ' Deinde capiatur scarletum rubeum, et involvatur 
 variolosus totaliter, vel in panno alio rubeo, sic ego 
 feci de filio nobilissimi Regis Angliae quando patie- 
 batur istos morbos, et feci omnia circa lectum esse 
 rubea, et est bona cura, et curavi eum in sequenti 
 sine vestigiis variolarum.' 
 
 It will be noticed that Gaddesden claims that this 
 treatment cures the disease and prevents pitting as 
 well, whereas the moderns who have tried it claim 
 that it prevents pitting, but not that it shortens the 
 course of the disease, qua small-pox, but only by 
 preventing mixed infection from suppuration. 
 
 1 Finsen, Brit. Med. Journ^ June 6, 1903 ; and Ricketts and 
 Byles, The Lancet, July 30 and Sept. 17, 1904.
 
 42 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 PHTHISIS 
 
 The section upon phthisis (f. 64 verso) is very 
 clear, and shows, as is usual with Gaddesden, good 
 clinical observation. 
 
 He defines phthisis as ' Morbus pulmonis, tussim 
 commovens et Hecticam causans '. Every phthisical 
 patient is hectic, but every hectic patient is not 
 necessarily phthisical. This observation was virtu- 
 ally correct in Gaddesden's day ; but his explanation 
 is naturally in accordance with the erroneous physio- 
 logy of the age. As the lungs are ulcerated, they 
 cannot sufficiently ventilate the heart, and whenever 
 the lungs expand the wounds in them increase, then 
 sanies is drawn back and 'fumi aucti, et non sufficien- 
 ter eventati ' go all over the body, inflame it, dry it 
 up, and consume it, and so cause hectic. But it does 
 not follow that in every case when a man is ' con- 
 sumed ' that his lungs are ulcerated, wherefore every 
 hectic is not necessarily phthisical. 
 
 With regard to treatment he is quite modern. A 
 real cure can only take place before the lung has 
 broken down 'ante confirmationem et ante exul- 
 cerationem saniosam . . . . et ante ejus foetorem et 
 descensum ad profundum aquae '. 
 
 He was aware that hectic was not an essential 
 part of phthisis, although the latter caused the former, 
 for in his directions for treatment he gives one set 
 of instructions for treating phthisis and another for 
 treating ' putridam febrem vel Hecticam conjunctam'.
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 43 
 
 ' For the cure of this/ he says, ' the reader must refer 
 to what I have said about Rheuma, in fact this 
 heading must be frequently referred to.' As Rheuma 
 is defined as ' fluxus humoris ruentis a capite ad partes 
 subjectas et vicinas ', and that to its malign influence 
 was due deafness, tinnitus, blindness, ophthalmia, 
 lippitudo, foetor and polypus of the nose, angina, 
 phthisis, pleurisy, peri-pneumony, ' fastidium,' ' fluxio 
 cerebralis ventris,' arthritis, and, in fine, disease of 
 any organ except the spleen, it is obvious that the 
 chapter treating of Rheuma must be studied pro- 
 foundly. Moreover, he says, ' Est enim Rheuma 
 quasi mater omnium morborum.' And it was of 
 three kinds Catarrh, branchus, and coryza, which 
 are defined in the following verses : 
 
 Ad fauces branchus, ad nares esto coryza, 
 Si fluit ad pectus dicatur rheuma catarrhus. 
 
 To return to phthisis, Gaddesden gives the follow- 
 ing thirteen indications for treatment, and they might 
 almost have been written to-day : 
 
 ' (i) Keep in check the catarrh and the rheumata ; 
 (2) cleanse the body ; (3) divert and draw away 
 the matter (of the disease) to a different part ; (4) 
 strengthen the chest and the head so that they do 
 not take up the matter, and that it there multiply ; 
 (5) cleanse and dry up the ulcers and expel the matter 
 from them ; (6) consolidate them ; (7) restrain and 
 cure the cough by using demulcent drinks with oint- 
 ments and stupes ; (8) assist the patient to sleep ; (9) 
 strengthen and bring back the appetite ; (10) keep in 
 check the spitting of blood ; ( 1 1 ) do what can be done 
 to make the breathing more easy and to remove the
 
 44 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 asthma and the hoarseness ; (12) regulate the way of 
 life so far as the six non-naturals; (13) cure the 
 putrid or hectic fever which goes with the disease.' 
 
 (The six non-naturals were, air, food, exercise, sleep, 
 the excretions, and the passions.) 
 
 He gives a gigantic list of drugs and remedies in 
 regard to the first eleven indications for treatment 
 and then comes to the regimen. 
 
 ' As to food, the best is the milk of a young 
 brunette with her first child, which should be a boy ; 
 the young woman should be well favoured, " bene 
 complexionata et non utatur coitu," and should eat 
 and drink in moderation. Failing a wet nurse, the 
 milk of other animals might be used in the following 
 order of choice : the ass, the goat, and the cow. If 
 the patient liked, he could take his milk straight from 
 the udder ; if not, it was to be boiled with a little salt 
 and honey, so that it should not coagulate in the 
 stomach, for in that case it was a very poison (" tune 
 est quasi venenum "). Wine and milk should not be 
 taken together, for wine coagulates milk in the 
 stomach. If the patient has pain and colic after his 
 milk, it does not agree with him. Therefore the dish 
 should be washed with hot water and placed in 
 another vessel full of hot water and the milk 
 milked into this, for then it is converted and changed 
 quickly and becomes less harmful.' 
 
 The patient could also have wine if it were new, 
 and provided that he were not very hectic. He 
 should, further, live in a dry, clear, and still atmo- 
 sphere and at a high elevation ; and here Gaddesden 
 reminds his readers that Galen used to send his
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 45 
 
 phthisical patients to a high mountain near Sicily 
 where there was perpetual fire. 
 
 LEPROSY 
 
 Gaddesden's account of leprosy is particularly 
 interesting, from several points of view. It may be 
 taken for granted that the terms ' lepra' and 'leprosus' 
 were used in the Middle Ages to signify various 
 chronic skin diseases, and possibly syphilis as well as 
 true leprosy. But that true leprosy was very prevalent 
 in mediaeval times is undoubted, and, moreover, from 
 the descriptions left us by mediaeval writers, it is 
 plain that the disease was the same then as now. 
 
 Here is his list of the signs of leprosy (f. 56 verso, 
 col. i): 
 
 'The signs of leprosy are many, and in the first 
 place come the prodromal signs, while the prognostics 
 are yet concealed (" primo sunt signa precedentia 
 prognostica occulta tamen "). Secondly come the 
 obvious and manifest signs of the presence of the 
 disease ; thirdly come the signs reminiscent of a 
 former materia (mae antecedentis] ; fourthly signs 
 showing forth an accompanying materia. 
 
 In the first place you must note if the usual red 
 colour of the face tends towards a black hue, and if 
 the patient suffers from gutta rosacea in his nose or 
 his face, if his breath undergoes a change and is 
 sometimes foetid, if he sweats much and his hair 
 begins to get thin and sparse. Also look out for a 
 change in his manner, he may become melancholic 
 and vicious and tricky (dolosus). He will be anxious 
 and will avoid society, and will fancy that he is a 
 leper. Such a mental condition should be avoided,
 
 46 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 for imagination in one disposed to this disease very 
 often actually brings it about, especially when com- 
 bined with errors of diet. Sometimes the patient 
 suffers from horrible dreams and awakes in a fright, 
 so that he dare not sleep alone. He may dream 
 that he feels a heavy weight on his chest as do those 
 who are afflicted by an incubus, and yet this is no- 
 thing but the weighty " material " dispersed through- 
 out the body. He may dream that he cannot run, or 
 that he is falling into some foul and filthy place 
 (" somniat se currere non posse, vel cadere in loco 
 turpi fetido sterquilinoso "). * 
 
 Again, if lice are multiplied on his body from some 
 intrinsic cause and not an extrinsic one, as is the case 
 with those who sleep in a hair shirt, if he take no care 
 for his body by bathing and the like, if the itch and 
 pustules and morphea appear all over his body, and 
 if generally speaking he is in a filthy condition (" Si 
 incipiat fieri fetida corporis dispositio "), then in the 
 case of such an one I say that it may be prophesied 
 that he is disposed towards leprosy, that in him 
 leprosy is in posse (inchoata). As yet, however, he 
 may mingle with his fellows, though not so safely as 
 another.' 
 
 He quotes from Joannes de Sancto Amando a list 
 of absolutely certain signs of leprosy (' signa valde 
 certa demonstrativa leprae '). These are : 
 
 The colour of the body tending towards black, 
 
 1 It is worth while, as a contrast to this bald description, to 
 quote the magnificent passage dealing with the same dream of 
 inability to move, given by Vergil, Aen. xii, lines 908-912 : 
 Ac velut in somnis oculos ubi languida pressit 
 Nocte quies, nequicquam avidos extendere cursus 
 Velle videmur, et in mediis conatibus aegri 
 Succidimus ; non lingua valet, non corpore notae 
 Sufficiunt vires, nee vox aut verba sequuntur.
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 47 
 
 laboured breathing and a husky voice (" strictura 
 anhelitus et vocis ") frequent sneezing, a nasal tone of 
 voice, thinness and falling of the hair, a foul-smelling 
 sweat and breath . . . swelling of the face and of the 
 limbs, " rotunditas " of the eyes, a greasiness of the 
 skin, so that a drop of water will not stop on it but 
 runs off, and insensibility of the calf is a common 
 sign.' 
 
 He proceeds : 
 
 ' I can add many to these, for instance, when the 
 little and middle fingers and toes, or even the others 
 next to them, feel cold and sleepy, as if sensation 
 were wanting, and when, as sometimes happens, the 
 anaesthesia extends to the skin between the fingers 
 or toes, and reaches up the arm, or in the leg as far 
 as the hip, there is a certain sign of leprosy. So are 
 impetiginous eruptions. If these are cured, the places 
 remain bald, or at most have a few thin hairs on 
 them. Formication, tickling, and pricking are felt.' 
 
 He mentions the lividity and distortion of the nails 
 and the falling of the eyebrows, the ulceration of the 
 septum nasi, the fixation and dropping off of hands 
 and feet, and the thickening of the lips. 
 
 He evidently appreciated the fact that the sentence 
 of isolation was a most serious affair, for he says : 
 
 ' No one is to be adjudged a leper and isolated 
 from all his fellows until the appearance and shape 
 of his face be destroyed. And therefore " cancer " in 
 the feet and a foetid skin disease should not be 
 taken as a proof of the disease even when accom- 
 panied by a nodular eruption, unless this be on the 
 face. And because many are leprous before the 
 appearance of these signs, be it known that there are 
 three signs common to every form of leprosy (" Com-
 
 48 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 munia in omni lepra"). 1 The first is to take three 
 grains of salt and to place them on some blood (from 
 the suspected patient), and if the blood be infected 
 straightway it will be dissolved (statim resolvetur], 
 but if it be not infected this will not happen. The 
 second is for some of the blood to be rubbed on the 
 palms of the hands, and should it squeak or be more 
 sticky than usual, this is a sign of corruption. 
 Thirdly, take some blood and place it in very clear 
 water, if it swim on the top it is infected, but if it 
 sink to the bottom it is not so.' 
 
 He mentions this thickening and rapid clotting of 
 the blood in three or four different places, and it is 
 interesting to note that Boeck and Danielssen have 
 noted a large increase in the fibrin ferments of the 
 blood of lepers. 2 
 
 CHARMS 
 
 Gaddesden, in common with Gilbert and other 
 medical writers both before and after his own time, 
 such as Mirfield (circa 138 7), did not disdain to make 
 use of charms and empirical remedies. Thus in 
 his section upon toothache, p. 153 recto, col. ii, he 
 says : 
 
 1 There were four varieties of Lepra, which Gaddesden em- 
 bodies in verse as follows (fol. 56 recto, col. i) : 
 
 Sub specie tetra deturpat corpora Lepra : 
 Tiria prima datur, de flegmate quae generatur : 
 Turpe pilos pascens Alopicus sanguine nascens; 
 Fitque Leonina, colera fervente canina; 
 De mel. (ancholia) fit tristis Elefantia tristior istis. 
 
 2 Art. ' Leprosy ' in Allbutt's System.
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 49 
 
 ' Modo fiant emperica quae aliquando curant in 
 principio. Radix apii collo suspensa dolorem dentis 
 tollit. Idem facit radix piloselle majoris et minoris, 
 et radix diptami.' (Pilosella is Mouse-ear Hawkweed.) 
 
 Then he gives a selection of charms and prayers: 
 
 ' Again, write these words on the jaw of the patient: 
 In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy 
 Ghost, Amen. 4- Rex + Pax + Nax + in Christo Filio, 
 and the pain will cease at once as I have often 
 seen. 
 
 Again, whosoever shall say a prayer in honour of 
 St. Apollonia, Virgin, (Feb. 9) shall have no pain in 
 his teeth on the day of the prayer. The same thing 
 is said of St. Nicasius the martyr (Oct. 1 1). 
 
 Again, draw characters on parchment or panel and 
 let the patient touch the aching tooth with his 
 finger as long as he is drawing, and he is cured. 
 The characters are made in the shape of running 
 water by drawing a continuous line, not straight but 
 up and down. Three lines are to be drawn in the 
 name of the Blessed Trinity and this is to be done 
 often. 
 
 Again, if the many-footed " worm " which rolls up 
 into a ball when you touch it is pricked with a needle, 
 and the aching tooth is then touched with the needle, 
 the pain will be eased. 
 
 Again, some say that the beak of a magpie hung 
 from the neck cures pain in the teeth and the uvula 
 and the quinsy. 
 
 Again, when the gospel for Sunday is read in the 
 mass, let the man hearing mass sign his tooth and 
 his head with the sign of the holy Cross and say a 
 pater noster and an ave for the souls of the father 
 and mother of St. Philip, and this without stopping; 
 it will keep them from pain in the future and will 
 cure that which may be present, so say trustworthy 
 
 1302 D
 
 50 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 authorities (" et preservat a dolore future et curat pre- 
 sentem, secundum veridicos").' 
 
 One of his numerous remedies for epilepsy is as 
 follows. The rationale of it is interesting (f. 78 
 verso, col. i). After giving directions for a cuckoo 
 to be roasted until it can be powdered, he says that 
 the powder is to be blown into the patient's nostrils 
 at the time of the paroxysm and he will recover. 
 Or the remedy may be used in food or drink either 
 before or after the paroxysm. Again, the patient 
 may wear the head of a cuckoo suspended from 
 his neck, which will preserve him from the fall or 
 will at least retard and greatly alleviate it. ' I have 
 tried this remedy,' he says, 'with success in many cases 
 of children who could not take medicine. And the 
 reason for this doing good is that the cuckoo suffers 
 from epilepsy every month, and therefore, according 
 to some, it has a peculiar property of attracting the 
 epileptic " materia " to itself, just as rhubarb attracts 
 the jaundice (coleram).' His advice to epileptics 
 as to their habit of life is sound, and may shortly 
 be summed up in the aphorism, ' all overs are evils.' 
 
 In another charm for bleeding at the nose (f. 10 
 recto, col. i) he quotes from Gilbert in the third book 
 of his Practica. The physician is to say ' In nomine 
 Patris et Filii et Spiritus sancti, Amen ; Caro cum 
 Calice confirma sanguinem israhelitae '. At the 
 same time he is to pour out water nine times and 
 strain it through the shirt of the patient. Then the 
 shirt is to be given to the patient or to his messenger,
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 51 
 
 who will in turn hand it to the patient. (' Novies 
 versando aquam et colando per camisiam infirmi, 
 quam tribuas ipsi patienti vel nuntio nomine infirmi, 
 quam tribuat ipsi patienti.') 
 
 In the account of semi-tertian fevers (Emitritei), 
 f. 1 6 verso, col. i, he gives a prescription from Sera- 
 pion : ' Item in libro de proprietatibus rerum, dicitur 
 quod smaragdus suspensus ad collum patientis curat 
 emitriteum.' In this connexion it may be noted that 
 over two hundred years after Gaddesden's time, 
 Cardan, who was born in 1508, gives the following 
 advice to his sons : ' Ferte hyacinthum in digitis ad 
 somnum conciliandum, et adversus pestem et fulgura. 
 Smaragdum collo pueris suspendite ob comitialem 
 morbum, cerebrum enim confirmat.' 
 
 For the cure of scrofulous glands (f. 34 verso, 
 col. i ) he gives a long list of remedies, including an 
 application made from snails and liquorice. In case 
 of failure of these remedies he proceeds, ' then let 
 him go to the king to be touched and blessed by him, 
 for this disease is called " morbus regius ", and the 
 touch of the most noble and most serene king of the 
 English is of avail.' Even this may fail, and in that 
 case the aid of a surgeon must be sought. 
 
 With the above may be compared the following 
 prescription, written about 1500 A.D. in an English 
 book of Horae, circa 1440 : 
 
 'Pro morbo Caduco. Take xij candylls of ye 
 length of ye chefe joynt of ye hande, and the xiij 
 candyll as long as iii of the sayd xii and gar synge 
 
 D 2
 
 52 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 on messe of the holy ghost and gar leyght the sayd 
 xii candylls and apun every candill wryhte on name 
 and apun the lange candill Jhc and apun the ryght 
 syd sante peter and apun ye lyeft syd sante paulle 
 and apun ylke on of the oyer candills sette a name 
 of the xij appostylls so that vi stand on the on syd 
 and vi apon the toyer . . . and heyd whilke of the 
 candills indureth the longest and to the same Appos- 
 tyll the seky body must woue to fast the evyn to 
 brede and water while he levys/ l 
 
 JOURNEY MATTERS 
 
 As an illustration of the hygiene of the fourteenth 
 century, Gaddesden's instructions to travellers may 
 be quoted. They are given on f. 171 recto, col. 2 : 
 
 ' Those who are going on a journey, or who cross 
 the seas, or are going to the wars, or on pilgrimage, 
 or to the schools, or market, or to see their friends 
 or acquaintances, or (in the case of medical men) the 
 sick should do as follows. As a general instruction 
 applicable to all these cases, it is good to begin 
 by being bled, or by " taking medicine " (farmacart) 
 and fasting, so that the body may be cleanly 
 disciplined, otherwise there is a risk of fever, or of 
 an apostema, of a flux or of a ruptured blood-vessel. 
 So Galen intimates in his commentary on the first 
 book of the Aphorisms. In spring-time madness 
 and melancholy are to be feared. 
 
 In warm weather, thirst and heat are best resisted 
 as follows. Take sugar of roses or violets or water- 
 lilies or diaci coreata made from conserve of chicory 
 flowers and sugar, or else take " candi " or tamarinds 
 
 1 M. R. James, Catalogue of MSS. in the Fitzwilliam Museum, 
 MS. 51.
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 53 
 
 or barberry or sorrel and partake of these often on 
 the journey. The three sandal woods or diadra- 
 gantum cold, or diapapaver infused in cold water and 
 \c.&d(?}(infrigidata)2xe also good. Again, a drink may 
 be made from sugar and vinegar or from pomegranate 
 wine, or syrup of roses or violets or water-lily, or 
 vinegar syrup, or the bread may be dipped in vinegar 
 and other things may be eaten as laid down in my 
 first book. If any one have drunk too much, if it be 
 a man the testicles should be washed with salt and 
 vinegar, and if it be a woman, the breasts, also let 
 them eat the leaf or the stalk or the juice of a 
 cabbage with sugar. 
 
 If the air is hot or foul smelling, then let the way- 
 farer smell camphor or roses or violets, and in very 
 hot weather let him smell musk or wood sage 
 (ambrosia), laudanum, camomile, laurel leaves or 
 marjoram. Let him hold his nose if fetor is present, 
 and on rising let him eat a toast in aromatic wine or 
 chesnuts roasted with the same. 
 
 After hard work in hot weather the feet must be 
 washed with water in which has been boiled camomile, 
 fennel, and betony. Wine of artemisia root should 
 also be taken, for in this way the fatigue and 
 weariness will almost completely disappear and will 
 hardly be felt. Let him carry with him some 
 artemisia and a stalk of agnus castus, for by so doing 
 he will not stumble by the way, nor will he be tired 
 on the day that he shall do this. And before he 
 goes out in the morning he should annoint himself 
 with aragon and marciaton. He should eat roasted 
 meat and garlic with good wine or pigmentum ; he 
 should also take dianthus and diatriton and diagalin- 
 gale pliris with muse. 
 
 If he be a poor man let him take three graines of 
 olibanum and pepper, or six leaves of mint, and let 
 him smell laudanum and olibanum on account of the
 
 54 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 rheum. He should not go to work immediately after 
 eating, nor fill himself up (with drink (?)) at night. But 
 if under such circumstances he should sleep well in 
 the night and the morning let him after a little fast 
 until the following day until the effects of his debauch 
 have passed away ("nee repleat se in nocte.etsisic bene 
 dormiat in nocte et mane, post paulatim incedat cum 
 abstinentia sequentis diei, quousque crapula recedat"). 
 
 The feet should always be washed with hot salt 
 water, dried, and then annointed with goat's or ram's 
 fat, and in the same way the perinaeum (peritoneon), 
 on account of the excoriations which may have 
 occurred during the journey. 
 
 Linseed mucilage or flea wort (psillium) may be 
 used for this latter purpose, although some use a 
 candle with good results. According to Galen in 
 his Regimen Sanitatis, those who work hard ought to 
 take baths of very hot water, so hot in fact that at 
 first sight it looks boiling. 
 
 If, however, a man be not accustomed to this he 
 will do well to foment his extremities with a decoction 
 of roses, violets, and camomile, to rub them gently 
 and to live temperately. Those who travel in winter 
 should wear a garment made of two layers of fabric, 
 wadded with cotton next to the shirt lined with 
 fox, lamb, or rabbit skin. 1 On their head let them 
 wear a cap lined with thick budge 2 . 
 
 1 The meaning of this last sentence is very obscure. I owe 
 the translation to the efforts of Sir G. Warner and his assistant in the 
 Manuscripts Department of the British Museum, who spent much 
 time and trouble in endeavouring to solve the mystery. I should 
 add that they expressed themselves as by no means satisfied with 
 the result of their efforts, and therefore it is as well to give the 
 original Latin. It appears on the verso of f. 171, col. i : 'Et 
 portent itinerantes in hiemi vestem cum duplici tela et coto in 
 medio punctato juxta camisiam.' 
 
 2 Budge, Latin Bogcttus, a kind of fur.
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 55 
 
 They should also have a hood coming down as far 
 as their shoulders, or they may wear a thin kerchief 
 on their head. They should keep their feet warm 
 and dry so far as possible, and dry them carefully 
 before going to bed. 
 
 Let them take care of the fever which arises from 
 (?) flatulence (ventositate) and the sun, and let them not 
 go close to the fire when they are very cold, but let 
 them rub their limbs for a little, not far from the 
 fire. 
 
 Water should not be drunk while on the way, in 
 any manner, for that brings about an " apostema et 
 febrem oppilando quia transire moratur rem " ; (?) by 
 checking the fever, prevents it from " coming out." ' 
 
 It is worthy of note that the extremely hot bath, 
 recommended by Gaddesden, has been for centuries, 
 and still is, in use by the Japanese. Pliny, however, 
 in his attack on the medical men and the medicine 
 of his day, Hist. Nat. XXIX, cap. viii, objects to 
 them, ' ilia quae sani patimur . . . balineae ardentes, 
 quibus persuasere in corporibus cibos coqui, ut nemo 
 non minus validus exiret, obedientissimi vero efferren- 
 tur.' 1 
 
 SURGERY 
 
 Comparatively a small portion of the Rosa is 
 devoted to surgery. Gaddesden's account of the 
 operation of tapping has already been quoted. 
 Other operations described by him are lithotomy, an 
 operation for hernia, and the reduction of dislocations. 
 
 1 Whether efferre here simply means 'to carry home', or is 
 used in the technical sense of 'to carry out for burial', is un- 
 certain.
 
 5 6 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 Of the last named, the account of dislocation of the 
 jaw is worthy of note. 
 
 He describes it as a rare accident. It may occur 
 from direct violence or from frequent yawning, or 
 from trying to take too large a mouthful of anything. 
 And therefore men bless themselves when they yawn, 
 lest this accident should happen, or even sudden 
 death. He adds, ' I once saw one of my household 
 who during his convalescence from a fever yawned so 
 often, and opened his mouth so widely in doing so, 
 that he dislocated his jaw.' To reduce the disloca- 
 tion, an assistant should hold the patient's head 
 while the surgeon puts his thumb into the mouth, 
 and after moving the jaw from side to side he must 
 extend it suddenly until the upper and lower teeth 
 are on a level, then let him reduce it. Another 
 method, which is successful if carried out as soon as 
 the dislocation has happened, is for the patient to 
 give himself a sharp blow on the chin, in a backward 
 and at the same time upward direction. A friend 
 who is present may be asked to do this. Gaddesden 
 adds that he saw this procedure followed with 
 success in the case of one of his friends who dislocated 
 his jaw at the table. If reduction is difficult and 
 there is much muscular resistance (durities) the 
 patient may be put in a bath and the 'durities 1 
 rubbed with oil. Then the patient should lie on his 
 back and the surgeon should place his thumb in the 
 mouth as aforesaid. The assistant, standing behind 
 the patient, is to steady the condyles of the jaw just
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 57 
 
 under the ears, and when the surgeon has extended 
 the jaw sufficiently he can press them into place. A 
 bandage must then be applied. The weariness of 
 convalescence described here must often have been 
 in evidence during the Middle Ages, when few 
 people could read, and even when they could books 
 were scarce. The mention of sudden death from 
 yawning is due to the belief that it was possible for 
 evil spirits to enter the system through the open 
 mouth. 
 
 WOUNDS 
 
 As regards the treatment of wounds, he notes the 
 following points. The object of the surgeon is to 
 (i) remove any weapon, or any other foreign body 
 which may be in the wound ; (2) stay the bleeding ; 
 (3) make choice of a proper dressing ; (4) restore 
 the continuity of the tissues ; (5) bleed and drug the 
 patient, if necessary ; (6) attend to his way of life ; 
 
 (7) avoid, if possible, the development of a dyscrasia 
 or a hot swelling, and cure them if they do occur ; 
 
 (8) bring about a comely (pulchra) cicatrix, and 
 remove proud flesh if it should arise. 
 
 If these counsels were those of perfection in 
 Gaddesden's day, it is yet noteworthy that the 
 mediaeval surgeon knew what he should do. Almost 
 identical directions are given by Lanfranc, (ob.} 1 300, 
 and the methods of dressing wounds as described by 
 both Gaddesden and Lanfranc are also practically 
 the same. One important difference, however, is to
 
 5 8 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 be observed between the practice of the two, and 
 Gaddesden is rather severe upon ' modern operators 
 who operate after the ancient methods and in ac- 
 cordance with Lanfranc and Roland and Bruno '. 
 
 And the point on which they differed was as to 
 the treatment of a wound involving a bone. Lanfranc 
 taught l that, in case of a wound involving the bone, 
 the flesh should never be sewed about the bone, 
 until the bone be quite repaired. Gaddesden says 
 that this treatment is quite wrong ; and adds (fol. 157 
 verso, col. 2) : 'In the case of an arm, if any part 
 of it remain in continuity, and the wound be quite 
 recent, it should be at once joined up, bone to bone 
 and flesh to flesh, so that so far as possible the 
 original condition may be restored. Then it should 
 be carefully sutured and a dressing of hot white 
 wine, as hot as the patient can bear it, applied as 
 I have described above.' It would be interesting 
 to know the fate of a bad compound fracture, treated 
 in either manner, in mediaeval times, but Gaddesden's 
 method is certainly preferable to Lanfranc' s. 
 
 DERIVATIONS 
 
 Mediaeval writers had one specially good side to 
 them, in that they were fond of giving reasons. 
 That the reasons were often quite incorrect was due 
 to the limitations of the times in which they lived, 
 but the tendency was a valuable one. Gaddesden, for 
 
 1 Science of Cirurgie, English translation circa 1380, E.E.T.S. 
 original series, No. 102, p. 48.
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 59 
 
 instance, is generally careful to give the derivation 
 of the name of a disease. Thus in his description 
 of phthisis he says, ' It is called ptisis as if from 
 ptesis, which is retention, because the disease inhabits 
 the body for a long time. Or else it is called ptisis 
 from tussis, because it itself is caused by the cough.' 
 
 Again, ' Epilepsy is so called from epi, which 
 means above, and ledo, for it is a lesion of the upper 
 parts, i. e. the head. It is also called ieranosos, from 
 iera, i. e. sacred, and noceo, namely, a disease which 
 hurts the noble parts.' Again, he says of hernia 
 (fol. 1 66 recto, col. 2): 'It is called hernia quasi 
 rumpens enia, i. e. the intestines, or else the enia are 
 the paniculi and the membra nervosa. Or else it 
 is called hernia, quasi heredem necans, because it 
 impedes generation. Or else it is so called from its 
 breaking through the thin membrane which is spread 
 over the intestines, or else hernia from haerens 
 because the intestines do not adhere to the pellicle 
 to which they should adhere.' 
 
 In speaking of the Arts course at Oxford it was 
 mentioned that Greek was practically unknown, and 
 a remarkable proof of Gaddesden's ignorance of 
 that tongue is afforded by a passage (fol. 99 verso, 
 col. i) in his section on Sterility, which, after a pre- 
 scription containing chelidonia, runs as follows : ' et 
 hie nota quod chelidonia dicitur quasi celi donum et 
 ipsa aufert maculam oculorum : et hirundo quaerit 
 earn quando ejus pulli non vident et matricem mundi- 
 ficat/ It is impossible that any writer save one
 
 60 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 entirely ignorant of Greek could have given the 
 absurd derivation of chelidonia from ' celi donum ' 
 and immediately afterwards have mentioned the 
 
 swallow, x 6 ^^"' 
 
 The sparkle of the following derivation evaporates 
 in translation, so I have left it in the original. 
 'Paritoneon' is perinaeum (fol. 30 verso, col. i) : 
 ' Paritoneon dicitur a " pari " quod est juxta, et 
 " tonoas " quasi juxta tonantem, quia est juxta anum 
 scilicet intra virgam et anum.' 
 
 COSMETICS 
 
 As is usually the case in mediaeval treatises on 
 Medicine, the Rosa contains a section entitled, ' De 
 Decoratione.' This gives instructions for the cure 
 of facial blemishes such as freckles, pustules, sunburn, 
 and the like. There are also prescriptions for com- 
 plexion washes and preparations for making the 
 breath and the body smell sweet. Gaddesden, how- 
 ever, with the common sense which he usually dis- 
 plays, mentions that in addition to using scents such 
 as myrrh, amber, and musk it is of great importance 
 to avoid over-eating or the eating of anything which 
 is likely to cause eructations. Moreover, any one 
 who studies to possess a sweet savour should take 
 baths and see that his underclothing is clean and 
 frequently changed. He concludes this section by 
 saying, ' These things have I written for delicate 
 women and for ladies, and indeed for noble men, 
 wishing to give them pleasure, but now I have said
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 61 
 
 enough. You will find much other information in 
 the works of those who have written about Cosmetics 
 or women's complexion colourings (fuels}! 
 
 He gives no names, but he possibly had Arnold 
 de Villanova in his mind. That able and some- 
 what turbulent personage, who was at once physi- 
 cian, alchemist, and theologian, had no love for 
 women. In the proem to Book 1 1 1 of the Breviarium 
 Practicae* he says : 'In this book I intend, God 
 being my helper, to treat of those sicknesses which 
 specially concern women, and as women are in 
 general venomous animals I shall follow it up with 
 a treatise on the bite of venomous animals. 1 Despite 
 this very ungallant opinion, his works contain a long 
 treatise entitled de ornatu mulierum, together with 
 its sequel, de Decoratione. This contains innumer- 
 able prescriptions for depilatories, hair dyes, com- 
 plexion washes, and applications to remove wrinkles 
 whether on the face or on the belly after childbirth. 
 There are also prescriptions for making the breasts 
 firm, together with others dealing with matters of 
 an even more intimate nature. 
 
 GADDESDEN'S THEOLOGICAL DEGREE 
 Besides being a Doctor of Medicine, Gaddesden 
 
 1 This treatise was generally ascribed to Arnold de Villanova, 
 and in Cap. 51 of Bk. I he calls himself Arnold, but the author- 
 ship is doubtful. Much indeed of the matter professedly written 
 by him probably was not so, and the Cautelae Medicorum were 
 almost certainly not. I have used the Basle edition of the Opera 
 Omnia, 1585.
 
 62 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 was a Bachelor in Theology and held sundry 
 ecclesiastical benefices. It does not, of course, follow 
 from this that he was in full orders, and indeed 
 various Councils fulminated against the clergy, both 
 regular and secular, leaving their first estate and 
 practising either civil law or medicine. 
 
 In the Sacrorum Conciliorum Collectio^- there are 
 various decrees against such practices. 
 
 Thus the Sixth Canon of the Council of Rheims, 
 1131, inveighed against monks and regular clergy 
 who despised the rules of the blessed Benedict and 
 Augustine, and who practised law and medicine for 
 worldly gain. The leech was looked upon as being 
 immodest. ' Cumque impudicus oculus impudici 
 cordis sit nuntius, ilia de quibus loqui erubuit honestas 
 non debet religio pertrectare.' Practice in these 
 two faculties was therefore forbidden, and bishops, 
 abbots, and priors who connived at the custom were 
 to be degraded. 
 
 The Lateran General Council of 1139 repeated 
 this canon almost word for word, and the Council of 
 Montpellier in 1162 contained the following: 
 
 ' Prohibuit praeterea sub omni severitate eccle- 
 siasticae disciplinae, ne quis monachus vel canonicus 
 regularis aut alius religiosus ad seculares leges vel 
 physicam legendas accedat.' 
 
 Again, the Lateran Council of 1215 forbade sub- 
 deacons, deacons and priests to practise any surgery 
 which involved cutting or burning. These canons 
 
 1 Ed. J. D. Mansi, Venice.
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 63 
 
 were, however, ignored to a great extent. Theodoric, 
 for instance, was a bishop as well as surgeon to 
 Innocent IV. 
 
 In the Papal Letters (Rolls Series) are the follow- 
 ing entries : 
 
 'To John de Gadesden. Provision of a canonry 
 at Chichester with reservation of a prebend, not- 
 withstanding that he is Rector of Norton in the 
 Diocese of Lincoln. 1 
 
 Concurrent mandate to the Bishop of London, the 
 Prior of Lewes, and the Dean of Hereford. 
 
 To John de Gabshede, Master of Arts and of 
 Medicine. Reservation of a dignity in the gift of the 
 bishop-chaplin of London, he being a Canon of the 
 same with expectation of a prebend and Rector of 
 Cheping Norton, which last he is to resign. 2 
 
 Concurrent mandate to the Abbot of Leicester, 
 the Dean of York, and another named. 
 
 To the Bishop of Winchester. Mandate to provide 
 to John de Gatesden, Master of Arts and Medicine 
 and Bachelor of Th'eology, a canonry of London 
 with reservation of a prebend : notwithstanding that 
 he is Rector of Chipping Norton, value 40 marks, 
 which he is to resign.' 3 
 
 The prebend which Gaddesden eventually ob- 
 tained in London was that of Wildland, and according 
 to Le Neve he was appointed in 1342. 
 
 Hennessy says : 4 ' Prebend of Wildland. This 
 prebendary had the eighth stall on the left side of 
 
 1 1333, 2 non Dec., Avignon. 
 
 2 T 333> I0 Kal. Oct., Avignon. 
 
 3 I 33^j 3 non Jul., Pont de Sorgue. 
 * Novum Repertorium.
 
 64 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 the choir, and the corps of his prebend is in the 
 parish of Tillingham in Essex. The Psalms for 
 daily recitation were the i;th to the 2ist inclusive/ 
 Gaddesden's predecessor was Robert de Redeswell, 
 and Hennessy gives the date of Gaddesden's appoint- 
 ment to the prebend as 1332, which is probably 
 a misprint for 1342, as in the papal letter above 
 quoted, dated 1336, reservation of a prebend in 
 London for him is mentioned. 
 
 THE ' ROSA '. GENERAL REMARKS 
 
 The style of the Rosa may be said to be popular, 
 although Gaddesden treats the various diseases after 
 a definite arrangement. But just as Master Nicolaus 
 Scyllatius told Ambrosius that the book could be 
 read again with pleasure, so any one who reads it 
 nowadays will constantly come across passages 
 which have a delightful freshness in them. Take 
 a few. On fol. 144 recto, col. 2, he gives a prescrip- 
 tion for weakness of sight. Among other things it 
 was composed of tutty quenched fifteen times in the 
 urine of a virgin youth, rose water, balsam, and 
 white wine, together with marjoram, fennel, spikenard, 
 long pepper, and lign aloes. This was to be mixed 
 with the gall of a crow, a swallow, or a hen, and then 
 rubbed up with honey. The patient was to take it 
 partly as a food and partly as a collyrium, and 
 Gaddesden adds, ' It will make him see small letters 
 to the end of his life, and the contents in urine, and
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 65 
 
 the veins in the arms. And therefore it is of great 
 value to all barber surgeons.' 
 
 Again (f. 127 recto, col. i): ' Diabetica passio est 
 immoderatus fluxus vel exitus urinae per renes, cum 
 vehementia sitis, et vocatur anglice " candepisse ".' 
 
 At first sight this passage would seem to imply 
 that the commonly received opinion that Willis was 
 the first to identify sugar in diabetic urine was wrong, 
 and that its presence was commonly known in the 
 fourteenth century. For candi (the question of e or 
 i is of no moment) is constantly used by Gaddesden 
 to mean some preparation of sugar or syrup, e. g. on 
 ff. 67 v., 68 r. and v., 98 v., 128 v., and 171 r. But 
 a reference to the MSS. shows that the word is 
 a misprint and should really be chaudepisse. MS. 
 Sloane 280 (Brit. Mus.) has anglice chaudepisse, 
 Sloane 1067 has gallice chaundepisse, and Sloane 1612 
 \&& gallic* ckandepisse. Or (f. 168 verso, col. i) : 
 
 ' Incipit liber 4tus de morbis particularibus. 
 
 Liber quartus erit brevis de prius omissis morbis 
 qui sunt particulares ; quia particulariter eveniunt 
 non particularitate corporis tantum, sed particularitate 
 temporis quia raro medicus lucratur pecuniam cum 
 eis. Et sunt litargia, mania, desipientia, melan- 
 cholia.' 
 
 It is to be feared that Gaddesden was somewhat 
 mercenary. 
 
 He has a long section upon the care of the health 
 in general which is mainly an expansion of the 
 Regimen Sanitatis. But his remarks on the use of
 
 66 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 fruit as a diet read oddly nowadays, and it is certain 
 that he would have nothing to do with the modern 
 ' Fruitarian '. 
 
 On f. 1 1 8 verso, col. i , he saj's : 
 
 ' The accustomed way of life should be observed 
 unless it is very bad, and then it should be altered 
 gradually. Therefore a way of life conformable to 
 the " naturals " should be observed. If it only differ 
 a little it may continue to be observed, but if 
 much, then as I have said before it must be altered 
 gradually. 
 
 Let him whose life is ill-regulated beware, for if 
 it does not affect him in the present yet, as says 
 Avicenna, it surely will in the future. And those 
 who say that they eat often and to excess without 
 any harm, let them have a care, for they will be 
 struck down. Therefore should God punish at once 
 whatever sin be committed, no man should live. 
 And as with universal nature, which is God, so with 
 particular nature in man, for punishment comes not 
 at once, but in the course of time. 
 
 Again with fruits ; some eat more of them than of 
 other food, wherein they do not well, for all fruits 
 make watery useless blood, and prone to putrefaction. 
 But yet styptic fruits should be eaten after dinner by 
 those who are inclined to looseness of the belly, and 
 such are pears, figs (coctana), and apples. But these 
 when roasted and taken by sufferers from the colic 
 before dinner are laxative. When eaten raw, how- 
 ever, they are constipating, though not all equally, 
 for the sweet are less so and the sour more. Prunes, 
 cherries, raisins, and figs should be taken before 
 dinner, as Isaac lays down in his book on particular 
 diet. But the common way of taking them is the 
 opposite of this, and that is bad, for the fig, owing 
 to its flatulent qualities, stops up (the bowels), and
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 67 
 
 therefore ought to be eaten with ginger, for Avicenna 
 notes that this drug is very opposed to all corruption 
 of fruit. On the whole, however, it is best to do 
 without fruit altogether, whence Galen in the sixth 
 book of his regimen says that his father lived for 
 one hundred years because he never ate fruit. 
 
 Again, in animals fit for food, some prefer the tail 
 and others the head, some the bones and some other 
 parts ; whence the line " Pisces et uxores in cauda 
 sunt meliores". 
 
 It is also said that there is least waste product in 
 the tail of a fish (" piscis est cum minori superfluitate 
 in cauda") because the tail is most in motion. Yet 
 other parts are more easy of digestion, as is the 
 case with the belly in salmon. That part, therefore, 
 which is most in motion gives rise to least waste, 
 wherefore that part in animals used for food is the 
 best for man, ceteris paribus. That part, therefore, 
 should be chosen, which is tender, is much in motion, 
 and which tastes good, for ceteris paribus that part 
 which tastes best nourishes best.' 
 
 There is, it is obvious, much sound common sense 
 in the above passage, and the tincture of theology 
 Gaddesden, it must be remembered, held a theological 
 degree together with the somewhat free allusion 
 to women, is due to the cast of mind so common 
 in mediaeval times, to which was due the curious 
 indelicacy of many of the carvings on the misereres 
 in cathedrals. Whether Gaddesden held Pantheistic 
 views or not may be left to theologians to say, but 
 possibly the words ' Sicut est de natura universal! 
 quae est deus' might be taken to show such. 1 
 
 1 The words may only mean that he is conscious of the 
 
 E 2
 
 68 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 It is possible that he may have been thinking of 
 the following passage from Seneca, Naturales Quae- 
 stiones, ii. 45 : 
 
 ' Ne hoc quidem crediderunt, Jovem, qualem in 
 Capitolio et in caeteris aedibus colimus, mittere manu 
 sua fulmina, sed eundem quern nos Jovem intelligunt ; 
 rectorem custodemque universi, animum et spiritum 
 mundi, operis hujus dominum et artificem, cui nomen 
 omne convenit : vis ilium fatum vocare, non errabis : 
 hie est ex quo suspensa sunt omnia, causa causarum : 
 vis ilium providentiam dicere, recte dices : est enim 
 cujus consilio huic mundo providetur, ut inoffensus 
 exeat et actus suos explicet: vis ilium naturam 
 vocare, non peccabis : hie est, ex quo nata sunt omnia, 
 cujus spiritu vivimus : vis ilium vocare mundum, non 
 falleris : ipse enim est hoc quod vides totum, partibus 
 suis inditus, et se sustinens et sua.' 
 
 The Naturales Quaestiones were much used in the 
 Middle Ages as a textbook of physical science, al- 
 though, as Mr. Mackail says, 'they are totally without 
 any scientific value.' As regards ' the naturals ' 
 there were seven, and they will be found below in 
 the translation of the Ysagoge, p. 137. 
 
 The chapter following that on health in general 
 deals with colic, a complaint which seems to have 
 been common in the Middle Ages, and one doubtless 
 due to the quantity of salt meat which was eaten, as 
 well as to the habit of cooking meat with an enormous 
 quantity of flavourings such as ambergris together 
 with sugar and fruits. 
 
 immanence of God, and might he not have been thinking of the 
 Monologion of Anselm
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 69 
 
 He commences by saying that the disease is 
 called colic, ' quasi colon capiens,' and his second 
 definition, for two are given, is, colic is an affection 
 (passio) of the last part of the intestine, which is 
 called the colon, accompanied by a difficulty in the 
 outgoings of the contents (substantial) through the 
 lower gut, together with great pain which is some- 
 times darting (punctura), There are seven causes 
 of colic, and it is interesting to note that intestinal 
 paralysis is apparently given as one of them. He 
 gives them in verse as follows : 
 
 ' Sunt colicae causae septem sub carmine clausae, 
 faex ignita, cibus constipans, flegmata grossa, 
 ventus, apostema, vermes, destructio sensus.' 
 
 Ignita is so written, but a few lines above he gives 
 Faex durata as a cause. 
 
 He proceeds to discuss the difference between the 
 iliac passion, the colic passion, and renal colic, and 
 notes that the iliac passion was accompanied by 
 frequent vomiting, by hardness of the belly, and by 
 extremely acute pain as if a gimlet were boring 
 through the intestine, and it would seem that under 
 the names iliac or colic passion there were various 
 forms of intestinal obstruction and possibly per- 
 forative peritonitis included. The iliac variety is 
 specially fatal. As for cure there are two indications, 
 the one to soothe the pain and the other to remove 
 the cause of the disease. For this last seven things 
 are necessary, of which the third is to obtain complete 
 evacuation of the bowels ; and here he quotes three
 
 7 o JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 cases from Galen to show, as that great physician 
 remarks, ' that the physician must not in these cases 
 always go by contraries, but should weigh every 
 case with intellect and judgement.' The last thing 
 to be done in case other means fail is to try empirical 
 remedies, and of these Gaddesden gives an enormous 
 list, many of which are singularly nasty ; but it will 
 be remembered that even in the last century 
 Waterton was a firm believer in the merits of a cow- 
 dung poultice. He concludes his remarks by saying 
 that if colic arises from a rupture of the intestine it 
 must be reduced. Afterwards a bandage must be 
 applied, which is to be worn forty days if possible, 
 the patient's bowels being kept open by suppositories. 
 Gaddesden's logical training is shown by the way 
 in which he divides up the causes of diseases, thus 
 (f. 123 recto, col. i) ' the causes of stone are many, 
 both material and efficient V Again (f. 44 verso, col. 
 2), ' Causae arteticae passionis sunt duplices interiores 
 et exteriores,' or, sometimes they are called ' intrinsic 
 and extrinsic'. 
 
 To sum up, the Rosa Anglica may be taken to 
 give us a very fair picture of an English physician 
 of the fourteenth century. We see therein a man 
 of good general education and, as regards his 
 medical education, one who was acquainted with the 
 writings of his predecessors. More than this, he 
 must have been an accurate clinical observer. Of 
 
 1 These were two of the Aristotelian four causes, the other 
 two being formal and final.
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 71 
 
 anatomy he naturally knew next to nothing, and 
 of physiology even less. The book bears out the 
 somewhat unfavourable estimate of the character 
 of the leech which is expressed by Chaucer, by 
 Langland through the mouth of Piers Ploughman, 
 and by John of Salisbury, for Gaddesden appears 
 to have been fond of his fees and by no means to 
 have neglected the by-ways of medicine such as diet, 
 cookery, and the care of the complexion or beautify- 
 ing of the body. 
 
 Gaddesden was, moreover, fully possessed of ideas 
 as to the dignity of his office, not unmixed with the 
 notion common to ' medicine men ' of all nations that 
 medicine was in some way a mystery which should not 
 be communicated to the uninitiated layman. He 
 was evidently a man with a shrewd knowledge of 
 the world and of the weaknesses of human nature, 
 while his practice lay mainly among the upper 
 classes ; but that he had poor patients is shown by 
 the fact that he frequently gives an alternative pre- 
 scription, ' if the patient be poor.' 
 
 Considering the date of the book there is one 
 rather curious omission. Although the Rosa is full 
 of the beliefs and false pathology of the time, 
 Gaddesden makes scarcely any mention of any 
 astrological matters. In this he differs markedly 
 from his notable contemporary John of Burgundy, 
 who in his treatise De Pestilentia (Sloane MSS. 
 3449) lays it down as a necessity that those who 
 presume to treat the plague should be well grounded
 
 7 2 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 in the knowledge of the stars. But on the whole, 
 despite the adverse judgements of Guy de Chauliac 1 
 and of Haller some three hundred years later, it is 
 fair to say that the Rosa Anglica contains much that 
 is sound and much that is applicable to disease at 
 the present day even in the light of our present 
 knowledge. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 The following is the passage from John of Burgundy's work 
 upon plague in which he lays down the necessity for the physician 
 having a knowledge of the stars : 
 
 JOANNIS DE BURGUNDIA DE PESTILENTIA LlBER. 
 
 Extract from Sloane MS. 3449, f. 6 : 
 
 ' Also alle they whos complexion contrary to the aire that is 
 chaunged or corupte abiden hole and elles alle folke shuld 
 corupte and dye at onys. The aire therfore so corupt and 
 chaunged bredith and engendreth in diverse sikenes and sores. 
 After the variauncez or diversitees of theire humours for avery 
 worcher or every thing that werchith performeth his werke after 
 the abilite and disposicion of the matier that he werkith ynne. 
 And by cause that ther have bene many grete maistirs and ferre 
 lernyd in theoric or speculacion and groundly in sight of medecyne 
 but they bene but litill proued in practik and therto allefully 
 ignorant in the sience of Astronomy the whiche science is in 
 phisik wonder nedefull as wittenessith ypocras in epidimia sua 
 seying what phisician that ever he be and kan not astronomy no 
 wyse man owt to putte hym in his handis for why astronomye 
 and phisik rectifien yche other in effect and also that one science 
 
 1 Guy's contemptuous note is as follows ; it appears in the 
 preface to his Surgery which was completed 1363: 'Ultimo 
 insurrexit una fatua Rosa Anglicana, quae mihi missa fuit et visa ; 
 credidi in ea odorem suavitatis, et inveni fabulas Hispani, Gilberti 
 et Theodorici.'
 
 THE ROSA ANGLICA 73 
 
 sheweth forthe many thynges hidde in the other alle thynges in 
 thyng may not be declared. And I 40 yere and more have oftyn 
 tymes proved in practise that a medecyn gyven contrary to the 
 constellacion all thogh hit were both wele compownyd or medled 
 and ordynatly wroght after the science of phisik yit it wroght now- 
 ther aftur the purpose of the worcher nor to the profile of the 
 pacient. And when some men have gyven a medecyn laxatyf to 
 purge downe ward the pacient hath casten it out ayene above all 
 thogh he lothed it noght. Wherfore they that have not dronkyn 
 of that swete drynke of Astronomye mowe putte to thise pestilen- 
 tiall sores no perfite remedie for bicause that they knowe not the 
 cause and the qualite of the sikenesse they may not hele it as 
 seith the prynce of phisik Avicenna. How schuldest thou he 
 saith hele a sore and thou knowe not the cause. 
 
 iij canone capitulo de curis febrium. He that knowith nat the 
 cause hit is onpossible that he hele the sikenes. The comentour 
 also super secundum phisicorum seith thus A man knowith nat a 
 thyng but if he knowe the cause both ferre and nygh. Sithen 
 therfor the hevenly or firmamentall bodies bene of the first and 
 primytif causes it is bihovefull to have the knowlechyng of hem 
 for yf the first and primytif causes be onknowen we may not come 
 to know the causes secondary. Sithen therfor the first cause 
 bryngeth in more plentevously his effecte than doth the cause 
 secondary as hit shewith. primo de causis. Therfor it shewith 
 wele that without Astronomye litill vayleth phisik for many man 
 is perisshed in defawte of his councelour.' 
 
 As has already been mentioned Gaddesden says practically 
 nothing about a knowledge of the heavenly bodies being necessary 
 for a physician. In one place he refers to the phase of the moon, 
 and that is in the section on Sterility (fol. 101 verso, col. i) : 
 
 'Ad 25m annum mulieribus plus veniunt menstrua in prima 
 quadra lunae sed in senioribus veniunt in tertia vel quarta ipsius 
 lunae. Et ideo puellis in prima quadra, juvenibus in secunda, 
 senioribus post illud. Et ex hoc possumus scire quod juvenes 
 debent flobotomari in nova luna et senes in antiqua et hoc senes 
 a senectute ; quia senes a senio non debent flobotomari via 
 electionis, unde dicitur 
 
 Luna vetus veteres, juvenes nova luna requirit.' 
 
 N.B. Senectus lasted from 60 to 80. Senium lasted from 80 
 onwards (Joannes de Deo, Doctor Decretorum Bononiensis).
 
 74 JOHN OF GADDESDEN 
 
 Arderne, who was Gaddesden's contemporary, although junior 
 to him, gives elaborate tables for finding the house of the Moon 
 in relation to operations. The passage is on p. 16 et seq. of 
 Mr. D'Arcy Power's edition, E.E.T.S., Orig. Series 139, 1910. 
 John of Burgundy is a mysterious and interesting personality. It 
 is possible that he and Sir John Mandeville were the same person. 
 Dr. Payne wrote to me in 1905 : ' he is not mentioned, so far as 
 I know, in the continental Histories of Medicine, and nearly all 
 the MSS. are in English libraries.' 
 
 His treatise on the Pestilence, i. e. the Black Death of 1348, 
 exists in many MSS., and there are numerous copies both in 
 English and Latin in the British Museum and the Bodleian. He 
 practised in Liege. 
 
 MSS. IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM LIBRARY OF THE 
 . 'ROSA ANGLICA'. 
 
 Three copies. Ref., Class Catalogue, Medicine, vol. i, p 73 : 
 Sloane 1612, Sloane 1067, Sloane 280. 
 
 Also, extracts from by Sir T. Browne, seventeenth century. 
 
 EXTANT MS. AT THE BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALS 
 OF THE ' ROSA MEDICINE ' OF JOHN OF GADDESDEN. 
 
 Copie en 1356. 
 II porte le no. 16643 dans ^ e fonds des mss. Latins. 
 
 There are four editions (printed) in the British Museum of 
 Rosa Anglica by J. of Gaddesden. Press-marks : (i) 5309. dd. i. 
 J 492; (2) 543. g. 19. (2) 1502 ; (3) 7441. h. 16. 1517 ; (4) 542. 
 a. 8. 9. 1595. 
 
 There is an interesting tract by Dr. George Dock, of Ann 
 Arbor, Michigan, on ' Printed Editions of the Rosa Anglica '. It 
 was originally printed in Janus, xn e annee, livraison viii, 1907. 
 
 OXFORD. 
 
 There are MSS. of the Rosa, and the Venice ed. of 1502 in the 
 Bodleian, while Merton College possesses one ; 
 
 MS., No. 262 in Coxe's Catalogue and three printed copies : 
 Pavia 1492, Venice 1502, Augsburg 1595.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 
 
 IT must always be remembered that the mediaeval 
 physician derived his knowledge almost entirely from 
 books. Sometimes, as in the enlightened kingdom 
 of Sicily in the thirteenth century, a post-graduate 
 course of instruction under an experienced physician 
 or surgeon was prescribed before the newly gra- 
 duated man was allowed to practise ; and Mirfield, 
 of whom Dr. Norman Moore has written, speaks of 
 Magister meus ; but in general book-learning formed 
 the whole of his knowledge until the physician had 
 been in practice for some time. Patients seem to 
 have been aware of this, for Arnold de Villanova in 
 his ' Cautels for medical men ' l says : ' When you 
 come into the patient's presence always do something 
 new, lest they should say that you can do nothing 
 without your books.' Hospitals other than leper 
 hospitals were few and far between, and when they 
 did exist were in no way places for medical teaching. 
 The sick were ' cared for ', but there was no pro- 
 vision for medical attendance. 
 
 Moreover, the mediaeval patient seems to have 
 been in no way averse from trying to take in his 
 
 1 Opera omnia, Basileae, 1585, col. 1454.
 
 76 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 
 
 medical attendant, and the 'Cautels' above-mentioned, 
 which are attributed to Arnold de Villanova who was 
 born in the latter half of the thirteenth century, give 
 an amusing picture of the possible relations between 
 patient and physician. They commence by an 
 account of the pitfalls into which a physician might 
 fall during the inspection of the urine, this inspection 
 being the chief method of diagnosis, a method which 
 prevailed well into the seventeenth century. Not 
 only was the physician supposed to be able to tell by 
 this inspection the disease from which the patient 
 was suffering, but also the sex and the age, and 
 whether the urine was that of a human being or an 
 animal. In a curious little work called The Key to 
 Unknown Knowledge, or A Shop of Fine Windowes, 
 printed so late as 1599, are contained five treatises, 
 of which the first is entitled ' The Judgement of 
 Urines '. The author withholds his name, but says 
 in his preface that he has gathered together rules 
 concerning the judgement of urine from divers authors 
 for the benefit of his fellow Chirurgians ' which have 
 not the Latine tongue '. 
 
 His fifth chapter gives the rules to know a beast's 
 water from a man's, or from a woman's, and also the 
 urine of a man from that of a woman. They are as 
 follows : 
 
 ' First it is meet that you know as I have afore said 
 that a man's urine the neerer that you hold it to the 
 eye, the thicker it does shew : and when you hold it 
 further off, it appeareth more thin, and the further
 
 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 77 
 
 the thinner and clearer it sheweth. But in beasts 
 urine it is not so, for the more nie the eye the thin- 
 ner and the further from the eye the thicker and 
 more grosse : and this is (sic) shall not fail you. 1 
 
 Also beasts water is more salt and of a stronger 
 sauor, and more simple of complexion, and smelleth 
 more raw, than the urine of a man. Also mix the 
 water of a beast and wine together and they will 
 depart each of them from the other. If it bee 
 a cowes water which is with calfe, it shall be easie 
 for you to know it from a womans urine that is with 
 child ; for the dregs and the contentes shall be more 
 grosse than the womans, and more foule for so much 
 as the beast is -of a fouler complexion. To know 
 a mans urine from a womans understand that a mans 
 in the casting does shew troublednesse in the middest 
 of the urine : but you must note that in a womans it 
 doth not so. 
 
 And after Avicenna the froth of the urine of a man 
 after casting is long ; and in the urine of a woman 
 after casting it will be round.' 2 
 
 Various conclusions were also drawn from the 
 pellicle which formed on the surface, and from the 
 ' circle ' or layer of the urine which lay immediately 
 under the ' spume '. Then the urine as it stood 
 in the urinal was divided into regions, in each of 
 which appearances were seen which would guide 
 the practitioner. But however much 'Avicenna' 
 and the older physicians believed in these appear- 
 ances, Arnold was quite aware that most of them 
 
 1 Cf. Avicenna, Canon, Bk. I, Fen. 2, Cap. 10, Theophilus, 
 Lib. Urinar. 
 
 2 The Collectio Salernitana, edited by S. de Renzi, contains 
 numerous tractates on diagnosis by inspection of the urine.
 
 78 
 
 were, to put it shortly, humbug, as will be seen from 
 the following : 
 
 ' Videndae sunt cautelae circa urinas quibus pos- 
 sumus nos cavere a deceptoribus.' 
 
 Firstly, the practitioner had to make certain that 
 the fluid brought to him for inspection was that of 
 a man. It might be of some other animal, or even 
 not urine at all ; but the urine of the man could be 
 recognized in four different ways. 
 
 Then the messenger bringing the urine must be 
 fixedly looked at, 'tu enim debes ipsum fortissime 
 respicere et renere l oculos fixos supra ipsum.' 
 Under this close scrutiny the fraudulent messenger 
 would either laugh or else change colour ' cui debes 
 dare maledictionem perpetuam et aeternam'. It 
 seems a heavy punishment for a comparatively harm- 
 less deception, but evidently mediaeval physicians 
 had a full share of proper pride. 
 
 As for the sex of the patient it was ascertained as 
 follows : 
 
 ' The fourth caution is concerning the sex. The 
 old woman will ask you to tell her, and then you must 
 ask her from whom the urine is (" tu inquire cujus 
 est"), then she will say " Don't you know ?" Then 
 you must look at her with a sidelong glance ("quodam- 
 modo oculo distorto") and say, "What business is 
 it of yours ? " Then if she is not very sly she will 
 say, " It is Jack's or Jill's " ("dicit quod est cognatus 
 vel cognata "), or something by which you may 
 
 1 Sic, but probably a misprint for tenere.
 
 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 79 
 
 ascertain the sex. If, however, she says, " Oh it 
 doesn't matter to me," ask what the patient gener- 
 ally does when he is well, and so you will be able to 
 tell or at all events make a very good guess at the 
 sex.' 
 
 Other cautions follow, and then comes no. 7 
 which runs : 
 
 ' The seventh is this, and it is perhaps one of 
 very general application. Very possibly you gather 
 nothing at all from an inspection of the urine ; very 
 well then, say that the patient is suffering from 
 obstruction of the liver. Your visitor (i.e. the person 
 who has brought the urine) will say, " No, Sir, it's his 
 head or his legs or somewhere else " ; then you must 
 say ; "Well that comes from the liver or the stomach." 
 Be sure to use the word " obstruction ", for they don't 
 understand it, and it is often exceedingly useful that 
 people should not understand what you say.' 
 
 Other cautions warn the young practitioner from 
 being taken in by wine, or liquors made from figs or 
 nettles, which are often substituted for urine. Caution 
 13 runs as follows: ' If the old woman asks what 
 is the matter with the patient, say, " You would not 
 understand if I were to tell you, and it would be 
 much better if you were to ask, What am I to do for 
 him?" 
 
 ' Then she will see that you are right, and will hold 
 her tongue. Possibly, however, she will say, " Sir, 
 he is so hot that I think he has fever " ; whereupon 
 you answer, " That is always the way with you and 
 other people who don't know the difference between 
 fever and other diseases."
 
 So THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 
 
 Other cautions are concerned with the behaviour 
 and ' bedside manner ' of the physician ; thus the 
 sixteenth caution runs, 'When you come into the 
 presence of the patient always do something new, 
 lest they should say you can do nothing without 
 your books.' And caution 17 : ' If by ill luck you 
 should find the patient dead when you arrive at the 
 house and they say, " Sir, why have you come? " you 
 must reply that you did not come because he was 
 dead, for you knew very well that he would die in 
 the night, but you wished to know the exact hour at 
 which he died.' 
 
 After these worldly regulations it is somewhat sur- 
 prising to find the following peroration, of which the 
 following is a translation which but feebly reproduces 
 the rhythmic cadences of the Latin. 
 
 ' Mark that the leech shall be earnest in inquiry ; 
 careful and methodical in discourse ; cautious and 
 far-seeing in reply ; guarded in prognosis ; neither 
 let him promise more than he can perform, and 
 especially recovery. For then shall he thrust out 
 God's work and do Him injury. But that he him- 
 self will be faithful and diligent, he may promise. 
 
 And he shall be discreet in his visits, painstaking 
 in his talk, quiet in his ways, and kindly to the 
 sufferer.' 
 
 The writer of these Cautelae, whether he was 
 Arnold or no, simply developed them from a tract 
 by an unknown writer (? Archimathaeus) which is 
 entitled ' De adventu medici ad aegrotum ', and which
 
 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 81 
 
 is contained in the Collectio Salernitana. 1 This 
 commences as follows : 
 
 ' Cum igitur, o medice, ad aegrotum vocaberis, 
 adjutorium sit in nomine Domini angelus qui 
 comitatus est Tobiam ; affectum mentis et egressum 
 corporis comitetur.' 
 
 The meaning of this is obvious, but Arnold or his 
 editor puts the passage thus, which makes it hope- 
 lessly obscure : 
 
 ' Medice, cum ad aegrotum vocaberis, adjutorium 
 sit in nomine Domini angelus qui comitatus est 
 effectum mentis et egressus corporis concomitetur 
 interius.' 
 
 Another similar tract is given by Renzi, 2 and in 
 both the Salernitan tracts and in Arnold appear 
 instructions as to how the medical man should behave 
 when asked to dinner, together with a warning that 
 he should not make love to the patient's wife or 
 daughter, or maidservant. 
 
 It is interesting to compare the directions of our 
 English surgeon, John of Arderne (y. 1360), con- 
 cerning the manners of the leech with those given 
 in the Cautelae. They were written in Latin and 
 were translated into English in the fifteenth century 
 (Sloane MS. No. 6). 3 
 
 1 Salvatore di Renzi, Naples, 1859. Collect. Sa/ern., torn, ii, 
 
 P- 75- 
 
 3 Collect. Sa/ern., torn, v, p. 333. 
 
 3 The latest edition is that by Mr. D'Arcy Power, edited for the 
 Early English Text Society, Original Series No. 139, London, 
 Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co., Ld., and Henry Frowde, 
 
 1302 F
 
 82 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 
 
 The Salernitan advises the leech to learn as much 
 as he can from the messenger about the patient, *ut 
 quando ad ipsum accessieris, aegritudinis ejus non 
 omnino inscius videaris ; ubi post visam urinam, con- 
 siderate pulsu licet per earn aegritudinem non cogno- 
 veris, tamen si sinthoma quod praescriveras dixeris, 
 confidet in te, tanquam in autore suae salutis, ad 
 quod summopere laborandum est/ This excerpt 
 shows somewhat the same spirit as Arnold's Cautelae, 
 but the point is not so frankly put. 
 
 Fees in the Middle Ages were no more rapidly 
 paid than now, and there are many passages in the 
 Salernitan collection pointing out that the leech 
 should press for his fee, or at least for an agreement 
 to pay it, as soon as the patient was getting better ; 
 for ' Mox fugit a mente medicus morbo recedente '. 
 
 The following passage shows that our ancestors 
 in the profession were quite awake to the necessity 
 for getting their fees paid while the sufferings of the 
 patient were still a vivid memory. They are from 
 a version of the Regimen Sanitatis dedicated to 
 
 Oxford University Press, 1910. The passage in question will be 
 found on p. 6 et seq. Very similar rules for conduct are laid 
 down by Henry of Mondeville, circa 1320; William de Saliceto, 
 circa 1275; and Lanfranc, circa 1295. Mr. Power quotes from 
 the two former in his 'Forewords' to Arderne, while Lanfranc 
 has been published in an English translation by the E.E.T.S., 
 Orig. Series No. 102. Gaddesden does not mention this subject, 
 neither does he lay stress upon the necessity for the leech to get 
 his fee before the patient is well. In several places, however, he 
 insists that the composition of medicine and methods of cure 
 should not be revealed to the laity except for a due recompense.
 
 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 83 
 
 Charlemagne who conquered (sic) the Saracens at 
 Roncesvalle. The heading is : 
 
 DE PRUDENTIA MEDICI SUMENTIS PRO LAHORE. 
 
 Non didici gratis, nee sagax Musa Hippocratis 
 
 Aegris in stratis serviet absque datis. 
 
 Sumpta solet care multum medicina juvare 
 
 Si qua datur gratis nil habet utilitatis. 
 
 Res dare pro rebus, pro verbis verba solemus. 
 
 Pro vanis verbis montanis utimur herbis. 
 
 Pro caris rebus, pigmentis et speciebus. 
 
 Est medicinalis medicis data regula talis 
 
 Ut dicant ' da, da,' dum profert languidus, ' ha, ha.' 
 
 Da medicis primo medium, medio, nihil imo. 
 
 Dum dolet infirmus medicus sit pignore firmus. 
 
 Instanter quaere nummos, ut pignus habere. 
 
 Foedus et antiquum conservat pignus amicum, 
 
 Nam si post quaeris, quaerens semper eris. 
 
 From this passage it is evident that the mediaeval 
 patient, like his modern successor, was not satisfied 
 without being ' given something to take ', for, says 
 the writer, ' We are wont to give something in return 
 for money, but for words we give only words,' 
 a remark which he expands lower down into 'for 
 words (i. e. verbal thanks) we give cheap medicines, 
 but for a high fee we give rare and valuable 
 medicines '. 
 
 As an example of the way in which a rich patient 
 was treated it is worth quoting from a poem by Gilles 
 de Corbeil, a noted physician who lived from 1 140 to 
 about 1 2 20 and was physician to Philip Augustus. 1 
 
 1 A short account of him will be found in Croke's book on the 
 Regimen Sanitatis Salermtanum, Oxford, D. A. Talboys, 1830. 
 
 F 2
 
 84 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 
 
 They are from Book II, 1. 68, a poem entitled 
 ' Liber de Virtutibus et Laudibus Compositorum 
 Medicaminum '.* 
 
 Si foecunda magis si rerum plena facultas, 
 
 Larga manus, praegnans loculus, si splendeat auro 
 
 Area, vel argento niteat, domus ampla clientum 
 
 Ferveat obsequio, si deliciosa potentis 
 
 Plus aequo lasciva fames spoliare laboret 
 
 Divitiis elementa suis, si purpura corpus 
 
 Ambiat, aestivum digitis si fulguret aurum, 
 
 Electum gemmata merum si vasa propinent, 
 
 Si magnis se divitiis mens magna coaptet, 
 
 Aggravet hie medicina manum ; sumptus onerosos 
 
 Exigat ; hie positos debet transcendere fines. 
 
 Contundat gemmas molat aurum misceat ambram, 
 
 Balsama non dubitet propriis apponere causis, 
 
 Lignum aloes fervente mero desudet et illi 
 
 Se perdendo suum tribuat mandetque vigorem. 
 
 Jacturam redimit opulentia, cura salutis, 
 
 Hoc quoque, quod proprie geritur custodia vitae. 
 
 This may be broadly rendered : 
 
 ' If the patient be a wealthy man in a high position, 
 fond of display, and one whose life is spent in ac- 
 cordance with his possessions ; if, moreover, his heart 
 is as large as his purse, then the medical man should 
 come down with a heavy hand. Large fees should 
 be demanded, for in a case of this kind the ordinary 
 boundaries may be overstepped. For the medicine 
 let gems and gold be ground up, let amber and the 
 balsams appropriate to the case be added together 
 with a decoction of aloes in wine. The wealth of 
 the patient justifies the expense, as does his anxiety 
 
 1 Quoted by C. Vieillard in his Gilles de Corbeil from Choulant's 
 edition of the poem. The remainder of the quotations are from 
 Leyser, Hist. Poetar. et Poemat. Med. Aev, Halae, 1741.
 
 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 85 
 
 about his health, and the fact that the protection 
 of his life is a matter of personal interest.' 
 
 Like his successor Gaddesden, however, Gilles de 
 Corbeil is by no means unmindful of the poor man, 
 whom he apostrophizes as Codrus (Book II, 1. 91). 
 Gilles had evidently read his Juvenal and Persius : 
 
 Quid faciet Codrus ? Quid Codri curta supellex ? 
 Cujus plebeia vacuus farragine venter 
 Non satis impletur, spasmum patiente crumena 
 Cujus opes modicis depicta sophismata cartis. 
 
 ' But,' he continues, ' because you cannot afford 
 such luxuries as the above in the way of medicine, 
 is that any reason why your health should 
 suffer ? By no means ; simple poverty possesses 
 a medicine which can be bought for three farthings. 
 Beans, a little fat, a cabbage and bread made from 
 " Offals", when taken into the hungry stomach, purges 
 all grossness from the body. Food flavoured by 
 hunger is that which is best assimilated. What is 
 a more certain cure of disease, what a better medicine, 
 than the simple life, and that befitting a lowly 
 establishment ? Pure water and a humble way of 
 life brings greater strength and longer life than the 
 palace of Caesar or Falernian wine, or hunted game, 
 or salmon, tunny, and the pink-fleshed trout ; eaten 
 at the feasts of kings, such things become a weariness 
 to the flesh.' 
 
 Excellent advice, no doubt ; but Codrus, like the 
 patient of to-day, sometimes demanded more. He 
 wanted ' a bottle '. Hence in another passage 
 (Book II, line 725) Gilles describes a medicine called 
 Diacostum, which was given both internally and 
 externally for a splenetic tumour, without fever
 
 86 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 
 
 arising from black gall. He then goes on to describe 
 a poor man who sees himself utterly unable to afford 
 this remedy, and who therefore abuses his physician, 
 saying that he holds himself up as the craftsman and 
 overseer of health, goes about covered with rings, 
 and cares for no one but his rich patients : 
 
 Ars tua divitibus solis, quibus ampla facultas 
 Quos vanos trahit in sumptus opulentia rerum, 
 Servit et optatae praebet solatia vitae. 
 
 When he talks of musk and balsam and other 
 expensive drugs he is talking for Emperors alone, 
 who care for nothing unless it is expensive, but the 
 poor are shut out altogether, ' Sterilesque excludis 
 egenos.' 
 
 After having listened to this complaint Gilles 
 turns on the poor man, setting the key of his rebuke 
 by his opening words, * Stulte, quid exacuis vanis tua 
 verba querelis ? ' He adds that what can't be cured 
 must be endured ; that it is no good to kick against 
 the pricks ; that envy is both judge and executioner, 
 with a number of other aphorisms all very appropriate, 
 if scarcely satisfying. A poor man must be content 
 with his lot, and should remember that the forest 
 offers him plenty of materials for restoring his health 
 without anything to pay. 
 
 All this, however, is mere pose, for in the final 
 section of the poem, which he oddly calls ' Prologus 
 finalis', he gives the following admirable advice to 
 young men and boys whom ' The delphic inspiration 
 incited to the art of the physician'. They are not
 
 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 87 
 
 to be impelled by greed, but kindliness alone, and 
 divine love should urge them to give their service 
 to the poor (Book IV, 1. 1466 et seq.). There is 
 no shame in a poor physician taking proper rewards 
 for his skill, just as Horace took rewards from 
 Maecenas. He continues (line 1481) : 
 
 At si dives eris, si magnis rebus abundans, 
 Aegris pauperibus et munimenta medendi 
 Largius impendas, ut subsidiaria vitae 
 Dona pluas miseris, quo justior est medicinae 
 Fructus et uberior ; nulla ratione recuses 
 Quae tibi nobilium (donat) praelarga virorum 
 Munera nobilitas ; sua namque repletio solvi 
 Debet, ut ariditas foveatur pauperis aegri. 
 Interdum minuendus erit pro paupere dives. 
 
 There is a word missing in line 1486. The sense 
 obviously requires a word like 'gives', so I have 
 supplied donat. It will be noted that the idea of 
 bleeding the rich for the poor is not peculiar to 
 modern Budgets. Gilles concludes his work with 
 the old advice that patients pay more readily while 
 they are still in pain. With patients of the very 
 highest class (line 1494) no agreement for payment 
 need be made beforehand ; if the patient is generous 
 he will pay generously, and if he is mean, then the 
 very fact of having attended a great prince will pay 
 the physician in renown and advertisement. Second- 
 class persons, however, ' homines classique secundae 
 Addictos,' should be strictly bound down to pay, 
 ' Firmis vincire memento Pactorum laqueis.'
 
 88 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 
 
 MEDIAEVAL QUACKS 
 
 The quack and the amateur practitioner were 
 much the same in the Middle Ages as they are now, 
 as is shown by the following verses from the Flos 
 Medicinal : 
 
 Fingit se Medicum quivis idiota, prophanus 
 Judaeus, monachus, histrio, rasor, anus, 
 Sic[uti] Alchemista Medicus fit aut Saponista 
 Aut balneator, falsarius aut oculista 
 Hie dum lucra quaerit virtus in arte perit. 
 
 The quack or the idiota of the Middle Ages was 
 in every way similar to his brother of the present 
 day, with the sole exception that he did not pretend 
 to use electricity or magnetism, for the very good 
 reason that these forms of energy were practically 
 unknown. Even the ' patter ' was the same, as 
 shown by the following passage from Rutebeuf : * 
 
 ' Good people ! I am not one of the poor preachers, 
 nor one of those poor herbalists who go in front of 
 the churches with their shabby ill-sewn cloaks, who 
 carry boxes and bags and spread out (their wares) 
 on a carpet, for they sell pepper and cumin and 
 other spices. 
 
 ' Know that I am not one of them, I belong to 
 a lady whose name is Trote (i.e. Trotula) of Salerno, 
 who makes a kerchief of her ears and whose eyebrows 
 hang down as chains of silver behind her shoulders ; 
 and know that she is the wisest lady in all the four 
 
 1 Flos Medicinae, pars x, civ. 
 
 2 Diz de ferberie : (Euvres completes de Rutebeuf > Jubinal's ed. 
 1874, vol. ii, p. 58. Rutebeuf was a trouvere of the thirteenth 
 century.
 
 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 89 
 
 quarters of the world. And my lady sends us out 
 into many divers lands and countries, into Apulia 
 and Calabria and Tuscany and the Terre de Labour, 
 and Germany and Soissoins and Gascony, Spain, 
 Brie, Champagne, Burgundy, and the Forest of 
 Ardennes, to kill wild beasts and extract ointments 
 from them to give medicines to those who are bodily 
 ill. My lady charged me strictly that into whatever 
 place I should come I should say nothing but what 
 would set a good example to my hearers, and because 
 she made me swear by the Saints before I left, 
 I will now learn you the cure for worms if you will 
 hear me. Will you hear me ? 
 
 ' Is no gentleman here going to ask from what 
 worms come ? I will tell you. They come from 
 cooked up meats and from wines in casks or bottle, 
 so they grow in the body by heat and humours, for 
 so say the philosophers all things are created, and 
 they mount towards the heart, and then you die of 
 a malady which is called sudden death. Mark you 
 this well, and God guard you. 
 
 ' And for the cure the best herb in all the world is 
 ermoize. ... In Champagne, where I was born, they 
 call it Marreborc, which is as much as to say the 
 mother of the herbs. Take three roots of this, five 
 leaves of sage, three leaves of plantain, beat them in 
 a brass mortar with an iron pestel, and drink the 
 juice for three mornings running the first thing in 
 the morning and you will be cured of your worms. 
 
 ' Take off your hats, lend me your ears, and look 
 at the herbs which my lady sends into this land and 
 country ; and because she wishes that the poor 
 should be as well in the future as the rich, she told 
 me to make pennyworths of them, for many a one 
 has a penny in his purse who has not ^"5, and she 
 said that I might take pennies of the money current 
 in any land whither I may come, a Paris penny in
 
 90 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 
 
 Paris, an Orleans penny in Orleans, a Chartres 
 penny in Chartres, and a penny sterling in London 
 which is in England, for good bread and wine for 
 myself and for good hay and oats for my pack horse, 
 and for anything else I may want to live. And if 
 there be any here who is so poor or so lonely or 
 hungry that he has nothing to give, let him come 
 forward and I will give him one hand for the sake 
 of God and the other for the sake of His mother. . . . 
 
 ' These herbs, you will not eat them, for there is 
 no ox nor no war horse, be they never so strong, 
 but if they had a piece of these herbs on their 
 tongues as big as a pea would presently die an evil 
 death, for they are so strong and bitter, but what is 
 bitter in the mouth comforteth the heart. Steep them 
 three days in good white wine ; if you have no white 
 take red, if you have no red take brown, if you have 
 no brown take fair clear water, for many a man has 
 a well before his door who has not a cask of wine in 
 his cellar. 
 
 ' Take it the first thing in the morning for thirteen 
 mornings ; if you miss one take another, for there is 
 no mystery about them ; and I tell you by the passion 
 of God that you will be cured from all disorders and 
 disease, from quartan fevers, from gout. . . . And if 
 my father and mother were in peril of death and 
 were to ask me for the best herb I could give them 
 I should give them these. This is how I sell my 
 herbs and ointments ; if you want them come and 
 take them, if you don't want to, let them alone.' 
 
 It must be remembered that in some instances the 
 quack's remedy was less nauseous and yet quite as 
 efficacious as those of the orthodox practitioner. 
 Take the following prescription from Gaddesden for 
 the stone (Rosa Aug., fol. 124 verso, col. i) :
 
 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 91 
 
 ' Habui unum calculosum quern per longum tempus 
 non potui sanare, tandem feci colligi scarabaeos 
 multos qui inveniuntur in stercoribus bourn in 
 aestate et cicadas quae cantant in campis et ablatis 
 capitibus et alis de cicadis, posui illas cum scarabaeis 
 in oleo communi in olla : tune obturata olla posui hanc 
 in forno in quo fuit tarde panis et dimisi ibi per 
 diem et noctem : et extracta tune olla ad ignem 
 calefeci modicum et totum simul contrivi, et renes et 
 pectinem inunxi et intra triduum cessavit dolor et 
 lapis comminutus et fractus exivit.' 
 
 He also gave the patient ' fisticadary et fisticos 
 sicut si esset panis'. 1 It is sad to say that so far 
 as the crickets go this prescription is a shameless 
 plagiarism from Arnold de Villanova. 2 
 
 But in spite of their extraordinary remedies 
 Gaddesden and other educated leeches of the time 
 had at least studied medicine, in so far as any study 
 was possible ; they had read such books on the 
 subject as were available, and we may believe that 
 in general they would try to act up to the admirable 
 advice contained in Arnold Villanova's works com- 
 mencing ' Mark that the leech ', which was quoted 
 above. There was no General Medical Council or 
 Medical Register in those days, but instead the law 
 did protect practitioners who had obtained a medical 
 degree or a licence to practise, and severe measures 
 were meted out to the quack; for instance, in 1381 
 one Roger Clerk was attached before the Lord 
 
 1 Fistici are pistachio nuts. 
 
 8 Ed. Basil, Op. Omnia, 1585, p. 1269 D.
 
 92 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 
 
 Mayor for pretending to be a physician and for 
 having asserted that he could cure a woman. The 
 cure consisted in making her wear a parchment with 
 the well-known adjuration Anima Christi written 
 therein. The woman did not get any better, and to 
 the end that the people might not be deceived he 
 was led through the City on a horse without a saddle, 
 the said parchment round his neck and a urinal hung 
 in front and another behind. 1 
 
 THE POPULAR VIEW OF THE MEDICAL MAN. 
 
 It is plain, however, that the popular estimate of 
 the ' qualified ' leech in mediaeval times was by no 
 means flattering, although the profession is not 
 scoffed at in the same way as are the regular clergy, 
 the friars, and occasionally the parish priests. These 
 last, in England at any rate, seem to have won the 
 affection of the populace, although a different story 
 is told in Germany and Italy. 2 Some seven hundred 
 years before the time of Gaddesden, namely in the 
 year 600 A. D,, Isidorus Hispalensis, who was Bishop 
 of Seville, wrote a work called Liber Etymologiarum, 
 which was an encyclopaedia of the knowledge of his 
 time, and it naturally contained a chapter on medicine. 
 In Book IV, cap. 4, of the edition printed in Venice 
 in 1483 by P. Loslein, fol. 20 recto, col. i, there is 
 the following passage : 
 
 1 H. Riley, Memorials of London, p. 466. 
 
 * See Tyll Euknspiegel, the Decameron, and Reynard the Fox.
 
 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 93 
 
 ' Hi itaque tres viri totidem hereses invenerunt. 
 Prima metodica inventa est ab Apolline, quae 
 remedia sectatur et carmina. Secunda empirica, 
 id est experientissima, inventa est ab Aesculapio, 
 quae non indiciorum signis, sed solis constat 
 experimentis. Tertia logica, id est rationalis, 
 inventa ab Hippocrate. Iste enim discussis 
 aetatum, regionum, vel aegritudinum qualitati- 
 bus, artis curam rationabiliter perscrutatus est. 
 Empirici enim experientiam solam sectantur ; logici 
 experientiae rationem adjungunt ; metodici nee 
 elementorum rationem observant, nee tempora, nee 
 aetates, nee causas, sed solas morborum substantias.' 
 
 In view of the connexion of Hippocrates with 
 ' logical and rational ' practice, it is noteworthy that 
 in the two great mediaeval medical schools of Salerno 
 and Montpellier, Hippocrates and Galen were the 
 two authors whose works were especially studied. 
 Salerno, indeed, was called Ci vitas Hippocratica ; 
 Montpellier, though commending the study of Hippo- 
 crates, seems to have held Galen in the greater 
 esteem. 
 
 Isidore in cap. 13 of the same book lays down 
 what was considered necessary for a physician of his 
 day to know. 
 
 ' It is sometimes asked why the art of medicine is 
 not included among the other liberal arts. It is 
 because they deal with single causes, but medicine 
 with all. For a medical man should know the ars 
 grammatica, that he may be able to understand and 
 expound that which he reads ; and the ars rhetorica, 
 that he may be able to support with sound arguments 
 the matters which he deals with ; and also the ars
 
 94 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 
 
 dialectica, so that by the exercise of reason he may 
 investigate the causes of sickness for the purposes of 
 cure. So too he should know the ars arithmetica, 
 so as to calculate the times of the accession (of fever) 
 and its periods ; and he should be acquainted with 
 the ars geometrica, so that he may teach what every 
 man ought to consider with regard to different 
 districts and the lie of different places ( " qualitates 
 regionum et locorum situs"). Moreover, he must 
 know something of music, for many things can be 
 done for the sick by means of this art, as we read 
 that David delivered Saul from the evil spirit by 
 means of music. Asclepiades restored a madman to 
 his former health by means of a concord of sounds 
 (symphonic?). Lastly, let him have a knowledge of 
 astronomy by means of which he may understand 
 the calculation of the stars and the changes of the 
 seasons. For as a physician says, our bodies are 
 affected (commutantur) by their qualities, and there- 
 fore medicine is called a second philosophy ; for either 
 art arrogates to itself the whole man, since by the 
 one the soul and by the other the body is cured.' 
 
 Nearly six hundred years later John of Salisbury, 
 one of the leaders of mediaeval thought, who was 
 born 1115-1120, who studied in France and was 
 acquainted with Montpellier, wrote about the year 
 1159 a treatise called Polycraticus, sive de nugis 
 Curialium et Vestigiis Pkilosopkorum. 1 A chapter 
 of this is well worth study on account of the views 
 therein expressed of the medical profession as it 
 appeared to a leading philosopher of the day. In 
 the previous chapter he had written against those 
 who consulted diviners and magicians, and the 29th 
 1 Migne, Patrol. Laf., vol. cxcix.
 
 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 95 
 
 chapter opens as follows l : Physicians by this time 
 were divided into theorici and practici. 
 
 1 And yet it is lawful for some one to be consulted 
 about the future, as for instance in the case of any 
 one who is full of the spirit of prophecy, or from the 
 teachings of Medicine has learned the natural signs 
 that may be expected to occur in animal bodies, 
 or has drawn differences from past experience as 
 to the conditions which will exist in the immediate 
 future. To the latter, however, let no one lend 
 an ear in so far as they may impugn either faith or 
 religion. 
 
 ' Neither are the former to be listened to except in 
 so far as what they say is of the Lord and is in no 
 way contrary to religion, for truth cannot be contrary 
 to truth nor good to good. But the physicians, while 
 they attribute too much authority to Nature, cast 
 aside the Author of Nature, withstanding the faith. 
 
 * Not that I would charge them all with errors, 
 although I have heard many of them disputing 
 otherwise than faith would have it about the soul, its 
 energies and working, about the growth and decline 
 of the body, about its resurrection, and about the 
 creation of bodies both natural and spiritual. 
 Sometimes they talk about GOD Himself 
 
 " As if earth-born giants were to attempt the stars," 
 and by their empty toil appear to be anxious to 
 deserve the fate of Enceladus and to have placed 
 upon them the fiery burden of Etna. 
 
 ' In matters of this kind, however, it is easy to fall 
 away, for however great be the natural parts, they 
 are brought to a stand upon this side of the abyss of 
 difficulty which is found in supernatural affairs. 
 
 1 Joannes Sarisburiensis, Polycraticus, ed. Migne, cap. xxix, 
 col. 475. loannis Saresberiensis, Policraticus : ed. C. C.J.Webb, 
 vol. i, p. 166. Clarendon Press, 1909.
 
 96 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 
 
 Where, then, the intellect fails, and the reasoning of 
 faith is absent, that mental process which lies between 
 the two, namely conjecture, alone remains. But 
 when the matter under discussion is of an inferior 
 nature, take for instance the physical constitution 
 of the animal body, or the cause and cure of sickness, 
 nothing is wanting to them, except the accomplish- 
 ment of their work, if indeed that is what they desire. 
 
 ' The theoretical physicians do what concerns them, 
 and for love of you will even go further. You can 
 get from them information as to the nature and causes 
 of particular phenomena, they are judges of health, 
 of sickness, and of the mean state. Health, so far 
 as words go, they provide and preserve, and as 
 concerning the mean state they bid one incline in the 
 direction of health. Of sickness they foresee and 
 declare the causes, and lay down its beginning, its 
 continuance, and its decline. What more shall I say ? 
 When I hear them talk I fancy that they can raise 
 the dead and are in no way inferior to either 
 Aesculapius or Mercury. 
 
 ' And yet with all my admiration I am much 
 troubled at one matter, and that is they are so 
 singularly at variance in their discussions and in the 
 opinions which are drawn from them. For this one 
 thing I do know, that contraries cannot both be true 
 at the same time. 
 
 ' Again, what shall I say about the practising 
 physicians ? 
 
 ' God forbid that I should say anything bad about 
 them ! since for my sins I fall only too often into their 
 hands. They should rather be soothed by politeness 
 than angered by words, and I do not wish that they 
 should treat me hardly, nor could I endure all the 
 evils about which they constantly talk. I would 
 rather say with blessed Solomon, ' All medicine is 
 from the Lord, and he that is wise will not despise it.'
 
 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 97 
 
 ' Nor is any one more useful or more necessary than 
 the physician so that he be faithful and full of 
 foresight. For who can say enough in his praise 
 who is the craftsman of health and the begetter of 
 life in that he takes after the Lord and stands in his 
 place, for that health which the Lord gives as a 
 Prince, the physician, as steward and minister, 
 administrates and dispenses. 
 
 ' It is of little moment if some physicians sell an 
 imaginary benefit, and that they may appear the 
 more honest take no fee before the patient is 
 well. But such are dishonest in that they give 
 themselves the credit for a recovery which is due to 
 time, or rather to the gift of God ; for it is due to 
 God and to the natural powers of his constitution 
 that the sick man is raised up. Few are they who 
 act in this way, for you will always hear physicians 
 advising one another as follows : " take your fee 
 while the patient still feels ill." 
 
 ' Personally I do not care much if their actions and 
 advice are in opposition, for I know that contraries 
 often produce the same effect. But if a patient of 
 theirs should come near death they will put forward 
 the most cogent reasons for showing that his life 
 should be no more prolonged. And, too, it is said 
 that for those whom they have broken down by long 
 fasting and who are at the point of death they will 
 provide absolutely useless broths and delicate meats. 
 Perhaps you look for me to say, what the common 
 people say, that physicians are the class of men who 
 kill other men in the most polite and courteous 
 manner. Well, you will be disappointed ; God forbid 
 that I should do them this injury! But if you want 
 to hear them talked of in such a style I refer you to 
 Seneca, to Pliny, and to Sidonius Apollinaris, who 
 will fill your ears with discourses much to the point.' 
 
 The passage of Sidonius to which John of Salisbury 
 
 1302 G
 
 98 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 
 
 refers is as follows. It occurs in his letters, Bk. ii, 
 letter xii, addressed to Agricola. 
 
 ' Igitur ardori civitatis atque torpori, tarn nos quam 
 domum totam, praevio Christo, pariter eximimus, 
 simulque medicorum consilia vitamus assidentum 
 dissidentumque, qui parum docti et satis seduli 
 languidos multos officiosissime occidunt. Sane 
 contubernio nostro jure amicitiae Justus adhibebitur, 
 quern, si jocari libet in tristibus, facile convincerem 
 Chironica magis institutum arte quam Machaonica ; 
 quo diligentius postulandus est Christus obsecrandus- 
 que ut valetudini, cujus curationem cura nostra non 
 invenit, potentia superna medeatur/ 
 
 The subject of the letter is the health of his 
 daughter Severiana, and he excuses himself from going 
 fishing with Agricola on account of her illness 
 because they are going to the country. 
 
 4 Therefore/ he continues, ' we and our household, 
 Christ being our leader, have left the heat and 
 weariness of the City, and at the same time the 
 opinions of the physicians, who attend us and con- 
 tend with each other. For they have but little 
 learning, and although they are assiduous in atten- 
 tion kill a large number of sick people in a most 
 dutiful manner. But as a matter of friendship 
 Justus (the physician) has joined our company, who, 
 if I may joke at such a sad time, is, I would say, more 
 skilled in the art of Chiron than in that of Machaon. 
 And therefore Christ is to be most earnestly besought, 
 
 1 ' Chironica magis quam Machaonica.' Messrs. J. F. Gregoire 
 and F. Z. Collombet in their edition of Sidonius (Lyons and 
 Paris, 1836) point out that by his remark Sidonius did not mean 
 to depreciate Chiron's skill, but merely to pun upon the double 
 meaning of x^wv as a name and xeipw meaning ' worse '.
 
 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 99 
 
 that the divine power may restore that health which 
 our care has been unable to bring about.' 
 
 As to Pliny, the passages referred to are evidently 
 the opening chapters of Book xxix of the Historia, 
 Naturalis. They seem to have been a locus 
 classicus, as to the idea held by laymen about 
 medical men in the Middle Ages, for they were 
 quoted by Petrarch in the excerpts given below. 
 
 The Seneca passage is to be found in the De 
 Beneficiis, vi. 36 : 
 
 ' Gravissima infamia est medici opus quaerere. 
 Multi quos auxerant morbos et inritaverant, ut 
 majore gloria sanarent, non potuerunt discutere aut 
 cum magna miserorum vexatione vicerunt.' 
 
 The well-known lines of Chaucer concerning the 
 Doctor of Physic must be quoted : 
 
 With us ther was a DOCTOUR of PHISYK, 
 
 In al this world ne was ther noon him lyk 
 
 To speke of phisik and of surgerye ; 
 
 For he was grounded in astronomye. 
 
 He kepte his pacient a ful greet del 
 
 In houres, by his magik naturel. 
 
 Wei coude he fortunen the ascendent 
 
 Of his images for his pacient. 
 
 He knew the cause of everich maladye, 
 
 Were it of hoot or cold, or moiste, or drye, 
 
 And where engendred, and of what humour; 
 
 He was a verrey parfit practisour. 
 
 The cause y-knowe, and of his harm the rote, 
 
 Anon he yaf the seke man his bote. 
 
 Full redy had he his apothecaries, 
 
 To send him drogges and his letuaries, 
 
 G 2
 
 too THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 
 
 For ech of hem made other for to winne ; 
 His frendschipe was nat newe to beginne. 
 Wei knew he the olde Esculapius, 
 And Deiscorides, and eek Rufus, 
 Old Ypocras, Haly, and Galien ; 
 Serapion, Razis, and Avicen ; 
 Averrois, Damascien, and Constantyn ; 
 Bernard, and Gatesden, and Gilbertyn. 
 Of his diete mesurable was he, 
 For it was of no superfluitee, 
 But of greet norissing and digestible. 
 His study was but litel on the Bible. 
 In sangwin and in pers he clad was al, 
 Lyned with taffata and with sendal ; 
 And yet he was but esy of dispence ; 
 He kepte that he wan in pestilence. 
 For gold in phisik is a cordial, 
 Therfore he lovede gold in special. 
 
 In Langland's Vision of Piers Ploughman the 
 Ploughman appeals to Hunger as follows : * 
 
 3et I prey 3ow ; quod Pieres par charite, and 36 kunne 
 Eny leef of lechecraft lere it me, my dere. 
 For somme of my seruauntz and my-self bothe 
 Of al a wyke worche nou3t so owre wombe aketh. 
 
 Hunger thereupon tells him that he has eaten too 
 much, and that he should never drink without eat- 
 ing. Neither should he eat unless hungry, and ' Lat 
 no3t Sir Surfait sitten at thi borde '. 
 
 Hunger concludeshis advice as follows (11. 270-279) : 
 And 3if thow diete the thus I dar legge myne eres, 
 That Phisik shal his furred hodes for his fode selle, 
 
 1 Skeat's ed., Clarendon Press, 1886. B. Passus vi. 1. 255.
 
 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 101 
 
 And his cloke of Calabre * -with alle the knappes of 
 
 golde, 
 
 And be fayne, bi my feith his phisik to lete, 
 And lerne to laboure with londe for lyflode is swete; 
 For morthereres aren mony leches lorde hem 
 
 amende ! 
 Thei do men deye thorw here drynkes ar destine 
 
 it wolde. 
 ' By seynt Poule' quod Pieres ' thise aren profitable 
 
 wordis 
 Wende now, Hunger, whan thow wolt that wel be 
 
 thow euere 
 For this is a louely lessoun lorde it the for-3elde ! ' 
 
 But perhaps the most remarkable and lowest 
 estimate of physicians is that to be found in the works 
 of Petrarch, 1304-73. 
 
 He had a hatred of physicians, and wrote four 
 books of Invectives against them, and from the 
 Venice edition of his works, dated 1503, Brit. Mus. 
 Catalogue 11421, K. 13, I have extracted the follow- 
 ing passages. No. i is a letter to the Pope, which 
 serves as the origin of and preface to the four books 
 of Invectives. No. 2 is from the first book, and 
 No. 3 from the second book. 
 
 Apparently it was the universal mediaeval tradition 
 that medical men were always pale. 
 
 1 A letter of Franciscus Petrarcha, the most eminent 
 poet and orator to the Roman Pontiff Clement VI, 
 exhorting him to avoid the mob of medical men. 
 And the abuse which medical men poured upon him 
 
 1 Calabre, a grey fur from Calabria, the belly of which was black. 
 Knappes are knobs, or buttons.
 
 102 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 
 
 on this account gave rise to the four books of 
 Invectives which he afterwards wrote. 
 
 ( i ) ' The news of your fever, Your Blessedness, made 
 me shudder with horror in all my limbs. I do not 
 say this out of mere politeness, nor like him of whom 
 the satirist says, 1 " He weeps if he sees his friends 
 cry," or again, " If his friend says' I am hot' he sweats 
 at once " ; but rather I follow his example, of whom 
 Cicero tells us, who was anxious about the health of 
 the Roman people because he saw that it involved 
 his own. For not only my own well-being but also 
 that of many is founded on yours. My fear, therefore, 
 is no pretence, neither am I anxious about another's 
 danger, but about my own, for all we who depend 
 upon you, and whose hope is in you, may appear to 
 be well when you are sick, but we are not so. 
 
 ' Because, therefore, in this matter, any discourse 
 which is poured forth from a human mouth into 
 divine ears should be short, I, who am lowly in mind 
 and of a reverential spirit, will be brief. 
 
 ', I know that your sick bed is continually besieged 
 by physicians, a fact which is my chief cause of 
 terror, for they disagree of set purpose, and even he 
 who can bring forth nothing new is ashamed to follow 
 in the footsteps of another. 
 
 ' Neither is there any doubt (as Pliny gracefully says) 
 that they are always hunting after renown for some 
 novelty and so traffic in our lives. Also in this 
 art alone does it happen that a man is taken at his 
 own valuation, and that any one who holds himself 
 out as a physician is at once accepted as such ; but 
 although in no form of fraud is there greater danger, 
 yet we do not regard it, so great is the attraction of 
 a man's own particular delusion. Besides there is no 
 
 1 Juvenal, Hi. too et seq.
 
 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 103 
 
 law to punish human ignorance, no exemplary 
 capital penalty ; l they learn by our danger and gain 
 experience through our death. The physician alone 
 can kill a man with absolute impunity. 
 
 ' Remember, therefore, most gracious Father, the 
 epitaph of that unhappy man who ordered nothing 
 to be inscribed upon his tomb but " I died from a 
 mob of physicians ", and let the memory turn your 
 attention from that mob which like an enemy's host 
 (now surround you). 
 
 ' The prophecy of M. Cato the elder seems to apply 
 especially to this our own time, namely that whenever 
 the Greeks should hand down to us their learning, 
 and above all their medical men, they would corrupt 
 all things. 
 
 ' In the present day, however, we do not venture to 
 live without physicians, although unnumbered mighty 
 nations live very much more happily and healthily 
 without them than we do, to say nothing of the 
 Roman people who flourished exceedingly, as Pliny 
 says, for more than six hundred years. 
 
 ' Therefore I implore you, choose one out of the 
 many who surround you, not on account of his 
 eloquence, but as being conspicuous for his know- 
 ledge and trustworthiness ; for now, forgetful of 
 their own profession, they have dared to come forth 
 from their lairs and seek the grove of the poet and 
 the rhetorician's field of action, and, not with any idea 
 of healing, but merely to gain a dialectical advantage, 
 they surround the beds of our unhappy sick and 
 dispute with mighty bellowings. 
 
 'Moreover, when the sick are dying, though the end 
 be unfortunate they give themselves airs by tangling 
 up Hippocratic problems in a web of Ciceronian 
 oratory. (" Hippocraticos nodos Tulliano stamine 
 
 1 Pliny's words are ' capitale nullum exemplum ', but Petrarch 
 omits the capitale.
 
 104 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 
 
 permiscentes, sinistro quamvis eventu superbiunt ") ; 
 nor do they brag about the efficiency of their 
 remedies and treatment, but only of the empty 
 prettiness of their language. 
 
 ' Lest any one of your physicians should say that I 
 am inventing, I have rested my arguments nearly all 
 through this letter upon him whom I so often quote, 
 namely Pliny, for he constantly mentions medical 
 men, and speaks of them more often and more truly 
 than any one else. Let them therefore hear 
 him. It is obvious, he says, that any one among 
 them who has a fluent tongue (loquendo polleai] 
 on that account becomes master of our life and 
 death. But my pen has carried me far beyond 
 the limits which I had set myself, so let me here 
 make an end, by telling you to shun a physician who 
 is eminent not for his knowledge but solely for his 
 powers of speech, as you would a lurking assassin or 
 a poisoner.' 
 
 (2) ' In this point, too, we disagree, in that you say 
 that the performances of medical men are wonderful. 
 What performances, I ask you, unless you reckon 
 this among the miracles, that you among all classes 
 of men are nearly always ill. And so among large 
 populations one can always tell your complexion by 
 its pallor.' 
 
 In cap. 1 8 of Bk. ii he enlarges upon this point 
 in the following words. I have not translated them, 
 for they require the pen of a Swift to do them 
 justice. 
 
 (3) ' Ostendam tibi ego, qui non sum medicus, et 
 logica careo, palloris tui causam, quam veram esse 
 senties, vel invitus. Is per loca atra, livida, foetida, 
 pallida. Undantes pelves rimaris, aegrotantium uri- 
 nas adspicis, aurum cogitas. Quid igitur miri est, 
 si tot circum pallidis, atris ac croceis, ipse quoque sis
 
 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 105 
 
 pallidus, ater ac croceus ? Et si grex ille providen- 
 tissimi patriarchae colorem traxit, objectu virgarum 
 variarum, quid novi accidit, si tu quoque expectas, 
 ut ab auro dicam. Immo vero ab objectis. Mul- 
 tum distuli, ac libentius tacerem, sed materia verum 
 nomen exigit, quodsi saepe in libris sacris est, semel 
 in his scriptum tolerabitur : ab objectis inquam, ster- 
 coribus, et colorem, et odorem traxeris et saporem.' 
 
 In connexion with the phrase ' et logica careo' it 
 is interesting to note that logic was laid down as 
 being necessary for a medical man in the decree of 
 Frederick II quoted above. 
 
 The regulations for the duties of the medical man, 
 and the fee which he was allowed to charge, were 
 laid down in the statute of Frederick II De Medicis, a 
 portion of which has been already referred to at p. 21. 
 The remainder deals with fees, &c., and is as follows: 
 Every physician was to visit his patients at least 
 twice in the day, and at the request of the patient 
 once at night. His fee, within the City, was not to 
 be more than half a gold tarenus l or, if outside 
 the City, three tareni and his expenses, or four tareni 
 if he paid his expenses himself. He was not to be 
 in partnership with an apothecary, or to undertake a 
 cure for a fixed sum, or to keep an apothecary's shop. 
 Apothecaries were to compound their drugs at their 
 own expense, which was to be certified by a medical 
 man, and were to take oath that they would compound 
 them according to the prescribed forms. Simple 
 
 1 A tarenus was a gold coin weighing twenty grains, which 
 would now be worth four shillings and twopence.
 
 106 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 
 
 drugs which were not kept in stock for more than a 
 year were to be sold at three tareni an ounce. Others 
 might go to six tareni. 
 
 De Medicis Lib. iii, Tit. xlvi. 
 
 ' Iste medicus visitabit egrotos suos ad minus bis 
 in die et ad requisitionem infirmi semel in nocte, a 
 quo non recipiet per diem si pro eo non egrediatur 
 civitatem vel castrum ultra dimidium tarenum auri. 
 Ab infirmo autem quern extra civitatem visitat, non 
 recipiat per diem ultra tres tarenos cum expensis in- 
 firmi vel ultra quattuor tarenos cum expensis suis. 
 Non contrahat societatem cum confectionariis nee 
 recipiat aliquem sub cura sua ad expensas pro certa 
 pretii quantitate, nee ipse etiam habeat propriam 
 stationem. Confectionarii vero facient confectionem 
 expensis suis cum testimonio medicorum, juxta for- 
 mam constitutionis nostre, nee admittentur ad hoc ut 
 teneant confectiones nisi prestito juramento : omnes 
 confectiones suas secundum predictam formam facient 
 sine fraude. Lucrabitur autem stationarius de con- 
 fectionibus suis, secundum istum modum : de confe- 
 ctionibus et simplicibus medicinis quae non consueve- 
 runt teneri in apothecis ultra annum a tempore em- 
 ptionis, pro qualibet uncia poterit et licebit tres 
 tarenos lucrari. De aliis vero quae ex natura medica- 
 minum vel ex alia causa ultra annum in apotheca 
 tenentur, pro qualibet uncia licebit lucrari sex tarenos. 
 Nee stationes hujusmodi erunt ubique, sed in certis 
 civitatibus per regnum ut inferius describitur.' 
 
 ANATOMY AND THE DECREE OF POPE BONIFACE VIII. 
 
 It has frequently been stated that anatomy was 
 looked upon by the Church with horror, and that the 
 practice of dissecting human bodies was prohibited
 
 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 107 
 
 by a Decree of Boniface VIII. The study of human 
 anatomy was, however, if not encouraged, at least 
 not prohibited, for Mondinus, circa 1300, used to 
 study human anatomy by dissection, and, as has 
 already been mentioned, the Emperor Frederick II 
 ordered that all surgeons should undergo a course 
 of human anatomy before being allowed to practise. 
 The decree of Pope Boniface dealt with an entirely 
 different matter. The practice against which the 
 decree was issued was that of boiling down corpses 
 on the battlefield, so that the bones might be brought 
 home for burial. This custom obtained in the army 
 of Barbarossa and also in the Crusades. Probably 
 the decree was taken to forbid the mutilation of 
 human bodies for any purpose other than punitive, 
 but the original intention had nothing to do with 
 learning (Appendix C). Even vivisection of human 
 beings was not unknown both to surgeons and lay- 
 men of an inquiring turn of mind. 
 
 Salimbene, in his Chronicle, tells the following tale 
 of the Emperor Frederick 1 1 : 
 
 ' He fed two men most excellently at dinner, one 
 of whom he sent forthwith to sleep, and the other to 
 hunt ; and that same evening he caused them to be 
 disembowelled in his presence, wishing to know 
 which had digested better, and it was judged by the 
 physicians in favour of him who had slept/ 1 
 
 In a recently published work by the same author, 
 
 1 Coulton, From St. Francis to Dante, Duckworth & Co., 
 1908, p. 243.
 
 io8 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 
 
 a perfect storehouse of mediaeval lore, 1 is the follow- 
 ing story translated from the ' God's dealings ' of 
 Guibert de Nogent, col. 798 ; Guibert de Nogent 
 was born 1053, and became Abbot of Nogent sur 
 Coucy. He died about 1123. 
 
 ' Baldwin (afterwards King of Jerusalem) had been 
 wounded in battle while he rescued a foot soldier of 
 his army with whose bravery he was much delighted. 
 The leech whom he summoned feared in his foresight 
 lest the cataplasm outwardly applied might film over 
 the wound, which, as he knew, had pierced deep into 
 the prince's body ; he feared, therefore, lest, while the 
 skin grew smooth over the wound, it might rankle 
 inwardly with a mass of putrid matter. This he 
 foresaw in his wondrous skill, partly by a most praise- 
 worthy conjecture, and partly from past experience. 
 He therefore besought the king to command that one 
 of the Saracen prisoners (for it would have been 
 wicked to ask it of a Christian) should be wounded 
 in that same place and afterwards slain ; whereby he 
 might inquire at better leisure in the dead man's 
 body, nay, might clearly perpend from its examina- 
 tion how it was with the king's wound at the very 
 bottom. 
 
 ' From this, however, the prince's lovingkindness 
 shrank in horror ; and he repeated that ancient 
 example of the Emperor Constantine, who utterly 
 refused to become the cause of any man's death, even 
 of the basest, for so small a chance of his own safety. 
 Then said the doctor: "If indeed thou art resolved 
 to take no man's life for the sake of thine own cure, 
 then at least send for a bear, a beast that is no use 
 but to be baited ; let him stand erect on his hinder 
 paws with his fore feet raised, and bid them thrust 
 
 1 Coulton, A Mediaeval Garner, Constable & Co., 1910, p. 55.
 
 THE MEDIAEVAL PHYSICIAN 109 
 
 him with the steel ; then by inspection of his bowels 
 after death, I may in some degree measure how deep 
 that wound is, and how deep thine own." 
 
 ' Then said the king : " We will not strain at the 
 beast, if need be, do therefore as thou wilt." Where- 
 upon it was done as the leech bade; and he discovered 
 from the proof of the wild beast how perilous it 
 would have been for the king if the lips of the wound 
 had become united before the matter had been drawn 
 forth and the bottom had grown together. Let this 
 suffice concerning the king's pitifulness.' 
 
 The Saracen captive was certainly fortunate in 
 not being a prisoner of Frederick II.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE STUDIES OF 
 
 MEDICINE IN OXFORD IN THE 
 
 FOURTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 AND PREVIOUSLY 
 
 INFORMATION as to a teaching School of Medicine 
 in Oxford during and before the fourteenth century 
 is scanty in the extreme. The tradition as to 
 a School of Medicine ' which we find established in 
 the twelfth century', and 'which can hardly have 
 been other than Jewish V has, despite the authority 
 of Mr. C. W. Boase and Mr. J. R. Green, apparently 
 no foundation in fact. Neubauer 2 quotes Boase's 
 statement in what may be called a negative manner. 
 As my own knowledge on the matter was next 
 to nothing, I was forced to apply to those who 
 had much, and I wish to record in this place my 
 gratitude to them for their kindness and help. 
 Mr. I. Abrahams, Reader in Rabbinical Literature 
 at Cambridge, wrote, ' I do not believe myself in 
 a Jewish Medical School at Oxford in the Middle 
 Ages.' Mr. J. M. Rigg, of Lincoln's Inn, says that 
 his researches into mediaeval Jewish History have 
 
 1 Historic Towns : Oxford; Short History of the English People. 
 
 2 ' Notes on the Jews at Oxford,' Oxford Hist. Soc., Collectanea, 
 1890, vol. ii.
 
 STUDY OF MEDICINE IN OXFORD in 
 
 in no way tended to confirm the statement. Neither 
 the late Professor Steinschneider of Berlin nor 
 Mr. A. Weiner of London believed in the School, 
 and finally Dr. R. L. Poole says that he does not 
 believe that there is any evidence for a School of 
 Medicine at Oxford, either Jewish or Christian, at 
 the date mentioned. 
 
 There is, however, evidence of medical teaching at 
 Oxford before A. D. 1 200, for Robert Grosseteste, 
 afterwards Bishop of Lincoln, had while at Oxford, 
 which he left on the first occasion before 1200, 
 acquired sufficient medical knowledge to be physician 
 to the bishop. At a later date, Adam de Marisco, 
 writer to Grosseteste, about the year A.D. 1250 says : 
 
 ' Cum venissem ad Oxoniam . . . locutus sum etiam 
 cum magistro Reginaldo de Stokes, meclico, viro 
 mature et honesto, in artibus et in medicina provecto 
 et experto, quern et conversatio socialis, et circum- 
 specta discretio, et sermo maturus, et timorata 
 devotio, juxta fide dignorum assertionem, plurimum 
 reddit acceptum.' 
 
 He goes on to advise that Reginald be taken into 
 the Bishop's service. 1 
 
 That there were leeches (Medici) in Oxford in the 
 twelfth century is evident from a story given by 
 Dr. T. E. Holland 2 concerning the cure of a student, 
 date circa 1180. The passage is taken from the 
 Ada Sanctorum, Octobris, t. viii, p. 579, being 
 
 1 Monumenta Franciscana, vol. i, p. 113 ; Rolls Series. 
 
 2 Oxford Hist. Soc., Collectanea, vol. ii ; 1890. 'The Twelfth 
 Century University.'
 
 ii2 STUDY OF MEDICINE IN OXFORD 
 
 a portion of the Historia Miraculorum Sanctae 
 Frideswidae Virginis, cum prologo, per Philippum 
 ejusdem Monasterii Prior em : 
 
 ' Morabatur eo tempore apud Oxenefordiam, stu- 
 diorum causa, clericus quidam Stephanus nomine, de 
 Eboracensi regione oriundus, aetate juvenili floridus, 
 et elegantia formae praeclarus. Is febre cotidiana 
 correptus, ad medicorum confugit auxilium, inanibus 
 se sumptibus eviscerans, languoris acerbitate singulis 
 ingravescente diebus. Ad divinum igitur, tanquam 
 ad ultimum, cum jam deficerethumanum, convolavit 
 adjutorium, et cum jam, nimia macie confecta, vix sibi 
 membra cohererent, oculis liventibus, facie pallida, 
 Virginis gloriosae patrocinium implorabat. Mox 
 itaque, ut aquae benedictae poculum hausit de cetero 
 febrilis fatigatio conquievit. Et redeuntibus paulisper 
 viribus in brevi ad plenum convaluit.' 
 
 Prior Philip succeeded his predecessor in 1 1 80, 
 and in the first year of his office translated the 
 remains of the Saint, whereupon many miracles 
 happened. 
 
 Whether the medici upon whom poor Stephen 
 wasted his substance, with the same results as did 
 the woman with the issue of blood mentioned in the 
 Gospels, were Jewish or Christian there is no record, 
 but this is the earliest record of leeches in Oxford 
 that I have been able to find. There were, however, 
 two medical or quasi-medical charities founded circa 
 the twelfth century, one being a hospital for lepers 
 dedicated to St. Bartholomew and the other the 
 Hospital of St. John Baptist which was just outside 
 the East Gate, but these will be more conveniently
 
 IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 113 
 
 dealt with when considering the question of what 
 opportunities Gaddesden may have had of learning 
 his profession. 
 
 The medical books which he was probably obliged 
 to have read or heard before supplicating for his 
 degree l have already been mentioned, but a study of 
 the Rosa reveals the fact that he had read, or was 
 acquainted with, a large number of authors, and, 
 moreover, with the most recent medical works, for 
 he quotes Bernard of Gordon, who began his Lilium 
 Medicinae in 1305. A complete list of the authors 
 quoted or referred to by Gaddesden will be found in 
 the Appendix ; some of them, chiefly Arabic writers, 
 cannot be identified. 
 
 As to the medical works existing at Oxford in the 
 time of Gaddesden there is but little information. 
 The list of authorities whom he quotes shows that 
 he was a man of wide reading in medical matters, so 
 that he must have had access to books ; but as to 
 where he read them there is no record. One of the 
 earliest Oxford Library Catalogues extant is that of 
 Oriel College, I375- 2 But in this there are no 
 medical works, the only books mentioned which may 
 be said to have any connexion with medicine being 
 two copies of Aristotle's Liber Naturaiium and one 
 of his Liber de Generatione? 
 
 1 ' Probably,' for the date of the earliest MSS. from which the 
 statutes are taken is not earlier than 1350, and most are much 
 later. 2 O. H. S., Collectanea, vol. i, 1885. 
 
 3 This may mean either de Generatione et Corruptione, or de 
 Generatione Animalium. 
 
 1302 H
 
 ii4 STUDY OF MEDICINE IN OXFORD 
 
 William of Wykeham gave a large gift of books 
 to his College of St. Mary of Winchester in Oxford, 
 alias New College, and the catalogue of them will be 
 found in the third volume of the Collectanea of 
 the Oxford Historical Society, in an article by 
 Mr. A. F. Leach. Among them are a number of 
 medical books given under the heading of ' Libri 
 Facultatis Medicinae ' ; but the list, says Mr. Leach, 
 is in another, and apparently later, hand than the 
 other lists, and whether they formed part of 
 Wykeham's gift is uncertain. The list is in two 
 parts, the first of which contains the books which 
 might be taken out, while the second gives the books 
 which were chained in the library. 
 
 The authors in Part I are Galen, Nicolaus, 
 Bartholomaeus, Rhazes, Averrhoes, Hippocrates, 
 Gilbertus Anglicus, and Gerrardus. 
 
 In Part II the authors are Galen, Averrhoes, 
 Avicenna, Mesue, Benvenutus Graphoeus, Gilbert, 
 a Commentary by Joannes Alexander upon the 
 Epidemica of Hippocrates, Bernardus, Gerardus, 
 Dioscorides. There are two copies of the Rosa and 
 another book apparently by Gaddesden entitled 
 Super aft"., of which nothing .is known. Super aff. 
 might mean either ' super affectibus ', or ' super 
 afforismis '. 
 
 In another article, ' Some Durham College Rolls,' T 
 by the Rev. H. E. D. Blakiston, a list of books is 
 given in a roll dated 1315, and in this roll are the 
 1 O. H. S., Collectanea, vol. iii.
 
 IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 115 
 
 following books, which are either medical or have a 
 bearing on medicine : Liber Naturalium ; Quesliones 
 super naturalia et logicalia ; Notule super librum de 
 plantis et super librum celi et mundi et recapitula- 
 ciones libri Metheororum et Pkisicorum ; Exposicio 
 Thomae de Aquino s^tper libros pkisicorum ; Libri 
 Na fur ales Avicennae et Algazel; Ysidorum (sic] 
 ethimologiarum. 
 
 Books in the Middle Ages were, as a rule, the 
 property either of corporations or of rich folk, and 
 the regular corporations, such as the great abbeys, 
 were far richer in literary treasures than were secular 
 corporations such as the University of Oxford. It 
 is probable that Gaddesden may have studied some 
 of the authors whom he quotes in the libraries of 
 Oseney Abbey, or St. Frideswide's Abbey, and as 
 the King's physician he would be in a better position 
 for obtaining access to .libraries than an ordinary 
 layman. 
 
 How valuable and varied was the collection of 
 books in the library of a great religious house may be 
 seen by the catalogues of the ancient libraries of 
 Canterbury and Dover, which have been printed by 
 Dr. Montague Rhodes James (Cambridge University 
 Press, 1903). The catalogues are those of Christ 
 Church Priory in the time of Henry of Estry, who 
 was Prior from 1284 to 1331, and so a contemporary 
 of Gaddesden ; of St. Augustine's Abbey, drawn up 
 about the end of the fifteenth century ; and of Dover 
 Priory, compiled in 1389. 
 
 II 2
 
 n6 STUDY OF MEDICINE IN OXFORD 
 
 There are medical books in all three catalogues ; 
 St. Augustine's catalogue contains over 230 treatises, 
 that of Christ Church nearly 300, and that of Dover 
 Priory about 1 20. St. Augustine's catalogue contains 
 the following authors not quoted by Gaddesden : 
 Alguensid, Quintus Serenus, Macer, Genesius, 
 Maurus, Trotula, and Costa ben Luca. It is possible 
 that the Alguensid of the catalogue may be the 
 Alguasinus of Gaddesden. Most of the authors 
 quoted by Gaddesden were in the library, and it was 
 particularly rich in the works of Constantine and in 
 copies of the Ysagoge of Joannitius. 
 
 The Christ Church Catalogue contains the Aphor- 
 isms of John Damascene, an author unrepresented 
 in St. Augustine's library, and also at least three 
 copies of his Ysagoge ad Tegni Galeni. This book 
 apparently is not a confusion on the part of the scribe 
 with the far better known Ysagoge ad Tegni of 
 Joannitius, for in vol. 448 the two are bound up to- 
 gether (James, op. cit., p. 56). But the most in- 
 teresting items in the catalogue are those dealing with 
 the books given by Magister Robertus de Cornubia, 
 Medicus, vols. 1706-14 (p. 138); they are: Duo 
 primi libri Avicennae ; Novi tractatus Johannis 
 Mesue cum practica averois de medicina cum questio- 
 nibus super uiaticum ; Practica Gilberti ; Libri 
 Originates Ypocratis et Galieni ; Scripta Magistri 
 Thedei cum quibiisdam aliis contentis ; Viaticus 
 Constantini cum Commento ; Liber Hali de regali 
 dispositione.
 
 IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 117 
 
 Gilbertus (Anglicus), the latest in this list of 
 authors, flourished early in the thirteenth century, 
 so that Robert the Cornishman was probably nearly 
 a contemporary of Gaddesden, and we may rightly 
 imagine that Gaddesden might have had a similar 
 or even superior private library. 
 
 Among the authors not quoted by Gaddesden 
 which are found in this catalogue are Matthesus 
 Ferrarius de febribus ; Geraldus, de dandis cathar- 
 ticis ; Alfanus Salernitanensis ; Genesius ; Soranus; 
 Pliny, and Bartholomaeus. There are also two 
 treatises by Alexander Sophista. The one treatise 
 is called De Medicina omnium membrorum humani 
 corporis, and the other De curis humani corporis. 
 The remaining medical works are mostly standard 
 authors such as Galen, Hippocrates, Egidius (Cor- 
 boliensis), Constantine, Philaretus, Theophilus (the 
 last two are probably the same person), Platearius, 
 and the Antidotarium of Nicolaus. 
 
 The medical works in the Dover Priory catalogue 
 are in many instances those of quite unknown authors. 
 It is true that there are works by Joannitius, Hippo- 
 crates, Galen, Razes, Trotula, Nicolaus, Platearius, and 
 Gilbert, but the catalogue also contains such books as 
 Medicinaleffulberti, Medicinale mediciec, and Practica 
 Alexandri Nickolai, all three of which are briefly 
 annotated by the compiler of the catalogue John 
 Whytefeld, as Mostardyer. Dr. James suggests 
 that this means that the books were so dilapidated 
 that they were only fit for wrapping up mustard.
 
 n8 STUDY OF MEDICINE IN OXFORD 
 
 From these three catalogues, therefore, it is pos- 
 sible to form a very good picture of the facilities for 
 reading medicine which any enthusiastic medical 
 writer of the fourteenth century could obtain. 
 
 It is not, however, unreasonable to suppose that 
 Oxford possessed single copies at least of the same 
 medical works as were at Montpellier. A list of these 
 which were in use 1309-1340 can be found in 
 Hastings Rashdall, Universities of Eiirope, vol. ii, pp. 
 2, 780. The fame of Montpellier as a medical Uni- 
 versity was, of course, far superior to that of Oxford, 
 for the number of medical Doctors at Oxford was 
 always small. Books, however, despite the difficulties 
 of reproduction, must have been diffused with amazing 
 rapidity in the Middle Ages, and as Oxford had a 
 Faculty of medicine that Faculty probably possessed 
 some books, even before the New College bequest. 
 
 Duke Humphrey's library contained a number of 
 medical books, but the date of his bequest, 1439, was 
 over a hundred years after Gaddesden's period of 
 study. 
 
 What opportunities for study had the student of 
 medicine in Oxford apart from books ? There were 
 at least two endowed hospitals where poor sick people 
 were cared for, or at least which had been founded 
 to that intent. One was the hospital of St. Bartho- 
 lomew founded by Henry I, 1100-1135, and the 
 other the hospital of St. John Baptist founded either 
 by King John, 1 199-1216, or more likely by Henry 
 III in 1233.
 
 IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 119 
 
 Concerning St. Bartholomew's, it stood l ' on the 
 east side of Oxon, a quarter of a mile distance from 
 St. Clement's.' In those days St. Clement's Church 
 stood at the east end of the bridge which is now 
 Magdalen Bridge. Here Henry I erected a chapel 
 to the memory of St. Bartholomew, being guided 
 perchance in his choice of a saint by the thought of 
 the great house just founded in London and some 
 edifices adjoining for leprous folk. The house, 
 however, fell on evil times in the reigns of Edward I 
 and Edward II, it being so poor that the original 
 foundation of twelve brethren was reduced to six by 
 Edward I. His successor would have restored it, 
 but in 1321 a report arose that the leprous folk in 
 transmarine parts had at the instance of the Saracens 
 ' poisoned the fountain of sweet gliding streams . . . 
 Then were they upon shrewd suspicion of the same 
 fact in England utterly hated and their hospitals 
 brought for the most part to great decay.' 2 
 
 It is not very likely, then, that during the time 
 when Gaddesden was studying medicines there 
 were many patients in the hospital for him to see. 
 If there were any it is extremely likely that they 
 included certain cases of chronic skin diseases besides 
 those of true leprosy. The word lepre or lepra was 
 probably used in an elastic sense. In ' The Govern- 
 ayle of Helthe\ ascribed to John of Burgundy and 
 printed by Caxton, is the following note : 'And know 
 
 1 A. Wood, City of Oxford^ ed. Clark, Oxford Hist. Soc., vol. ii, 
 1890. 2 Wood, loc. cit.
 
 120 STUDY OF MEDICINE IN OXFORD 
 
 when thou wolte and note it for a souveraigne nota- 
 bility who that eateth oft milk and fish, oft catch 
 thereof a lepre or a white scab/ l If lepre here 
 does mean 'leprosy' the passage is interesting as 
 regards a certain controversy concerning fish and the 
 question of tuberculous infection by milk. 
 
 The other endowed hospital, that of St. John 
 Baptist, stood about where now stand the tower and 
 the kitchen buildings of Magdalen College. There 
 was a religious house of the name founded by King 
 John, 2 but, continues Wood, ' We will according to 
 most authors take King Henry III to be the 
 founder and not the rebuilder.' The foundation charter 
 
 N 
 
 is dated 1231. But among the Bodleian MSS. is a 
 fifteenth-century copy of the statutes, 3 and at the end 
 of the statutes comes a paragraph stating that they 
 were ' confirmed by the Venerable and most holy 
 father Innocent, at the petition of the illustrious 
 King of the English, Henry III, who was the 
 founder of this hospital. Given at Avignon the 
 tenth of the Kalends of April in the third year of 
 his Pontificate. At that time was Hugh made 
 Bishop of Lincoln '. 
 
 The dates are confused : the third year of Innocent 
 IV was 1246, i. e. the thirtieth to the thirty-first year 
 of Henry III. But the great St. Hugh was Bishop 
 of Lincoln from 1 186 to 1200 ; Hugh of Wells was 
 
 1 This statement is found in Avicenna. 
 
 z Wood, op. cit., p. 520. 
 
 3 Press mark in 1911 ; MS. Top. Oxon. d. 8.
 
 IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 121 
 
 bishop from 1209 to 1235. The scribe may possibly 
 have been thinking of ' Little St. Hugh of Lincoln ', 
 whose date is traditionally 1246-55. 
 
 Whatever be the date of the statutes, it is evident 
 from them that the hospital was primarily a religious 
 house. The officers were three, a Master, a Steward 
 (celerarius), and a Sacristan. The Master was to be 
 chosen by the brethren, and had to exercise a 
 general supervision over the inmates, but he was to 
 show no favouritism : ' Equalis caritas dilectionis de- 
 betur omnibus.' The Steward, whose duties were in 
 some ways the most onerous, had among other things 
 to look after the welfare of the sick poor ' guests ' 
 who came to the hospital : ' Omni sollicitudine curam 
 gerat infirmorum pauperum hospitum supervenien- 
 tium/ The duty of the Sacrist was to look after 
 the choir (chorum regens], i. e. not merely the singers, 
 but the building, the books, the music, and to see that 
 the proper offices were duly sung. He also had in 
 his charge all the ornaments of the church. In 
 addition, as to him was committed the charge of the 
 infirmary, the statutes proceed : 'We ordain and defi- 
 nitely command that he shall hear the confession of 
 any sick person seeking admission before that he be 
 admitted. If the infirm be adults, none of the follow- 
 ing shall be admitted : those suffering from leprosy, 
 paralysis, dropsy, mania, epilepsy, fistula, or incurable 
 diseases. Neither shall any pregnant . . . woman 
 (mzilieres . . . praegnantes] nor young girl be admitted. 
 For these should rather have outdoor relief, if they
 
 122 STUDY OF MEDICINE IN OXFORD 
 
 are in need as well as ill, until they shall be well 
 again.' 
 
 The statutes also contain rules for the admission 
 and conduct of the brethren and sisters of the house, 
 and the oath which they took on the gospels ran as 
 follows : ' I vow to Almighty God and to St. John 
 the patron of this church, that I will live honestly 
 and chastely according to the statutes of this house, 
 and that I will serve the poor as I should in the 
 said house : so help me God and these holy 
 Evangels/ 
 
 The statutes show that the hospital was in the 
 main a religious house. As for the patients, they 
 would seem from the passage just quoted to have 
 been limited to those suffering from acute disorders 
 such as fevers and other pyrexial complaints, for the 
 class of case mentioned as forbidden admission 
 includes most chronic disorders. The leprosi pro- 
 bably meant any skin disease ; paralitici ruled out 
 all old hemiplegias and many diseases of the spinal 
 cord ; ydropici swept away nephritis, most kinds of 
 morbus cordis, cirrhosis of the liver, and possibly 
 sundry abdominal tumours ; epilepsy and incurable 
 diseases were banned; and finally pregnant women 
 were not allowed to share in the charity. 
 
 There remain the specific fevers, ague, and such 
 complaints as pneumonia and bronchitis. Here 
 there would be a small amount of clinical material 
 for any one who was reading for a degree in the 
 medical faculty to study, but as no clinical study was
 
 IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 123 
 
 necessary for a degree, probably no student, unless 
 unusually enthusiastic, would trouble about it. 
 
 Besides this collection of sick folk they might also 
 have been found round the various holy wells, such 
 as St. Margaret's at Binsey, and St. Edmund's near 
 the east end of (now) Magdalen Bridge. 
 
 Then there were the infirmaries of the great 
 religious houses such as Oseney Abbey and St. 
 Frideswide's Priory. Wood in talking of the last 
 named says : ' Then there was the infirmary where 
 the monks that were sick retired and had the benefit 
 of phisicians and their medicines.' This looks as if 
 a physician who was not a member of the community 
 might occasionally have been called in. Probably, 
 however, the monastic physician was a kind of lay 
 brother, or at least he could take fees, for in the 
 Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond^ it is said : 'Our 
 almonry which previously was of wood and out of 
 repair, was built in stone ; whereto a certain brother 
 of ours, Walter the physician at that time almoner, 
 contributed much of what he had acquired by his 
 practice of physic.' 
 
 Other opportunities for study were provided by 
 the operations of the law. Thus Bernard of 
 Gordon in his Li Hum Medicinae' 2 says in the 
 section on disease of the oesophagus, which the Arabs 
 called Meri, that the stomach has a natural attraction 
 for food. He continues: 'So we see that in Jews, 
 
 1 King's Classics, ed. Moring, London, 1903, p. 146. 
 " Ed. Francofurti, 1617, p. 530.
 
 124 STUDY OF MEDICINE IN OXFORD 
 
 when they are hung up by the feet, food is none the 
 less drawn into the stomach, which would not happen 
 unless the natural energy of the stomach drew it up 
 and made it ascend.' 
 
 Executions too, at least by decapitation, might 
 surely have suggested to a medical observer that the 
 arteries did not carry spirits but blood, and yet this 
 fact was not grasped until Harvey's time, although 
 Galen was aware of it. 
 
 Such, then, so far as we can see, were the 
 opportunities for clinical study in mediaeval times, 
 and Gaddesden at any rate must have seen a good 
 number of patients before writing the Rosa, but 
 whether he made any use of the possible opportunities 
 for study before taking his degree is very doubtful.
 
 BRITISH MUSEUM MSS. 
 
 FOURTEENTH-CENTURY ILLUSTRATIONS OF SURGICAL 
 OPERATIONS, &C. 
 
 Eg. 1065. Les Commentaires de Cesar, f. 9, Caesarian operation. 
 
 17 F. ii. La Grande Histoire de Clsar : made at Bruges for 
 Edward IV. f. 9, Birth scene. 
 
 1 6 G. viii. Les Commentaires de Jules Char. f. 32, Caesarian 
 operation (f. 39 ?). 
 
 6 E. vi. Omne Bonum : Collection by various authors, f. 122 b, 
 Lying ill. f. 258 b, Trepanning, f. 503 b, Teeth extrac- 
 tion. Other ff. 546 b, 547 &c. 
 
 10 E. iv. Decretals, f. 67 b, Cupping operation. 
 
 Sloane, 2435. Livre pour garder la sante, par Aldebranius de 
 Sienne. Many small miniatures of various medical scenes, &c. 
 
 Add. 24, 189. John Mandeville's Travels, f. 4, Portrait of John 
 Bordeaux La Barba. 
 
 LIST OF BOOKS CONSULTED. 
 
 HASTINGS RASHDALL. The Universities of Europe in the Middle 
 
 Ages. Clarendon Press, 1895. 
 
 ANSTEY. Munimenta Academica. Rolls Series. Longmans, 1868. 
 HUILLARD-BREHOLLES. Historia Diplomatica Friderici II. 
 
 Paris : Plon, 1854. 
 
 FREIND. History of Physick. London, 1750. 
 CARDAN, J. De Propria Vita. Amsterdam, 1650. 
 CROKE. Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum. Oxford : D. A. Talboys, 
 
 1830. 
 ISIDORUS HISPALENSIS. Liber Ety mologiarum. Venice : Loslein, 
 
 1483. 
 JOHN OF SALISBURY. In Migne's Patrologia Latina. The 
 
 Policraticus, edited by C. C. J. Webb. Clarendon Press, 1909. 
 LOUNSBURY. Studies in Chaucer. London : Osgood, Mcllvaine & 
 
 Co., 1892.
 
 126 LIST OF BOOKS CONSULTED 
 
 SIMPSON, SIR J. Y. Archaeological Essays. 
 
 Decretales, Liber Sextus, Bonifacii VIII. Lyons, 1584. 
 LEYSER. Historia Poet, et Poemat. Med. Aev. Halae, 1741. 
 HENSLOW. Medical Works of the Fourteenth Century. Chapman 
 
 & Hall, 1894. 
 LUCIEN LECLERC. Histoire de la Mtdecine Arabe, 2 vols. Paris : 
 
 E. Leroux, 1876. For information as to Arabic writers and 
 
 translators from the Greek, and as to mediaeval translators 
 
 from the Arabic into Latin. 
 E. B. WITHINGTON. Medical History from the Earliest Times. 
 
 London: The Scientific Press, 1894. Consulted for its 
 
 admirable list of authorities and editions of mediaeval writers. 
 Articella. Lyons : John De La Place, 1515. 
 Monumenta Franciscana. Rolls Series. 
 M. R. JAMES. Catalogues of the Ancient Libraries of Canterbury 
 
 and Dover. Cambridge University Press, 1903. 
 C. VIEILLARD. Gilles de Corbeil. Paris : Librairie Ancienne, 
 
 Honore Champion, 1909.
 
 APPENDIX A 
 
 THE LATIN TEXT OF THE EDITOR'S 
 DEDICATION OF THE 'ROSA'. 
 
 Nicolaus Scyllatius Siculus magnifico ac praestan- 
 tissimo Ambrosio Varisio Rosato, Ducali Physico ac 
 Consiliario sapientissimo S(alutem) D(icit). 
 
 Qui de diis scripserunt, Ambrosi eruditissime, 
 unum imprimis eos genus hominum veteri gentium 
 opinione in celo collocasse animadverto, qui se 
 videlicet ad homines conservandos juvandosque 
 natos existimarent. Nam et quos Apollines, 
 Cereres, Liberos, Hercules, Aesculapios antiquitas 
 coluit; homines olim fuisse Aegyptus primorum 
 animantium parens non falso commemorat. Sed 
 merita propter eximia quae in societatem humanam 
 praestiterunt, mox deorum vocabulo nuncupates. Et 
 sane si paulo semotius tecum haec : nihil praeclarius 
 aut deo optimo maximo similius invenies, quam ubi 
 te beneficum omnibus indulgentemque praestiteris. 
 
 Quo fit ut te felicem et perbeatum non temere 
 homines nostri seculi et judicent et existiment, quod 
 in omne genus hominum perpensus obviusque et 
 expositus semper occurreris : consulendoque agendo : 
 atque ut es medicinae et astronomiae scientissimus, 
 morbos propellendo, siderum minas furoresque 
 superum avertendo, et regna connrmaveris, et amici 
 diem nunquam perdideris. Omitto quot patrocinio 
 defenderis, quot spoliates reduxeris, damnatos libe- 
 raveris, ut jam illud de te libere decantare liceat, 
 plures unum Ambrosium physicum causas agere, 
 quam centum istos pragmaticos ac leguleos.
 
 128 APPENDIX A 
 
 Cum semper honorificum ac religiosum existi- 
 maveris, ut quantum gratia et auctoritate apud in- 
 victissimum principem Ludovicum Mariam Sfortiam 
 valeres, aliorum honoribus et commodis experirere. 
 
 Tantum autem te studiosi et literati viri de se 
 benemeritum esse fatentur, ut nemo ferme sit qui 
 studia amet, quin te quoque bonarum artium nomine 
 colat et veneretur. Legis passim de te historias, 
 poemata, actiones, et posteritati tuae (quod raris- 
 simum homini datur) praesens es. Quin illud ausim 
 dicere, nullum te genus hominum ad beatitudinem 
 tibi et eternitatem aptius obligare potuisse quam 
 disertissimos viros. Possem multos nominare in 
 Italia, qui a te singulare presidium susceperunt, 
 nisi vererer ne epistolae modum excederem. 
 
 Nam eos tuae beneficentiae praecones citare, quia 
 Mediolani quottidie ante oculos versantur, superva- 
 caneum esse arbitror. Testis est universa academia 
 Ticinensis, quae tantum fastigium te patrono, turn 
 sapientium celebritate, turn salariorum magnitudine 
 accepit, quantum nunquam ante Ambrosium Rosatum 
 majores nostri viderunt, posteri gaudebunt. Ego 
 vero isto tempore studiorum nomine quae sub te in 
 summo apice constiterunt, turn privatim, turn publice 
 lector, tibique (Artaxerxis regis rustici exemplo) 
 munusculum hoc doctum sane et eruditum persol- 
 vimus. 
 
 Nam cum loannes Antonius Birreta vir singularis 
 exempli Ticinensium (pace omnium dixerim) optimus, 
 paulo ante me admonuisset nactum se Rosarium in 
 Medicina, opus rarum . . . et reconditum, juvenibus 
 perutile senibus et exercitatis apprime desideratum, 
 perlegendiquemihi copiam fecisset, multa ibi secretiora 
 animadverti, quae post alios recentiores Nicolaus 
 Florentinus inprimis vir in omni medicina diligen- 
 tissimus, velut apis e roseis floribus utiliora colligens 
 in grandibus suis voluminibus congesserat.
 
 DEDICATION OF THE 'ROSA' 129 
 
 Nunc ut emendarem, cum idem Birreta frugalitatis 
 antiquae specimen, ut est in postulando modestus 
 et verecundus, rogasset, etsi rogandum cui vitam 
 deberem non erat, multo labore multoque studio 
 effecimus, ut quod mutilatum longi temporis situ et 
 librariorum incuria depravatum fuisset, locis quae 
 falso in veterum libris passim allegabantur diligenter 
 recognitis, in faciem absolutam figuramque pristinam 
 pro virili redderemus, ut qui Rosarius olim fuisset, 
 nunc agnitus veluti ex horrida et longa peregri- 
 natione, domum tandem excultus ad suos rediret. 
 
 Te igitur patronum et dominum, Ambrosi Rosate, 
 cognoscit, te gentis suae columen salutat, te sibi 
 vindicem paravit qui regum palatia colis et in aulis 
 principum totus es. Hunc cum leges iterum legisse 
 non poenitebit, tarn varia et experta, tarn multa et 
 presentanea remedia affatim ministrat. Quo fit ut 
 non temere sicuti rosam florum pulcherrimum esse, 
 jam pridem apud nostros receptum est, sic liber iste 
 omnium recentiorum vigilias atque artes qui de hac 
 re scripserunt facile superet. Quantum vero venu- 
 statis et elegantiae Rosa ipsa prae se ferat assidue 
 audis, qtiotidie lectitas. Quae etsi inter corona- 
 menta mortalium sero apud veteres recepta sit, ob 
 id non debet mirari Plinius Secundus novicomensis 
 conterraneus tuus, Veneris enim ea et sane deae 
 potentissimae tantum fuerat, cujus numen ipsi 
 quoque magni dei reformidant. Proinde apud Ap- 
 thonium scriptum est : 
 
 Qui rosae pulchritudinem demiratur, plagam 
 Veneris consideret. Sed hoc vetus est. Quam 
 lepide et eleganter Libanius sophista Grecus rosam 
 Veneris describens, earn floribus singulis anteponit. 
 Et quoniam fabella ipsa lepidissima est, non insuave 
 tibi fore duxi, si pauca ex illius contextu summatim 
 proposuero. 
 
 Quo inquit tempore deabus pastor judex datus est,
 
 130 APPENDIX A 
 
 angebatur Juno, angebatur Minerva, quod cestu illo 
 qui cingulus erat in quo amoris vires insunt et cupi- 
 dinis, se Venus veluti medicamento quodam et forme 
 lenocinio exornasset. Ita in certamine prius venturas 
 negabant quam ubi a se Venus cestum deponeret. 
 Dempsit dea cingulum, pacta sibi cesti vice alium 
 ornatum quaerere. Ad Scamandrum pergit lectura 
 fiores, qua se pratum sub ripa explicabat herbidum. 
 Lota ibi dea statim qua causa venerat ornatum 
 quaerebat sibi. Turn, nescio qui mire suavis aspirare 
 odor visus, jam lilia jam violas legerat, quum tamen 
 odor ille magis interim magisque blandiebatur. 
 Pergit aurae flagrantis vestigia subsequi, videt rosam 
 visamque naribus admovet et esse hanc suaveolentiae 
 illius matrem cognoscit. Ibi flores aspernata ceteros 
 abjicit humi, tantumque rosis coronata recepit se ad 
 I dam denuo. Nee, ait, plus Veneri flos quam flori 
 Venus conciliare gratiam visa est. Adeoque confes- 
 tim Juno et Minerva victae, ut ne ipsae quidem 
 pastoris expectarent calculum, sed accurrentes 
 utraque sertum crinibus detraxerint floremque 
 deosculatae ipsum rursus Veneris capiti reposuerunt. 
 Haec, mi patrone, ego subtexui ut primum quanti 
 tua Rosa sit explicatius legeres, et mox ne ipsum 
 libellum qui medicinae Rosa inscribitur gratia et 
 favore defraudaremus. Conati certe sumus, ut 
 quam absolutius fieri posset tuus Rosarius a 
 Birreta nostro tui benevolentissimo, et a Francisco 
 Girardengo socio et contubernali viro industrio ac 
 diligenti ad te mitteretur. Qui etsi cetera vita 
 laudatissima sunt, hoc tamen maxime excellere judi- 
 cantur, quod nihil non ante castigatum et expolitum 
 imprimendum curent. Ad tantam avaritiam et sor- 
 didos sumptus ex impressoribus maxima pars lapsa 
 est, ut libris perperam aut temere scriptis, non ante 
 recognitis siquid imprimi jusserint in pejus semper 
 verterint. Sed de his satis. Tu modo ostende (ut
 
 DEDICATION OF THE 'ROSA' 131 
 
 facis) tibi nostra studia et lucubratiunculas placere. 
 Non deerunt qui tibi brevi majora et absolutiora 
 prestabunt. 
 
 Vale meum presidium et studiosum omnium 
 Mecene. 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 REGULATIONS IN THE KINGDOM OF 
 SICILY AS TO UNQUALIFIED PRAC- 
 TICE AND REGULAR PRACTICE 
 
 The following excerpts from Huillard-Breholles's 
 Historia Diplomatica Friderici II, Paris, 1854, Vol. 
 iv, pt. I, p. 149, contain the regulations referred to 
 on p. 21. 
 
 TIT. LXIV. REX ROGERIUS. 
 De probabili experientia medicorum. 
 
 Quisquis amodo mederi voluerit officialibus nostris 
 et judicibus se presentet, eorum discutiendus judicio ; 
 quodsi sua temeritate presumpserit, carceri constrin- 
 gatur, bonis omnibus suis publicatis. 
 
 Hoc enim prospectum est, ne in regno nostro 
 subjecti periclitentur ex imperitia medicorum. 
 
 Ibidem, page 150 : 
 
 TITULUS LXV. IMPERATOR FREDERICUS. 
 
 Utilitate speciali prospicimus cum communi saluti 
 fidelium providemus. Attendentes igitur grave 
 dispendium et irrecuperabile damnum quod posset 
 contingere ex imperitia medicorum, jubemus in 
 posterum, nullum medici titulum pretendentem 
 
 I 2
 
 132 APPENDIX B 
 
 audere practicare aliter vel mederi, nisi Salerni 
 primitus in conventu publico magistrorum judicio 
 comprobatus, cum testimonialibus literis de fide et 
 sufficient! scientia tarn magistrorum quam ordina- 
 torum nostrorum, ad praesentiam nostram, vel, nobis 
 a regno absentibus, ad illius praesentiam qui vice 
 nostra in regno remanserit (ordinatus accedat) et a 
 nobis vel ab eo medendi licentiam consequatur ; pena 
 publicationis bonorum et annalis carceris imminente 
 iis qui contra hoc nostre serenitatis edictum in 
 posterum ausi fuerint practicare. 
 
 The licence was granted after the following form 
 given by Huillard-Breholles : 
 
 From Petri de Vin. Epist., lib. vi, cap. xiii. 
 
 Notum facimus fidelitati vestre, quod fidelis noster 
 N. ad curiam nostram accedens, examinatus, inventus 
 fidelis et de genere fidelium ortus, et sufficiens ad 
 artem medicine exercendam, extitit per nostram 
 curiam approbatus. Propter quod de ipsius prudentia 
 et legalitate confisi, recepto ab eo in curia nostra 
 fidelitatis sacramento, et de arte ipsa fideliter excer- 
 cenda juxta consuetudinem juramento, dedimus ei 
 licentiam exercendi artem medicine in partibus ipsis : 
 ut amodo artem ipsam ad honorem et fidelitatem 
 nostram et salutem eorum qui indigent, fideliter ibi 
 debeat exercere. Quocirca fidelitati vestre preci- 
 piendo mandamus, quatenus nullus sit, qui predictum 
 N. fidelem nostrum super arte ipsa medicine in terris 
 ipsis, ut dictum est, exercenda, impediat de cetero 
 vel perturbet. 
 
 LIB. in, TIT. XLVI. 
 
 Quia nunquam sciri potest scientia medicine nisi 
 de logica 1 aliquid presciatur, statuimus quod nullus 
 
 x See excerpt from Petrarch, p. 104.
 
 REGULATIONS IN SICILY 133 
 
 studeat in medicinali scientia nisi prius studeat ad 
 minus triennio in scientia logicali ; post triennium si 
 voluerit, ad studium medicine procedat, in qua per 
 quinquennium studeat ; ita quod chirurgiam que est 
 pars medicine infra predictum tempus addiscat. 
 Post quod et non ante concedatur sibi licentia 
 practicandi, examinatione juxta curie formam pre- 
 habita, et nihilominus recepto pro eo de predicto 
 tempore studii testimonio magistrali. 
 
 Then follows a paragraph dealing with the duties 
 of the medical man and giving a scale of fees. 1 The 
 decree proceeds : , 
 
 Nee tamen post completum quinquennium pra- 
 cticabit, nisi per integrum annum cum consilio experti 
 medici practicetur. Magistri vero infra istud quin- 
 quennium libros authenticos tarn Hippocratis quam 
 Galeni in scholis doceant, tarn in theorica quam in 
 practica medicina. Salubri etiam constitutione 
 sancimus ut nullus chirurgicus ad practicam admit- 
 tatur, nisi testimoniales literas offerat magistrorum in 
 medicinali facultate legentium quod per annum 
 saltern in ea parte medicine studuerit que chirurgie 
 instruit facultatem, presertim anatomiam humanorum 
 corporum in scholis didicerit, et sit in ea parte 
 medicine perfectus sine qua nee incisiones salubriter 
 fieri poterunt nee facte curari. 
 
 1 See chap, iii, p. 106.
 
 134 
 
 APPENDIX C 
 
 TEXT OF DECREE OF BONIFACE VIII 
 CONCERNING THE MUTILATION OF 
 BODIES 
 
 EXTRAVAGANTES COMMUNIUM, LlB. Ill, TlT. VI, 
 CAP. I 
 
 De Sepulturis. Bonifacius Octavus. 
 
 Detestandae feritatis abusum, quern ex quodam 
 more horribili nonnulli fideles improvide prosequun- 
 tur, nos piae intentionis ducti proposito, ne abusus pre- 
 dict! saevitia ulterius corpora humana dilaceret, 
 mentesque fidelium horrore commoveat, et perturbet 
 auditum, digne decrevimus abolendum. 
 
 Praefati namque fideles hujus suae improbandae 
 utique consuetudinis vitio intendentes, si quisquam 
 ex eis genere nobilis, vel dignitatis titulo insignitus, 
 praesertim extra suarum partium limites debitum 
 naturae persolvat, in suis vel alienis remotis partibus, 
 sepultura electa, defuncti corpus ex quodam impiae 
 pietatis affectu truculenter exenterant, ac illud mem- 
 bratim vel in frusta immaniter concidentes, ea 
 subsequenter aquis immersa exponunt ignibus deco- 
 quenda. Et tandem (ab ossibus tegumento carnis 
 excusso) eadem ad partes praedictas mittunt, seu 
 deferunt tumulanda. Quod non solum divinae 
 majestatis conspectui abominabile plurimum redditur, 
 sed etiam considerationis obtutibus occurrit vehe- 
 mentius abhorrendum. 
 
 Volentes igitur (prout officii nostri debitum exigit) 
 illud in hac parte remedium adhibere, per quod 
 tantae abominationis, tantaeque immanitatis et
 
 DECREE OF BONIFACE VIII 135 
 
 impietatis abusus penitus deleatur, nee extendatur 
 ad alios ; Apostolica auctoritate statuimus et ordi- 
 namus ut cum quis cujuscunque status, aut generis, 
 seu dignitatis extiterit; in civitatibus, terris, seu 
 locis in quibus cultus catholicae fidei viget, diem 
 de cetero claudet extremum ; circa corpora defun- 
 ctorum hujusmodi abusus vel similis nullatenus 
 observetur, nee fidelium manus tanta immanitate 
 foedentur. 
 
 Sed ut defunctorum corpora sic impie ac crudeliter 
 non tractentur, deferantur ad loca in quibus viventes 
 elegerint sepeliri, aut in civitate, castro, vel loco ubi 
 decesserint, vel loco vicino ecclesiasticae sepulturae 
 tradantur ad tempus, itaque demum incineratis 
 corporibus, aut alias ad loca ubi sepulturam ele- 
 gerint, deportentur, et sepeliantur in eis. Nos enim 
 si praedicti defuncti executor vel execu tores aut 
 familiares ejus seu quivis alii cujuscunque ordinis, 
 conditionis, status aut gradus fuerint etiam si 
 pontificali dignitate praefulgeant, aliquid contra 
 hujusmodi nostri statuti et ordinationis tenorem 
 praesumpserint attentare, defunctorum corpora sic 
 inhumaniter et crudeliter pertractando, vel faciendo 
 pertractari, excommunicationis sententiam (quam 
 ex nunc in ipsos perferimus) ipso facto se noverint 
 incursuros, a qua non nisi per Apostolicam sedem 
 (praeterquam in mortis articulo) possint absolutionis 
 beneficium obtinere. Et nihilominus ille cujus corpus 
 sic inhumane tractatum fuerit, ecclesiastica careat 
 sepultura. Nulli ergo &c. 
 
 Datum Lateranensi xii Cal. Mart. 
 Pontificatus nostri anno sexto.
 
 136 
 
 APPENDIX D 
 'THE ISAGOGE' 
 
 For the right understanding of any work on 
 mediaeval medicine, it is necessary for the reader to 
 understand the various technical terms employed. 
 He will, for instance, always be met with such 
 expressions as the ' six non-naturals ', the ' naturals ', 
 and so on. These are explained in the well-known 
 work the Isagoge, written by Joannitius, or, to give 
 him his Arabic name, Hunain. This treatise was 
 the Introduction which he wrote to his translation of 
 the Microtegni of Galen. It was translated into 
 Latin at an early date, but by whom is not known. 
 In places the Latin is very obscure. The version 
 from which the following translation has been made 
 is that printed in the Articella published at Lyons 
 in 1515- 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE INTRODUCTION OF 
 JOANNITIUS TO MEDICINE. 
 
 Medicine is divided into two parts, namely 
 theoretic and practical. And of these two the 
 theoretic is further divided into three, that is to say, 
 the consideration of the naturals, the non-naturals, 
 and the contra naturals. 1 From the consideration of 
 these arises the knowledge of sickness, of health, and 
 of the mean state, and their causes and significations ; 
 of when the four humours increase in an abnormal 
 manner, or of what may be the causation (occasio] or 
 significance of sickness. 
 
 1 See Jtosa, fol. i verso, col. 2, ' Signa febris Tertiane.'
 
 THE ISAGOGE 137 
 
 OF THE NATURALS. 
 
 The naturals are seven in number : elements, 
 qualities (commixtiones), humours (compositiones), 
 members, energies, operations, and spirits. But 
 some add to these four others : namely, age, colour, 
 figure, and the distinction between male and female. 
 
 The Elements. 
 
 There are four elements : fire, air, water, and 
 earth. Fire is hot and dry ; air is hot and moist ; 
 water is cold and moist ; earth is cold and dry. 
 
 The Qualities. 
 
 There are nine qualities, eight unequal and one 
 equal. Of the unequal, four are simple : namely, 
 hot, cold, moist, and dry. From these arise four 
 compound : namely, hot and moist, hot and dry, cold 
 and moist, cold and dry. 
 
 The equal is when the body is so disposed that it 
 is in good condition and in a mean state, when it has 
 a proper amount of all four. (' Equalis vero est 
 quando cum moderatione corpus incolume ducitur.' ) 
 
 Of the Humours (De Humor ibus]. 
 
 The humours (composiliones) are four in number : 
 namely, blood, phlegm, reddish bile, and black bile. 
 Blood is hot and moist, phlegm is cold and moist, 
 reddish bile is hot and dry, black bile is cold and 
 dry. 
 
 Of phlegm. There are five varieties of phlegm. 
 There is the salt phlegm, which is hotter and drier 
 than the rest and is tinged with the biliary humour. 
 There is the sweet phlegm belonging to hotness and 
 dampness, which is tinged with the sanguine humour. 
 There is the acrid phlegm belonging to coldness and 
 dryness, which is tinged with the melancholic humour.
 
 i 3 8 APPENDIX D 
 
 There is the glassy phlegm, which arises from great 
 coldness and coagulation such as occurs in old people 
 who are destitute of natural warmth. And there is 
 another which is cold and moist ; it has no odour, 
 but retains its own coldness and moistness. 
 
 Of reddish bile. Reddish bile exists in five 
 different fashions. There is reddish bile which is 
 clear or pure and hot, both by nature and substance, 
 of which the origin is from the liver. There is 
 another which is straw-coloured, from which the 
 origin is from the watery humour of the phlegm, and 
 pure reddish bile, and therefore it is less hot 
 Another is vitelline. It is similar to the yolk of an 
 egg, and it has its origin from a mixture of coagulated 
 phlegm and clear red bile, and this is less hot. 
 Another one is green bile, like the green of a leek 
 (prasium), and it arises generally from the stomach 
 or the liver ; and there is another which is green like 
 verdigris, and which burns after the fashion of a 
 poison, and its origin is from too much adustio, and it 
 possesses its own proper colour and its own energies, 
 both good and evil. 
 
 Of black bile. Black bile exists in two different 
 fashions. In one way it may be said to be natural 
 to the dregs of the blood and any disturbance of the 
 same, and it can be known from its black colour 
 whether it flows out of the body from below or above, 
 and its property is cold and dry. The other kind is 
 altogether outside the course of nature, and its origin 
 is from the adustio of the choleric quality, and so it 
 is rightly called black, and it is hotter and lighter, 
 and having in itself a most deadly quality and a 
 pernicious character. 
 
 Of the various kinds of members. 
 
 There are four kinds of members. Some of them 
 are principal, and are as it were the substance and
 
 THE ISAGOGE 139 
 
 fundamentals of the body, as, for instance, the brain, 
 the heart, the liver, and the testicles ; and there are 
 others which do service to the aforesaid principals, 
 such as the nerves, which minister to the brain, and 
 the arteries, which minister to the heart, and the 
 veins, which minister to the liver, and the spermatic 
 vessels, which minister to the testicles, and bring the 
 sperm to them. Some of the members, again, have 
 their proper energy whence the members are ruled 
 and in which their particular qualities consist. Such 
 are the bones, and the cartilages, and the membranes 
 which lie between the skin and the flesh and the 
 muscles and the fat and the flesh. Others there are 
 which work by the energy proper to them, but yet 
 they obtain their origin and vigour from the principals 
 and fundamentals. Such are the stomach, the 
 kidneys, the intestines, and the muscles (lacerti). 
 For these by their own proper energy pick up the 
 food and commute it, and they do their actions 
 according to their nature, and they have other 
 energies of their own arising from the principals and 
 fundamentals, in which principals consist sense and 
 life with voluntary motion. 
 
 Of the number and division of the energies. 
 
 The energies are divided into three. There is the 
 animal energy and the spiritual and the natural. 
 
 Of the natural energy. There is one natural 
 energy which does service, and one to which service 
 is done. But the natural energy to which service is 
 done at one time generates, at another time nourishes, 
 and at another feeds. 
 
 But the energy which does service and is not done 
 service to, in the same way desires, retains, and 
 digests, and it expels those matters which are subject 
 to the feeding energy, just as the feeding energy is 
 subject to the nourishing energy. And the natural
 
 i 4 o APPENDIX D 
 
 energy in its generating function is served by two 
 others, one which transmits the food and the other 
 which shapes it ; and these two differ, the one from 
 the other, for the first changes the food and ministers 
 to the generating energy, without the shaping, but 
 the second does the same thing with shaping. And 
 the operations of the informative energy are five 
 Assimilativa, Concava, Perforabilis, Aspera, Lenis. 
 
 Of the Spiritual Energy. From the spiritual 
 energy proceed two others, one the operative, and 
 the other the result of the operation. The opera- 
 tive energy is that which at one time dilates and at 
 another contracts the heart and the arteries, and the 
 results of this are as follows Indignation, Victory, 
 Domination, Astuteness, and Anxiety. 
 
 Of the Animal Energy. The zodiacal energy 
 embraces three things. There is one which arranges 
 and puts together and classifies. The second is that 
 which is moved by voluntary motion, and the third 
 is that which is called sensible. From the first 
 proceed Imagination in the front of the head, 
 Cogitation or Reasoning in the brain, and Memory 
 in the occipital region. The second moves the 
 muscles (lacerti), by which the other members are 
 moved, that is to say by voluntary motion. And 
 the sensible energy resides in sight, hearing, taste, 
 touch, and smell. 
 
 The operations. 
 
 Operations are of two kinds : there are some each 
 one of which individually performs that which is its 
 own (function). Such, for instance, is appetite by 
 means of heat and dryness ; Digestion by means of 
 heat and moisture ; Retention by cold and dryness ; 
 Expulsion by cold and moisture. There are also 
 compound operations which are of a double nature : 
 such are desire (desiderium] and carrying off (depor-
 
 THE ISAGOGE 141 
 
 tatio). Desire is compounded of a double energy : 
 the one longs for (appetit\ and the other feels ; for 
 the stomach is conscious of its own place (' stoma- 
 chus enim suam mansionem sentit '). Carrying off is 
 of two or more energies, one casts out, another attracts 
 or feels, and a third longs for. 
 
 The Spirits. 
 
 The spirits are three in number : the first the 
 natural spirit, having its origin from the liver ; the 
 second the vital spirit, having its origin from the 
 heart ; the third the animal spirit, having its origin 
 from the brain. Of these three the first is diffused 
 throughout the body by means of the veins which 
 have no pulse ; the second is diffused throughout 
 the body by the heart; and the third is diffused 
 throughout the body through the agency of the 
 nerves by the brain. These are the matters which 
 come under the heading of spirit in the seventh 
 division of the seven naturals. 
 
 Of the Ages. 
 
 There are four ages ; namely, adolescence, the 
 prime (juventus), decline (senectus), and decay 
 (senium). The period of adolescence is hot and 
 moist, during which the body increases and grows 
 up to the twenty-fifth or thirtieth year. The prime 
 follows which is hot and dry, during which the body 
 remains in perfection without any diminution of 
 bodily force, and it lasts from the thirty-fifth to 
 the fortieth year. Next comes decline, which is cold 
 and dry, and during this period the body begins to 
 lessen and decrease, although the bodily force is not 
 abated, and it lasts to the fiftieth or sixtieth year. 
 Finally succeeds decay, which is cold and moist, with 
 appearance of the phlegmatic humour, and during
 
 H2 APPENDIX D 
 
 this period the bodily forces are abated, and the 
 period ends with the end of life. 
 
 Of the colours of the skin and their Divisions. 
 
 The colours of the skin are of two kinds ; namely, 
 those due to internal causes and those due to 
 external. And the internal causes again are two 
 in number; namely, excess or equality of humours. 
 From equality comes that tint which is composed 
 of white and red ; from inequality proceed black, 
 yellow, reddish (rubeus\ greyish (glaucus\ and white. 
 The reddish, black, and yellow set forth the ruling 
 humour of the body : yellow by itself signifies reddish 
 bile ; black by itself, black bile ; reddish by itself, 
 abundance of blood. White and greyish signify an 
 excess of coldness ruling the body ; greyish arises 
 from black bile (melancholia) and white from phlegm. 
 
 Certain colours arise from external circumstances, 
 such as from cold among the Scots and from heat 
 among the Ethiopians. And there are many others 
 from other causes. 
 
 There are also special or spiritual colours, due to 
 fear, anger, grief, or other affections of the mind. 
 
 Of the Colours of the Hair. 
 
 There are four colours of the hair black, reddish, 
 greyish, and white. Black is due to an excess of 
 over-heated bile or blood ; reddish to a superfluity 
 of a rather lower heat (caloris non adusti] this is 
 always the cause of reddish hair ; greyish arises from 
 an excess of black bile, and white from a deficiency of 
 the natural heat and the operation of putrid phlegm, 
 and is therefore chiefly found in the aged. 
 
 Of the Coals of the Eye. 
 
 The eye has seven coats and three humours. 
 The first coat is the retina, the second the secundine,
 
 THE ISAGOGE 143 
 
 the third the sclerotic, the fourth the spider's web 
 (tela araned], the fifth the uvea, the sixth the cornea, 
 and the seventh the conjunctiva. And of the 
 humours the first is the vitreous, the second the 
 crystalline, and the third the albugineous which is in 
 front of the uvea. 
 
 Of the Qualities of the Body. 
 
 The qualities of the body are five in number ; 
 namely, excess or grossness ; thinness or tenuity ; 
 4 sinthesis ' (wasting), squalidity, and the mean state 
 (equalitas]. There are two kinds of grossness, the 
 one consisting in excess of flesh, and the other in fat. 
 Excessof flesh arises from excess of heat and humours ; 
 but fatness from cold and intense humidity ; loss of fat 
 or thinness arises from heat and intense dryness. 
 Sinthesis arises from cold and intense dryness ; squa- 
 lidity either from cold and intense humidity, or from 
 an intensity of both together. And the mean state 
 arises from a proper proportion of the humours. 
 These are the appearances of the body. 
 
 Of the Difference between Male and Female. 
 
 The male differs from the female in that he is 
 hotter and more dry ; she, on the contrary, is colder 
 and more moist. 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE TREATISE ON THE 
 NON-NATURALS ; 
 
 and first of the Changes of the Air. 
 Changes of the air come about in five different 
 ways ; from the seasons, from the rising and setting 
 of the stars, from the winds, and from the different 
 countries and their exhalations (fumositas). 
 
 Of the Seasons. 
 
 There are four seasons ; namely, Spring, which is 
 hot and moist ; Summer, which is hot and dry ;
 
 r 4 4 APPENDIX D 
 
 Autumn, which is cold and dry ; Winter, which is 
 cold and moist. 
 
 The nature of the air is also changed by the stars, 
 for when the sun approaches a star or a star the sun, 
 the air becomes hotter. But when they separate 
 the coldness of the air is altered, viz., either increased 
 or diminished. 
 
 Of the Number and Properties of the Winds. 
 
 There are four winds ; the East (subsolanus], the 
 West, the North, and the South (ausler). And of 
 these the nature of one is cold and dry and of another 
 hot and moist. The two others are of an equal nature, 
 for the East is hot and dry and the West is cold and 
 moist. The South is slightly hotter and moister 
 and the North colder and dryer. 
 
 Of Varieties of Places and their Qualities. 
 
 There are four varieties of places ; namely, height, 
 depth, nearness to mountains or to the sea, and those 
 particular qualities in which one district differs from 
 another. Height produces cold and depth the 
 contrary. 
 
 The relation to mountains is as follows : if the 
 mountains are to the south, the locality will be the 
 cooler, for the mountains keep off the hot winds, and 
 so the north winds seek it out with their cool breath. 
 But if the mountains are to the north of the locality 
 the reverse is the case. 
 
 As regards relation to the sea : if the sea is on 
 the south the locality will be hot and dry, if to the 
 north it will be cold and dry. 
 
 Soils differ among themselves. Stony land is cold 
 and dry ; fat and heavy land is hot and moist ; clay 
 lands are cold and moist. Exhalations from marshy 
 land or other places where decay is going on also 
 change the air and give rise to disease and pestilence.
 
 THE ISAGOGE 145 
 
 Of Exercise. 
 
 Exercise has an effect on the body. To a mean 
 amount it causes a mean amount of heat, i. e. exercise- 
 in moderation maintains the normal bodily heat 
 Violent exercise first of all heats the body, but after- 
 wards cools and dries it. 
 
 Rest also affects the body ; if excessive it increases 
 cold and moisture, if of a normal amount it maintains 
 the normal amount of coldness and moisture. 
 
 Of Baths. 
 
 Baths are either of fresh water or not fresh. 
 Fresh-water baths soften the body, and if hot they 
 warm it, but if cold they cool it. But a fresh-water 
 bath does not dry up the body. Baths of salt or 
 bitter or sulphurous waters heat and dry up the body. 
 Aluminous or lime (gipsea) baths cool and dry up 
 the body. 
 
 Of Foods. 
 
 Foods are of two kinds. Good food is that which 
 brings about a good humour, and bad food is that 
 which brings about an evil humour. And that which 
 produces a good humour is that which generates 
 good blood ; namely, that which is in the mean 
 state as regards quality (commixtio) and working. 
 Such is clean fresh, fermented bread, and the flesh 
 of lamb or kid. Bad food brings about the contrary 
 state, and such is old and bran (ppirus) bread, or the 
 flesh of old beeves or goats. Foods producing 
 good or evil humours may also be heavy or light. 
 Of the first kind are pork and beef, of the second 
 chicken or fish. And of these the flesh of the middle- 
 sized and more active kinds is better than that of 
 the fatter and scaly varieties. 
 
 Certain kinds of vegetables produce evil humours ; 
 for instance, nasturtium, mustard, and garlic beget
 
 146 APPENDIX D 
 
 reddish bile. Lentils, cabbage, and the meat of old 
 goats or beeves produce black bile. Pork, lamb, 
 purslain, and attriplex beget phlegm. Heavy foods 
 produce phlegm and black bile, light food produces 
 reddish bile, and either of these is evil. 
 
 Of Drinks. 
 
 Drinks are of three kinds : firstly, drink which is 
 nothing but drink, as water ; secondly, drink which 
 is both drink and food, as wine ; and thirdly, drink 
 partaking of the nature of both of these, called potio, 
 which is given to counteract the evil of some disease. 
 Such are mellicratum, mulsa, and conditum. 
 
 The use of the food is to restore the wholeness of 
 the body, the use of the drink is to distribute the 
 food throughout the body. But that kind of drink 
 which we have above called potio converts the nature 
 of the body to itself. (' Sed illius potus quern potioni 
 diximus pertinere, corporis naturam ad se convertit.') 
 
 Of Sleep. 
 
 Sleep changes the nature of the body in that it 
 cools it exteriorly and warms it interiorly. If it be 
 prolonged it cools and moistens the body. 
 
 Waking also changes the body, for it warms it 
 exteriorly, while interiorly it cools and dries it. 
 
 Of Coitus. 
 
 ' Coitus hoc prestat corpori ; siccat corpus et 
 minuit naturalem virtutem, ideoque infrigidat, mul- 
 titotiens vero ex multa concussione corpus calefacit.' 
 
 Of Affections (Accidentibus) of the Mind. 
 
 Sundry affections of the mind produce an effect 
 within the body, such as those which bring the 
 natural heat from the interior of the body to the 
 outer parts or the surface of the skin. Sometimes
 
 THE ISAGOGE 147 
 
 this happens suddenly, as with anger ; sometimes 
 gently and slowly, as with delight and joy. Some 
 affections, again, withdraw the natural heat and 
 conceal it either suddenly, as with fear and terror, 
 or again gradually, as poverty. And again some 
 affections disturb the natural energy both internal 
 and external, as, for instance, grief. 
 
 OF THE CONTRA NATURALS. 
 
 There are three contra naturals ; namely, disease, 
 the cause of disease, and the concomitants or sequels 
 of disease. Disease is that which primarily injures 
 the body, without the aid of any intermediary, as, for 
 instance, heat in continued (succedente) fever. 
 
 Of Fevers. 
 
 Fever is unnatural heat, i. e. heat which overpasses 
 the normal course of nature. And it proceeds from 
 the heart into the arteries, and is harmful by its own 
 effects. 
 
 And of it there are three kinds : the first in the 
 spirit (ammo), which is called ephemeral ; the second 
 arises from the humours which putrefy, and which is 
 therefore called putrid ; and the third affects for ill 
 the solid portions of the body, and this is called 
 ethic (i. e. hectic). 
 
 Of these three the ephemeral variety arises from 
 non-essential causes (ab accidenti occasion^). Putrid 
 fever arises from putrid matters, and these are 
 simple and uncombined, and they are four in number. 
 
 The first is that which arises from putridity of the 
 blood and burns up both the interior and exterior of 
 the body ; such, for instance, is continued fever 
 (sinochus}. 
 
 The second is that which arises from putridity of 
 reddish bile; such, for instance, is tertian fever 
 (tritheus). 
 
 K 2
 
 148 APPENDIX D 
 
 The third arises from putridity of phlegm ; such, 
 for instance, is quotidian fever. 
 
 And the fourth arises from putridity of black bile ; 
 this attacks the sick man after an interval of two days, 
 and it is called quartan. 
 
 In addition there are three kinds of fevers occurring 
 from putridity. First there is the fever which lessens 
 day by day ; such, for instance, as that called peraug- 
 masticus, i. e. decreasing (7ra/>a*/za(m/c6y). 
 
 Secondly, that which increases until it departs ; 
 such as that called augmasticus (aK/iao-rt/cos). 
 
 Thirdly, that which neither decreases nor increases 
 until it again (ilerum) departs ; such, for instance, as 
 that called homothenus (o/*6roj/os). 
 
 Continued fever arising from putridity in the veins 
 begins to decline by departing from out the veins 
 into other parts of the body. 
 
 Goose-skin or shivering (horripilatio) occurs in 
 fevers from an infusion of putrid matter into the 
 sensitive members, which gnaws (wardens) and makes 
 them cold. 
 
 And, therefore, goose-skin occurs in these fevers 
 which are characterized by remissions (anesim) or 
 variations (inter polationem), for the putrid matters 
 are outside the veins. 
 
 Of Swellings. 
 
 There are four simple kinds of swellings ; those 
 which arise from the blood and are called phlegmons ; 
 those which arise from reddish bile and are called 
 erysipelas ; those which arise from coagulated phlegm 
 and are called undimiae 1 or cimiae, that is to say 
 tumour ; and finally, those which arise from black 
 bile and are called cancerous phlegmons. 
 
 1 Undimiae is a corruption of 01617/10. An English translation of 
 Lanfranc, circa 1400, has 'vdemia'.
 
 THE ISAGOGE 149 
 
 The signs of a swelling arising from the blood are 
 these : redness, a hard pulse, pain, heat, swelling. 
 
 And the signs of those arising from bile are these : 
 heat, a reddish yellow colour, great pain of a darting 
 character, and rapid increase. And the signs of those 
 arising from phlegm are these ; a white colour and 
 softness, so that if the finger be pressed thereon it 
 makes an impression ; moreover it is painless. 
 
 And the signs of those arising from black bile are 
 these : great hardness, a black colour, and absence of 
 feeling. 
 
 Of the Natural Condition (Res Naluralis] in the 
 Human Body. 
 
 In the human body, if each and singular natural 
 condition maintains its proper quality, such a condition 
 makes for health. If any one of them fails, either 
 sickness follows or else the neutral state. 
 
 Of the Classes of Sickness. 
 
 There are three classes of sickness : (i) the similar, 
 (2) the official, and (3) the universal. 
 
 An aegritudo consimilis is one affecting the similar 
 members (tissues), and they receive names of like 
 nature to the suffering; such, for instance, as an aching 
 (head). (' Est quidem egritudo consimilis similibus 
 membris contingens quae similia sortiuntur vocabula 
 cum eadem passione ; ut est caput dolens.') 
 
 And an aegritudo officialis is one which occurs in 
 special members, such as the feet, the hands, the 
 tongue, or the teeth. This takes its name from 
 the accompanying infirmity (ex accidenti infirmitate), 
 such as podagra in the foot or chiragra in the hand. 
 Or again, it may take the name from the member 
 in which they occur (ex membris quibus accidunt}, as 
 podagra, chiragra. 
 
 (This passage is very obscure, but it seems to
 
 150 APPENDIX D 
 
 mean that an aegritudo consimilis receives its name 
 from the kind of suffering, as, for instance, aching, 
 burning, and the like. The aegritudo ojficialis is so 
 called from the organ or member which it affects. 
 Thus ' toothache ' is an aegritudo officialis, while 
 aching, burning, or darting pains in the head would 
 be aegritudines consimiles.} 
 
 And finally an aegritudo universalis is one which 
 is associated with the two aforesaid, as separation of 
 the limbs and paralysis. 
 
 Of Diseases in the Similar Members. 
 
 Diseases of the similar parts are eight in number, 
 four simple, and four compound. 
 
 The simple arise solely from heat, from moisture, 
 from cold, or from dryness. 
 
 And these four may be combined so as to be 
 compound, such as cold and moist, cold and dry, hot 
 and moist, hot and dry. 
 
 Each of the eight kinds may be of two varieties, for 
 either it is of a simple quality (ex qualitate simplid], 
 or it is combined with one or other of the humours. 
 
 For example, a disease of a simple quality is one 
 affecting the solid members, such as the Greeks call 
 ethica (i. e. hectic). 
 
 A hot disease arising from combination with some 
 humour is a putrid fever, as has been said above. 
 
 Chilling (algor] due to very cold air or snow is 
 a simple cold disease without admixture of any 
 humour. But a cold disease, with an admixture of 
 humour, is paralysis, either complete or partial. 
 
 The mark of a moist disease is that it has an 
 admixture of humour ; for instance a cold or ulcer- 
 ated (vacuuni) wound ; or again a very foetid wound 
 accompanied by wasting of the body, as, for instance, 
 the puffed- up flesh of dropsical persons, which flesh 
 is inactive and in an unprofitable condition (' quemad-
 
 THE ISAGOGE 151 
 
 modum inflata caro hydropicorum vacuo squalore 
 torpens '). 
 
 A moist disease is one which attracts to itself 
 foreign humours, as, for instance, dropsy. 
 
 A dry disease with an admixture of humour is, for 
 instance, a hard and dry cancer. 
 
 Of Diseases in the Official Members. 
 
 Diseases occurring in the official members are four 
 in kind : they concern shape, size, number, and 
 position. 
 
 (1) As to shape. Abnormalities of this are un- 
 becomingness of a member, e.g. (a) a very long 
 head ; (6) absence of the normal concavity, as when 
 the hollow of the foot or hand is filled up with flesh ; 
 (c) variations in the size of canals, as stricture or 
 dilatation ; (d) roughness, as of the throat or of the 
 trachea and bronchi ; (e) smoothness, as of the womb 
 or the stomach. 
 
 (2) As to size. Abnormalities of size arise from 
 overplus of sperm, owing to which the member grows 
 to a greater size than it should do. And so we 
 sometimes see a very large head or tongue. 
 
 Also a member may be unbecomingly small, as 
 we sometimes see in the case of the head, the 
 stomach, or the liver. 
 
 (3) As to number. Abnormalities of this kind 
 occur either by augmentation or diminution. And 
 those due to augmentation are either according to the 
 course of nature or outside it. Of the first kind 
 are extra fingers ; of the second are round worms 
 (lumbrici], thread worms (ascarides], warts, and 
 acrocordines, that is to say large fleshy growths or 
 large spreading warts or fistulae (port]. 
 
 Those due to diminution are either universal or 
 particular. Of the first kind is absence of all the 
 fingers ; of the second kind absence of one finger.
 
 152 APPENDIX D 
 
 (4) As to position. Abnormalities of position are 
 due either to a removal of the member from its 
 proper place or to some defect in its relation to 
 neighbouring parts. Such abnormalities we see in 
 the fingers and the lips. The fingers may be double 
 (conglutinantur), or webbed (v el adherent], or the lips 
 may be separated and not joined (? harelip). 
 
 Separation in a member which ought to be whole 
 happens both in similar members and in official 
 members. The similar members are the bones, the 
 nerves, the flesh, the veins, the muscles, and the 
 skin. 
 
 When separation occurs in a bone it is termed 
 a fracture ; when occurring in the flesh (if recent) it 
 is termed a wound. But if the injury is of old 
 standing it is not called simply a wound, but a putrid 
 wound. 
 
 Separation in veins, nerves, or arteries is some- 
 times called by one name and sometimes by another. 
 
 If the injury occurs in the middle of a muscle it is 
 called a contusion or a bruise (contritid). 
 
 If it occurs in the skin, it is termed an excoriation ; 
 but this, if it be of long standing, may become a 
 putrid wound. 
 
 Separation occurring in the official members may 
 be lasting, as, for instance, loss of the hand or foot. 
 
 Of the Qualities of the Body. 
 
 The qualities of the body are three in number ; 
 namely, health, sickness, and the mean state. 
 
 Health is that condition in which the temperament 
 of the body and the seven naturals are working ac- 
 cording to the course of nature. 
 
 Sickness is defect in temperament outside the 
 course of nature, and injuring nature, whence arises 
 an efficient condition of harm which may be felt 
 (' unde fit laesionis effectus sensibilis '). The mean
 
 THE ISAGOGE 153 
 
 state is that which is neither health nor disease. 
 And there are three kinds of this mean state : (a) when 
 health and disease co-exist in the same body; which 
 may happen in different members, as in the blind or 
 the lame ; (b] in the bodies of the aged, in whom no 
 one member remains that is not in evil case or 
 suffers ; (c] in those who are well at one season and 
 sick at another. For instance, persons of a cold 
 nature are sick in the winter and well in the summer ; 
 and those of a moist nature are sick in childhood, 
 but well in youth and old age. Those of a dry 
 nature are well in childhood, but sick in youth and 
 old age. 
 
 Health, sickness, and the mean state are evident 
 in three ways ; (i) in the body in which any one of 
 them occurs ; (2) in the cause which produces, which 
 governs, and which preserves them ; (3) in their in- 
 dicating signs. 
 
 Of the Causes (Occasiones). 
 
 Causes are of two kinds, either natural or outside 
 the course of nature. 
 
 Natural causes either produce health or preserve it. 
 
 And the preservative causes pertain to the main- 
 tenance of health, but the productive causes to the 
 expulsion of sickness. 
 
 The non-natural causes pertain to sickness or to 
 the mean state. Causes of sickness produce sickness, 
 and they also maintain it. And that which pertains 
 neither to health nor to sickness brings about and 
 maintains the mean state. 
 
 Of the Causes of Health and of Sickness. 
 The causes which have a relation to health and 
 sickness are six in number, 1 and of these the first is 
 
 1 i. e. the six non-naturals.
 
 154 APPENDIX D 
 
 the air which surrounds the body. Then follow 
 food and drink, exercise and rest, sleep and waking, 
 fasting and fullness, and finally affections of the mind. 
 All these, if in moderation as to quantity, quality, 
 time, function, and order, tend to preserve health. 
 But if in excess in one of these matters they tend 
 to produce sickness and to maintain it. The causes 
 which bring about sickness are of three kinds ; those 
 which are called primitive and affect the body exter- 
 nally, such as cold and heat ; those which are ac- 
 cidental and act within the body, such as fullness 
 or fasting ; and those which are called conjoint, 
 because when they are present disease is present, 
 and vice versa, such as, for instance, putridity in 
 fevers. 
 
 Of the Varieties of Sickness. 
 
 . Sickness may again be classified under two heads ; 
 namely, common and proper. 
 
 Those under the first heading occur either acciden- 
 tally, such as striking, burning, biting, catching in 
 a trap (?) (deceptio), or other harmful effects. 
 
 Or they occur of necessity; for example, those 
 just mentioned as having a relation to health and 
 sickness. And these are really proper sicknesses 
 and they occur in the similar members, where they 
 maintain sickness, or in the official members, and in 
 cases of permanent separation, i.e. in loss of the hand 
 or foot. 
 
 Of the Diseases A rising from Heat. 
 
 Disease may arise from heat in five different ways. 
 
 Firstly, from disturbance of the spirits or of the 
 body. An example of the former is anger, of the 
 latter, fatigue, or sexual excitement (super bid]. 
 
 Secondly, the direct action and obvious effects of 
 heat, such as hypanthasis, i.e. sunburn or sunstroke.
 
 THE ISAGOGE 155 
 
 Thirdly, heating of the body by some substance 
 which has an accompanying faculty of heat, such as 
 the use of 'acrumina ' <e. g. onions and garlic). 
 
 Fourthly, from the shutting up of the pores, as 
 from cold in winter. 
 
 Fifthly, from putridity of the humours, as in fevers. 
 
 Of the Diseases A rising from Cold. 
 
 Disease may arise from cold in eight different ways. 
 
 Firstly, from the direct action and visible effect of 
 cold, such as from the coldness of snow. 
 
 Secondly, from cold drugs such as opium, which 
 strongly affect the human body. 
 
 Thirdly, from excess of food, which fills up the 
 body and extinguishes the natural heat. 
 
 Fourthly, from deprivation of food, which also 
 extinguishes the natural heat. 
 
 Fifthly, from excess of cold or of cold humours, 
 which block up the pores, so that the natural heat 
 is lessened. 
 
 Sixthly, from purging and opening of the body, so 
 that the natural heat is purged away and evacuated. 
 
 Seventhly, from violent exercise with profuse 
 sweating, whereby the body is weakened. 
 
 Eighthly, from sleep and plenty of leisure (pccasione 
 multa). 
 
 Of the Diseases Arising from Dryness. 
 
 Disease may arise from dryness in four different 
 ways. 
 
 Firstly, from the direct action and visible effect of 
 dryness, such as the dryness of poison. 
 
 Secondly, from the presence in the body of some 
 dry harsh substance, as, for instance, vinegar, salt, or 
 mustard. 
 
 Thirdly, from deficiency of food or drink. 
 
 Fourthly, from over-exercise.
 
 156 APPENDIX D 
 
 Of the causes of Diseases Arising from Moisture. 
 
 Disease may arise from moisture in four different 
 ways. 
 
 Firstly, from the direct action and visible effect of 
 moisture, such as a bath. 
 
 Secondly, from the presence in the body of some 
 moist substance, such as fresh fish. 
 
 Thirdly, from excess of food or drink. 
 
 Fourthly, from sleep and leisure. 
 
 Of the Modes of Disease. 
 
 There are four ways in which disease may occur 
 from an abnormal motion of some humour to a 
 weakly part. 
 
 Firstly, vigour of the impelling, and weakness of 
 the receiving, member. 
 
 Secondly, an abundance of humour. 
 
 Thirdly, weakness of the nutrient energy. 
 
 Fourthly, an abnormal largeness of the pores. 
 
 Of the Evil Quality (' Malitia ') of Sickness. 
 
 The evil quality of sickness attacks and resides in 
 a similar member in five different ways. 
 
 Firstly, in the uterus. 
 
 Secondly, at the time of birth. 
 
 Thirdly, from the infant being too tightly swaddled. 
 
 Fourthly, from defective nutrition. 
 
 Fifthly, from any sickness which may occur at the 
 aforesaid times or afterwards. 
 
 Sickness of the embryo or foetus arises from a 
 defect in the sperm, which may be either too thick 
 and rich or two thin and watery. 
 
 If the child be not born rightly it may be affected 
 for ill, as, for instance, if it be delivered looking 
 upwards ( ? face presentation) or with the knees bent
 
 THE ISAGOGE 157 
 
 ( ? breech presentation). If it be too tightly swaddled 
 it may be injured by being doubled up (duplicates 
 debilitatur}. 
 
 Or it may be defectively nourished by not being 
 able to suck or to take milk. 
 
 And at any of these seasons or afterwards sickness 
 may occur in a consimilar member by incision of any 
 tendon or nerve (nervus}. 
 
 Or some accident may occur, or a wound or a 
 swelling (apostema). 
 
 Of Sicknesses of the Consimilar Members. 
 
 Sickness may affect a similar member in seven 
 different ways. 
 
 Firstly, from a midwife who holds the child 
 improperly. 
 
 Secondly, if the child be allowed to walk too soon. 
 
 Thirdly, from an ignorant physician if he puts to 
 right, or bandages, deformed (contrafacta) or bruised 
 limbs unskilfully. 
 
 Fourthly, from the patient himself, should he move 
 a broken or injured limb, after being put up by the 
 surgeon, before it has properly healed or set. 
 
 Fifthly, from fracture, as, for instance, when the hip 
 is twisted above the muscle of the hip-bone which is 
 on the femur ( ' ut si super musculum vertebri quod 
 in femore est contorqueatur coxa'). 1 
 
 Sixthly, from a blow as, for instance, if the nose be 
 driven in and a ' chimus ' is the result. 
 
 Seventhly, from some evil humour, as is the case 
 in lepers, or from some deficiency of the humour 
 as is the case of those who are phthisical (' humoris 
 accidentis ptisicis '). 
 
 1 This passage would seem to be a reference to some dis- 
 location at the hip-joint.
 
 158 APPENDIX D 
 
 Of Constriction or Dilatation of the Pores : 
 Of Smoothness and of Roughness. 
 
 Constriction of the pores happens in three ways. 
 Firstly, from uncomplicated constriction ; secondly, 
 from fleshiness ; thirdly, from narrowing (coartatione}. 
 
 Uncomplicated constriction is caused (a) by excess 
 of the retentive energy ; or (6) by deficiency of the 
 expulsive energy ; or (c] by excessive cold ; or (d] by 
 tight constriction of any part of a limb, as often 
 happens from a tight bandage ; or (e) from excess of 
 dryness. 
 
 Secondly, fleshiness contracts the pores, as in the 
 case of swellings (apostemd) or in the seat of an old 
 wound (? scar tissue). 
 
 Thirdly, narrowing contracts the pores, when 
 anything is deposited in them such as a humour, or 
 a stone, or a blood clot, or again anything which lies 
 hid therein, such as proud flesh or ' scabies '. 
 
 Dilation of the pores may be due to four causes. 
 
 Firstly, excess of the expulsive energy ; secondly, 
 to deficiency of the retentive energy ; thirdly, to 
 excess of the colours of humours. Fourthly, to 
 aperient medicines. 
 
 Smoothness may occur after two fashions ; internal 
 and external. 
 
 If internal it may be due to liquefied and viscous 
 humours, if external to ointments. 
 
 Finally, roughness may occur after two fashions : 
 internal, due to excess of sharp humour, or external 
 from smoke and dust. 
 
 Of Excess of the Number of Members. 
 
 Excess of the number of members happens in two 
 ways. If natural, it is due to an excess of the natural 
 and normal humour, or from excess of the informative 
 energy.
 
 THE ISAGOGE 159 
 
 If outside the course of nature it is due to an 
 unnatural and abnormal humour, or to an excess or 
 deficiency of energy. 
 
 Of Diminution in the Number of the Members. 
 
 In like manner, diminution of the number of the 
 members happens in two ways, internal and external. 
 
 If internal it may be due to diminution of humours. 
 If external, to burning, or to cold, or to putridity, or 
 to cutting. 
 
 Putridity is due either to some poisonous draught 
 which causes mortification or brings about putrefaction 
 ('ex potione mortificante, aut putredinem faciente'), 
 or to constriction and retention of the humour which 
 is thereby broken down. 
 
 Of the Size of the Members. 
 
 Bigness of the members occurs in three ways. 
 Firstly, from an excess of the humours ; secondly, 
 from an excess of the (formative) energy ; thirdly, 
 from an admixture of the two. 
 
 Smallness also occurs in three ways. Firstly, from 
 deficiency of the energy ; secondly, from cutting 
 (incisione] ; thirdly, from burning by fire or from 
 excessive cold. 
 
 Of the Displacement of a Member. 
 
 Commotio membri de suo loco duobus modis fit. 
 Aut ex commotione voluntaria, aut ex humore vicino 
 equitanti dissolventi membrum et lubricum facienti. 
 
 Membrum vel os egreditur e sua junctura et 
 mutatur duobus modis similiter. Aut ex junctura in 
 qua non convenit separatio, aut ex separatione ubi 
 non convenit junctura. Si ex conjunctione hoc fuerit 
 sine separatione, aut erit ex humore acuto patientis, 
 aut ex accidenti vulnere, aut spasmo. 
 
 Si vero fuerit ex separatione ubi non convenit
 
 160 APPENDIX D 
 
 conjunctio, aut ex grosso humore, aut ex accident! 
 vulnere, aut ex spasmo. 1 
 
 Of Separation of Parts Normally Joined. 
 
 Separation of parts normally joined is due to either 
 an intrinsic or to an extrinsic cause. 
 
 Intrinsic causes are the invasion of (a) an acute 
 humour ; and (&} a ventosity, 2 which distends and 
 weakens the parts. 
 
 Extrinsic causes are cutting, fracture, rupture due 
 to muscular effort (exercitium nimium), sword cuts, 
 anything which stretches (distendit), as a rope, or 
 which bruises, as a stone. 
 
 Of the Kinds and Number of Symptoms. 
 
 There are three genera of symptoms, which refer 
 respectively to health, to sickness, and to the mean 
 state. 
 
 And each genus is divided into two species ; 
 namely, those which have to do with the official 
 members, and those which have to do with the 
 similar members. 
 
 Again, the symptoms of similar members are of 
 two kinds, i. e. substantial and accidental. 
 
 The substantial are heat, cold, dryness, and 
 moisture. The accidental are those which show 
 their significance either by touch, as hardness or 
 
 1 I have not translated this passage from sheer inability to do 
 so ; it apparently refers to the difference between a fracture and 
 a dislocation, junctura sometimes meaning a joint in the ana- 
 tomical sense, and sometimes a joint in the carpenter's sense, 
 i.e. continuity of tissue. Membrum, too, seems first to mean an 
 organ and afterwards a limb. So that the beginning of the second 
 paragraph would mean something like the following : ' A limb or 
 a bone can be moved from its continuity in two ways, either at 
 a joint, in which case there is no fracture, or by a fracture where 
 there is no joint.' 
 
 2 Cf. the old term ' Spina Ventosa '.
 
 THE ISAGOGE 161 
 
 softness ; or by sight, as colour. Some, again, are 
 obvious by action of the energies, as, for instance, 
 when the functions are well and fully performed. 
 
 Of Symptoms in the Official Members. 
 
 Symptoms in the official members are likewise 
 divided into substantial and accidental. The first 
 are four in number, namely, number, position, ars 
 ( ? function), modus (? arrangement). The accidental 
 are likewise four: namely, good, bad, perfect, im- 
 perfect. 
 
 Of the Genera of Symptoms. 
 
 There are three genera of symptoms : (i) those 
 which show what has happened, and they are called 
 cognitive or agnitive. For instance, when we find 
 the body wet we know that sweating has gone before. 
 (2) Those which show what is present and are called 
 by Galen demonstrative, as, for instance, when we 
 find a large and quick pulse we understand that fever 
 is present. (3) Those which show what will happen 
 and the perception of those precedes the event, as, 
 for instance, if we see the lower lip tremble we judge 
 that vomiting will occur, which after it has happened 
 is called precessio significative^. 
 
 But between symptoms and signs (accidentia) there 
 is a difference, and there is a gradually widening 
 division between them. If you carefully examine 
 each one of the differences respectively it will have 
 one particular signification ; but some things which 
 are signs to the patient are symptoms to the 
 physician. 
 
 Of Signs and their Number. 
 
 Significant signs are of three kinds : a change in 
 the operative energy, as, for instance, indigestion ; 
 a change in bodily quality, as, for instance, jaundice ; 
 a change in excretion, as, for instance, black urine.
 
 162 APPENDIX D 
 
 Of Change in the Operative Energy. 
 
 Changes in the operative energy are three in kind : 
 total, as indigestion ; or partial, as obscurity of the 
 eyes, or slow digestion ; or from one quality to 
 another, as when good digestion is changed into 
 a turbid or acid digestion, or when specks like flies 
 or chips (ligna) appear before the eyes, or partial 
 obscurity of the sight. 
 
 Of Changes in Quality. 
 
 Changes in quality are four in kind. Those 
 obvious to sight, as jaundice, or morphea, 1 or black 
 tongue ; or known by smell, as foetid breath or sweat 
 or polypus ; or again those which are known by 
 taste, as salt, bitter and acid ; and finally those which 
 are known by touch, as hard and soft. 
 
 Of Excretions. 
 
 There is a double significance in the excretions. 
 For some come forth with noise, such as eructations 
 from the mouth, rumbling in the intestines, and wind 
 from the anus. 
 
 And those which come forth without sound may 
 be abnormal in three different ways : in quantity, or 
 quality, or in both. An example of the first is 
 lientery, of the second black urine, of the third a flux 
 of blood. 
 
 Of Alterations in Members. 
 
 Alterations in members are primarily divided 
 into two classes, namely intrinsic and extrinsic. 
 
 Intrinsic changes are six in number : (a) change 
 of the operative energy of a member ; (6} changes in 
 the excretions ; (c) changes from pain in the neigh- 
 
 1 ' Morphea is a spice of lepre that sitt in the skyn.' Lanfranc, 
 Science of Cirurgie, English translation about 1380, E.E.T.S., 
 Orig. Series, No. 102.
 
 THE ISAGOGE 163 
 
 bourhood of a member ; (d) changes from pain in the 
 member itself; (e) changes by abnormal mobility; 
 (/) changes gathered from the opinion of the patient. 
 And intrinsic changes are three in number : (a) those 
 obvious to the sight, as whiteness or blackness ; 
 (b] those obvious to the touch, as hardness or soft- 
 ness, heat or cold ; (c) those which are obvious to 
 both senses, as greatness or smallness, increase or 
 decrease. 
 
 Of the Causes of Sickness. 
 
 The causes of sickness are three in number : 
 Firstly, a change of nature ; secondly, habitudo 
 inconveniens of an official member ; thirdly, a separa- 
 tion of continuity. 
 
 Of the Operation of Medicine. 
 
 The operation of a medicine has the following 
 threefold effect : it preserves health, after its many 
 different kinds (secundum multitudinem suam) ; or, 
 out of illness it produces health ; or finally it acts in 
 the contrary fashion. 
 
 Of the Regimen of Health. 
 
 The regimen of health is of three kinds according 
 as it deals with those prone to illness, those just 
 beginning to be ill, and weakly persons. 
 
 The first classes are treated by proper regulation 
 of the aforesaid six things, i. e. the non-naturals. 
 
 Those in the second class are treated in two ways ; 
 first, by removal of the excess of humour (ckimus) ; 
 secondly, by repairing any defect in nature and by 
 counselling adherence to the proper observance of 
 the non-naturals. 
 
 ' Weakly persons ' are infants, old persons, and 
 convalescents. 
 
 L 2
 
 1 64 APPENDIX D 
 
 Of the Divisions of Medicine in General. 
 
 All Medicine comes under one of two heads, 
 general or particular. 
 
 General Medicine concerns itself with the right 
 ordering of the non-naturals. 
 
 Particular Medicine has three divisions, according 
 to whether it is concerned with the similar members, 
 the official members, or with solution of continuity. 
 
 Abnormal changes in the similar members are 
 treated by being brought back to their original con- 
 dition or state, and retained therein by bandaging. 
 
 If hollow organs (? channels) are over-dilated we 
 bring them back to their proper size and keep at rest. 
 If they are too small we do the contrary. (' Concava 
 si preter modum ampliata fuerint, ad sui modum 
 constringimus et quietem inducimus. Si minus, 
 contrarium.' J ) 
 
 If there be defect of the retentive energy, we 
 mollify the place with fomentations and cataplasms. 
 
 If there be defect of the expulsive energy we use 
 diaphoretics and carminatives (confortativa). 
 
 If the cause be of a styptic nature use a softening 
 remedy ; if dry, a moist one ; if the disease arises 
 from constriction apply some remedy which will 
 break it down. 
 
 In cases where there is a change from the natural 
 order of things, we restore them to their proper 
 working. If, for instance, there is an apostema, we 
 cure it by bringing it to a head. If the trouble 
 arises from an adhesion (tiaturali junclura) we either 
 use an aperient medicament or else we alter it by 
 surgery. If there is some new growth we take it 
 
 1 The following passage is omitted, as the Latin is very 
 obscure. It is possibly an alternative translation of the foregoing 
 clause, which begins Concava. ' In largis autem similiter addito 
 contrario cause, unde vitium accident, foramina strictiora suo 
 modo facimus.'
 
 THE ISAGOGE 165 
 
 away ; if roughness be present we use smoothness, 
 and vice versa. 
 
 Of the Removal of Overgrowth. 
 
 Overgrowth we remove either in part, as in the 
 case of scrofulous swelling, or totally, as in the case 
 of cancer. 
 
 ' Separatio ' we cure as follows : if from overplus 
 of blood, we take it away (? bleed) at all ages. ' Si 
 ex spermate in pueritia tantum sanamus.' 
 
 If a limb be too small we increase its size by 
 exercise and fomentation, if too big we lessen it by 
 rest and bandaging. 
 
 Of Displacement of Members. 
 
 Displaced members are restored to their normal 
 condition in two ways : (i) by joining what is separ- 
 ated ; (2) by separating what is joined. 
 
 In the former case there are four essentials : (a) 
 to join the separated parts ; (b) to keep the joine'd 
 parts in place ; (c) to prevent displacement occurring 
 again; and (d] to maintain the seat of injury in a 
 wholesome condition (' naturam loci custodire '). 
 
 Of the Sufficiency and Division of Medicine. 
 
 The practice of medicine deals with the right 
 ordering of the non-naturals, with giving of drugs 
 (potio), and with surgery. Drugs are administered 
 internally by the mouth, by the ears, by the nose, 
 by the anus, and by the vulva. Externally by means 
 of poultices, plasters, and stupes. 
 
 Medicines administered internally act in three 
 ways ; they loosen or they bind, or they bring about 
 an alteration in quality, as does cold water in 
 a fever. 
 
 Sometimes they act in four ways: they reduce 
 over-excess ; or they supply deficiency, as, for
 
 1 66 APPENDIX D 
 
 instance, flesh or blood when administered ; or they 
 bind what is loose, as does a styptic ; or they bring 
 about an alteration in quality, as does water in fever. 
 
 Of Surgery. 
 
 Surgery deals with two tissues, i.e. with the flesh 
 and with the bones. 
 
 When dealing with the former it cuts, sews, and 
 ? heals (coquere}. 
 
 When dealing with the latter it consolidates, 
 unites, and scrapes. 
 
 Of the Judging of Drugs (Species). 
 
 The right judging of drugs takes into consideration 
 five different matters : quality, quantity, season (of 
 gathering), arrangement; and the question of 
 whether they be good or bad. 
 
 The end of the Book of the Introduction of Joannitius 
 and Praise be to God. 
 
 APPENDIX E 
 GADDESDEN'S AUTHORITIES 
 
 GADDESDEN was evidently acquainted with, or had 
 even read, the writings of a large number of his 
 predecessors. Many, however, of the authors whom 
 he mentions are unidentifiable, and again the writings 
 of some have become confused owing to the fact 
 that there were two or more of the same name. In 
 some cases he quotes both the name of the author 
 and that of the work, in others only the name of the 
 author, and in one case at least simply the name of 
 the treatise, or rather its opening words. This last
 
 GADDESDEN'S AUTHORITIES 167 
 
 method of reference was common in the Middle 
 Ages, and has survived in the Western Church for 
 the naming of Sundays from the first words of the 
 Introit, e. g. Rorate Coeli (fourth Sunday in Advent), 
 or again Laetare (fourth Sunday in Lent). 
 
 So Gaddesden, fol. 48 rect., col. 2, says : ' Certissi- 
 mum est remedium dicit Alguasinus et Circainstans.' 
 The latter authority is Matthew Platearius the 
 younger, fl. 1130-50, who wrote De Simplici 
 Medicina Liber, a treatise which began with the 
 words ' Circa instans '. 
 
 In the preparation of the short notes upon the 
 various authors I have been most kindly and help- 
 fully aided by Dr. Payne. Some of the writers 
 quoted have, however, surpassed even his knowledge 
 to identify. The order of the names is that in which 
 they first occur. 
 
 AUTHORS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO BY GADDESDEN. 
 
 HALY (BEN RODOAN). Commentary on the Tegni 
 (rtyvrj) of Galen, otherwise Microtegni or Ars 
 Parva. Number of times quoted, 98. 
 
 Haly, whose full name was Abul-hassan ' Ali ben 
 Ridhwan ben C AH ben Ja'far, was born at Ghizeh 
 about A. D. 980. He was physician to the Khalif al 
 Hakim, and wrote a number of medical works as 
 well as commentaries upon Hippocrates and Galen. 
 The Arabic translation of Galen was made by 
 Hunain, born A. D. 809, and his nephew Hubaish. 
 The translator of the Tegni into Latin was Con- 
 stantine the African, about A. D. 1070 ; of the 
 commentary by Haly, Gerard of Cremona, in the 
 12th century. 
 
 AVICENNA. Canon. Number of times quoted, 474. 
 
 Avicenna, otherwise Abu 'Ali al-Husain ben Ab- 
 dallah ibn Sina, was born in Bokhara in A. D. 978 and 
 died in 1036. He was not only a celebrated physician,
 
 1 68 APPENDIX E 
 
 but also an astronomer and a man of affairs, holding 
 a viziership, and was generally accorded the titles of 
 Rais and Shaikh. His great medical work was the 
 Canon, which, together with the works of Galen and 
 Hippocrates.practically dominated mediaeval medical 
 thought. It was divided into five parts ; namely, a 
 general view of medicine, materia medica, particular 
 diseases, general diseases, pharmacopoeia. The Latin 
 translation was made by Gerard of Cremona. 
 
 CONSTANTINE THE AFRICAN. Works quoted I 
 
 Practica ; Pantegni. Number of times quoted, 40. 
 Constantine the African, whom Leclerc 1 calls 'un 
 tre amphibie ', was, according to Petrus Diaconus, 
 born at Carthage (? Tunis), and studied in Baghdad, 
 Cairo, and India. About the year 1072 began the 
 second half of his life, for he arrived at Salerno and 
 very shortly afterwards settled at Monte Cassino. In 
 the retirement of the great Benedictine house he wrote 
 various medical works. Some of these were frankly 
 acknowledged as translations, while others were 
 issued as originals, although really translations. 
 Among the latter was the treatise called Pantegni or 
 Practica, for the two are the same work. It was a 
 translation of an Arabic work, which, according to 
 the latest researches, is the Maleki or Liber Regatis 
 of Haly Abbas (i. e. 'Ali ibn al-Abbas), though it was 
 ascribed in the Middle Ages to Isaac Judaeus (i.e. 
 Isaac Israeli). Among the acknowledged transla- 
 tions of Constantine were those of the Tegni, of the 
 Aphorisms of Hippocrates with the commentary of 
 Galen (according to Constantine the first work of 
 Galen to be translated into Latin), and the Liber 
 Febrium and De Urinis of Isaac Israeli. 
 
 1 Lucien Leclerc, Histoire de la Medecine Arabe, Paris, 2 vols., 
 E. Leroux, 1876. This Leclerc must not be confounded with 
 Daniel Leclerc, a seventeenth-century writer who wrote a History 
 of Medicine, considered a standard work.
 
 GADDESDEN'S AUTHORITIES 169 
 
 See also Viaticum in the note on Gerard of 
 Cremona. 
 
 ARISTOTLE. De Morbo ; De Animalibus ; The 
 Letter to Alexander. Number of times quoted, 15. 
 
 Aristotle was born in 384 B. c., his father being an 
 eminent physician by name Nicomachus. Numerous 
 Arabic translations of Aristotle's works were made in 
 the ninth century, and Latin translations were made 
 in Europe in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth 
 centuries. Michael Scot, about whose name so 
 many legends have gathered, translated the De 
 Animalibus, probably at Toledo, about I2O9. 1 
 
 The Letter to Alexander is now regarded as 
 spurious, and there is no work of Aristotle known in 
 Greek with a title corresponding to De Morbo. 
 
 GALEN. Works quoted : De Ingenio Sanitatis ; 
 DeCrisibus ; De Dinamidiis ; Comment, in Aphorism. 
 Hippocrat. ; Prognostica, i. e. Commentary on ; De 
 Simp lid Med. ; De Sinocho ; De Morbo et Accidenti ; 
 De Interioribus membris ; De Mala Complexione ; 
 Regimen Acutorum ; Megrategni (sic) ; De Juvamen- 
 tis membrorum ; Tegni with Haly's commentary; 
 De Passionibus ; Viaticum, fol. 70 rect., col. 2 at 
 foot. Number of times quoted, 417. 
 
 Claudius Galen, born in Pergamus about A. D. 130, 
 studied in Greece and Egypt, and came to Rome at 
 the age of thirty-four. He was held in great 
 esteem by Marcus Aurelius. His medical writings 
 were much prized by the Arabs, and numerous 
 translations were made into Arabic, mainly by 
 Hunain and Hubaish. The principal translators of 
 his works into Latin were Constantine and Gerard of 
 Cremona. 
 
 Of the works mentioned by Gaddesden Dr. J. F. 
 Payne writes : ' The De Ingemo Sanitatis is another 
 name for the translation from the Arabic of Galen's 
 1 Wood Brown, Life and Legend of Michael Scot, 1897.
 
 170 APPENDIX E 
 
 Methodus Medendi, not the book called De Sanitate 
 Tuenda, as is sometimes supposed. I have verified 
 several quotations or references in other books, and 
 find that the Metkodus Medendi is meant. 
 
 ' I suppose that the word ingenium represents 
 some Arabic word meaning Engine, or Instrument 
 (of Health) by which it is to be acquired or recovered, 
 i. e. it appeals to sick people, while the other book, 
 On the Preservation of Health, is intended for the 
 healthy. 
 
 ' De Crisibus : genuine. 
 
 'De Dinamidiis : a spurious work. It is not known 
 in Greek, and only exists in Latin, and was probably 
 written about the end of the twelfth century. The 
 name of the author is unknown. 
 
 ' Comment, in Aphorism. Hippocrat. ; Comment, in 
 Prognost. Hippocrat. ; Comment, in Regimen A cu- 
 torum Hippocrat. : all with text of H ippocrates are 
 genuine. 
 
 * De Simplici Medicina : genuine. The full title is 
 De Simplicium Medicamentorum temperamentis et 
 facultatibus. 
 
 ' De Sinocho : I cannot find any work of Galen with 
 a Greek title corresponding to this, so suppose it to 
 be spurious. It might perhaps be an extract. 
 
 ' De Morbo et Accidenti : this is unknown in Greek, 
 and is only found in Latin, apparently translated 
 from the Arabic, and therefore not genuine. I 
 strongly suspect that it is a compendium or abstract 
 of several books about symptoms (accidens\ such as 
 De Symptomatum Causis, three books, and De Sym- 
 ptomatum Dijferentiis ; also called De Morborum 
 Causis and De Morborum Differentiis. But this is 
 only a conjecture. 
 
 ' De Interioribus Membris : spurious ; also called 
 Anatomia Interiorum or Principalium Membrorum, 
 a little Latin tract on anatomy, written probably in
 
 GADDESDEN'S AUTHORITIES 171 
 
 the twelfth century, and often ascribed to Magister 
 Ricardus or Ricardus Anglicus. It was attributed 
 to Galen because the preface or prologue begins, 
 "Galienus testatur,"or"Galieno testante". The name 
 of Galen coming first has caused it to be generally 
 catalogued under his name in European libraries, and 
 the old British Museum Catalogues have it so. In 
 other libraries, if it is desired to find a MS. of the 
 work, search has first to be made under the name 
 Galen. 
 
 'De Mala Complexions: genuine ; I suppose the 
 same as De inaequali tempore, or De inaequali intern- 
 pore, translated by Linacre. 
 
 'Megrategni: genuine; the same as Methodus 
 Medendi. 
 
 1 De Juvamentis Membrorum: genuine; the same 
 as De Usu Partium. 
 
 l De Passionibus : I find no Greek title correspon- 
 ding to this, so suppose it to be spurious. Whether 
 it is the same as the Passionarius called Galeni, but 
 really written by Gariopontus of Salerno, I cannot 
 say. 
 
 ' Viaticiint : certainly spurious. The Viaticum was 
 given out by Constantine the African as his own. 
 The editor of the printed edition says : " Quod Con- 
 stantinus Africanus sibi arrogare non erubuit." It was 
 also ascribed to Isaac Judaeus, but I think that, 
 even now, the matter is not perfectly clear.' (J . F. P.) 
 See below under Constantine and Gerard of Cremona. 
 
 SERAPION THE ELDER. Works quoted : Practica ; 
 De Aggregationibus ; ? De Proprietatibus Rerum. 
 Number of times quoted, 22. 
 
 Serapion, who lived in the ninth century, is other- 
 wise known as John the son of Serapion. He was 
 one of the physicians of the celebrated medical school 
 at Gondisapor, a Nestorian establishment. The 
 Practica, also called Breviarium, was translated by
 
 172 APPENDIX E 
 
 Gerard of Cremona. Serapion the Younger lived 
 about the end of the eleventh century, and wrote 
 a treatise on drugs, which is possibly the De Pro- 
 prietatibus Rerum referred to. 
 
 GILBERT THE ENGLISHMAN. Work quoted : 
 Practica, Number of times, 10. 
 
 Gilbertus Anglicus flourished at the -end of the 
 twelfth, and during the early part of the thirteenth, 
 century. He was physician to Hubert Walter, 
 Chancellor to Richard I and John, and probably 
 took part in the Crusades. He is Chaucer's Gil- 
 bertyne, who is mentioned in the Canterbury Tales 
 together with Bernard of Gordon and Gaddesden. 
 He studied and practised abroad, and thus got the 
 cognomen Anglicus, which obviously he would not 
 have acquired in his own country. He was a devoted 
 scholar of the school of Salerno, and also well 
 read in the Arabian writers. The Practica which 
 Gaddesden quotes is the Compendium Medicinae 
 which was printed at Lyons in 1510. 
 
 ISAAC JUDAEUS. Works quoted : De Febribus ; 
 De Urinis. Number of times quoted, 25. 
 
 Abu Ya'qub Ishaq ben Sulaiman al Israili (whose 
 Jewish name is Isaac Israeli) was born in Egypt 
 about the middle of the ninth century, and is said to 
 have lived to the age of over a hundred. H e was first 
 in the service of the Aglabite Emir, Ziyadat Allah, 
 and on the fall of that dynasty took service under 
 the Fatimide al Mahdi, and apparently spent the 
 rest of his days at Kairawan. He was the author 
 of sundry medical works besides the two treatises 
 on Urines and on Fevers. The Pantegni is probably 
 attributed to him in error. 
 
 AEGIDIUS CORBOLIENSIS. Works quoted : De 
 Pulsibus ; De Urinis. Number of times quoted, 8. 
 
 Aegidius Corboliensis, or Gilles de Corbeil, was 
 a celebrated physician of the twelfth century, and
 
 GADDESDEN'S AUTHORITIES 173 
 
 was in the service of Philip Augustus. He studied 
 at Salerno, and has left various works in very fairly 
 classical Latin verse. Besides the De Pulsibus et 
 Urinis he wrote a most amusing poem satirizing the 
 clergy, entitled Hierapigra, and a poem on drugs, 
 De Laudibus et Virtu tibus compositorum Medica- 
 minum. There is also a fragment in the Bodleian of 
 a poem entitled De Siguis et Symptomatibus Aegri- 
 tiidinum. The best account of him is to be found in 
 M. C. Vieillard's Gilles de Corbeil, Paris, 1909. 
 
 Confusion has arisen between AegidiusCorboliensis 
 and another Aegidius, or rather Joannes de Sancto 
 Aegidio, otherwise John of St. Albans. And this all 
 the more easily in that the latter was also a physician 
 and in the service of Philip Augustus. Yet another 
 Aegidius, namely Aegidius Romanus, flourished at the 
 end of the thirteenth century, and is said to have 
 been the author of a treatise De Formatione Corporis 
 or De Formatione Fetus, Gaddesden quotes from 
 it under the latter title with the name of the author 
 as Aegidius on fol. 24. 
 
 HIPPOCRATES. Works quoted: Aphorisms, 
 Number of times quoted, 120. 
 
 Hippocrates was the great physician of antiquity. 
 He was a native of Cos, and was born about B. c. 460. 
 The Aphorisms from which Gaddesden quotes were 
 those edited with a commentary by Galen, and they 
 were translated into Latin at Monte Cassino by 
 Constantine in the eleventh century. The translation 
 from the Greek into Arabic was made by Hunain 
 and Hubaish in the ninth century. The most impor- 
 tant work of Hippocrates was the treatise entitled 
 Airs, Wafers, and Places, which was also translated 
 by Hunain. 
 
 AVENZOAR. Gaddesden does not mention any 
 work. Avenzoar is quoted three times, once 
 directly and twice as quoted by Averroes in the
 
 174 APPENDIX E 
 
 Colliget. The place where he is mentioned directly 
 is on fol. 136 verso, in the section on poisons : ' Item 
 lapis smaragdinus inventus in capite buffonis viridis 
 et splendidus, sic dicit Avenzoar, tritus datus cum 
 aqua vel cum vino ad pondus granorum ix, educit 
 venenum cum vomitu.' 
 
 Avenzoar died in 1162; the date of his birth is 
 unknown. His name in full was Abu Marwan 'Abd 
 al-malik ben Abil-'ala ben Zuhr. Averroes, who 
 was his pupil, says in the Colliget that he lived to the 
 age of 135 and did not begin to study medicine until 
 he was 40. He lived in Seville in the service of the 
 Almoravide and Almohade dynasties. His chief 
 work was the Taisir, which he dedicated to Aver- 
 roes, but he also wrote a treatise on Diseases and 
 Remedies of which a MS. exists at Paris. The 
 Taisir was translated into Latin at Venice, and the 
 prologue to the edition printed in 1490 runs as 
 follows : 
 
 ' Incipit liber editus in Arabico a perfecto viro 
 Abu Maruan Avenzohar, et translatus de hebraico in 
 latinum Venetiis a magistro Paravicio physico ipso 
 sibi vulgarizante magistro Jacobo hebreo. Anno 
 Domini Jesu Christi MCCLXXX ; primo mense 
 augusto die Jovis in meridie.' 
 
 Colophon : ' Venetiis MCCCCLXXXX.' 
 
 DAMASCENUS. Works quoted : Aphorisms, with the 
 commentary of Isidore. Number of times quoted, 
 53. He is also quoted without mention of Isidore 
 three times. 
 
 Joannes Damascenus, sometimes called Janus 
 Damascenus, was given in the Middle Ages as the 
 author of certain works translated from the Arabic. 
 These works are now attributed either to Mesue the 
 Elder, about the eighth century A.D., or to Serapion 
 the Elder, about the ninth century A. D. 
 
 The Aphorisms quoted by Gaddesden are to be
 
 GADDESDEN'S AUTHORITIES 175 
 
 found bound up in the collection entitled Articella, 
 of which many editions were printed. In that 
 printed at Lyons in 1515 they are headed, 'Joh. 
 Damasceni medici clarissimi Aphorismi.' The Latin 
 translation was made by Gerard. Gaddesden almost 
 always quotes from a commentary on the Aphorisms 
 by Isidore, thus : ' Sic Isidorus super secunda 
 particula affo. Dama. commento 6.' Who this 
 Isidore was is unknown, and he and his commentary 
 do not appear to be noticed elsewhere. 
 
 ROGERIUS. No work mentioned. Number of 
 times quoted, 6. 
 
 Dr. Payne's note on this name says : ' According 
 to Pansier of Avignon, who has written on the school 
 of Montpellier, the Rogerina (major and minor) was 
 written by Rogier, Rogerius de Varone or Barone, a 
 physician of Montpellier, who may have been 
 Chancellor there. He was more "a medical than a 
 surgical writer". He lived about the end of the 
 thirteenth century and his work is also known as 
 Summa Rogerii or Practica. On the other hand, 
 Pagel strongly asserts the old view that the Rogerina 
 means the surgery of the earliest Salernitan surgeon 
 Rogerius, whose work was edited by Roland of 
 Parma, and generally met with under the name 
 Rolandina. Roger was born in the twelfth century, 
 and there is nothing to connect him with Montpellier. 
 I agree with Pansier and others ; I think the work 
 quoted must be the chiefly medical work of Rogerius 
 de Varone, and not the purely surgical Roger edited 
 by Roland.' (J. F. P.) 
 
 THEODORICUS. Works mentioned : Major Chi- 
 rurgia. Number of times quoted, 4. 
 
 Theodoric was the pupil and son of Hugo of 
 Lucca. He was also Bishop of Cervia and surgeon 
 to Innocent IV. Guy de Chauliac unkindly says 
 that he compiled his book by stealing everything
 
 176 APPENDIX E 
 
 from Bruno, and he certainly took his practice of 
 dressing wounds with wine and dry dressings from 
 that surgeon. He died in 1298. 
 
 AVERROES. Works quoted : Colliget, i. e. Kitab 
 al-Kulliyat, Generalities of Medicine ; Commentary 
 on the Cantica of Avicenna. Number of times 
 quoted, 98. 
 
 Abul-walid Muhammad ben Ahmad ben Mu- 
 hammad ibn Rushd, commonly known as Averroes, 
 whose name has come down to us rather as a 
 philosopher than as a physician, was born at Cordova 
 in A. D. 1126. Besides being philosopher and 
 physician, he was first Cadi of Seville and later 
 Cadi of Cordova. He was accused of free-thinking 
 opinions, and was exiled to Lucena near Cordova 
 and his goods confiscated. He died in 1198. 
 
 The Colliget is a work in seven Books dealing 
 with medicine in general. The Cantica of Avicenna, 
 upon which Averroes wrote a commentary, is a 
 poetical handbook of medicine in the metre called in 
 Arabic, Arjuza. Both works were translated into 
 Latin by Ermengardus of Montpellier about the 
 middle of the thirteenth century. 
 
 MESUE. Works quoted : Generally no name, 
 sometimes Antidotarium. Number of times quoted, 
 
 33- 
 
 The Mesue (i. e. Ibn Masawaih) from whom 
 Gaddesden quotes was probably the person known 
 as Mesue the Younger, who is said on the authority 
 of Leo Africanus to have lived in the eleventh century. 
 Anyway, a work under his name was current in the 
 Middle Ages, written in Latin, but no Arabic original 
 exists. The work in question is one on drugs, and is 
 divided into four parts. The last part, De Aegritu- 
 dinibus, deals with the medicines proper for each 
 disease in particular. 
 
 RHAZES. Works quoted : De Doloribus Juncfu-
 
 GADDESDEN'S AUTHORITIES 177 
 
 rarum; Aphorisms; Almansor. Number of times 
 quoted, 25. 
 
 Abu Bakr Muhammad ben Zakariya, commonly 
 called Rhazes, was born about the middle of the 
 ninth century and died about the year A. D. 932. He 
 studied at Baghdad, and his great work is called 
 al-Hawi, in Latin Continent. This was a complete 
 treatise on the practice of medicine, and is specially 
 valuable apart from its medical teaching in that it 
 contains notices of celebrated men who had preceded 
 him, Greek, Arab, and Persian. His other chief 
 medical work was the Almansor, or, in Arabic, al~ 
 Mansuri, which was dedicated to al-Mansur, prince 
 of Khorassan. He has also left a most important 
 treatise upon small-pox and measles. In addition to 
 these there are a number of treatises attributed to 
 him under the name of Abubecri, which were 
 translated into Latin by Gerard. Among these are 
 the De Doloribus Juncturarum, and the Aphorisms. 
 Gerard also translated the Almansor, Book IX of 
 which, De Aegritudinibus a capite usque ad p'edes, was 
 a favourite mediaeval textbook. 
 
 JOANNITIUS. Work quoted: Isagoge. Number of 
 times quoted, 3. 
 
 Joannitius, into which the name of Hunain ben 
 Ishaq was latinized, was one of the great physicians 
 and translators of the ninth century. He was born 
 in the year A. D. 809 of a Christian Arab family at 
 Hira. When a young man he went to Baghdad to ask 
 Yahya ibn Masawaih, i. e. Mesue the Elder, to receive 
 him as his pupil. The people of Hira had a reputa- 
 tion for stupidity, ' passaient pour des Beotiens,' 
 to use Leclerc's expression, and Mesue therefore 
 repulsed Hunain. He accordingly went away and 
 studied in Greece, and possibly in Alexandria, for 
 two years. He then travelled in Persia, studied 
 Arabic at Bassora, and returned to Baghdad. Here 
 
 1303 M
 
 178 APPENDIX E 
 
 he commenced making translations from the Greek 
 into Arabic of such excellence that they won the 
 esteem of Gabriel, son of Bukht-yeshu', and of Mesue 
 himself, who now received Hunain with open arms. 
 Hunain, assisted by his nephew Hubaish, was a most 
 voluminous translator. Together they translated 
 most of Hippocrates and the sixteen books of Galen, 
 to say nothing of various works of Plato and 
 Aristotle. Hunain's introduction to the Microtegni 
 of Galen was translated into Latin, and was much 
 used in the Middle Ages as a textbook under the 
 title of Isagoge Joannitii in Medicinam. The name 
 of the translator is unknown, and in places the Latin 
 is very obscure. 
 
 NICHOLAS. Work quoted: Antidotarium. Num- 
 ber of times quoted, 1 7. 
 
 Nicholas Praepositus of Salerno, who lived 
 about 1150, wrote a collection of formulae for 
 compound medicines, or Antidotarium, which became 
 one of the chief mediaeval textbooks in the subject. 
 It was immensely popular, and formed the founda- 
 tion of various other books up to the end of the six- 
 teenth century. Then it aided in the compilation of 
 the new Pharmacopoeias and was superseded by them. 
 
 BERNARD OF GORDON. No work mentioned. 
 Number of times quoted, 3. 
 
 Bernard of Gordon was a teacher at Montpellier. 
 He began to teach there in A. D. 1285 and wrote his 
 Lilium Medicinae in 1305. It was often printed, an 
 edition appearing at Frankfort so late as 1617. 
 Although he does not mention the name, this is the 
 book to which Gaddesden refers. 
 
 GERARD OF CREMONA. Work quoted : Viaticum* 
 Number of times quoted, 5. 
 
 Gerard of Cremona was born in 1114 and died in 
 1187. He worked at Toledo, where he produced 
 translations of seventy-six works. Among the 
 medical authors whom he translated was Galen, with
 
 GADDESDEN'S AUTHORITIES 179 
 
 a commentary of Ibn Ridhwan, Isaac Judaeus, 
 Rhazes, Serapion, and Avicenna. 
 
 It is uncertain whether Gerard of Cremona was 
 the author of the Viaticum, or rather of the commen- 
 tary upon it. Littre, in the Histoire Littiraire de la 
 France, says that Gerard of Berry was the author 
 of the commentary. The Viaticum itself was put 
 forth by Constantine (p. 1 68) as his own, but Leclerc 
 says that it is really a translation of a treatise by Ibn 
 al-Jazzar, who was born at Kairawan and died about 
 A. D. 1009. It appears to have been a kind of medical 
 handbook for travellers. The authorship was also 
 ascribed to Isaac, and on fol. 35 rect, col. 2, 
 Gaddesden says: ' Dicit Isaac secundo Viatici vel 
 Constantinus quod si &c/ 
 
 Gaddesden mentions or quotes from a number 
 of other authors or treatises. Some are difficult 
 or impossible to identify, and often he mentions 
 no particular book. Of those who can be identified 
 are the following: 
 
 DIOSCORIDES. He is supposed to have lived about 
 the second century A.D., and wrote a book on 
 medicinal herbs and other remedies. This was 
 translated from the Greek into Arabic by Stephanus, 
 son of Basilius, about the middle of the ninth 
 century. Dioscorides was Greek, a native of 
 Anazarba in Cilicia, and served as an army surgeon. 
 A mediaeval Latin translation was attributed to 
 Peter of Abano (Petrus Aponensis), but Dioscorides 
 was not really well known until the revival of learning 
 in the sixteenth century. It is not likely that Gad- 
 desden knew the complete works of Dioscorides, but 
 there were several books containing extracts early 
 translated into Latin, and known to the Anglo- 
 Saxons. Sometimes the author of these is called 
 Pseu do- Dioscorides. The Arabs apparently did not 
 have much to do with making Dioscorides known 
 in Europe.
 
 i8o APPENDIX E 
 
 RUFUS. Rufus of Ephesus probably lived about 
 the beginning of the second century A. D. Gaddesden 
 quotes him five times. He wrote a large number 
 of medical treatises, very many of which were trans- 
 lated into Arabic. Latin translations were also made 
 at an early date. 
 
 ALBERTUS MAGNUS. Works quoted : De proprie- 
 tate Rerum ; De Medicinis simplicibiis ; Lib. Methau- 
 rorum. Number of times quoted, 5. 
 
 Albertus Magnus was born in 1193, studied at 
 Padua, and entered the Dominican Order. In 1260 
 he was made Bishop of Ratisbon. He possessed 
 extensive chemical and mechanical knowledge, ex- 
 tensive, that is, for his age, and was considered to be 
 both sorcerer and magician. 
 
 CESARIUS. Only quoted once and no work men- 
 tioned. 
 
 Cesarius was born A.D. 330, and was physician to 
 the Emperor Constantius who died in 361. 
 
 JOANNES DE SANCTO AMANDO. Work mentioned : 
 Tacuinus. Number of times quoted, 2. 
 
 Joannes de Sancto Amando was a Canon of 
 Tournai, and lived in the thirteenth century. He 
 wrote an exposition on \hz,Antidotarium of Nicholas 
 and also some Tables, i.e. Concordantiae. These 
 tables were also called Taquinus, from a corruption 
 of an Arabic word meaning ' Tables ' (see below 
 under Tagnus). On fol. 80 recto, col. 2, appears 
 ' Dicit Joannes de sancto Amando ... in tranquillo 
 suo '. This sentence should read ' in Tacuino 
 suo'. 
 
 Tagnus. This word seems to have been a puzzle 
 to mediaeval scribes and printers. On fol. 35 rect, 
 col 2, it appears as Daqn. ; on fol. 101 rect., col. i, 
 as Tagn.\ on fol. 148 rect, col. 2, as Tarqnu.\ and 
 on fol. 80 rect., col. 2, as Tranquillus, i.e. 'Joannes 
 de Sancto Amando in tranquillo suo '. The word is 
 really taquinus or tacuinus, and is a corruption of an
 
 GADDESDEN'S AUTHORITIES i8r 
 
 Arabic word taqwim meaning ' table ', not a board, 
 but something in tabular form. 
 
 The word occurs in the title of a book printed at 
 Strasbourg in 1531. Tacuini Sanitatis Elluchasem 
 Elimithar medici de Baldath. Elluchasem Elimithar 
 was the Latin rendering of Abul-hasan al-Mukhtar 
 ben al-Hasan ben 'Abdun ben Sadun ben Butlan, 
 who was a Christian Arab living at Baghdad during 
 the eleventh century, and his book was called 
 Taqwim as-sihha. It was a treatise on hygiene in 
 general. When it was translated into Latin is un- 
 known. It is possible that Gaddesden may have been 
 quoting from this book when he says ' secundum 
 Tarqnu ' or ' dicit Daqn '. 
 
 THEOPHILUS. Quoted once. 
 
 This Theophilus is probably Theophilus Proto- 
 spathariuswho held office under Heraclius. He wrote 
 a treatise De Urinis, which is found in many editions 
 of the Articella and is generally immediately pre- 
 ceded or followed by another treatise by Philaretus, 
 De Pulsibiis. Gaddesden quotes this also. Philare- 
 tus and Theophilus are presumably the same person. 
 
 URSO. Urso was one of the Salernitan Masters 
 and flourished about A. D. 1180. Gaddesden quotes 
 him twice ' in affor. suis '. Urso was one of the 
 teachers of Gilles de Corbeil, who speaks of him as 
 
 ' Strenuus ambiguos caussarum solvere nodos 
 Cujus ab ingenio nulla indecisa recedit 
 Quaestio.' . . . 
 (De medicamentis compositis, i. 122.) 
 
 HUGO DE LUCCA. Quoted once. 
 
 Hugo de Lucca was the city surgeon of Bologna 
 in A.D. 1214. No writings of his have come down 
 to us, but his methods of practice have been described 
 by his son and pupil Theodoric, Bishop of Cervia, q.v. 
 
 LANFRANC, ROLAND, BRUNO. These three sur- 
 geons are quoted in one place, fol. 157 verso, col. 2,
 
 i8a APPENDIX E 
 
 as being old-fashioned and wrong in their surgery. 
 Lanfranc was pupil of William de Saliceto and 
 flourished at the end of the thirteenth century. He 
 wrote a treatise on Surgery which was translated 
 into English about 1380, and also about 1420. 
 These two texts have been published by theE.E.T.S., 
 Original Series 102, 1894. 
 
 Roland is Roland of Parma. In 1264 he edited 
 the Practica Chirurgiae of Roger, q. v. 
 
 Bruno was a thirteenth-century surgeon who lived 
 just previously to Theodoric. It was from him that 
 Theodoric took the idea of dressing wounds with 
 wine and dry dressings. 
 
 RABBI MOSES. Quoted once. 
 
 Rabbi Moses was the great Maimonides. His 
 Arabic name was Abu 'Imran Musa ben Maimun, 
 and he was born at Cordova in A.D. 1135. He 
 was educated by his father ; although a Jew by 
 birth, he is said to have conformed to the religion of 
 Islam when about thirty years of age. His medical 
 writings include a commentary on the Aphorisms of 
 Hippocrates, some Aphorisms of his own in twenty- 
 five chapters, an abridgement of Galen, and the de 
 Regimine Sanitatis?- This was written to the order of 
 the Sultan of Egypt, al-Malikal-Afdhal. The Latin 
 translation was made by Ermengardus (Armengauld) 
 of Montpellier. There is a MS. in the Bodleian. 
 Several printed editions are known which bear the 
 title, Rabbi Moysis Maimonidis, de Regimine Sani- 
 tatis ; or Tractatus Rabbi Moysis quern Soldano 
 Babiloniae transmisit. 
 
 HALY ABBAS. Works quoted : De Dispositions 
 Regali. Quoted once. 
 
 'AH ibn al-' Abbas, who died in A. D. 994, was 
 generally called al-Majusi or the Magus, which 
 seems to show that he was Persian in origin. His 
 
 1 This must not be confounded with the much better known 
 Regimen Sanitatis of Salerno.
 
 GADDESDEN'S AUTHORITIES 183 
 
 great work on medicine, the Maliki or Royal Book, 
 is an encyclopaedia of Medicine. Constantine the 
 African translated most of it about 1080, and it was 
 issued as by Haly, by Stephen of Antioch, in 1127 
 under the title of Regalis Dispositio. Printed editions 
 appeared at Venice in 1492 and at Lyons in 1523. 
 The Maliki enjoyed a great vogue until the appear- 
 ance of the Canon of Avicenna, when it rapidly went 
 out of fashion. So says Jamal-ad-din al-Qifti, who 
 wrote a history of scientific men early in the thir- 
 teenth century. 
 
 PLATEARIUS. Works quoted : De Aurea ; Circa 
 Instans. Number of times quoted, 2. 
 
 Platearius was Matthew Platearius, a member of 
 a distinguished medical family of Salerno, one of 
 whom married Trotula. Matthew wrote a commen- 
 tary upon the Antidotarium of Nicola-s, and also 
 De Simplici Medicina Liber, which is generally 
 quoted as Circa Instans. Gaddesden quotes it so on 
 fol. 48. The opening words 01 the book are ' Circa 
 instans negotium '. 
 
 JOANNES. Quoted on fol. 6 rect., col. i, as being 
 the inventor of a laxative powder made of agaric, 
 turbith, rhubarb, and ginger. This Joannes may 
 have been Pope John XXI, otherwise called Petrus 
 Hispanus. He studied at Paris and Montpellier, and 
 was physician to Gregory X. He wrote a Thesaurus 
 Pauperum containing many prescriptions and recipes. 
 
 ARNOLD DE VILLANOVA. Quoted once. 
 
 Arnold was born in 1235 and died in 1312. He 
 led a strenuous and turbulent life. He was a Doctor 
 in the three faculties of divinity, law, and physic. 
 He wrote a commentary on the Regimen Sanitatis 
 of Salerno, and in addition (possibly) the Breviarium 
 Medicinae. 
 
 ALEXANDER. Alexander Trallianus. There were 
 early Latin translations of his works, well known to 
 the Anglo-Saxons amongst others, and later. He is
 
 1 84 APPENDIX E 
 
 generally called Alexander Yatros in the old books. 
 The date of his birth was A. D. 525. 
 
 RICARDUS. Probably Magister Ricardus of Salerno, 
 otherwise called Ricardus Anglicus. He wrote a 
 work called Micrologus containing five short treatises 
 entitled, Practica, De Urinis, Anatomia, Repressiva, 
 Prognostica. He was a Master of Salerno about the 
 end of the twelfth century. 
 
 GUALTERIUS. Gualterius Agulinus, author of an 
 extremely popular book on Urines, copied innumer- 
 able times. It has been edited and published by 
 A. J. Pfeffer, Berlin, 1891. 
 
 ALPHINGUI or ALPHINQUI. Quoted on fol. 125 
 verso, col. i. 
 
 Possibly this name is a corruption of Abenguefit 
 or Akbenguefit, otherwise Eben Guefit or Ibn 
 Wafid, who was born in Toledo in A. D. 998. He 
 was the author of a work on drugs and medicines, 
 which was translated into Latin by Gerard of 
 Cremona under the title of De Virtutibus medicina- 
 rum et ciborum. 
 
 ALGRAPH(IR)US : ALGAPH(IC)US. Quoted on fol. 
 27 rect., col. 2. 
 
 Possibly Ahmad ben Muhammad al-Ghafiqi, an 
 eminent physician at Cordova who died in A. D. 1 165. 
 
 ALGUASIN. Quoted on fol. 48. Possibly Alguasir, 
 author of a Liber de cur at. lapidis. 
 
 ANTICLAUDIANUS. Quoted on ff. 88-89. Not an 
 author, but the name of a poem by Alanus de Insulis. 
 The reference is Distinct. II, Cap. v. 
 
 BUSCOLIENSIS. Quoted on f. 54. Unknown. 
 
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