A Fifteenth-Century Medical Handbook in York Minster Library (YML, XVI. E. 32). Part 2 - a blog by Dr Rebeca Cubas-Peña

Part II: Contents

Collections of herbal recipes and charms

The York medical manuscript is composed of a series of therapeutic texts intended to restore to health by treating diseases or conditions. The majority of these texts are collections of herbal recipes or receptaria which, in the form of plasters, ointments, syrups, powders or waters (amongst others), present a number of treatments to cure various ailments such as headaches, gout or epilepsy. Herbs, gems and metals tend to be the main ingredients of these remedies that, for the most part, date back to classical times and follow a head to heel sequence, traditionally known as a capite ad calcem order.

Collection of recipes (fols. 89v-90r)

Generally, recipes are rather formulaic: 

1. They have a heading that points to the illness or condition the remedy is supposed to heal: e.g. For gout that is in the bones; for an abscess in a woman´s breast.[1]
2. A list of the plants, minerals and animal or chemical ingredients needed: e.g. Take the grease of sheep tallow, the juice of the celery, the juice of the willow, the root and leaves of belladonna and unused wax.
3. The measures and weights required: e.g. Take an ounce of parsley, an ounce of olive oil, two ounces of storax, two ounces and a half of calamint, half an ounce of both mastic and frankincense and two ounces and a half of gum Arabic.
4. The instructions to follow in order to prepare the remedy: e.g. And then boil everything (the ingredients in 2) in a pan and when they are well-boiled put them in a cloth and then in an ointment box. 
5. Details about its administration (amount, frequency, right time, duration) and storage: e.g. put it in a cloth and in the evening when you go to bed put it in your ear; drink for four days or more if you have need and it shall pass through your anus; eat a spoonful in the morning and another in the evening.

Irrational and superstitious as it may sound, herbal remedies were copied along with charms and prayers. Charms were frequently prescribed to treat episodic illnesses and were an important part of the healing process, as by invoking the help of saints and martyrs, practitioners were appealing to divine intervention.

A charm (fols. 128v-129r)

Hence, a remedy to heal a wound involved the preparation of an ointment and the enchantment of a plate of lead:

‘Medicine true to heal the wound of a man if he is not wounded to death. Make five crosses in a plate of lead: a cross in every corner and a cross in the middle. During the mass say one Our Father and one Hail Mary for each cross to honour the Five Wounds of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then lay the plate above the wound and say thus: as truly as the wounds of our Lord Jesus Christ didn´t rankle, fester or stink, this wound has no power to rankle, fester or stink, but make it heal thoroughly by the will of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen. Say three Our Fathers three Hail Marys in the name of the Father and Son and the Holy Ghost. Ask the one who is hurt to say three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys to the one who is in control in the name before said, and make sure the plate does not touch the earth once it is charmed. Lay it on the wound for three days without haste and after the third day take the juice of madder and wash the wound and lay the lead on it until it is healed, and if it stinks lay it above. This is a good ointment’ (fols. 128v-129r).

Charms were often accompanied by drawings of crosses which appear normally between the names of the saints. In all probability, practitioners were expected to make the sign of the cross to their patients, either on their bodies or in the air, when they encountered these crosses, as the priest did in church. [2] The repetition of the saints’ names and the touching of the skin when making the sign possibly created a soothing and relaxing, and therefore curative effect on the patient. [3] Unfortunately, many of these crosses were scratched out from medieval manuscripts during the Reformation.

Crosses in charms crossed out by a later reader (fol. 142v)

Sphere of Life and Death

The York medical manuscript also contains other texts to prognosticate and diagnose diseases and their outcomes. As they were not particularly academic, they would have been very helpful to any medical practitioner. [4] One of these prognostic texts is the Sphere of Life and Death, also known as the Sphere of Pythagoras or the Sphere of Apuleius.

Sphere of Life and Death (fols. 6v-7r)

As with other examples of onomancy, [5] the sphere of Pythagoras was used to prognosticate by numbers which correlated with the letters of the individual’s name. Spheres tended to be divided into two hemispheres: one which represented the lucky numbers that would bring fortune to the person involved ― normally the one on the top ― and another hemisphere which predicted disastrous outcomes ― normally situated below. [6] It was frequently used to know whether a patient would live or die ― hence its name ― but it was also employed to anticipate events such as which contender would win a battle or whether a lost object would be found: essentially questions which needed an affirmative or negative answer.

Chiromancy

The York medical manuscript holds another evocative diagram used to prognosticate, a chiromancy chart. Chiromancies or palmistries were treatises used to predict the future and interpret an individual’s character and disposition by reading the lines in the palm of his or her hands. These treatises were often accompanied by the drawing of a hand whose fingers were filled with informative captions. The diagram in here is not supported by a treatise but it is followed by a tract which describes bodily characteristics and their importance.

Chiromancy diagram (fols. 122v-123r)

It depicts a left male hand with interpretations of the lines of its fingers written in Middle English, as seen in the index finger which reads: ‘This cross honours and worships, this betokens wound in the head’; or in the space between the index and the middle fingers: ‘if the midward line touches these fingers, that suggests death of a wound’.

Bloodletting-zodiac man

Medieval practitioners thought that the human body, and by extension the human mind, was a microcosm which, besides being contained in the macrocosm (also known as cosmos or universe), functioned parallel to it. The macrocosm was composed of four elements (water, fire, earth and air) and qualities (dryness, moistness, heat and cold), which corresponded to four bodily humours (phlegm or mucus, yellow bile or choler, black bile and blood). The supremacy of a humour over the rest resulted in a marked definition of the individual’s temperament, who could be ultimately melancholic, phlegmatic, sanguine or choleric. [7] An imbalance of the humours resulted in sickness, and required methods like bloodletting to restore the patient’s corporal equilibrium.

Bloodletting-zodiac man and an astrological diagram (fols. 109v-110r)

Knowing when to bleed the sick was an essential part of the treatment, since otherwise the patients’ lives could be put at risk. For that reason, celestial bodies had to be considered before applying a treatment. That’s where the bloodletting-zodiac man comes in. The bloodletting-zodiac man is an anthropomorphic figure that provides information about bloodletting procedures by depicting in a single diagram what is normally illustrated in two. The bloodletting man shows how the veins had to be cut in order to cure an ailment. Thus, an arrow that points at its right ear comes with this caption: ‘behind the ear for old sicknesses’; or another caption, whose arrow points at the neck, states: ‘for a pustule in the neck’. The zodiac man, on the other hand, indicates the parts of the body that could not be bled when the moon was in relation to their specific zodiac houses. For instance, it was not recommended to bleed a patient´s chest under Leo´s influence.

Uroscopy or urine treatise

Medieval practitioners also believed that they could diagnose and determine the evolution of an illness by looking at the patient’s urine, more particularly at its colour, odour, consistency, viscosity, sediments, or even taste. They identified and diagnosed different ailments with the help of uroscopies or urine treatises, which provided information about the various colours of the urines and how to interpret them.

Urine treatises indicate how a particular symptom betokens a specific ailment. The uroscopy in the York medical manuscript, for example, notes that ‘pale urine in men suggests bowel issues; in women indicates damage to the womb’; or ‘urine red as a rose indicates fever and if he (the patient) pisses continually it indicates the fever continuande’ (a remittent fever said to be caused by the putrefaction of the humours). 

A urine wheel (fols. 166v-167r)

This uroscopy is supported by a urine wheel that connects the urine colours with their corresponding interpretations. Thus, two flasks on the top of the wheel, which are yellow and bluish in colour and are described as ‘reddish colour of urine as pure gold’ and ‘reddish colour of a clear gold’ respectively, are connected to a caption in the centre of the wheel that reads: ‘these two urines indicate a perfect digestion’.

[1] All examples translated by the author.

[2] E. Duffy, ‘Charms, Pardons and Promises: Lay Piety and “Superstition” in the Primers’, in The Stripping of the Altars. Traditional Religion in England c. 1400-c. 1580 (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1992), pp. 266-298 (p. 266).

[3] I owe this idea to Dr. Irina Metzler, who reminded me of traditional healing practices in Catholic communities.

[4] The texts mentioned in here are a selection and have been chosen by their spectacular diagrams.

[5] A form of divination that involved the letters of a name.

[6] For further details, see Dr Jo Edge’s work. In this podcast she talks about the medical context of the Sphere of Life and Death in late medieval England: https://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2012/05/jo-edge-the-medical-context-of-the-sphere-of-life-and-death-in-late-medieval-england/.

[7] For further details, see C. Rawcliffe, Sources for the History of Medicine in Late Medieval England (Michigan: Western Michigan University, 1998) or https://www.encyclopedia.com/medicine/anatomy-and-physiology/anatomy-and-physiology/humours.