10a 131 is comprised of two volumes: one from the 14th century and one from the 3rd quarter of the 15th century, both (probably) from the Veneto in Italy. Donated to the Library by Morris Wickersham sometime in the 1880s, the volumes were soon bound together.
So what are the contents of 10a 131? The truth is I’m not too sure. Descriptions of the manuscript from de Ricci’s Census and Kidd’s catalogue (see last week’s post here for more details on these sources), along with Rudolf Hirsch’s 1983 A Catalog of the Manuscripts and Archives of the Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia call it a “composite volume of medical texts,” with the second volume being a collection of recipes.
The first volume contains 2 texts with separate foliation, written on parchment. Because the text is written in Italian – and a Venetian dialect at that – I have been unable to identify what the texts actually are. And for extra fun, the first page of the first text is missing (more on that next week)!
The second volume is a collection of recipes, written on paper (Kidd notes it is probably Venetian paper) – again in Italian.
One interesting feature of the first volume are what seem to be medieval ‘footnotes’ – letters written in the margin, possibly referring to the authors from whom each section is taken. I am guessing maybe these were listed on the now-missing first page.
So, anyone with a knowledge of medieval Italian – specifically Venetian dialects – please feel free to contact the Library at library@collegeofphysicians.org if you have any insight!