This is the second blog post about this manuscript asking for help from the medieval and/or history of medicine and/or history of science communities. The table below is found on f. 12r of the second volume of 10a 131. I don’t believe they are alchemical symbols, but perhaps abbreviations for chemicals.
– by Wood Institute travel grantee Dr. Edward Allen Driggers*
Historians take for granted the ways in which the profession produces knowledge. Usually historians construct a question from the historiography or primary sources that they encounter. I think occasionally, though, Clio speaks and we are inspired. I recently completed one of the most dynamic years of my life: my daughter was born into the world, I completed my Ph.D. in the history of science, and I completed my first year on faculty in the history department at Tennessee Technological University. My recent research trip to the Historical Medical Library at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia did the same thing for me that it did in 2014 under my first Wood Institute travel grant: it allowed me to be quiet and let the muse speak. It was inspiring.