Laus Christos, f. 105r, Constantinus Africanus, Viaticum, ca. 1220-1244, Z10 76
Medieval scribes were likely just as glad as we are when a large piece of work is completed. These four lines celebrate the scribe’s completion of a volume containing Constantinus Africanus’ Viaticum and Nicolaus Salernitanus’ Antidotarium, followed by two short texts regarding doses and synonyms for antidotes, which is comprised of 105 folia (pages). Even today, writing out 105 pages (front and back) in legible, uniform script seems a daunting task.
The Antidotarium Nicolai was written in the 12th century by Nicolaus Salernitanus. It is a collection of pharmacopoeial remedies in alphabetical order, the first pharmacopoeia written. It is likely that Nicolaus, a medical school teacher, derived his material from a collective oral tradition which had been put together in Salerno between 1160 and 1200. The medical school at Salerno was founded in the 9th century and was one of the earliest of its kind in Western Europe.
To learn more about Constantinus and his Viaticum, check out our first #MedievalMonday post here.
Diagram showing the zodiac signs, humors, and elements, f. 81v, Constantinus Africanus, Viaticum, ca. 1220-1244, Z10 76
The first ring of the diagram identifies the zodiac signs with the related humors and elements. The four humors played a large part in medieval lives. A person whose humors were in balance was healthy; unbalanced humors caused illnesses. Basically, the human body was believed to be made of four substances: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Each substance was linked to a season, an element, an organ, a temperament, and other qualities. For example, black bile was related to autumn, earth, the gallbladder, melancholy, and was considered to have cold and dry properties.
People also believed the zodiac signs presided over parts of the body and were associated with an element. The bull, Taurus, ruled over the throat, neck, thyroid gland, vocal tract; and was affiliated with black bile (melancholy).
These complex astrological charts were used to determine diagnoses and treatments, which were based not only on the actual physical symptoms, but also temperaments and birth signs. This diagram illustrates the medieval worldview in which everything was connected in a tenuous balance, including mankind and his health (microcosm), and the Earth and the universe (macrocosm).
Puzzle letter, f. 1r, Constantinus Africanus, Viaticum, ca. 1220-1244, Z10 76
Pen-flourished initials (Latin littera florissae) like this one marked the beginning of a work, chapter, or other section. The most common colors used for these initials were red and blue. While this particular initial is not as elaborate as some, the red line-drawings inside almost resemble a seashell or something similar to my eyes.
Manicule, f. 68r, Constantinus Africanus, Viaticum, ca. 1220-1244, Z10 76
Welcome to #MedievalMonday! Every Monday, Chrissie Perella, Archivist, will be showing off one of the Library’s medieval manuscripts.
For the first installment of #MedievalMonday, meet Constantinus Africanus. Dated somewhere between 1220 and 1244, Constantinus was the oldest manuscript in our collection until several weeks ago (more on that in upcoming posts). The first text in this manuscript, Constantinus’ Viaticum, is one of the earliest examples of an Arabic medical text translated into Latin.
Constantinus Africanus was likely born in Carthage, and entered the monastery of Montecassino in southern Italy somewhere around 1060. His Viaticum is an important work in the history of medicine. He translated the Kitab Zad al-musafir wa-qut al-hadir (Provisions for the Traveler and the Nourishment of the Settled), written by the 10th-century Arabic physician known as Ibn al-Jazzar, sometime during the 11th century. It represents one of the earliest Western translations of an Arabic medical work, and demonstrates the revistalization of the flow of knowledge from the East to the West.
This codex illustrates many interesting aspects of medieval manuscripts. One of my personal favorite features is this manicule (f. 68r). Manicules were used as markers to denote parts of the text readers found important. This one is especially interesting as it has fingernails and a sleeve cuff.
“If [medieval] culture is regarded as a response to the environment then the elements in that environment to which it responded most vigorously were manuscripts.”
– C. S. Lewis, The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature
Composite Medical Miscellany I. England, 15th century. Call number 10a 215.
The Historical Medical Library, as part of the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL), is participating in a CLIR grant to digitize Western medieval and early modern manuscripts held by libraries in the greater Philadelphia area. The Library is lending thirteen medical manuscripts dating from c. 1220 to 1600 to this project, called Bibliotheca Philadelphiensis (BiblioPhilly). Our manuscripts will be digitized at the University of Pennsylvania’s Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Images (SCETI) and the digital images hosted through the University of Pennyslvania’s OPenn manuscript portal and dark-archived at Lehigh University.
…the blog of the Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia (HML). In the tradition of the Transactions and Studies of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the blog will highlight the history of medicine and related fields through the work of the scholars we are privileged to host. The blog will also highlight the work of Library staff as well as the unique and wondrous, mundane and ephemeral, aspects of the Library collection, a collection that provides us with endless fascination.
We look forward to your thoughts and comments – the history of medicine is nothing if not a dialogue between what is and what could be. We welcome your participation in that dialogue!
With this inaugural post, we would like to share some exciting news: the HML is home to the largest collection of confirmed anthropodermic books in the country.
The five anthropodermic books in the HML
This past March the Historical Medical Library (HML) hosted Dr. Richard Hark, the H. George Foster Chair of Chemistry at Juniata College, who came to take minute samples of book bindings purported to be anthropodermic – bound in human skin. Samples were taken, and testing was conducted by Dr. Daniel Kirby, a Conservation Scientist in private practice.
Dr. Kirby used peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF), a method used “to identify mammalian sources of collagen.” PMF does not look at DNA; rather, “enzymatic digestion is used to cleave collagen at specific amino acid sites forming a mixture of peptides. The amino acid sequence of each protein is unique, thus the resultant mixture of peptides is unique.” Drs. Hark and Kirby presented their findings on September 29th at SciX, a conference dedicated “to the analytical sciences, instrumentation and unique applications,” at which they confirmed that the HML is home to five samples of anthropodermic bibliopegy, the largest such confirmed collection in the United States.
The most intriguing aspect of three of these five books is that we not only know who bound the books, but we also know from whom the skin was taken. What follows is the story of Dr. John Stockton Hough and Mary Lynch, a young medical student and a poor Irish immigrant, whose encounter in 1869 led to the creation of the most unique books.
-by Beth Lander, College Librarian
The Skin She Lived In: Anthropodermic Books in the Historical Medical Library
On Wednesday, July 15, 1868, a 28 year old woman named Mary Lynch was admitted to Old Blockley, Philadelphia’s almshouse, officially known as Philadelphia General Hospital (PGH). Old Blockley was located at what is now the intersection of 34th Street and Civic Center Boulevard, on the southeast corner of the University of Pennsylvania. Blockley was where you went when you could not afford care in a private hospital.
The Women’s Receiving Register from PGH lists a small amount of information for each patient: name, birthplace (a country, if other than the United States. Mary was born in Ireland.), age, temperate or intemperate habits (Were you a drunk, or not?), date of admission, ward, color and diagnosis.
Mary suffered from phthitis, an archaic term for tuberculosis of the lungs. Read more…
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