Glasgow, University Library, MS Hunter 185 is an early fifteenth-century
medical book, which contains more than two hundred recipes, as well as
texts on prognostication and charms. Part one consists of four items,
the first three in Latin and the fourth in Middle English: a list of
plant names, a list of medical ingredients, medical notes concerning
humours, and an incomplete herbal. The second part is made up of medical
recipes in Middle English. These aim to provide handy instructions on
how to prepare satisfactory remedies for particular diseases and are
divided into two 'compendia' which, it is clear, were not written for
the purpose of being parts of the same book. The charms included in MS
Hunter 185 show the influence of the Church on medieval medicine, as
Christian motifs have been substituted for pagan references. The
Introduction discusses textual matters as well as the contents of all
the items included in the manuscript. It analyzes the structures of the
different text-types - the recipe, the prognostic text, and the charm -
and contains a detailed description of the language that localizes the
dialects of the two scribes. The edition includes a commentary on the
texts and a glossary.