A catalogue of Middle English texts, largely relating to heraldry and
the sciences of the time.
More than 700 manuscripts reflect Ashmole's life-long passions:
heraldryand the sciences of his day: astrology, alchemy, geomancy,
medicine;well over 100 contain items in Middle English. There are
manuscriptsof great interest, such as the Ashmole Bestiary, but the
importantitems in Middle English are no less noteworthy. Here we find
the uniquecopy of an English translation of Bernard of Gordon's Lilium
medicinae; a codex, Ashmole 59, entirely in thehand of John Shirley; a
Wycliffite Bible and a copy of the Pore Caytif. Along with many
anonymous pieces of popular astrology, there is an English translation
of John Ashenden's Introductory, several copies of Johnof Burgundy's
plague tract, and an elegant copy of Henry Daniel's Liber uricrisiae.
There are also two copies of The Brut, and anthology manuscripts
collecting vast arrays of herbal medicine, astrological techniquesand
alchemical procedures.
L.M. ELDREDGE was formerly Professor in the Department of Englishat the
University of Ottawa.