Soon's Leechbook

A page from Bald's Leechbook .

Bald's Leechbook (translated: Bald's Pharmacopoeia ; also called Bald's laeceboc and Medicinale Anglicum ) is an Old English medical manuscript from the 10th century, which was probably compiled by Alfred the Great as a result of the reforms . It is now in the British Library as Royal 12, D xvii and is the subject of current research.

construction

The manuscript contains two books which, according to the pharmacopoeia of the time, classify diseases from head to toe. The first book deals with external ailments, the second with internal medicine . Noteworthy is the first mention of plastic surgery in an Anglo-Saxon source, namely the treatment of a cleft lip and palate in Chapter 13 of the first book. As the main sources for the recipes are Galen , Philagrios , Antyllos and Soranus of Ephesus .

In contrast to the first two books, the attached Leechbook iii hardly contains any influences from the Mediterranean region.

instructions

For the treatment of headaches, ciliated cruciferous herb is recommended , for frostbite a mixture of eggs, wine and fennel root is recommended. Common Odermennig , boiled in milk, is called against erectile dysfunction , boiled in beer is said to have the opposite effect.

One recipe for treating herpes zoster contains ingredients from 15 different trees, including apple, willow, ash, and oak.

Magic is also included: the words Bless all the works of the lord of lords should be carved into the handle of a dagger to prevent pain . It is suggested that an elf could be causing the pain.

On March 30, 2015, Nottingham University announced research into an ophthalmic remedy made from two species of allium , wine and ox bile . Initial results in vitro and in vivo (carried out in Texas) indicate effectiveness against antibiotic-resistant bacteria . A team had already examined the recipe in 2005, but without success. However, Michael Drout, who participated in the 2005 research, welcomed the new results on his blog.

Bald's eye ointment:

Wyrc eagsealfe wiþ wænne, genim cropleac 7 garleac begea emfela, gecnuwa wel tosomne, genim win 7 fearres geallan begea emfela, gemeng wiþ þy leace, do þonne on arfæt, læt standan nigon niht on þam do arfate on horn 7 ymb niht do mid feþere on þæt eage, se betsta læcedom.

Translation:

Make an eye ointment for a plant on the eye: take leeks and garlic, the same amount of both, pound together well, take wine and beef bile, use the same amount of both, mix with the leek (ie leek and garlic); then put in a brazen vessel, let stand in the brazen vessel for nine nights; wring through a cloth and clean well, put in a horn and apply to the eye with a feather at night - the best remedy.

The Leechbook also contains nutritional and behavioral rules :

Rules for pregnant women:

Georne is to wyrnanne bearneacum wife þæt hio aht sealtes ete oððe swetes oððe beor drince; ne swines flæsc ete ne seam fætes; ne druncen gedrince, ne on away ne fere; ne on horse to swiðe ride þy læs þæt bearn of hire die ær tide.

Translation:

A pregnant woman should be seriously warned not to eat anything too salty or too sweet or to drink beer; To eat pork or fat; drinking to the point of intoxication or going on a trip; Riding too much on a horse so that your child doesn't die before birth.

content

ff. 1–6 ^vTable of contents Leechbook i .

ff. 6 ^v -58 ^v Leechbook i .

ff. 58 ^v -65 Table of contents Leechbook ii .

ff. 65-109 Leechbook ii . 68 recipes.

f. 109 Latin colophon , which names Bald as the owner and Cilad as the compiler .

ff. 109–127 ^v Leechbook iii . 73 recipes that are not directly associated with Soon.

ff. 127 ^v De urinis .

Editions

TO Cockayne: Leechdoms Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England Being a Collection of Documents, for the Most Part Never Before Printed Illustrating the History of Science in this Country Before the Norman Conquest , 3 vols., London: Rerum Britannicarum Medii Ævi Scriptores (Rolls Series) 35 i-iii, 1864-6 (reprint 1965) vol. 2.
Leonhardi: Smaller Anglo-Saxon Monuments I , Library of Anglo-Saxon Prose 6, Kassel, 1905.
CE Wright (Ed.): Bald's Leechbook: British Museum Royal manuscript 12 D.xvii , with appendix by R. Quirk. Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile 5, Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1955
Felix Hausleitner: The Old English Læceboc I and II: Text edition, translation, commentary. Munich: Utz Verlag, 2020.

literature

ML Cameron: Bald's Leechbook: its sources and their use in its compilation. In: Anglo-Saxon England , 1983; 12: 153-182.
ML Cameron: Anglo-Saxon Medicine. University Press, Cambridge 1993.
Freya Harrison et al .: A 1,000-Year-Old Antimicrobial Remedy with Antistaphylococcal Activity. August 2015. doi: 10.1128 / mBio.01129-15
Gundolf Keil : Pharmacopoeia. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil, Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte . De Gruyter, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 104 f .; here: p. 104.
AL Meaney: ': Variant Versions of Old English Medical Remedies and the Compilation of Bald's Leechbook , Anglo-Saxon England 13 (1984) pp. 235-68.
Tobias Niedenthal, Johannes Gottfried Mayer , Christina Lee, Alvaro Acosta-Serrano: A 1000 year old recipe against multi-resistant germs. In: Journal of Phytotherapy , 2016; 37: 194-196.
JF Payne: English Medicine in Anglo-Saxon Times , Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1904.
E. Pettit: Anglo-Saxon Remedies, Charms, and Prayers from British Library MS Harley 585: The 'Lacnunga' , 2 vols., Lewiston and Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 2001. [Edition, with translation and commentary, of an Anglo -Saxon medical compendium that includes many variant versions of remedies also found in Bald's Leechbook .]

Web links

Digitized from the British Library .

Individual evidence

^ Medieval wikia .
↑ An ophthalmic remedy from the Middle Ages against multi-resistance. Research group for monastery medicine, March 31, 2015.
^ Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger August: The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium Little. Brown, 2000. ISBN 0-316-51157-9 .
↑ John McKinnell, Daniel Anlezark: Myths, Legends, and Heroes: Essays on Old Norse and Old English Literature in Honor of John McKinnell . University of Toronto Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8020-9947-1 , pp. 40 .
↑ AncientBiotics - a medieval remedy for modern day superbugs? , University of Nottingham, March 30, 2015.
^ 1,000-year-old onion and garlic eye remedy kills MRSA. BBC News , March 30, 2015.
↑ Barbara Brennessel, Michael DC Drout and Robyn Gravel: A Re-Assessment of the Efficacy of Anglo-Saxon Medicine. In: Anglo-Saxon England , 34 (2005): 183-95.
↑ Michael Drout: Anglo-Saxon Medicine. March 31, 2015.
^ Felix Hausleitner: The old English Læceboc I and II: text edition, translation, commentary . Utz Verlag, Munich 2020, ISBN 978-3-8316-4835-1 , p. 68-69 .
^ Felix Hausleitner: The old English Læceboc I and II: text edition, translation, commentary. Utz Verlag, Munich 2020, ISBN 978-3-8316-4835-1 , p. 68-69 .

[1] Medieval wikia .

[2] An ophthalmic remedy from the Middle Ages against multi-resistance. Research group for monastery medicine, March 31, 2015.

[3] Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger August: The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium Little. Brown, 2000. ISBN 0-316-51157-9 .

[4] John McKinnell, Daniel Anlezark: Myths, Legends, and Heroes: Essays on Old Norse and Old English Literature in Honor of John McKinnell . University of Toronto Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8020-9947-1 , pp. 40 .

[5] AncientBiotics - a medieval remedy for modern day superbugs? , University of Nottingham, March 30, 2015.

[6] 1,000-year-old onion and garlic eye remedy kills MRSA. BBC News , March 30, 2015.

[7] Barbara Brennessel, Michael DC Drout and Robyn Gravel: A Re-Assessment of the Efficacy of Anglo-Saxon Medicine. In: Anglo-Saxon England , 34 (2005): 183-95.

[8] Michael Drout: Anglo-Saxon Medicine. March 31, 2015.

[9] Felix Hausleitner: The old English Læceboc I and II: text edition, translation, commentary . Utz Verlag, Munich 2020, ISBN 978-3-8316-4835-1 , p. 68-69 .

[10] Felix Hausleitner: The old English Læceboc I and II: text edition, translation, commentary. Utz Verlag, Munich 2020, ISBN 978-3-8316-4835-1 , p. 68-69 .