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[Medical notebook].
Kislak Center for Special Collections - Manuscripts Ms. Codex 2341
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- Format:
- Book
- Manuscript
- Author/Creator:
- Davies, Thomas (Physician), compiler.
- Language:
- English
- Latin
- Subjects (All):
- Medicine--Formulae, receipts, prescriptions--Early works to 1800.
- Medicine.
- Cooking, English--Early works to 1800.
- Cooking, English.
- Books and reading--Early works to 1800.
- Books and reading.
- Genre:
- codices (bound manuscripts)
- recipes
- prescriptions
- Commonplace books.
- Excerpts.
- Manuscripts, English -- 18th century.
- Manuscripts, Latin -- 18th century.
- Manuscripts, European.
- Penn Provenance:
- Dealer note: "Kept by a doctor, a member of the Wyndham-Lewis family of Greenmeadow" (A. T. Philp & Son, in curatorial file).
- Handled by A. T. Philp & Son (Cardiff), probably in the 1950s or 1960s (manuscript description in ink on letterhead, in curatorial file).
- Sold at auction at Bonhams (London), 15 November 2017, lot 24.
- Physical Description:
- 132 leaves : paper ; 195 x 168 mm bound to 200 x 170 mm + 1 note.
- Place of Publication:
- London, 1739[-1762?]
- Language Note:
- English and Latin.
- Summary:
- Volume of physician's notes in Latin and English, focusing on remedies and cures from published medical works, most of which are included in the list written inside the front cover titled "A catalogue of my books, March 1739, London." Copied excerpts frequently include short titles and page citations. Multiple notes, mostly on the efficacy of cures but also one adding a note to a recipe for cider wine (f. 75v), are signed or initialed by Thomas Davies. The second half of the volume has more miscellaneous content, including cures copied from periodicals (f. 70v, 79v, 122v-128r), household preparations (f. 70v, 79r, 127v), culinary recipes (f. 75v, 77v, 116r, 118r-121r, 122r), and verses and prayers copied from periodicals (f. 114v, 128v-131r). The list of books inside the front cover also includes Milton's Paradise Lost, Montaigne's Essays, and a few works on arithmetic, geography, history, and religion. Davies also recalls a case of "a washerwoman in the Strand" during his time as an apprentice (f. 53v) and the experience of attending the anatomical lectures of Frank Nicholls (1699-1778, listed in the cover book list with his Compendium anatomico-oeconomicum) in 1739, probably in London (f. 54v).
- Notes:
- Ms. codex.
- Title supplied by cataloger.
- Foliation: Paper, 132 leaves; [i], 1-131, original foliation in ink, modern in pencil, upper right recto.
- Layout: Selections divided by horizontal lines; quarto format.
- Script: Written in cursive script primarily by Thomas Davies (Latin prayer and compiler's note, f. 5r; multiple signed or initialed notes, f. 38v-113r).
- Binding: Full parchment; front joint cracking.
- Origin: Written initially in London in 1739 (notes inside front cover) and continued probably in London until approximately 1762 (latest date in manuscript, f. 85v, 116v).
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Fund.
- Cited as:
- Thomas Davies, Medical Notebook (Ms. Codex 2341). Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.
- OCLC:
- 1559558686
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