Petit livre contenant plusieurs compositions comme onguents, beaumes, siropts, eaux et autres.

Format:

• Book
• Manuscript

Contributor:

• Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Collection (University of Pennsylvania)
• Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Fund.

Language:

French

Subjects (All):

• Medicine--Formulae, receipts, prescriptions--Early works to 1800.

Genre:

• codices (bound manuscripts)
• prescriptions
• Recipes.
• Manuscripts, French -- 18th century.
• Manuscripts, European.

Penn Provenance:

• Offered for sale by Antiquariaat Marc Van de Wiele (Brugge, Belgium), catalog for the Antiquarenbeurs Mechelen 2012, no. 41.
• Sold by Leo Cadogan Rare Books (London), 2022.

Physical Description:

54 leaves : paper ; 172 x 132 (150 x 100) mm bound to 180 x 140 mm.

Place of Publication:

Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 1748[-1778]

Language Note:

French

Summary:

Collection of medical recipes for ointments, powders, pills, syrups, and plasters of various colors. Treatments include remedies for gout and ailments of the eyes, stomach, and teeth. A few recipes include information about their sources, such as two recipes attributed to "L'Emery" (probably Louis Lemery, 1677-1743, p. 11-13); a remedy for the plague dated to 1627 (p. 16); one for gout attributed to a letter of Monsieur de Magnac (p. 21); and a hyacinth confection from the Pharmacopée de Lyon (published in 1778, p. 74). A partly alphabetical index is arranged by first letter but then by order within the book (p. 99-104). There are no entries for letters between E and M, but this seems to be intentional, as there is no break between the last entry for E and the beginning of the M section. Two burn remedies are written in a markedly different hand on a flyleaf after the index (p. i).

Notes:

• Ms. codex.
• Title from title page (p. 1).
• Pagination: Paper, ii + 52 + ii leaves; early pagination in ink, modern pagination in pencil, upper right corner, [i-iv, 1], 2-97, [98-104, i-iv]. Trimmed page numbers supplemented with pagination in pencil. After two gatherings of 8 leaves, the rest of the collation cannot be determined.
• Layout: Written in 14-15 long lines; vertical margins formed by folding; quarto format.
• Script: Written in cursive script.by multiple hands.
• Binding: Contemporary (18th-century) calf, gilt spine, marbled pastedowns and endpapers (Cadogan); some cracking to joints and loss to spine at foot.
• Origin: Written in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, beginning in 1748 (title page, p. 1) and continuing through at least 1778 (publication date of the Pharmacopée de Lyon, p. 74).

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Fund.

Cited as:

Petit livre contenant plusieurs compositions (Ms. Codex 2082). Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.

OCLC:

1347059095

Online:

The Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Fund Home Page