Fragment of an unidentified medical treatise concerning urine, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [England, late 13th or early 14th century].

Urine for medical diagnosis
Fragment of an unidentified medical treatise concerning urine, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [England, late 13th or early 14th century].
An as-yet-unidentified treatise on the use of urine for medical diagnosis.

c.271 × 88mm. One column (doubtless of an original two) of 44 lines, the text comprising the end of a section mentioning Avicenna at the end of the first line and digestion in the last (‘Sed in omnibus membris sicut dixit Avic. […] digestione sicut superius ostensum est’), followed by Giles of Corbeil’s verse condiciones and an exposition of them (see below), decorated with a blue initial flourished in red, and small initials and paraphs alternately blue or red (recovered from use in a tanned leather binding, with consequent stains, creasing, etc.).

Provenance:
(1) Philip Bliss (1787–1857), Under-Librarian of the Bodleian Library from 1822-1828, Registrar of Oxford University from 1824-1853, Keeper of the University Archives from 1826-1857 and Principal of St Mary Hall from 1848-1857. His collection of leaves was sold at Sotheby’s, 21 August 1858, lots 100 and 119, where acquired by:
(2) Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792–1872), English antiquary and book collector who amassed the largest collection of manuscript material in the 19th century. Bliss’s collection of leaves became at least partially MS 18133 in the Phillipps library. Sold at Sotheby’s, 24 April 1911, lot 390, where acquired by:
(3) Edmund Hunt Dring (1863–1928), the first managing director of Bernard Quaritch Ltd.
(4) Edmund Maxwell 'Ted' Dring (1906–1990), senior director of Bernard Quaritch.
(5) Colker MS 397; acquired in 1987–88 from Quaritch.

The piece incorporates and then expounds part of Giles of Corbeil’s (d. c.1224?), De urinis: the double-spaced lines with coloured initials are Giles' concise list of the considerations that a physician should bear in mind when making a diagnosis from urine, reduced to three lines of verse: ‘Quale, quid, aut quid in hoc, quantum, quotiens, ubi, quando / […]’ (What kind, which, or what is in it, how much, how often, where, when / Age, kind, sex, work, anger, diet / Anxiety, hunger, activity, bathing, food, ointment, drink). Each of these condiciones, as they were known, is then explained, with ‘Quantum’ in the first line of the verso, and Quotinens near the bottom.

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