The Pepys Library is pleased to announce that an important group of medieval manuscripts from the collection have been digitised as part of the Wellcome-funded Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries project, based at Cambridge University Library.  The project aims to make 186 medieval manuscripts containing medical recipes and texts available online for research and analysis, and Pepys library has contributed six manuscripts to this total. This group of manuscripts from the Pepys Library were all produced in England between the 13^th and 15^th centuries, and consist of the following:

PL 878, Medical Treatises (first half of the 15^th century).

PL 911, A ‘Sortes’ manuscript including the Experimentarius attributed to Bernardus Silvestri (second half of the 13th century).

PL 1047, Medical and Culinary Recipes (late 15^th century, on or after 1470/71).

PL 1236, Commonplace book and handbook of liturgical music (Use of Sarum) (between c. 1460-c. 1475).

PL 1307, Medical Texts (probably the second quarter of the 15^th century).

PL 1661, Medical Treatises and Recipes (first half of the 15^th century).

The manuscripts have been digitised and catalogued by Cambridge University Library staff, and therefore appear on Cambridge University Digital Library with an extensive introduction and description.  However, the manuscripts are also available to view on the College website ‘at a glance’ via the new Pepys Digital Library webpage.

One of the benefits of digitisation is that the manuscripts can be made more widely available to those with an academic interest in the texts, but also to those with a general interest in the Pepys Library’s collections.  For the latter, we recommend taking a look at PL 911, A Sortes manuscript, which Dr Sarah Gilbert describes as ‘a genre of medieval book concerned with various aspects of what we now describe as divination, prognostication, and fortune-telling.’ [i]  This manuscript, which contains an array of beautiful illustrations, will form the focus of this blog post.

PL 911 comprises one poem and five Sortes texts.  The poem, entitled ‘Experimentarius’, is a placed at the beginning of the manuscript and is attributed to the 12^th century philosopher Bernardus Silvestris, whose work influenced Chaucer and Dante.  Of the Sortes texts, some have been erroneously credited to classical authors.  In the illustration on folio 19r we see a portrait of Pythagoras on a gold background, who is one such figure to have been mistakenly identified. 

Another fine illustration in PL 911 is that of the twelve sons of Jacob. In a manuscript at the Bodleian Library (MS. Ashmole 304), there is a very similar illustration of the twelve, contributing to a strong body of evidence showing that the two manuscripts are closely related.

One of the Sortes texts in the manuscript, Prenostica Pitagorice, is illustrated with a charming series of bird illustrations.  Prenostica Pitagorice consists of a list of thirty-six questions, with each question asked to a different species of bird.  The birds are illustrated answering their respective questions.  However, one of the ‘birds’ depicted in the manuscript is, in fact, a bat.  Isadore of Seville (c.560-636) states in his Etymologies that a bat ‘in appearance…is a quadruped at the same time as being equipped to fly; this is not usually found among other birds.’[ii]  The notion that a bat was a type of bird, though with some distinct differences, continued for several centuries.  In a manuscript entitled Liber de natura rerum, contemporary to the production of PL 911, the author Thomas of Catimpré (bef.1203–1272) discusses the bat in his chapter on birds – an image of which can be seen in the digitised manuscript from the Bibliothèque Municipal de Valenciennes, France.

We hope you enjoy exploring these new digital resources. 

By Catherine Sutherland

Special Collections Librarian

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[i] Gilbert, S. (2023) A ‘Sortes’ manuscript including the Experimentarius attributed to Bernardus Silvestris (Cambridge, Magdalene College, MS Pepys 911). Available at: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-MAGDALENE-PEPYS-00911/1 (Accessed: 03/03/2024).

“[ii] “Animals (De animalibus)” in Barney, S., Lewis, W., Beach, J., and Berghof, O. (Eds.). The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, XII.vii.36.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Further Reading:

Lafrate, Allegra. “Of Stars and Men: Matthew Paris and the Illustrations of MS Ashmole 304“, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 76 (2013): 139–77.