Medical recipes and health regimens including Receptes de plusieurs expers medecins consernantes diverse malladies and other texts.

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Main Author
François II de Rohan, 1480-1536
Related Names
Charles de Rohan-Gié, 1478?-1528, former owner.
Language(s)
French ; Latin ; Italian
Published
[Lyon, France?] : [François II de Rohan], [between 1515 and 1525]
Subjects
Vigo, Giovanni da, > 1450?-1525 > Practica in arte chirurgica
Petrus de Montagnana
Charles de Rohan-Gié, > 1478?-1528
François II de Rohan, > 1480-1536
D'Allez, François
Briaud, André
Vigo, Giovanni da, > 1450?-1525. > Practica in arte chirurgica.
Petrus de Montagnana
Charles de Rohan-Gié, > 1478?-1528
François II de Rohan, > 1480-1536
D'Allez, François
Briaud, André
Therapeutics.
Medicine.
Materia medica.
Manuscripts, French.
Illumination of books and manuscripts, French.
Materia Medica
Therapeutics
Illumination of books and manuscripts, French > Specimens.
Manuscripts, French > Québec (Province) > Montréal.
Materia medica > Early works to 1800.
Medicine > France > Lyon > Formulae, receipts, prescriptions.
Therapeutics > France > Lyon > Early works to 1800.
Québec > Montréal.
France > Lyon.
France
Specimens.
Prescriptions, formulae, receipts, etc.
Early works.
Unpublished Work
Manuscript, Medical
Note
Modern foliation in pencil, upper outer rectos, 1-63, complete (collation i-vii⁸ viii⁸ [8 is the rear parchment pastedown]). Ruled (16 long lines) in pink ink with full-length horizontal and vertical bounding lines (justification 150-157 x 88-89 mm.)
Illuminated and written in one or two elegant French bâtarde hands with some humanist letterforms on fifteen long lines (first line left blank). Rubrics and opening words or lines of new sections written in a larger, more calligraphic display script. Spaces left on leaves 42 verso-61, for decoration that was never added and one- to two-line spaces for initials. Remedy in French for kidney stones on leaf 62 verso, also includes spaces, seemingly left for initials, which were never added. Illuminations on leaves 1-42, include one-line paraphs painted in gold on red or blue grounds with gold pen decoration; red or blue rectangular line-fillers with gold pen decoration; brown or green branch-shaped line-fillers and gold pen decoration; one- to two-line painted initials in blue or grey, highlighted with white pen decoration, with green, blue, red, white, and yellow foliate or floral infills on painted gold fields; three-line blue or gray modelled initials infilled with flowers on gold grounds. On leaf 1, full border is decorated with flowers, foliage, and arabesques painted in red, green, blue, pink, and purple on a gold background, with miniature arms painted in blue, red, and gold at the bottom presented by two cherubs painted in gold. Leaves 46 verso-47, ruled, but blank. Marginal annotations throughout and added text, on verso of leaves 61-63, and on the back pastedown, in several contemporary humanist or bâtarde hands.
François II de Rohan, French aristocrat, bishop of Angers (1449-1532), and Archbishop of Lyon (1501-1536), appears to have compiled the manuscript's contents, as a deluxe presentation copy to his brother, Charles de Rohan-Gié (circa 1478-1528), Lord of Gié, Verger, and Sablé, Count of Guise and Orbec and Viscount of Fronsac, whose arms are painted in the lower margin of leaf 1. Charles was the eldest son of Pierre de Rohan-Gié, a marshal of France and close advisor to three French kings (Louis XI, Charles VIII, and Louis XII). François II de Rohan is named in an anagram on the final pastedown written in a roughly contemporary hand. Recipes obtained for this volume were connected to the exalted circles in which François II de Rohan would have moved in Lyon. His interest in medicine, evident in recipes and regimens linked to him in volume, and more over, his connection to the French and papal courts, make him a plausible overseer of manuscript's production and compiler of its privileged recipes. Evidence of script, decoration, and textual contents indicate that this volume was produced circa 1515-1525 in France, likely in Lyon. Renaissance Lyon was a center for humanist learning and the arts, known as the 'deuxième oeil de France' (second eye of France) and the 'clef du royaume' (key of the kingdom). The decorative style in this manuscript suggests it may well have been copied and painted in Lyon (examples in vendor's sources: Virassamynaïken, L. Lyon Renaissance (2001), cat. 73, 190; Burin, É. Manuscript illumination in Lyons, 1473-1530 (2001), pages 333, 339).
Illuminated manuscript on parchment with a unique, unpublished collection of seventy-three medical recipes, predominantly in French, with additions also in Latin and Italian. Recipes of Spanish or English origin are also noted. These recipes, mostly of the period and used by physicians to the Pope, the kings of France, and others in the royal and aristocratic circles in France and Italy, offer a rare insight into the actual medical practices in early Renaissance France. The recipe portion of this text is organized into chapters on different kinds of remedies, such as opiates, syrups, applications (like plasters and ointments), powders, potions, pills, enemas, an electuary and a gargle. Different kinds of remedies for the same maladies can be found scattered throughout the text. Common ailments include constipation, kidney stones, stomach pain, colic, plague, pleurisy, tertian and quartan fevers, tooth pain, eye pain, couperose skin, and heart failure. Many recipes are prefaced with information on the times of year in which they were proven most beneficial. A Pharmacopoeia detailing thirty-one plant-based recipes (in Latin and French) to treat various ailments, includes a recipe to dye hair black. Leaves 35-42 include François II de Rohan's own attempted health regimen. Most of the sources for these recipes are from various physicians identified in text, which include François d'Allez (leaf 27), André Briaud (verso of leaves 18, 22, 24, 31), both physicians to Francis I, King of France (reigned 1515-1547); Master Philippe (leaf 33 verso), physician to Charles VIII, King of France (reigned 1483-1498); Master Francis or Francisco (verso of leaves 8, 34), physician to Frederick of Aragon, King of Naples (reigned 1496-1501); and Master Albert (leaves 19, 23), physician to the queen. One recipe (leaf 9) is attributed to Petrus de Montagnana, professor of surgery at the University of Padua (immortalized in a woodcut portrait in Johannes de Ketham's 1491 edition of the Fasciculus Medicinae, the first illustrated medical book in print). Other sources for the recipes also include various doctors of Paris and Lyon, most notably one Master Bernard, who seems to have been François II de Rohan's personal physician. A recipe, for an oil used to treat arthritis, was excerpted from the Practica in arte chirurgica (Practical treatise on the art of surgery) of Giovanni da Vigo (1450-1524), official surgeon to Pope Julius II (papacy 1503-1513). Some contemporary annotations in margins indicate the efficacy of various recipes. Additional recipes in a later hand are found on leaves 62 verso-63, and on back pastedown. A poem in Italian, added in a different hand, combines aphorisms on moral character (leaves 61 verso-62). According to the vendor (Les Enluminures, Ltd.), it would appear that there are no other copies of this collection.
Box spine title.
Holograph.
Private collection, France.
Physical Description
1 unnumbered leaf, 63 leaves : 1 coat of arms, illuminations ; 22 x 15 cm (in box 24 x 18 x 6 cm)
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