This volume of the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library gathers four of the main repositories of medical remedies from early Medieval England together with a plethora of other scattered recipes from the period. It represents a valuable addition to the already rich array of texts in the series, and one that will be of interest not only to those specialising in medieval English medicine, but also to a broader readership. As usual, the volume includes editions of the texts--the Old English Herbarium, Medicina de quadrupedibus, Lacnunga, Peri didaxeon, and 101 miscellaneous pieces--with a facing translation into modern English, and a minimal introduction and notes. The four major texts have had different editorial fortunes since the early edition by Oswald Cockayne, and it is undoubtedly a strength of the volume under review to have organised this diverse and, at times, chaotic material into a coherent work. The Old English Herbarium and Medicina de quadrupedibus survive in four manuscripts. Both are pharmacopoeias based on compilations of Latin material (for a convenient summary of the sources, see xv-xviii) and represent one of the highlights of early medieval English medical tradition: an intellectual effort to adapt the main scientific treatises available at the time into encyclopaedic compendia intended for an English-speaking readership. The critical edition for the Early English Text Society (EETS) by Hubert Jan De Vriend serves as the base text for John D. Niles and Maria A. D’Aronco and has been occasionally emended against the manuscript readings (664). The edition of the Lacnunga is based on the unique copy in London, BL, Harley 585 (one of the four manuscripts, in turn, also preserving the Herbarium and Medicina de quadrupedibus). This text was critically edited roughly 25 years ago by Edward Pettit, a relatively recent period in philology; additionally, the group of “metrical” charms included in the Lacnunga has received frequent critical attention. Of more urgency was a critical edition of Peri didaxeon, which has been largely neglected among the major collections of English medical texts. This work, in fact, poses a number of editorial issues. Preserved solely in the late twelfth-century London, BL, Harley 6258B, it includes linguistic features belonging to early Middle English, though it is presumably a copy of an earlier text. Apart from Cockayne, it was edited in the late nineteenth century by Max Löweneck and thereafter in two unpublished doctoral dissertations. A reliable and widely available edition of this text was therefore necessary, making it one of the highlights of the present volume. The edition of the Peri didaxeon retains Cockayne’s and Löweneck’s chapter subdivision (668). The same manuscript of the Peri didaxeon also preserves an alphabetical reworking of the Herbarium and an abbreviated version of the Medicina de quadrupedibus, along with several additional recipes, which are edited here as part of the miscellaneous items (nos. 52-61). BL, Harley 6258B therefore represents one of the treasure troves of early medieval English medicine, along with BL, Harley 585. The diverse nature of these manuscript collections also demonstrates how, in the mind of the medieval compiler, the “encyclopaedic” approach of theHerbarium could stand side by side with the liturgical and ritual material that informs the Lacnunga.
The 101 miscellaneous items, though diverse in structure and themes, show some recurring patterns. These recipes are mostly from a late period (s. xi/ xii) and are usually found as marginalia or later additions in blank spaces. Some are full-fledged protection prayers, resembling loricae (for example, miscellaneous items nos. 3 and 64). Beyond this, there is a tendency towards the use of liturgical formulas, often in Latin, and images such as the Four Evangelists (nos. 9, 15, 88), Longinus (no. 85) and especially the Seven Sleepers, who appear in items nos. 21, 68, 69, and 75, along with no. 90, where the Four Evangelists are also listed. Herbal remedies, by contrast, are mostly in the vernacular and make little, if any, use of formulas.
The introduction and the concluding notes provide essential information on the various texts included in the volume, as well as on their manuscript context. This proves of key importance to the reader, especially in the case of the miscellaneous items (670-78). The notes are followed by a concluding, admittedly brief, bibliography (783-86). The omission of Peter Bierbaumer’s three-volume Der botanische Wortschatz des Altenglischen (Frankfurt a. M.: Lang, 1974-1979) and of Hans Sauer and Elisabeth Kubaschewski’s Planting the Seeds of Knowledge: An Inventory of Old English Plant Names (Munich: Utz, 2018) is especially surprising. Indexes of plant names in modern English, Old English, and Latin (787-809), along with a general index (811-28) round off the volume.
Some groups of miscellaneous recipes deserve additional commentary. Nos. 17-26 constitute a short collection of medical remedies copied on folios 115r-116v of London, BL, Cotton Faustina A.x. It is especially notable that these remedies--a total of ten--were copied in the twelfth century on two different layers, one of which was copied later than the other. This resulted in a somewhat chaotic editorial history, with one group of recipes edited by Cockayne and another by Godfrid Storms. This is the first time all ten remedies have been edited together. The group of recipes in London, BL, Royal 2.A.xx is overall a collection of Latin material (nos. 62-72), interspersed with Greek formulas, and featuring one word in Old English. In recent years, the Royal 2.A.xx collection has benefitted from two studies by Emily Kelsing, which effectively complement the present treatment (Emily Kesling, “The Royal Prayerbook and Early Insular Scribal Communities,” Early Medieval Europe 29, 2021, 181-200; Ead., “A Blood-Staunching Charm of Royal 2.A.xx and its Greek Text,” Peritia: Journal of Medieval Academy of Ireland 32, 2021, 149-62).
Translating medical recipes proves particularly challenging and requires a delicate balance between philological accuracy and a translation that can be also appreciated by non-specialists. For example, the editors have chosen to keep the Latin and Greek names of plants that open each chapter of the Herbarium with the spelling used by the scribe in the edition proper, but standardised them in the translation, also giving Modern English equivalents for Old English plant names (665). D’Aronco and Niles also state that, in the Lacnunga, Latin passages are often emended more freely than those in Old English, so as to bring them closer to their liturgical sources, whereas vernacular passages are emended only when blatant errors occur (666-67). The text of the Lorica of Laidcenn quoted in the volume does not include its Old English interlinear glossing, which is available elsewhere in Pettit’s edition, as well as in the critical edition of the poem by Michael Herren, The Hisperica Famina II: Related Poems (Toronto: PIMS, 1987).
D'Aronco and Niles explain the reasons for some omissions in the present volume (xxii-xxiii). Although the exclusion of the metrical charms not preserved in the Lacnunga is justifiable in light of the many available editions, including the one by Robert E. Bjork in Old English Shorter Poems II: Wisdom and Lyric for the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library (xxii), at least the four metrical charms preserved in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 41--that is, the same manuscript that preserves the first seven miscellaneous remedies in the present volume--would perhaps have merited inclusion, allowing for a full appreciation of the compilation of recipes in this manuscript.
Minor points aside, this new volume makes for compelling reading, from the encyclopaedic approach of the Herbarium and Medicina de quadrupedibus, “the greatest wealth of medical knowledge available at the time” (xviii), to the diverse collections found in Lacnunga and in Peri didaxeon, and to the concluding mosaic of miscellaneous items. One cannot but look forward to the second volume (by different authors), which will include a much-needed edition and translation of Bald’s Leechbook. Once completed, such a comprehensive collection of the medical corpus of early Medieval England will finally supersede Cockayne’s three-volume set, still important, yet outdated for contemporary scholarship.