274 folios on paper, no watermark visible, modern foliation in pencil, 1-274, complete (collation i24 ii12 iii12 [-11, lacking one leaf after f. 46, without loss of text] iv12 v10 vi18 vii10 viii16 ix20 x16 xi12 xii-xiii16 xiv12 xv-xvi16 xvii14 xviii13), a horizontal catchword on f. 133v, no ruling, written in brown ink in cursive script in a single column on c. 30-40 lines, large stains on the first leaves, smaller stains throughout, f. 274 torn with loss of text, but in overall good condition. In its ORIGINAL LIMP VELLUM COVER, a reused leaf with cursive writing in brown ink (illegible), flat spine inscribed in brown ink “De medecina A Louvain(?),” quires partly loose from the binding, cover very stained and worn. Dimensions 178 x 135 mm.
This fascinating collection of unpublished study notes, mostly on works by Galen, from a medical student constitutes an important new source for the history of medical education in the sixteenth century. The text includes the name of the student (who is otherwise unknown), the years he was studying, and the names of two of his professors. It is possible that he was enrolled at the medical school of the Old University of Leuven, one of the preeminent centers of medical education in the sixteenth century, where Vesalius was a student in the 1530s.
Provenance
1. The manuscript was written by the medical student Paradis Vivian, originally from Dauphiné, in 1574-1576; he wrote his name and the dates in several places in the manuscript (eg. f. 19v, “Paradisus Vivianus Medicus,” and in French, f. 23v, “Paradis Vivian du daulphiné Bon fils”). His engraved ex libris, pasted inside the front cover (torn, parts lost), containing a fruit tree with the letter “V” ornamenting each fruit; his name is written by hand on a label hanging from a branch, “Paradis Vivian.”
We have not been able to identify this student, Paradis Vivian, in other sources, nor have we identified where he was studying. His notes include the names of two of his professors, Pierre Bruyère (ff. 38, 73, 114) and Belforti (f. 238) (also not yet identified in other sources). However, the original binding includes a title, inscribed by hand, on the spine, which appears to read “De medecina A Louvain” (the letters are worn and not easily legible). The Old University of Leuven was founded by Jean de Bourgogne in Leuven (Louvain) in Brabant in 1425 (then part of the Burgundian Netherlands). It was one of the few comprehensive universities with five faculties: theology (established in 1432), civil law, canon law, medicine, and the arts.
Text
f. 1r-v, [Mostly illegible due to stains], incipit, “Nota iterum .... Quand Je ...”;
ff. 2-5v, [Notes on heart rate], De Pulsum …”; [ff. 20v-22v, blank];
ff. 6-18, De urinis, …;
ff. 18v-20, De dieta, …; [ff. 20v-22v, blank];
ff. 23-24v, [Notes including anonymous prophecies for the years 1570-1580, and ending with some notes in French], Prophéties trouvées le 28 novembre 1572 dans les fondements de la cité d’Olle de Turin sur une pierre de marbre. 1572, incipit, “1570, Ferrara tremet. 1571, Ciprinus à fide recedet. 1572, Pastor morietur. 1573, Ira dei super nos erit …; …, incipit, “Ma damoyselle qu’ vous estes belle …”;
Jonathan Green (Online Resources) has observed that this prophecy about events in the years 1570-1580 mentioning the 1570 earthquake in Ferrara, the Turkish conquest of Cyprus in 1571, and the death of Pope Pius V in May 1572, was widespread in sources from Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and Scotland.
ff. 25-36, [Diverse notes that appear to be extracts from Galen and Hippocrates about natural faculties, nervous system, humoral theory, ages of life (Galen), dreams, and so forth], incipit, “... Est ante facultas naturalis causa efficiens ...”; [f. 36v, blank];
f. 37, [Diverse notes], incipit, “Illa disputatio est sicuti disputatio ...”;
f. 37v, [Poem in French], incipit, “Destant soudaing la belle dame assise ...”;
ff. 38-45, [Extracts from Hippocrates, De natura humana], In librum Hippocratis de natura humana dictata de domino Petro Bruyera. Agnus data anno 1574 me Viviano accipiavit, ...”; [f. 45v, blank];
ff. 46-57, [Notes on Galen’s mixtures, or “temperaments”], In librum De Temperamentis 1574, …”; [ff. 57v-59v, blank];
f. 60rv, [Short annotations], Including, among others, “Ex libris P. Viviani”; “Seigneur Dieu de haulte gloire, de moy te plaise avoir memoire”; “Jesus Maria gracia plena dominus tecum”; incipit, “Bonus sanguis est...”; incipit, “In debilitato...”;
ff. 61-68v, incipit, “In librum sextum Galeni de causis symptomatum et proprio 1575, …”; [ff. 69-71v, blank];
f. 72rv, [Based on Galen], incipit, “De symptomatis definitionis et divisionis …”;
ff. 73-112v, [Notes on Galen’s De Natutalibus facultatibus, divided into three parts]: ff. 73-83v, In librum primum de naturalibus facultatibus de domino Bruyera data 1575 21 juni, …; ff. 83v-94v, In secundum Galeni librum de naturalibus facultatibus anno domini 1575, …; ff. 94v-112, In tertium de naturalibus facultatibus librum ... anno domini 1575 19 die mensis decembris, …;
[f. 113, blank; f. 113v, pen trials], incipit, “AABBCDDEEE ...”;
ff. 114-193, Notes on Galen’s De Locis affectis, headed by the mention “Ce matin par monsieur Bruyera,” divided into six parts: ff. 114-115v, De Immortalitate anima, …; ff. 116-133, In primum de locis affectis librum Anno domini 1575-1576, …; [f. 133v, blank]; ff. 134-147v, In secundum librum de locis affectis Anno domini 1576, …; ff. 147v-165v, In tertium librum 26 Januarii 1576, …; ff. 165v-180v, In quartum librum de locis affectis anno domini 1576 20 feb, …; ff. 181-193v, In quintum de locis affectis librum isto. Die 16 martii, …;
ff. 194-204, De Ventriculi et Intestinorum affectibus … [discussing the digestive system, kidneys, bladder, uterus, the treatment of hemorrhoids and gonorrhea, and so forth; f. 205rv, blank];
ff. 206-232v, On Galen’s De Differentiis febrium about fevers, with the title on f. 207, In primum librum de differentiis febrium. Anno domini 1576 et die 21 may; the second book is missing; the rubric announcing it, In librum secundum Galeni de febribus, is found at the bottom of f. 232v and the next four leaves are left blank, as he probably planned to copy the lecture he missed from a fellow student; [ff. 233-236v, blank];
ff. 237-245, Diverse notes (on f. 238, with the heading, a domino belforti) treating subjects such as fresh water baths, melancholy, catarrhs, apoplexy, and ulcers;
f. 245v, [Poem in French], incipit, “La langue meurt, le scripture demeure ...”; [f. 246rv, blank];
f. 274rv, [Notes], incipit, “Ne a vero prodiorum cultu ego solus tutae mortalis discrederum videar doctores...”; [ff. 248-262v, blank];
ff. 263-273v, [written from the back of the book, starting on 273v, turning the book head to tail], ff. 273v-271, [Extracts from Hippocrates, De Urinis], incipit, incipit, “De Urinis de Hippocrato …”; ff. 270v-263, incipit, “Summula Jacobi de partibus …”;
f. 274, [Diverse notes ending with a recipe in French and a poem in Latin], incipit, “Ex adiuantibus et ... [leaf torn with loss of text]”; incipit, “Pour faire bon ... Prends demy litre de vin blanc et demy litre d’eau ...”; incipit, “Boleti leti fudomit causa ...”; [A drawing of a bishop is pasted on the end pastedown].
The manuscript contains several extracts from Galen (c. 129-c. 216 AD) and Hippocrates (c. 460-c. 370 BC). In De Natura humana, Hippocrates sets out his theory of four humors explaining the workings of the human body: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile (see ff. 38-45). According to him, the body contains within itself the power to re-balance the four humors and heal itself. In De Urinis, Hippocrates describes the different aspects of urine and the pathologies it may indicate (see ff. 273v-271). Hippocrates is considered the “Father of Medicine”; his writings revolutionized the practice of medicine.
Most of the material in the manuscript derives from Galen. Claudius Galenus (c. 130- c. 210 A.D.), a figure of unparalleled importance in the history of Western medicine. He was a prolific author of more than 400 works, and his writings dominated Western medicine until the sixteenth century, and his anatomical reports remained uncontested until the publication in 1543 of Andreas Vesalius’s De Humani corporis fabrica. Galen contributed considerably to the understanding of pathology and synthesized the work of his predecessors; it is through Galen’s words that Greek medicine was passed down to subsequent generations.
There are also notes about the work Summula per alphabetum super plurimis remediis e ipsius by Jacques Despars (1380-1458; Jacobus de Partibus in Latin; see ff. 270v-263). Despars, who had studied medicine at Montpellier and Paris, became the physician of King Charles VII of France. He is most famous for his commentary on the Persian physician Avicenna, published in four volumes in 1498. In addition, the manuscript contains notes about numerous medical works, whose authors are not mentioned, De Pulsum, De Urinis, Dieta, and so forth.
Among the dense medical notes, there are a few diversions, including prophesies recorded on ff. 23-24v, concerning events in Europe in 1570-1580, including the earthquake of 1570 in Ferrara and the Turkish conquest of Cyprus in 1571 (see Jonathan Green, Online Resources). While instruction in medical schools in sixteenth-century Europe was in Latin, and most of the manuscript is written in Latin, there are also a few personal reflections in French. In addition to religious evocations, the manuscript contains a few poems and such jovial phrases as “O ma damoyselle que vous estes belle” (f. 24).
The manuscript was possibly written at the Old University of Leuven, which flourished in the sixteenth century due to the presence of famous scholars, including Erasmus and Andreas Vesalius. Vesalius (1514-1564), the founder of modern human anatomy, studied at the University of Leuven, before being offered, on the day of his graduation, a chair of surgery and anatomy at the University of Padua, the leading university in medicine. Vesalius’s choice of the University of Leuven continued a family tradition since his great-grandfather had earlier taught medicine there. In the sixteenth century, thanks to Vesalius and open-minded academics such as Armentarius, Carbo, and Gemma, all much praised by Vesalius, Louvain for a short time, was a center of medical excellence (cf. Santing, 2010, p. 153; for more on the medical faculty in Louvain, see Lamberts and Roegiers, 1990, pp. 77-85).
This is a rare manuscript source for the history of sixteenth-century medical education. Three contemporary manuscripts provide comparisons: “Reportationes medicinae lecturarum,” medical lectures in 1575-1577 (Angers, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 461; Online resources for a full digitization), sixteenth-century medical lectures in Latin (Reims, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 1016-1017), and medical lectures dictated by Jean Martin and Germain Courtin in 1579 in French (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS Français 19993; Online resources for the contents).
Literature
Dupont, M. Dictionnaire historique des médecins dans et hors la médecine, Paris, 1999, pp. 264-265 (Galen) and pp. 328-329 (Hippocrates). Available online
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k33643326
French, R. K. Medicine Before Science: The Rational and Learned Doctor from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, Cambridge, 2003.
Garcia-Ballester, L. Galen and Galenism: Theory and Medical Practice from Antiquity to the European Renaissance, London, 2002.
Lamberts, E. and J. Roegiers. Leuven University, 1425-1985, Louvain, 1990.
Nutton, V. Ancient Medicine, London and New York, 2004.
Santing, C. “Pieter van Foreest and the Acquisition and Travelling of Medical Knowledge in the Sixteenth Century,” Centres of Medical Excellence? Medical Travel and Education in Europe, 1500-1789, ed. by O. P. Grell, A. Cunningham and J. Arrizabalaga, Farnham, 2010, pp. 149-170.
Online Resources
Jonathan Green, [Prophecies] “1570-80”
http://researchfragments.blogspot.com/2011/09/1570-80.html
Angers, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 461
https://bvmm.irht.cnrs.fr/mirador/index.php?manifest=https://bvmm.irht.cnrs.fr/iiif/1096/manifest
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS fr. 19993
https://archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cc51598f
TM 1199
