Cendratis, Ludovicus De ( -1480)

The manuscript consists of one work and is a book of notes relating to the nature and medical properties of plants, animals, the winds, seasons, fruits, etc., mostly in respect of diet. The text-which is in the form of short entries of four or five lines-is written in black and red, by a neat humanistic hand. It was produced in Verona.

Two pagination schemes are present which include an earlier pagination created by a sixteenth century hand-who also created the index-and a later foliation. The catalogue description is based on the foliation.

ff. 1v-2r The work begins with a colophon

f. 1v Mcccclxxiiii Codex Ludouici de Cendratis ciuis Veronensis: qui nullum aliud nouit imperium: nisi Serenissimum uenetorum Dominium cum turba natorum numero trigintaduorum ex unico Matrimonio…. f. 2r Opus naturae rerum compendiosum et eruditum: nec minus uarium quam ipsa natura.

The name 'Cendratis' seems to have been written over another name which has been erased (see f. 1v). Above the line a later hand has written 'Prius fuerat mei Antonii de ...' The rest has been rubbed out.

1. ff. 3r-102r Medical notes

f. 3r Ficus Nature calide et humide in 1° ... f. 102r Auicule et turdi Nature c[alide] et sicce in 2° ... Remotio nocumenti cum oleo amygdalorum.

ff. 103r-106v Index

f. 103r Tabula rerum omnium que/[in] hoc uolumine continentur…. f. 106v Finis tabule in qua omnia capita continentur que tractantur in hoc libro.

1474

1 volume 1 l. + 201 pp. + 4 ll. 8vo. 191/2 x 131/2 cm. On vellum: the added four leaves at the end are paper. Light blue morocco gilt binding by Charles Lewis [1786-1836].

Purchased at Sotheby's 24/11/1908, Lot 380.

On the first fly-leaf 'Opus Naturae. H. Drury. comp[aravit] C. Lewis'. The second fly-leaf contains a notice of the MS. and its contents by H[enry] Joseph Thomas Drury [1778-1841], scholar and book-collector. [See the Dictionary of National Biography]. On the verso of the first leaf 'Phillipps MS. 9341'. Pasted inside the upper cover is the Library Label of Robert [Reynolds] Steele [1860-1944] of Wandsworth Common. Sold at Sotheby's (Bibliotheca Phillippica) 9/6/1899, Lot 893.

Database description transcribed from S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973).

This material has been digitised and can be freely accessed online through Wellcome Collection catalogue.