Manuscript from the 12th–14th centuries. Bequeathed by William Moore, 1659. Lower Library, 190/223

This manuscript contains several twelfth to fourteenth century tracts on medical and surgical matters, tucked into a limp chamois folder.

Together the tracts comprise some form of early medical reference manual and are heavily annotated. It is remarkable, though, for a series of nine, folded, diagrams of human anatomy, physiology and neurology that accompany it, drawn carefully and coloured variously in blue, scarlet, green and dark red.

These diagrams have been dated to the latter part of the twelfth century. In the gallery you can see ‘Historia ossium’ (the human skeletal structure) and the ‘Istoria arteriarum’, or the arteries.

Under pressure from Cromwellian forces Moore resigned his College fellowship in 1647 but rose to be University Librarian and bequeathed a number of handsome manuscripts to us. He died just before the Restoration.

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