Manuscript from the 15th century. Bequeathed by William Moore, 1659. Lower Library, 336/725

This manuscript include a good number of tracts on surgery, on what are described by M. R. James as ‘the human temperaments’ (supposedly resulting from different balances in the body between four fluids or humours), on digestion and on uroscopy. It is particularly noteworthy for including the first part of the treatise of anatomy by Guy de Caulhiaco, his Chirurgia magna.

In the gallery you can see a diagram of the influence of the zodiac signs and the planets on the bleeding of a patient. Medieval medicine believed that the planet Jupiter governed our blood and our arterial systems. Diseases related to Jupiter included tumours and mental degeneration.

Also shown here is a fine volvelle, showing the points of the compass in English. A volvelle was an astronomical device, used to compute the extent of planetary intervention upon the human temperament.

The founder of modern anatomy << The human temperaments >> Reviving epidemiology