Narratology in Early Modern medical manuscripts: The case of London, Wellcome Library, MS 213

Laura Esteban-Segura ORCID

lesteban@uma.es

Universidad de Málaga, Spain

Esteban-Segura, L. (2023). Narratology in Early Modern medical manuscripts: The case of London, Wellcome Library, MS 213. Language Value, 16(1), 93-115. Universitat Jaume I ePress: Castelló, Spain. http://www.languagevalue.uji.es.

June 2023

DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.6035/languagev.7230

ISSN 1989-7103

ABSTRACT

It has been argued that narrative elements can be found throughout the history of English scientific writing. Narratives can be linked to specific genres; thus, learned texts for medical doctors were different from those directed to lay audiences (Taavitsainen, 2022). This article sets out to analyse a specific type of medical narrative, that of recipe collections, focusing for the purpose on the text housed in London, Wellcome Library, MS 213. The manuscript dates from the beginning of the seventeenth century (1606, more specifically) and gathers recipes “experienced and tryed by the speciall practize of Mrs Corlyon” (Moorat, 1962-1973)i. The codex belonged to Alethea Howard (née Talbot), Countess of Arundel. The main aim of the study is to identify and examine narrative forms and functions as well as particular features in the collection of recipes held in MS Wellcome 213, which can contribute to the knowledge of recipes written by and for women during the early modern period.

Keywords:Early Modern English; medicine; MS Wellcome 213; recipe collection; women writing.

I. INTRODUCTION

The term “narratology” can be employed in a number of different senses, from very narrow to quite broad. There is also a plethora of words to describe the nature of narrative forms (see Nünning, 2003, pp. 257-264). In this paper, a broader view is held: narrative is conceived of as ubiquitous and all-encompassing, including both fiction and non-fiction. Narrative structures are crucial for ordering time and space, and thus allowing for the construction of meaning in general. As White (1987, p. 1) contends, “far from being one code among many that a culture may utilize for endowing experience with meaning, narrative is a meta-code, a human universal on the basis of which transcultural messages about the nature of a shared reality can be transmitted”. In the history of English scientific writing, narratives can be linked to specific genres, for instance, learned texts for medical doctors were different from those targeting lay audiences (Taavitsainen, 2022). The focus of the present study is a particular type of medical narrative, that of recipe collections, in Early Modern English; to this end, the text contained in London, Wellcome Library, MS 213 (henceforth W213), which dates from the beginning of the seventeenth century and has been attributed to a woman, is taken into consideration.

The recipe text type goes back to Old English and gained popularity in the following periods. Medical recipes were in fact “one of the most frequently copied text-types in late medieval England” (Bower, 2022, p. 2). They have received much scholarly interest over the last decades, for instance, Alonso-Almeida (1998-1999), Jones (1998), Carroll (1999, 2004), Taavitsainen (2001), Mäkinen (2004), Quintana-Toledo (2009), de la Cruz Cabanillas (2017a), Marqués-Aguado and Esteban-Segura (2020), Bower (2022). In the Early Modern English period, the role and function of medical recipes have been deal with Leong and Pennell (2007), Leong (2008, 2013, 2018), Alonso-Almeida (2013), Sylwanowicz (2017, 2018) and de la Cruz Cabanillas (2016, 2017b, 2020). Traditionally, little attention has been paid to scientific and technical texts addressed to and written by women in this period, a gap which some of the previously mentioned studies have started to fill.

According to Leong (2013, p. 82), the “early modern domestic space has come under increasing scrutiny as a site of knowledge production”. This is materialised in the evidence contained in recipe books; in such a space women played an important part as providers of information. Thus, the objective of this paper is to identify and examine narrative forms and functions as well as particular features in the collection of recipes held in W213, which can contribute to the knowledge of recipes written by and for women during the early modern period.

II. THE MANUSCRIPT

W213 is a one-volume codex which dates from the early seventeenth century. It holds a collection of medical and household recipes in English. It is described in the Library Catalogue of the Wellcome Collection as “A Booke of diuers Medecines, Broothes, Salues, Waters, Syroppes and Oyntementes of whichii many or the most part haue been experienced and tryed by the speciall practize of Mrsiii Corlyon. Anno Domini 1606” (Moorat, 1962-1973)iv, after the words appearing on the first page of the manuscript. Apart from putting forward its main contents, this brief description provides the exact date of composition. The description, in red ink, is preceded by the words “Liber Comitissæ Arundeliæ” (“Book of the Countess of Arundel”) in black ink at the top of the page, a reference to the owner and possible author of the handwritten book (further research is necessary to confirm this hypothesis, though). This can make reference to either Anne Howard (née Dacre) or Alethea Howard (née Talbot) (the owner was the latter); see below. It is not clear who the Mrs Corlyon referred to in the description was: it has been conjectured that she may have had a connection with the Arundel family, although the name Corlyon, on the other hand, could have been an early pseudonym of Alethea Talbot, alluding to the lion in the Talbot coat of arms (Rabe, 2016, p. 187). In any case, from the words in the description, it can be ruled out that Mrs Corlyon was the inventor of the recipes; she seems to have been the “experiencer”. As is the case of many recipe collections, recipes gathered knowledge of previous generations together with that of contemporary networks.

The manuscript has an original gilt stamped calf binding with a central arabesque ornament, which has on each side the letter “A”. The “AA” monogram stands for Alethea Arundel and is another overt mark of ownership, which confirms that the manuscript belonged to Alethea Talbot (1585-1654), Countess of Arundel and wife of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel. Leong and Pennell (2007, p. 141) point out that the volume is thought to have been a wedding gift from Anne Howard (1557-1630), Alethea’s mother-in-law, on the occasion of her marriage to his son, Thomas Howard, in 1606. This would discard Alethea as the author of the manuscript in favour of Anne, who was “an amateur healer and a prolific collector of manuscript receipts” (Archer, 2002, n. p.). Alethea was also a specialist in domestic medicine and a collector of medical and culinary recipes (Rabe, 2016). Her collection of recipes, including the contents of W213 as well as other material, was published as a posthumous book entitled Natura exenterata: or nature umbowelled […] in London in 1655, one of “the first printed recipe books officially authored by a woman” (Rabe, 2016, p. 187; see Hunter, 1997).

W213 displays two different paginations at the top right-hand side of the page. The first pagination, which is the original one, is contemporaneous with the text and includes 342 numbered pages (preceded by twelve and followed by seven pages which have not been numbered [xii + vii]); this pagination appears on all pagesv. The second one, probably carried out by the staff at the Wellcome Collection, is in pencil and only appears on odd pages; this new pagination consists of 194 pages. Before the beginning of the recipes, on page xii, there is a one-page, rubricated table of contents listing the different chapters:

“A table of the generall Chapters or titles, to whiche all the particuler medecines in this booke ar referred as appeareth by a more particuler table annexed, which you may fynde in the ende of the booke Folio · 365”

A more detailed table of contents (15 pages long) including the headings of the recipes is indeed found at the end of the manuscript. For the text, black ink is employed, whereas chapter titles, recipe headings and some initial letters or words of recipes are in red ink. This ink colour may also be used for individual words within a recipe for emphasis and for catchwordsvi. The whole text is within red rules. This indicates a conscientious process of copying. Although the handwriting of the text is good and careful, it exhibits some mistakes and, in most cases, corrections to them (see Esteban-Segura, 2020).

The volume consists of twenty-five chapters, each dealing with recipes for specific parts of the body, particular ailments/conditions or medical preparations (including waters, syrups, ointments, etc.), as follows: chapter one: eyes; chapter two: head; chapter three: ears; chapter four: face; chapter five: teeth and mouth; chapter six: throat; chapter seven: breast; chapter eight: lungs; chapter nine: pleurisy, stitch and spleen; chapter ten: liver and spleen; chapter eleven: stomach; chapter twelve: worms; chapter thirteen: colic and stone; chapter fourteen: purgations, clysters, suppositories, flux and looseness; chapter fifteen: jaundice; chapter sixteen: bleeding; chapter seventeen: sweat; chapter eighteen: plague; chapter nineteen: gout; chapter twenty: general medicines for particular effects, not sorting with the former chapters; chapter twenty-one: broths; chapter twenty-two: waters; chapter twenty-three: syrups; chapter twenty-four: salves, cerecloths; chapter twenty-five: ointments. The recipes are aimed at treating a range of illnesses, from common to severe. After each chapter, several pages have intentionally been left blank.

As for hands, the main one found in most of the manuscript is tidy and clear. Pages 12 and part of 13 display four recipes by two different handsvii. They are less clear and do not keep the lines as straight as the main one. A recipe has been added on page 172 in a darker ink and without rubrication. Pages 179 and 180 also exhibit recipes by different hands: the name “La Winnwoode” appears after the heading of the recipe on page 179 and “My Lady of Buckhnest Receptt” can be found at the end of page 180. On page 318 there are two other recipes by a different hand in Latin, preceded by the heading: “My Lady Winwoods pilles for the Spleen and against Melancholy”. Pages 319-324 contain additional recipes by different hands, also mentioning different names, mainly women’sviii. The headings of these added recipes are not in red ink as in the rest of the manuscript, although red ink has been superimposed on page 180 in the headings and the initial letter of the recipes. The space in which the recipes have been added (at a later stage) had originally been left blank.

In Figure 1, which shows the first page of W213 with recipes, some of the aspects discussed so far, such as ruling, pagination and hand, can be noticed.

Page 1 of W213ix

Figure 1. Page 1 of W213ix

III. METHODOLOGY

The present analysis stems from previous work carried out for several research projects (see the Funding section at the end of the article), which have crystallised in The Málaga Corpus of Early Modern English Scientific Prosex. The corpus, which is POS-tagged, consists of Early Modern English Fachprosa from the Hunterian Collection at Glasgow University Library, the Wellcome Collection in London and the Rylands Collection at the University of Manchester Library. Furthermore, the digitised images of the manuscripts can be consulted along with their corresponding diplomatic transcriptions. W213, which was hitherto unedited, has been transcribed by the author of this article. The tenets of the semi-diplomatic model, which proposes a faithful rendering of the original text, have been followed. They involve keeping original spelling, punctuation, capitalisation, word division, layout, etc. as well as indicating editorial intervention (for example, using italics to mark expanded abbreviations).

The recipes relating to medical problems in the head (corresponding to chapters one to five, pages 1-54) have been selected for the investigationxi. They amount to sixty-two recipes: twenty-six recipes for the eyes; eighteen for the head; six for the ears; three for the face; and nine for the teeth.

IV. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

The status of the recipe as a text type is indisputable (see Görlach, 1992, 2004). Görlach (2004, pp. 124-125) divides the characteristics of the recipe into four main groups (he focuses on the cooking recipe, but the same principles can be applied to the medical recipe): (a) well-definedness on macro- and microlevel; (b) social; (c) linguistic; and (d) technical.

IV.1 Well-definedness on macro- and microlevel category

W213 meets the criteria proposed by Görlach at the macro- and microlevels. With regards to the former, the whole book is devoted to recipes and is meant as a collection of them. Those recipes dealing with parts of the body have been arranged following the medieval de capite ad pedem structure (from head to foot) (Cf. Carroll [2004] who claims that recipes lack order). This organisational pattern evinces influence from the learned tradition of medical texts. At the microlevel, the recipes follow a similar structure: a rubricated and centred heading, which states the purpose of the recipe, followed by the main text in a different paragraph (see Figure 2).

Example of recipe (p. 18)xii

Figure 2. Example of recipe (p. 18)xii

In the text the procedure, ingredients, utensils, application and administration involved in the preparation of the remedy are detailed, as illustrated in example 1 (recipe no. 7, pp. 4-5):

(1) “A Medecine for the Rednesse of the Eyes without paine · Take peeces of fyne manchett Breade of an inche thicke, beyng the breadth of your Eye, or bigger, and cutt hooles in the middest of them: Then dry them before the fyer, but make them not browne, putt them in fayre running water, and when they be softe, lay them vppon your Eyes, and after they haue lyen an hower bynde them fast to your Eyes with a clothe. This must be doen when you goe to bedd, and in the morninge washe your Eyes with fayre water, and lye still an hower after”

Administration could vary depending on whether the patient was an adult or a child:

(2) “… and geue it to the Patient |xiii to drincke 9 · morninges fastinge · And if it be to a childe a dozen | will serue at a · tyme” (recipe no. 19, p. 10)

Apart from that, other types of optional information may be provided. One of this involves storage and conservation time:

(3) “… when it is colde poure the clearest into a glasse and | keepe it in a colde place, and it will last three weekes | in Winter and 14 · dayes in the Sommer” (recipe no. 1, p. 1)

On the other hand, some of the recipes promise relief and cure, that is, the effectiveness of the remedies is overtly expressed by means of efficacy phrases, which are an optional element. Efficacy phrases have received duly scholarly attention, see, for instance, Hunt (1990), Jones (1998), Alonso-Almeida and Cabrera-Abreu (2002) and Mäkinen (2011). This kind of tag phrase occurs in 33 of the recipes examined, normally at the end of the remedy. Some of them are general: “and you shall fynde ease” (recipe no. 12, p. 7); “This hathe been approued” (recipe no. 19, p. 10); “and it will helpe you” (recipe no. 37, p. 23); “you shall fynde it will cure you” (recipe no. 59, p. 53). Some efficacy phrases are more specific to the medical problem for which the remedy seeks a solution: “and it will procure you to sleepe” (recipe no. 35, p. 22); “This will make you to avoide the Rhewme exceedinglye” (recipe no. 41, p. 25); “and it will helpe the paine of the heade” (recipe no. 42, p. 25). Reference to God is also found in efficacy phrases: “and it will helpe if God will” (recipe no. 29, p. 18); “These beyng vsed as is aforesaid will by Gods helpe heale it” (recipe no. 51, p. 41). The Latin phrases “Probatum” (recipe no. 26, p. 13) and “Probatum est” (recipe no. 55, p. 51) occur once each. These were common in medieval recipes and continue to be in use during the early modern period. Finally, the versatility of some remedies is explicitly manifested in several recipes, typically at the end: “And this is also very Good for any kinde of Scale, that groweth vppon the Eye” (recipe no. 2, p. 2); “This water is likewise good for the Rhewme in your Eyes” (recipe no. 8, p. 5).

IV.2. Social category

Taking into account the background of the owner of the manuscript, it can be assumed that the recipes were addressed to an aristocratic readership to provide cures in a family context. It may be unlikely that the Countess of Arundel herself was physically involved in the preparation of the recipes, but she would have instructed and overseen her staff (Rabe, 2016, p. 185).

The narrative elements also allude to the recipes or teachings of other women (for instance, “Mrs Maynarde” in the heading of recipe no. 59, p. 53), which links to the idea of the recipe genre as a venue to exchange knowledge and expertise.

IV.3. Linguistic category

The linguistic features put forward by Görlach (2004, pp. 124-125) are: “form of the heading”; “full sentences or telegram style”; “use of imperative or other verbal forms”; “use of possessive pronouns with ingredients and implements”; “deletion of objects”; “temporal sequence, and possible adverbs used”; “complexity of sentences”; “marked use of loanwords and of genteel diction”.

Some of these linguistic features will be discussed next. As far as the form of the heading is concerned, the most common pattern is for it to start with “A Medicine to/for…” (36 instances). In 5 of these the noun “medicine” is modified by an adjective to emphasise the validity of the remedy or to indicate sequence: “A very good Medecine to/for…” (recipe nos. 6 and 60); “A Medecine good for…” (recipe no. 38); “A Comfortable Medecine for…” (recipe no. 43); “A thirde Medecine to…” (recipe no. 35).

Other nouns or noun phrases (NP) can also be found in the recipe headings: “A Powder to…” (recipe no. 2); “An especiall good water for…” (recipe no. 8); “A Drincke to…” (recipe nos. 12 and 24); “A Plaister to/for…” (recipe nos. 14 and 28, respectively); “A water for…” (recipe no. 25); “A Gargas or Medecine for…” (recipe no. 27); “A Gargle good for…” (recipe no. 41). The pattern “An other + NP + (to/for) / (for to)” is found on 9 occasions: the NP contains the word “medicine” in 8 instances and “drink” in 1 instance, for example, “An other Medecine for to…” (recipe no. 10), “An other Drincke to…” (recipe no. 13) and “An other very good Medecine for…” (recipe no. 49).

Other different patterns for the beginning of a recipe are “To + make…” (2 occurrences) and “For + NP…” (5 occurrences): “To make a Quilte to stay the Rhewme of what kinde soeuer it bee” (recipe no. 31) and “For a soore mouthe happening to Children when they breede Teethe” (recipe no. 62).

Sentences in the recipes are complete and a telegram style is avoided. Coordination is prevalent with the conjunction “and” being frequently employed to connect sentences; other coordinating conjunctions are “but” and “or” (see example 1 above).

After the heading, the opening element in the body of 59 of the recipes under analysis is the verb “Take” in the imperative. As regards the other 3, “take” is preceded by “Jn Maye” (recipe no. 17) in one, another employs the verb “make” (recipe no. 43) and the third one provides an explanation for pains in the head (recipe no. 32). This last recipe is interesting since it is the longest one and it furnishes information (not only instructions) about possible causes of pain in the head. It is also remarkable because some of the remedies involve certain physical exercises.

The imperative is the most common verbal form employed elsewhere (see example 4 below; recipe no. 22, p. 11). Hence, the narrative of recipes shows a clear instructional purpose, where directions are provided to inform about how to prepare medicines, syrups, creams, broths, etc.

(4) “A Medecine for a soore Eye · Take Pearle woorte, stampe and straine and myngle the iuyce thereof with woemans milke and white Sugar candye powde= red, and so droppe it into the Eye Take also Ribbwoorte, and if it be needfull to washe it, lett it be well dryed from the water then stampe and straine it, and dropp a good droppe thereof 2 · or 3 · tymes a daye into the eye This of Ribbwoorte is also good for any Beastes or Cattell that haue soore eyes”xiv

Second-person possessive pronouns are normally found with parts of the body (“your tounge”; “your eyes”; “your fingars”; “your mouthe”; “your foreheade”; “your heade”; “your neck”; “your teethe”; “your elboes”; “your face”; “your handes”; “your eares”; etc.). On some occasions they appear with ingredients (“your Sage”; “your Salte and Brann”; “your Quinces”; “your Coperesse”; “your whits of eggs”; “your licor”; “your Quicksyluer”), preparations (“your powder”; “your plaister”) and utensils (“your Stillitorye”; “your tentes”). They succeed in making the recipe more personalised (Carroll, 2004, p. 182).

Regarding temporal sequence, the narrative elements are presented chronologically. First, the procedure comprising all the relevant steps in the making of the remedy with the ingredients is carefully explained. This includes actions such as boiling, heating, melting, grinding, mixing, distilling, beating, etc. Then, the application and/or administration is specified and, finally, further data about storage or effectiveness may be supplied. This logical ordering can be strengthened by means of temporal adverbs, such as “then” and “after” (see example 1 above).

IV.4. Technical category

Quantities to indicate measures are commonly found in medieval manuscripts (see Alonso-Almeida, 1998-1999; Bator and Sylwanowicz, 2017). In W213, measures are generally expressed by handfuls and spoonfuls. Weights are only sporadically mentioned: “(3 or) 4 ovnces” (p. 9); “one ounze” (p. 21); “halfe a pounde” (p. 41); “halfe a dramme (p. 53); “one scruple” (p. 53); “halfe an ownze” (p. 53). In this respect, reference to quantities is not very precise, a fact which contrasts with Late Middle English medical recipes, particularly those embedded in specialised treatises, which included standard apothecaries’ weights, usually abbreviated by means of symbols (see Esteban-Segura, 2012).

Specification is more detailed for times (example 5) and frequency of application and/or administration (example 6):

(5) “But withall the Patient must | drinck a greate draughte of this water following both in the | morning fasting and at 4 . of the clock in the after noone” (recipe no. 52, p. 42)

(6) “Vse it in the morning | and when you goe to Bedd, and keepe your selfe warme” (recipe no. 49, p. 35)

The ingredients are predominantly herbal (example 7). Usual commodities found in households, such as sugar, salt, eggs, honey, vinegar, etc., are common as well. Animal- or human-derived ingredients may also form part of the remedies (examples 8-9). As for the type of instruments needed for the recipes, they may be present in any household (pans, vessels, boxes, etc.).

(7) “Take of Camomele, Rosemary, and Sage…” (recipe no. 36, p. 22)

(8) “… and take a | dozen greate earth wormes…” (recipe no. 3, p. 2)

(9) “Take a spoonefull of the iuyce of Howselick, as much of | wœmans milke…”(recipe no. 33, p. 21)

As has been discussed in the previous subsection, the arrangement of information in the recipes is standardised, following a logical and chronological rationale.

IV.5. Codification

The recipes in W213 may have been collected from oral sources and/or other manuscripts. They contain specialised and verified knowledge, since this has been passed on and validated through generations. The inclusion of efficacy phrases (discussed in IV.1 above) also attests to matters of verification and validation. The recipe book can be considered a type of codifying writing or codification, in which “the acquired knowledge of a discipline is presented as generally accepted and valid” (Schernus, 2011, p. 282). Narrative forms are relevant to codifying texts and are systematic in W213. They are present at the supra- and intra-textual levels. Supra-textual devices include the disposition of chapter and recipe headings as well as the layout of recipes on the page. As for chapter headings, they appear at the top of even pages when a new chapter begins. The word “Cap” is followed by an Arabic numeral and then the part of the body for which the recipes aim to provide cure (i.e. eyes, ears, etc.). A combination of several paragraphi, which are usually employed to mark paragraph divisions and take the form of a horizontal § in the manuscript, and puncti in middle position circumscribe the noun. All the chapter headings are rubricated, which may be regarded as decoration but also as a help to find the relevant information easily. Recipe headings follow a similar pattern, appearing above the text in red ink; one or several paragraphi and puncti close the heading (see Figure 3).

Example of recipe (p. 18)xii

Figure 3. Opening of chapter 2 (p. 17)xv

With respect to the layout, recipes are neatly organised. The text is kept within the ruled margins and recipes are relatively short: the longest one occupies forty lines, whereas the shortest one takes three, being the average number of lines eleven.

The discursive structure of recipes follows a set of stages, which continues that of the medieval tradition. Alonso-Almeida (2013, p. 72) has provided the following schema for Early Modern English recipes, where the use of parentheses indicates an optional stage and the asterisk variable order of the stages: (Title) * Ingredients * (Preparation) * (Application) * (Efficacy) * (Storage) * (Expiry date) * (Virtues). In W213, the title, ingredients, preparation and application stages always appear; the rest of stages may be present or not (see IV.1 above).

At the linguistic level, although the imperative is the most employed verbal form, the modal verbs may, must and shall are also found. Sentences are not generally complex and, while coordination predominates, temporal clauses may occur as well (example 10):

(10) “… Doe this as you | shall feele occasion. And when you haue made an ende with | these, then you must haue tentes to putt vpp into your Nose | to open the conductes and to drawe downe the corrupte matter | that offendeth” (recipe no. 37, p. 23)

Since recipes are informative texts, they tend to be linguistically explicit. Thus, objects of transitive verbs as well as pronouns are expressed (example 11):

(11) “Take a good quantity of Rosemary leauesz and chewe them | lightly in your mouthe that the ayre may assend into your | heade…” (recipe no. 37, p. 22)

All the aspects addressed above make the narrative structure of recipes cohesive and well-assembled.

V. CONCLUDING REMARKS

The recipes analysed in W213 show distinct narrative forms (i.e. coherent organisational patterns and layout; consistent configuration of the headings; use of full sentences, coordination and imperative forms of the verb; clear temporal sequence, etc.) that help to transmit the information contained in them and make of the recipe a clear-cut text type, whose main function is instructional. Recipe books are viewed as a type of codified writing. The texts contained in them are filled with practical knowledge useful for the running of a household and also enable us to outline social and cultural trends. Thus, in the seventeenth century, medicinal preparations that could be made at home allowed for a self-help culture which continued to develop onwards (Stobart, 2016, p. 175). Their compilation into recipe books created and used by women in the seventeenth century are chronicles of life. As such, their study uncovers not only women’s literacy practices but also their thoughts and experiences which, until quite recently, have gone unnoticed. Recipes were a means to amass, retain and exchange knowledge and experiences and bear witness to “the complex and elaborate tasks of the early modern gentlewoman: the preparation of preserves, confections, sweet-meats, and medicines” (Rabe, 2016, p. 184) and to their reading practices. Accordingly, manuscripts reveal themselves as historical documents that can be relevant to interdisciplinary research on linguistics, gender studies, book history, to name but a few.

Further investigation on aspects only briefly mentioned in this article, such as the names appearing in some recipes and the different hands found in the manuscript, is currently in process in order to try to shed more light on historical writing by women.

Notes

i This has been taken from the database description of the Library Catalogue of the Wellcome Collection, available at https://wellcomecollection.org/works/u3w8qbrt (date of access: February 2023).

ii This is “which” in the manuscript.

iii This is “Mrs” in the manuscript.

iv Available at https://wellcomecollection.org/works/u3w8qbrt (date of access: February 2023).

v They are wrongly numbered from page 327 (365 in the manuscript) onwards.

vi Catchwords appear on the right bottom margin. They replicate the first word(s) on the following page in order to help with the exact order of leaves or quires during binding.

vii This and further reference to page numbers follow the original pagination of the manuscript.

viii Some of these hands may be the same; an in-depth palaeographical analysis is mandatory to determine how many different hands there are.

ix Corlyon, Mrs. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark.

x The corpus is available athttps://modernmss.uma.es/ (date of access: February 2023).

xi The recipe headings and the pages in which the recipes are found are provided in the Appendix.

xii Corlyon, Mrs. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark.

xiii This vertical bar signals a change of line in the text of the manuscript.

xiv The use of bold in this and following examples indicates added emphasis.

xv Corlyon, Mrs. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark.

xvi The original line breaks have not been kept and superfluous punctuation marks have been ignored. Page numbers follow the original pagination of the manuscript.

VI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The present research has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (grant numbers FFI2014-57963-P and FFI2017-88060-P) and by the Andalusian Regional Government (grant number P11-HUM-7597). These grants are hereby gratefully acknowledged.

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Received: 02 March 2023

Accepted: 05 May 2023

APPENDIX: LIST OF RECIPE HEADINGS FOR THE HEAD IN W213