Narratology in Early Modern medical manuscripts: The Case of London, Wellcome Library, MS 213
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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).[1] 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.
[1] 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).
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Esteban Segura, L. (2023). Narratology in Early Modern medical manuscripts: The Case of London, Wellcome Library, MS 213 . Language Value, 16(1), 93–115. https://doi.org/10.6035/languagev.7230
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References
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Alonso-Almeida, F. (2013). Genre conventions in English recipes, 1600-1800. In M. DiMeo & S. Pennell (Eds.), Reading and writing recipe books, 1550-1800 (pp. 68-90). Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Archer, J. (2002). The Queen’s arcanum: Authority and authorship in The Queens closet opened (1655). Renaissance Journal, 1(6).
Bower, H. (2022). Middle English medical recipes and literary play, 1375-1500. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Carroll, R. (1999). The Middle English recipe as a text-type. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 100(1), 27-42.
Carroll, R. (2004). Middle English recipes: Vernacularization of a text-type. In I. Taavitsainen & P. Pahta (Eds.), Medical and scientific writing in late medieval English (pp. 174-196). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
de la Cruz Cabanillas, I. (2016). Mary Harrison’s book of recipes. Women and household medicine in late 17th century. Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses, 72, 79-95.
de la Cruz Cabanillas, I. (2017a). Medical recipes in Glasgow University Library manuscript Ferguson 147. In J. Fisiak, M. Bator & M. Sylwanowicz (Eds.), Essays and studies in Middle English. 9th International Conference on Middle English, Philological School of Higher Education in Wrocław, 2015 (pp. 77-94). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
de la Cruz Cabanillas, I. (2017b). Genre and text-type conventions in early modern women’s recipe books. Revista de Lingüística y Lenguas Aplicadas, 12, 13-21.
de la Cruz Cabanillas, I. (2020). Early Modern English recipes as a mirror of the time period. Studia Neofilologiczne, XVI, 47-60.
Esteban-Segura, L. (2012). System of Physic (GUL MS Hunter 509, ff. 1r-167v): A Compendium of Mediaeval Medicine Including the Middle English Gilbertus Anglicus. Bern: Peter Lang.
Esteban-Segura, L. (2020). Digital editing of Early Modern English medical manuscripts: Scribal errors and corrections. ONOMÁZEIN, 50, 149-161.
Görlach, M. (1992). Text-types and language history: The cookery recipe. In M. Rissanen, O. Ihalainen, T. Nevalainen & I. Taavitsainen (Eds.), History of Englishes: New methods and interpretations in historical linguistics (pp. 736-761). Berlin and Boston: Mouton de Gruyter.
Görlach, M. (2004). Text types and the history of English. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Hunter, L. (1997). Women and domestic medicine: Lady experimenters, 1570-1620. In L. Hunter & S. Hutton (Eds.), Women, science and medicine 1500-1700: Mothers and sisters of the Royal Society (89-107). Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing.
Jones, C. (1998). Formula and formulation: ‘Efficacy phrases’ in medieval English medical manuscripts. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 99(2), 199-209.
Leong, E. (2008). Making medicines in the early modern household. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 82(1), 145-168.
Leong, E. (2013). Collecting knowledge for the family: Recipes, gender and practical knowledge in the Early Modern English household. Centaurus, 55, 81-103.
Leong, E. (2018). Recipes and everyday knowledge: Medicine, science, and the household in early modern England. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Leong, E., & Pennell, S. (2007). Recipe collections and the currency of medical knowledge in the early modern ‘medical marketplace’. In M. S. R. Jenner & P. Wallis (Eds.), Medicine and the Market in England and Its Colonies, c. 1450-c. 1850 (pp. 133-152). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mäkinen, M. (2004). Herbal recipes and recipes in herbals – intertextuality in early English medical writing. In I. Taavitsainen & P. Pahta (Eds.), Medical and scientific writing in late medieval English (pp. 144-173). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Marqués-Aguado, T., & Esteban-Segura, L. (2020). Medical recipes in two Middle English manuscripts: London, Wellcome Library, MSS 404 and 5262. Studia Neofilologiczne, XVI, 13-28.
Moorat, S. A. J. (1962-1973). Catalogue of Western manuscripts on medicine and science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library. London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine.
Nünning, A. (2003). Narratology or narratologies? Taking stock of recent developments, critique and modest proposals for future usages of the term. In T. Kindt & H.-H. Müller (Eds.), What is narratology? Questions and answers regarding the status of a theory (pp. 239-276). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Quintana-Toledo, E. (2009). Middle English recipes: A metadiscursive approach. Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, 45(2), 21-38.
Rabe, J. (2016). Mediating between art and nature: The Countess of Arundel at Tart Hall. In S. Burghartz, L. Burkart & C. Göttler (Eds.), Sites of mediation: Connected histories of places, processes, and objects in Europe and beyond, 1450–1650 (pp. 183-210). Leiden and Boston: Brill.
Stobart, A. (2016). Household medicine in seventeenth-century England. London: Bloomsbury.
Sylwanowicz, M. (2017). Noun phrase modification in Early Modern English medical recipes. Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies, 26(2), 37-49.
Sylwanowicz, M. (2018). Middle and Early Modern English medical recipes: Some notes on specialised terminology. Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies, 27(2), 89-101.
Taavitsainen, I. (2001). Middle English recipes: Genre characteristics, text type features and underlying traditions of writing. Journal of Historical Pragmatics, 2(1), 85-113.
Taavitsainen, I. (2022). Narratives from 1375 to 1800 in medical and scientific writing: Forms and functions. Paper delivered at the European Society for the Study of English (ESSE) Conference 2022 Mainz, 29 August-2 September 2022, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.
White, H. (1987). The content of the form: Narrative discourse and historical representation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Alonso-Almeida, F. (2013). Genre conventions in English recipes, 1600-1800. In M. DiMeo & S. Pennell (Eds.), Reading and writing recipe books, 1550-1800 (pp. 68-90). Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Archer, J. (2002). The Queen’s arcanum: Authority and authorship in The Queens closet opened (1655). Renaissance Journal, 1(6).
Bower, H. (2022). Middle English medical recipes and literary play, 1375-1500. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Carroll, R. (1999). The Middle English recipe as a text-type. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 100(1), 27-42.
Carroll, R. (2004). Middle English recipes: Vernacularization of a text-type. In I. Taavitsainen & P. Pahta (Eds.), Medical and scientific writing in late medieval English (pp. 174-196). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
de la Cruz Cabanillas, I. (2016). Mary Harrison’s book of recipes. Women and household medicine in late 17th century. Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses, 72, 79-95.
de la Cruz Cabanillas, I. (2017a). Medical recipes in Glasgow University Library manuscript Ferguson 147. In J. Fisiak, M. Bator & M. Sylwanowicz (Eds.), Essays and studies in Middle English. 9th International Conference on Middle English, Philological School of Higher Education in Wrocław, 2015 (pp. 77-94). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
de la Cruz Cabanillas, I. (2017b). Genre and text-type conventions in early modern women’s recipe books. Revista de Lingüística y Lenguas Aplicadas, 12, 13-21.
de la Cruz Cabanillas, I. (2020). Early Modern English recipes as a mirror of the time period. Studia Neofilologiczne, XVI, 47-60.
Esteban-Segura, L. (2012). System of Physic (GUL MS Hunter 509, ff. 1r-167v): A Compendium of Mediaeval Medicine Including the Middle English Gilbertus Anglicus. Bern: Peter Lang.
Esteban-Segura, L. (2020). Digital editing of Early Modern English medical manuscripts: Scribal errors and corrections. ONOMÁZEIN, 50, 149-161.
Görlach, M. (1992). Text-types and language history: The cookery recipe. In M. Rissanen, O. Ihalainen, T. Nevalainen & I. Taavitsainen (Eds.), History of Englishes: New methods and interpretations in historical linguistics (pp. 736-761). Berlin and Boston: Mouton de Gruyter.
Görlach, M. (2004). Text types and the history of English. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Hunter, L. (1997). Women and domestic medicine: Lady experimenters, 1570-1620. In L. Hunter & S. Hutton (Eds.), Women, science and medicine 1500-1700: Mothers and sisters of the Royal Society (89-107). Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing.
Jones, C. (1998). Formula and formulation: ‘Efficacy phrases’ in medieval English medical manuscripts. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 99(2), 199-209.
Leong, E. (2008). Making medicines in the early modern household. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 82(1), 145-168.
Leong, E. (2013). Collecting knowledge for the family: Recipes, gender and practical knowledge in the Early Modern English household. Centaurus, 55, 81-103.
Leong, E. (2018). Recipes and everyday knowledge: Medicine, science, and the household in early modern England. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Leong, E., & Pennell, S. (2007). Recipe collections and the currency of medical knowledge in the early modern ‘medical marketplace’. In M. S. R. Jenner & P. Wallis (Eds.), Medicine and the Market in England and Its Colonies, c. 1450-c. 1850 (pp. 133-152). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mäkinen, M. (2004). Herbal recipes and recipes in herbals – intertextuality in early English medical writing. In I. Taavitsainen & P. Pahta (Eds.), Medical and scientific writing in late medieval English (pp. 144-173). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Marqués-Aguado, T., & Esteban-Segura, L. (2020). Medical recipes in two Middle English manuscripts: London, Wellcome Library, MSS 404 and 5262. Studia Neofilologiczne, XVI, 13-28.
Moorat, S. A. J. (1962-1973). Catalogue of Western manuscripts on medicine and science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library. London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine.
Nünning, A. (2003). Narratology or narratologies? Taking stock of recent developments, critique and modest proposals for future usages of the term. In T. Kindt & H.-H. Müller (Eds.), What is narratology? Questions and answers regarding the status of a theory (pp. 239-276). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Quintana-Toledo, E. (2009). Middle English recipes: A metadiscursive approach. Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, 45(2), 21-38.
Rabe, J. (2016). Mediating between art and nature: The Countess of Arundel at Tart Hall. In S. Burghartz, L. Burkart & C. Göttler (Eds.), Sites of mediation: Connected histories of places, processes, and objects in Europe and beyond, 1450–1650 (pp. 183-210). Leiden and Boston: Brill.
Stobart, A. (2016). Household medicine in seventeenth-century England. London: Bloomsbury.
Sylwanowicz, M. (2017). Noun phrase modification in Early Modern English medical recipes. Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies, 26(2), 37-49.
Sylwanowicz, M. (2018). Middle and Early Modern English medical recipes: Some notes on specialised terminology. Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies, 27(2), 89-101.
Taavitsainen, I. (2001). Middle English recipes: Genre characteristics, text type features and underlying traditions of writing. Journal of Historical Pragmatics, 2(1), 85-113.
Taavitsainen, I. (2022). Narratives from 1375 to 1800 in medical and scientific writing: Forms and functions. Paper delivered at the European Society for the Study of English (ESSE) Conference 2022 Mainz, 29 August-2 September 2022, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.
White, H. (1987). The content of the form: Narrative discourse and historical representation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.