The Old English Herbals

by Eleanour Sinclair Rohde

Ashmole 1379 (I).

15th century. Here is vertues and seltyng of Rosmary by the ij doctours of fysyk followyng. per Galyen and Platery, and a poem beginning “As in a booke wretyne y fownd Of wise doctours in dyvers lond.”

Ashmole 1379 (II).

15th century. Here follwyth y^e wertues off ye rosses mare.

Inc. “Take rosmare and bynd hem ynne a lynnene clothe.”

Exp. “Allsso make a bathe off ye floure and y^t wyll make ye yonglyche.”

Ashmole 1432 (V. iii).

15th century. The vertu of rose mary. Tak þe flower of þe rose mary and bynd hem.

(The above is part of a series of herbal notes, etc., interspersed by a later hand in the course of and following on a fifteenth-century book of medicine.)