14th century. Here begynneth medecines gode for divers euelys on mennes bodys be callen erchebysschopes auicenna and ypocras Icoupon̄ (? cophon) i. e. de and on hole materie aȝen brouȝt and ferst of herbis.
Pepys Library 1661. Magdalene College, Cambridge.
(Various simples are described. After the “vertues of rose maryne” a series of sections in verse written as prose beginning “I wil ȝou tellyn by & bi as I fond wretyn in a book. Þat in borwyng I be took of a gret ladyes prest þat of gret name þe mest.” The following sections are on centaurea, solsequium, celidonia, pipernella, materfemia, mortagon, pervinca, rosa, lilium, egrimonye. Ends “Oyle of mustard seed is good for ache and for litarge and it is mad on þe same maner.”)
Circ. 1400. A treatise in rhyme on the virtues of herbs.
Sloane 147 (V). British Museum.
It begins—
“Of erbs xxiiij I woll you tell by and by
Als I fond wryten in a boke at I in boroyng toke
Of a gret ladys preste of gret name she barest
At Betony I wol begyn at many vertuos het within.”
14th century. De virtutibus herbarum quarundam.
Ashmole 1397.
(On the medical uses of some herbs. Begins, “Bytayne and wormewode is gode for woundes.”)