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Vol. 59 A Middle English Version of the ‘Circa Instans’

Edited from Cambridge, CUL, MS Ee.1.13

Edurne Garrido-Anes (Ed.)

Cambridge, CUL, MS Ee.1.13 contains a Middle English version of the ‘Liber de Simplici Medicina’ (‘Circa Instans’), a treatise on ‘materia medica’ attributed to the twelfth-century physician Matthaeus Platearius. The relevance and popularity of this Latin work composed at the renowned medical School of Salerno extended over time and space. Its encyclopaedic presentation of ‘simples’ of vegetable, animal, and mineral nature – with allegedly curative virtues – was the core of botanical works until the sixteenth century, and has survived, in various forms – treatise, remedy book, auxiliary tables – in a substantial number of manuscripts in Latin and the vernaculars.
This is the first edition of the complete version of the ‘CI’ in Middle English. The introduction, commentary, and glossary not only provide a context for reading the text, but also contribute to an understanding of the emergence and development of a language and culture of medicine in medieval England. The glossary is an extensive compilation of the anatomical, medical, and botanical terminology used. 

' ... a most welcome addition to the so far scarce work on the Middle English Circa instans and enhances substantially our current knowledge of it ... an invaluable contribution to the study of the English version of this particular treatise, as well as that of the vernacularisation, transmission and diffusion of science and medicine in the medieval period.'
Laura Esteban-Segura
The Medieval Review
'... this volume by Garrido-Anes is an admirable edition, the product of diligent research, care, and attention.'
Veronica O'Mara
Journal of the Early Book Society 24 (2021)
' ... Garrido-Anes's accessible, informative edition deserves a place on the shelves of scholars of medieval and early modern medicine'
Katie L. Walter
The Mediaeval Journal 10.2 (2020)
'This is an important, welcome edition, one that lives up to the high standards of the Heidelberg series'
Stephen Morrison
Scriptorium. Bulletin codicologique (2021/2)
'... offre à tout médiéviste angliciste une lecture instructive et enrichissante tant sur le plan socio-linguistique que dans le domaine du savoir pharmacologique de l’époque'
Agnès Blandeau
Le Moyen Âge CXXVIII.2 (2022)