RCSI Heritage Collections

RCSI Heritage Collections houses a medieval medical manuscript of unique research interest. Ten years ago, our then special collections librarian wrote a  blog post on the ‘Lentaigne Manuscript’  (RCSI/MS/97), telling of the history of the 1851 donation to RCSI Library and its Lentaigne namesake, and referencing previous research published in 1943, by the late RCSI Professor J.D.H. Widdess ( PRACTICA MAGISTRI JOHANNIS ARDERNE. (An Account of an early 15th Century Manuscript in the Library of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland .) Recently, a new piece of research on RCSI/MS/97 has been published by Peter Murray Jones , Fellow, King's College, Cambridge, giving us more to know and love about RCSI’s own ‘Arderne Manuscript’. RCSI/MS/97 - marginalia and illustrations appear throughout the manuscript Master surgeon John Arderne (1307–c.1380) had served King Edward III as an army surgeon at the battle of Crécy in 1346. In 1376, Arderne wrote PRACTICA MAGISTRI JOHANNIS ARDERNE,...

These days the majority of prescription drugs are man-made by large pharmaceutical companies. But before the GlaxoSmithKline's of today, what did people take for stomach pain, to help stop deafness and cure freckles? The answer is they looked to the natural world, both animals and plants, to produce medicinal remedies, tinctures and lotions. By looking at the book Zoologia Medicinalis Hibernica written in 1739 it seems a lot of ailments were treatable by various animal parts. Zoologia Medicinalis Hibernica by John Keogh 1739 Keogh's book not only tells us what part(s) of an animal can cure your ailment. He also tells you how to prepare the animal part(s) to be eaten, drunk, rubbed on or poured over. Below can be seen his entry for the medicinal uses of a deer, which are quite extensive and in some cases bizarre! How deer can help treat diseases according to Keogh    Who knew that mixing the filings or ashes of a deer's hoof with bear's grease and ...