The Saxon translation of the Περὶ Διδαξέων (Harl. 6258) is a thin
volume badly mutilated in parts. Herr Max Löwenbeck[10] has shown that
this is in part translated from a treatise by an eleventh-century
writer, Petrocellus or Petronius, of the School of Salerno--the
original treatise being entitled _Practica Petrocelli Salernitani_.[11]
As has been pointed out by many eminent authorities, the School of
Salerno, being a survival of Greek medicine, was uncontaminated by
superstitious medicine. Consequently there are striking differences
between this and the other Saxon manuscripts. The large majority of the
herbs mentioned are those of Southern Europe, and the pharmacy is very
simple compared with the number of herbs in prescriptions of native
origin. As Dr. J. F. Payne[12] has pointed out, Herr Löwenbeck's
important discovery does not account for the whole of the English book.
The order of the chapters differs from that of the Salernitan writer;
there are passages not to be found in the _Practica_, and in some
places the English text gives a fuller reading. It is fairly evident
that the Saxon treatise is at least in part indebted to the
_Passionarius_ by Gariopontus, another Salernitan writer of the same
period.
The _Lacnunga_ (Harl. 585), an original work, and one of the oldest
and most interesting manuscripts, is a small, thick volume without any
illustrations. Some of the letters are illuminated and some are rudely
ornamented. At the top of the first page there is the inscription
"Liber Humfredi Wanley," and it is interesting, therefore, to realise
that the British Museum owes this treasure to the zealous antiquarian
whose efforts during the closing years of the seventeenth and early
years of the eighteenth century rescued so many valuable Saxon and
other MSS. from oblivion.[13]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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