The Intellectual Interests Reflected in Libraries of the Fourteenth and ...

290 PEARL KIBRE
Avicenna, Rasis, Mesue, and the like. Of earlier medieval medical
writings, the Viaticus of Constantinus Africanus, the Thesaurus
pauperum of Petrus Hispanus, the Lilium of Bernard Gordon,
together with medical works and translations by Gerard of Cremona,
and the Conciliator of Peter of Abano, provided the titles
most frequently encountered in the catalogues. Treatises on surgery
by Bruno of Longoburgo whose works circulated among the
libraries of Europe from Italy to the British Isles, by William of
Saliceto, and Guy de Chauliac, were also common in the inventories.
The work of the last named was, however, more generally found in
French libraries than elsewhere. Few contemporary authors of
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries had so universal a following
as those mentioned. Medical antidotaries, or lists of simples,
recipes for drugs, and information on herbs and foods which one
might expect to find useful only for apothecaries were also to be
found in the collections of humanists and other bibliophiles. Particular
favor was shown toward the Antidotary of Nicholas of
Salerno, emanating probably from the twelfth century.145
Especially noteworthy for its medical works was the collection
of Amplonius Ratinck with one hundred and one tracts including
all the aforementioned treatises.146 Similarly conspicuous for its
medical books was the library of the abbey church of St. Augustine
at Canterbury. Its more than one hundred volumes on this subject
comprised works ranging from compositions of Hippocrates and
Galen, to those of contemporary Italian authors. The Arabic physicians,
Rasis, Averroes, and so on, as well as the medieval Latin
authors and works on medicine named above, indicate the prominence
of earlier authorities.'47 There were several tracts on
women's diseases and on gynaecology, among them the work circulating
under the title or author Trotula, also the work of Muscio,
and of Caelius Aurelianus.148 The library of the Prior of St.
Martin at Dover, according to the inventory of 1389 was also well
provided with books on medical subjects.'49 The medical portion
145 G. Sarton, Introduction to the history of Science (Baltimore, 1931), II, 239-
40. Cf. Robert Steele, "What fifteenth century books are about," The Library, IV
(1903), 345.
146 Dr. Wilhelm Schum, Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der Amplonianischen Handschriften-Sammlung
zu Erfurt (Berlin, 1887), 785-867.
147 M. R. James, The ancient libraries of Canterbury and Dover, especially
332-49; also 369 and 385.
148 Ibid., 347, no. 1274; 385, no. 1599, etc.
149 Ibid., 429, nos. 337-63; 455, no. 136; 480; 490, no. 410.
This content downloaded from 71.172.222.252 on Sat, 4 May 2013 15:56:09 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions