Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 218: Henry, Duke of Lancaster, Le livre des seintes medicines

purl.stanford.edu/xz042hy3921

Title:

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 218: Henry, Duke of Lancaster, Le livre des seintes medicines

Alternate Title:

Henry of Lancaster, Liure des Seintes Medicines

Language:

French, Middle (ca. 1400-1600) and Latin

Extent:

ff. 70 + 2

Dimensions:

260 Height (mm) and 165 Width (mm)

Approximate Date:

[ca. 1375 - 1399]

Table of contents:

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• Le livre des seintes medicines
• Monitiones to his son Philip

Description:

Still in its original binding, CCCC MS 218, dating to the period c. 1354-75, contains the Le livre des seintes medicines of Henry of Grosmont (c. 1310-61), first duke of Lancaster. This is one of three extant copies, the other two being in Stonyhurst College 24, and Aberystwyth, NLW Peniarth 388.2. It is a devotional text containing an allegory in which the sickness of the body is parallelled with the sickness of the soul. Christ, as the doctor, heals the five senses from infection by the seven deadly sins. The book is of particular importance to the College because Henry of Lancaster played an important role in its foundation in the middle years of the fourteenth century and is commemorated as one of its great benefactors.