Reading the Regime du Corps manuscript at Cambridge University Library Cambridge University Library
“Take three or four weasel testicles and half a handful of young mouse-ear [a plant] and burn it all equally in an earthenware pot…” This is no witch’s potion, but a 15th-century attempt to cure infertility, and one of many delights in Curious Cures: Medicine in the medieval world, an exhibition at Cambridge University Library.
It’s a treasure trove of rare manuscripts, some never on show before. The well-thumbed and sometimes illustrated tomes (hand-written in middle English, Latin, French and Arabic) conjure images of a harried physician trying to cure lice or fistulas,…
