[English translation] [Page 1] [Blank.] -------- [Page 2] [Blank.] -------- [Page 3] One name inked out. *Di frate Angelo Biogi... 1 -------- [Page 4] [Blank.] -------- [Page 5] One ounce is the same as 8 drams and it is written viij and also is written j. A dram is only a part of an ounce and is written j and weighs 60 grains. A scruple is the same as 20 grains which is one third of a dram. Three scruples make one dram. An aureus or an exagium contains one and a half drams. A sextarius contains 2 pounds.... 2 NATURE SPEAKS TO MANKIND In me, merciful mother, loving nature, Following the rules pleasing to the great power, Natural love and desire were born Toward every living creature. My wisdom can cure each man And provide to him the herbs and beneficial waters Which Galen and Hippocrates described, Whence life lasts a long time. How many serious pains, how many accidents Besiege the wretched human body And make the legs weak, sick and weary. All pains are extinguished equally When the herbs bring infallible remedies For the liver, the spleen and pain in the sides. -------- [Page 6] [Blank.] -------- [Page 7] [Blank.] -------- [Page 8] [Blank.] -------- [Page 9] [Blank.] -------- [Page 10] JESUS My rule was always to serve each Well from my kind nature, But, as the proverb says, if to cure one It makes a hundred ill, I say I do not want this. I have proven it to my misfortune In lending books expecting security. I say that I am a martyr for lending them. Sometimes certain people Remove pages or mark them. They respond to a favor with destruction. Since they speak in my language, I hope to be understood by them, So that friends are not rejected. My heart seems to speak to me, ‘Take care, my companion, what you say So that you do not lose the book and the friends.’ -------- [Page 11] Excellent rules for preserving health for a long time.... 3 Because the state of human life is affliction and change, art and care are necessary through which nature and the body will be able to preserve health. Therefore, my friend, if you greatly desire to live in this world for a long time, freeing yourself from the many indispositions and dangers to your mortal body, give attention with diligence to this, my short list of rules. Viz.: When you get out of bed in the morning, stretch all your limbs well, because their natural warmth is the state from which they take much comfort. Cleaning. With a comb clean your head, because rubbish and dirt that is between the scalp and the brain is removed and this cleaning greatly aids the head. Wash your hands and face with fresh water because that will give you a good color to aid nature, and blow your nose well and clear your chest by spitting, because the chest and the brain become more cleansed and purified and the speech more clear. Clean your teeth and gums well with sage or with orange rind which gives the breath a good odor and the teeth and gums are better preserved. Perfumes. Take some time to make odorous perfumes for the brain. When it is warm use cool things, such as roses, sandalwood and similar things, and during the cold use warm things, such as cinnamon and cloves, in effect the same, because such odors greatly benefit the brain. Garments. Dressing with respectable and good-looking clothes of light wool improves the heart. Eating sweet fennel or cloves some time in the morning results in good breath that comforts the stomach and greatly increases the desire to eat. Electuary. Use this electuary at all times, that is diamargariton , or an electuary with amber, borage, bugloss and similar components. Then do moderate exercise up to the first sweat because such exercise strengthens the body and augments the natural heat while the excess of bad humors is diminished. If, near the hour of taking a meal, you will empty the belly of the excess of the body, that increases the appetite and lightens the body. Thus the stomach begins to digest those foods with which your nature is familiar. Such food is better and more suitable for the stomach and is digested more easily.... 4 Meats. The foods that better preserve the nature of man in greater health are meat of castrated goat, veal and lamb; of birds, meat of gray partridges, pheasants, quail, Greek partridges, hens and capons. Birds of the swamp are bad and are never digested. Eggs. Fresh hens’ eggs, given to drink, assist the brain considerably and help produce good blood. Herbs. The green stems of herbs, not cooked too much, are good and fine and their broth is better to relieve the abdomen. To provoke urine in an orderly way, beets, borage, balsam, mint and spinach are good and are suitable at meals. Bread. Bread should be well fermented and well cooked and not eaten warm which makes the stomach and the body worse. Wine. Wine should be pure and small in amount. Eat without too much speed so the food can be well masticated. Drink with moderation because too much wine and food kill many. Your food and wine should be very simple and of a single kind in a course, otherwise in using very diverse foods, illness is produced. After the meal, wash your hands well and your mouth and teeth, so that bits of food do not stay in the teeth to damage them, as often happens. If one walks enough so the the food is arranged in the bottom of the stomach, it is digested better. When you sleep, do so with the head covered and well elevated. The first sleep should be on the right side. Get up at dawn because the mind is aroused and sharpened and the body is strengthened and health is maintained. -------- [Page 12] In the spring, take a purge. That is what preserves your health and drives away every sickness that may come. Be careful with garlic, onions and similar sour plants that are harmful to the stomach and to the brain. On other things, do not indulge in coitus too much and especially after meals. From that develops corruption of the blood and weakness of the disposition. Fruit. Abstain from raw fruit. That causes most serious sickness. Do not be too melancholy which is most harmful and only makes you fall into grave indisposition and madness. Likewise, watch out for things harmful to the mind and body. By avoiding these and being careful, you will live a long time while one waits to reach the eternal life that the omnipotent and merciful God in His grace reaches out to give. This is all. Be well! -------- [Page 13] [Blank.] -------- [Page 14] [Blank.] -------- [Page 15] [Blank.] -------- [Page 16] [Blank.] -------- [Page 17] [Blank.] -------- [Page 18] Sonnet for preserving human life for a long time. Viz. If you want to stay healthy, observe these rules. Do not eat until hungry and eat lightly. Chew the food well that you take in. It should be well cooked and simple. It is not wise to take medicine. Keep yourself from anger and everything sad. Get up quickly when the meal is over. Do not sleep at midday. Drink moderately and promise The stomach not to drink between meals. Do not hold in urine nor force it out. Exercise and do it with care, With the body relaxed and the mind calm. Shun lust and keep to a good diet. To make your life happy, Do the first sleep on the right side, Never let it find you on your back. Three things are good without a doctor, ‘Diet, quiet and a happy life.’ -------- [Page 19] [Manuscript Title Page] LIBRO DE I SECRETTI CON RICETTE Aposto per frate Giovanni Andrea de Faare de Bressa Del horden d’i Frati Jesuatti de Santo Girolamo... 5 Addorno de altre cose per me Frate Antonio di Plasencia de Spagnia di detto horden il qual libro hereditai dal detto defunto ut supra. Nel 1562 in Lucca in Santo Girolomo -------- [Page 20] JESUS Jesus Christ, the supreme physician who heals all our infirmities, is the leader of all the faithful and he will use his means as the physician who created medicine from the earth. If, as they say, the old and modern philosophers equally have tested these secrets of nature, they are all to be found in the books of our elders. It is human nature not to be healthy, beginning from the top of the head down to the tips of the toes. I do not speak so much of the interior parts of the body but of illnesses of the exterior, beginning with the top of the head and going to the eyes, ears, nose, teeth and tongue, then to paralysis, the throat, catarrh, indisposition of the stomach, liver, abdomen, spleen, illnesses of the womb, the distress of kidney stone, difficulty in urination, boils and growths, wens, abcesses of the nipples, problems and swelling with the legs, corns, dislocated joints, broken bones, and damaged nerves. These remedies are discussed: unguents, plasters, oils, medicinal powders, the power of every herb, distillation of all waters, a remedy against the French sickness, the best elixir of life, laxatives, syrups, juleps, pills and how to make them with wine for each infirmity, and the power of the dead, not the living, wolf, and the remedies for some infirmities of horses. These you will understand in reading this. Through a gift of God, I, a faithful Christian, have considered the usefulness and value that each remedy has. As a wise pilgrim, I have gathered all these secrets now to be found in this, my little book, in which is included the many powers created by nature, the merits of which until the present have not been generally noticed. But take those that please you in their action and have confidence in the living God who created all from nothing. By working with these, not once but often, you will see it manifest that these are for the most part tested as things produced by nature and preserved with divine aid, for which should be rendered glorious and eternal praises for the origin of all created things. Jesus Christ lives and reigns for all eternity. So be it.+ -------- [Page 21] [Manuscript Table of Contents] JESUS A table of contents for this book of remedies to find quickly all the above-mentioned secrets pertaining to human nature, alphabetically, with a short legend. A Folio Universal water for the eyes, according to the method that is used in our shop... 1 Water for cloudy eyes... 1 Water for sickness of the eyes... 1 Water of celandine or swallow wort for bad eyes... 1 Water for an eye that was hit... 1 Water of swallows more wonderful than can be believed and how it is made for epilepsy... 15 Water that whitens teeth... 9 Water that whitens teeth, removes trick letters from parchment and also warts and corns and breaks iron... 9 Water for ringworm and for the legs... 17 Water for an itch of any kind, oily or dry... 32 Water to remove hair, warts, corns and skin eruptions... 20 Water for blockage of the veins... 26 Water for the liver and to cause urination... 26 Very perfect water for tuberculosis... 27 Tested water to drink for quartan fever... 31 Water for pain in the sides and helpful in stone... 40 Water that is squirted in the penis for those who have dripping... 47 Water that removes the signs on the edges of wounds... 76 Very perfect strong water, according to Aristotle, with its virtues... 101 Water of Queen Isabella is powerful for all the body and makes it healthy... 102 Water of fresh walnuts that has many uses... 140 Water to cure wounds, fistulas, cankers, bad growths and old sores, provided that the illness is external... 158 Odoriferous waters to use to compound Water of Angels... 135 Odoriferous waters to use to make noble and high class water of musk... 136 Water of orange rind distilled in the sun... 136 Ordinary distilled waters and some of their tested uses... 137 Water of tamarind flowers has many excellent virtues... 161 Celestial water is very wonderful to preserve health for a long time... 128 To clear up the vision quickly... 4 Most perfect remedy for one who is deaf... 6 To remove a tooth without implements using the root of celandine... 8 For one who may have loose teeth through sickness... 8 For one who has a bad problem in the mouth... 9 For one who has bad breath caused by the stomach... 10 For one whose head shakes and also the hands... 11 For one who has asthma and tightness in the chest... 23 For one who has cardiac arrythmia or may be frightened, sleeping or waking... 28 For one who is not able to urinate, very great and quick acting secrets... 42 -------- [Page 22] For one who suffers from difficulty in urination... 42 For one who is not able to urinate, be it man or woman... 43 For one in whom the intestine falls out of the inguinal region... 51 For one who spits blood through a broken vein in the chest... 27 Tested aid for one with ejaculation during sleep... 61 To cure one who has been bitten by a rabid dog... 79 To know if a person is under a spell or hurt from having eaten charms... 139 For flesh hurt or bruised from a fall without breaking the flesh... 16 To remove a wen quickly and well and to heal it easily... 92 For the pain of the top of the stomach, not the chest... 16 For curing fever, wounds and irritation of the penis with highly approved water... 30 For pain of the womb... 28 Perfect poultice for pain in the body... 34 Most rare remedies of several kinds for colic pains... 39 Wonderful poultice for colic pains... 39 Tested and good enema for pains in the side... 40 To cure kidney pains rapidly... 41 To break stones in the bladder... 45 Tested way to cause menstruation in women... 50 For those who are not reconciled with a spouse, a prayer to say and carry with you... 52 To remove hardness of the teats when they have been cut and to cure them when they are cut... 56 To domesticate an animal so it acts as desired... 79 To end a bad time... 140 To restrain involuntary ejaculation... 48 For fissures of the lips with cracks... 77 A powder to make the stomach and breath good and to expand the chest... 21 For coldness of the stomach and to aid digestion... 23 To make the voice good and firm for singing... 139 To rewarm the liver and diminish pain from the spleen... 28 Ointment for the edge of the kidney for quartan fever... 29 Best beverage for quartan fever... 29 To stop discharge from the body rapidly... 36 To restrain any kind of flow from the body... 36 To restrain discharge from the body little by little... 38 To retain urine... 41 To cause urination of much gravel quickly... 44 To break a stone in the bladder... 45 To make a wine against the illness of stone... 46 To return an inguinal hernia inside or swelling in the groin... 51 To make a boil open up quickly... 51 To resolve a swelling in the groin quickly... 52 -------- [Page 23] To bring to a head a swelling that comes in the thighs and on the mammaries of women... 52 To break hemorrhoids inside and out and to take out blood... 63 To make troches of cinnabar to open wounds... 74 To extend a nerve that has been retracted through illness... 76 To make a dog like you always and always come with you... 80 To make an adder or serpent come to you when you call it... 80 Several ways to make the hair beautiful... 18 To make white hair dark... 18 To make white hair become dark... 19 To make the hair or beard grow... 19 To remove body hair, beard or hair where you wish... 19 Washing with this distilled water prevents the beard, hair and eyelashes from falling out... 28 Distilled water for bathing the head and beard where there is a condition of hair loss, to make the hair regrow quickly... 28 Many tested ways to cure one who is deaf from many infirmities but not congenital deafness... 51 To cure the lump in the throat that is goiter, or enlarged throat... 11 With the aid of God to cure the falling sickness, that is one who falls from this bad sickness... 15 Several ways to cure ringworm on the head and remove hair without pain... 16 To cure teats broken open through humors or abcesses or canker and to bring out the material... 57 To cure the tip of the teats when they may be indurated or with some cracks... 57 To cure swollen testicles and the member of a man where the foreskin cannot be retracted and other infirmities of this... 58 To cure the member of a man that is infected and ulcerated from several causes... 59 To cure the member where the foreskin cannot be retracted and that has pus in the tip... 59 To cure swellings in the groin, scabs in the groin, warts and abcesses and other incurable illnesses... 60 To cure a fleshy growth in the penis of a man, even if it is old... 60 To cure the itching or pruritis that comes around the testicles... 60 To cure the penis of a man with these remedies and quickly by observing this rule...... 61 To cure hemorrhoids inside and out and piles... 61 To cure hemorrhoids and piles in several ways... 62 To cure piles, that is severe hemorrhoids... 62 Plaster to cure and dry hemorrhoids... 63 To cure sores on the legs... 64 To cure a rupture in the groin when the intestine has descended into the scrotal sac or is in a position to cause pain from hernia... 83 To cure a rupture that has descended into the scrotal sac... 83 To cure a rupture with a decoction and a fomentation... 85 To cure little children of the water that develops in the scrotal sac or a hernia..... 85 To cure the red spots or burning agues that develop in little children... 80 To cure arthritic pains or gouty arthritis... 90 -------- [Page 24] To whiten hair in the shade without sun so it becomes white and lustrous as silver...... 18 For pain in the testicles and other illnesses and swellings... 79 Tor the pain that comes on the eyelashes of the eyes... 1 For pain of the teeth and every other distress caused by dryness or from the stomach..... 7 Best remedy for headache... 13 For the pain of parturition or one who has a dead baby in her body... 54 To remove any spot or cataract from the eyes... 2 To remove the bad flesh that grows in the nose, that is polyps... 7 To remove pain and misery from the teeth quickly... 10 For the swelling or mass that comes behind the heels... 77 Ointment for cold pains of the joints... 99 To remove a birthmark or a blood spot that is on the face or body... 158 For white discharge flowing from the penis of a man or from a woman... 48 For serious deafness... 5 For pain of the teeth after eating something sour... 9 Best remedy for the sore throat, that is quinsy that comes in the throat... 9 For headache with fever... 13 Best remedy for tightness in the chest and in thick cough... 22 Most approved remedy for pleurisy... 23 For the woman whom pregnancy has sickened and to restore her to health... 24 For the dropsy caused by the spleen... 25 Most approved remedy for one who is swollen with dropsy... 25 For blockage and swelling... 26 For dryness of the mouth caused by fever... 32 Strong poultice for intestinal rupture that miraculously cures it... 81 Very strong poultice for intestinal rupture... 81 Useful and tested poultice for intestinal rupture... 82 Poultice that rapidly cures recent intestinal rupture... 82 For coldness in the joints, that is in cold gout... 97 For the uvula that has fallen in the throat... 9 Wonderful water for catarrh... 11 Best remedy for dry cough... 22 For burning in the penis when urinating... 43 For the intestine that comes far out of the body... 52 For the intestine coming out of the body from damage... 52 Wonderful unguent for inflamed eyes... 2 For dropsy caused by the spleen... 115 Tested remedy for swelling of the legs... 65 For paralysis of the tongue, hand and other members... 10 In parturition and against quartan fever... 34 To rewarm the vagina... 49 To cure rapidly the deafness, ringing and hissing that comes in the ears... 5 Plaster for closing up the womb... 24 -------- [Page 25] For the problem of baldness on the head... 16 For illness in matrons and the sickness of pregnancy in women... 21 For the sickness of sharp pain, that is stomach pain and serious vomiting... 21 For sickness in the body caused by worms... 37 To urinate stone and gravel rapidly from the kidney or the bladder... 44 Several methods to cause urination in sickness from stone and gravel... 46 Approved prayer for the sickness of pregnancy... 28 To cure quickly the abcess that comes in the fingers... 79 Precious unguent to cure the sickness of excessive hunger quickly... 80 For the illness of shingles which makes many blisters that break, and for any bad growth... 80 Perfect water for the illness of shingles... 80 Various medicines to cure illness of the spleen in several ways... 113 To make the abcessed and swollen spleen mature... 114 Wonderful ointment that quickly removes illness of the spleen... 115 To kill lice, crab lice, fleas and nits and it is effective against bugs... 164 Very true and tested for the illness of pleurisy... 23 Very good remedy for sickness of pregnancy... 23 For sickness of pregnancy and sickness of matrons... 23 To remove the chills of fever... 34 Several ways to remove the red signs and spots from wounds... 73 To bring peace and concord between 2 persons, that is husband and wife... 54 To soften the teats and remove pain... 57 To soften the milk in the teats and make it come out... 57 To get rid of an ulcer and cure it quickly... 78 Several ways to cure a fistula... 78 A water to remove a fistula and cure a canker... 89 For pain from a venomous bite or from eating some poison or from worms or poisonous animals and in pain of the body... 79 To mitigate the pain of fissures... 85 Several ways to mitigate the pain of gout... 93 To remove redness of the face wherever you want... 162 To remove an abcess... 163 For a retracted nerve that is not able to be extended from irritation or other cause... 91 Perfect and useful water for a retracted nerve in the finger... 92 To remove a scrofula with water... 77 For the ulceration or other sickness of the legs... 77 For any bad growth in the throat caused by coldness... 10 To prepare for cold feet... 77 To pick up serpents or adders without being harmed... 80 -------- [Page 26] For a rupture in the nose caused by descending humors... 7 For a rupture or wound in the head... 13 To restrain flux from the body or other discharges... 38 Several ways to restrain the white flux in a woman or man... 49 To reduce the white flux of a woman rapidly... 49 To reduce the red flux of excess menstruation in women... 50 Several ways to break a stone in the bladder... 44 To stop blood that comes from the nose which has not been stopped by other remedies... 6 To stop the flow of blood from wounds or veins that have been ruptured, broken or cracked in the chest... 90 Several kinds of remedies for the stomach that does not retain food... 20 To dry the rheum from a tooth... 8 To digest food in the stomach... 22 To know if a woman may give birth to male or female... 55 For a human to stay healthy all year... 125 To dry sweat and to clean the skin under the arms or wherever you want and to keep a good odor permanently... 152 Beverage for cold sciatica and for any other bad condition... 97 To distill by downward distillation... 111 To distill herbs or flowers and whatever you want in the bain marie with several receptacles and the tower of the philosophers... 133 To distill several kinds of odoriferous waters with the bain marie... 134 To distill mixtures of flowers, herbs and roots to compound odoriferous waters... 135 To distill brandy and rules to observe to make it perfect, and with its virtues... 141 To distill wine to make brandy for drinking and for bathing, with some of its tested virtues...... 144 To distill good brandy in an improvised method designed as a test... 147 To stop blood from hemorrhoids quickly... 48 To heal a wen... 92 To cut a limb without pain to the patient... 76 For one who is beginning not to hear... 5 For a scrape or other malady of the leg... 64 For one who has frozen teeth and cannot eat things cold or warm... 96 -------- [Page 27] B Synthetic balsam, very good for every illness of the eye and ear and for ringworm... 4 Bath or poultice to cool the kidneys... 25 Bath to warm the womb... 25 Beverage for epilepsy... 14 Beverage against itching... 33 Beverage against pain in the body from having retained urine... 36 Beverage for those who drip excessively from the penis... 48 Beverage against gravel, to make abundant urine... 48 Beverage against the French sickness and for sciatica and catarrh... 116 Beverage for every incurable illness in every member of the body... 116 Beverage for illness of the spleen... 115 Prayer against witches and demons... 140 To maintain good feet to walk with... 151 C To make hair, beard or body hair regrow when it has fallen out from sickness... 18 To remove corns between the fingers or wherever they are and to kill the root... 150 To cure quickly a head broken by a fall or other blow as long as the bone is not broken... 128 To prevent cracking of the mammaries of women... 58 So a man goes securely on a dangerous journey... 151 One whose brain is wandering... 17 One who questions if it is tuberculosis... 25 One who questions if it is tuberculosis, use this powder... 25 One who has a yellow countenance... 26 One who has cardiac arrythmias, especially if one is frightened and cannot sleep... 27 Very elegant cerate for the head... 13 The primary cerate... 13 Cerate which is put on the head for sickness from a blow and from humidity... 14 Cerate for epilepsy to put on the head... 14 Cerate against coldness of the stomach... 54 Very valuable cerate to clear up... 67 The Grace of God Cerate of highest virtue... 77 Against fever of any kind... 37 Confection for coldness of the stomach... 53 Confection for worms in adults and children... 37 Confection to lift the heart and take away melancholy... 101 Quince laxative against cold gout and pains in the sides and to strengthen the stomach... 97 Escharotic for bad flesh... 74 Against the venom of the bee, wasp, hornet and scorpion... 79 Against the pain of warm and cold gouts... 93 Best beverage against the pain of the gouts, especially when they are warm in nature... 93 Best and complete laxative against the gouts... 93 Most perfect electuary against the pain of the gouts, a wonderful secret... 94 -------- [Page 28] Valuable pills against the pain of the gouts and a most true secret for all considerations... 94 Wonderful and very powerful ointment against the pain of the gouts... 94 Most worthy unguent to rub against the pain of the gouts wherever they are... 94 Most excellent oil against the pain of the gouts and worthy of every test... 94 To cure the pain of the gouts with this water of guaiac wood. This is tested... 95 Wear this ring continually on the finger against gouty sciatica... 95 Cerate against gouty sciatica of a hip, even if it is old... 96 Bath and ointment that rapidly cures gouty sciatica and cold gout... 96 Very useful beverage and enema against gouty sciatica... 97 Very useful enema against gouty sciatica... 97 Against the swelling of the vein after withdrawing blood... 125 Against every malign nocturnal spirit... 140 Horse or ox or other animals that urinate blood which only comes to bovine beasts through overheating and bad food... 154 Horse or other beast that has colic pains or aliaci... 154 Horse that has a cough or may be cold... 155 To cure quickly a horse or other beast that has sickness from large or small worms or retains worms in the body... 155 To cure a horse that has sickness on the back or sores on the shoulders... 156 A horse that has swelling around the ankles and feet... 156 To cool down a horse that is down through overheating or too much exertion... 156 A horse that has swollen glands behind the ears, that is under the jaw... 156 To cure a horse rapidly that has a spot in the eyes... 156 A horse that is not willing to let itself be shod and is restive... 157 To give a white horse some green spots... 157 Best beverage for fleshy growth in the penis... 48 D For the gassy hernia that comes in the bottom of the scrotal sack... 85 Digestive... 74 Protective... 74 E Very aromatic elixir of life to preserve health and youth and remove bad humors... 129 Elixir of life according to the method of the studio of Bologna to preserve human nature... 129 Electuary so women can have babies... 55 Plaster against the debility from a cold stomach... 20 Herbs that quickly restrain a flux... 38 The herb primula cures rupture... 82 The herb mouse ear cures rupture in the sack or in the groin... 82 The herb ground pine put on a rupture cures it... 84 The herb sea bindweed cures a rupture and purges the body and has other virtues... 85 The herb verbena aids the intestinal parts... 85 Some of the virtues of the herb dittany are that it aids in a rupture and aids the spleen and the cold stomach... 86 -------- [Page 29] The herb calamondin, that is germander or wall germander, is powerful for the stomach, for the womb and in fever... 86 The herb balsamina, that is balsam apple or mormordica, is called by some the wild vine because it has leaves like the wild grape and its fruits are pointed and at maturity are yellow in color or orange red and spiny... 86 The herb rusty fern, that is Asplenium, and some of its virtues... 87 The herb dodder that grows in the grain and is appropriate to use to cure ulcers... 87 The herb wild sage with its good virtues... 87 The herb double tongue, that is pagan tongue... 89 The herb adder’s tongue, that is serpent’s tongue... 89 The herb ox-tongue that has a white spot in the center of the leaf and grows around hedges... 90 The herb scabiosa and some of its virtues... 90 The herb rue and some of its virtues... 90 The herb marjoram and some of its virtues... 139 The herb holy thistle, that is Turk’s thistle, and its virtues... 132 A method to try in the French disease. First purge the body in this way... 117 Best remedy to try for the French disease... 119 F Fomentation for the ears to remove deafness caused by sickness... 5 Fomentation for the womb when it comes out of the vagina... 49 G Very best and perfect julep to make... 122 For the legs... 54 I Plaster that matures and softens quickly... 53 Plaster to mature an abcess quickly... 76 Golden plaster that is powerful for wounds... 76 Plaster for a sore throat that has become wormy... 76 Plaster to cure fissure or fleshy hernia... 83 Plaster for hardness of the swollen spleen... 116 Tested plaster for burns from water or fire... 38 L Electuary for watery and dripping eyes and for weakness of the stomach and to strengthen the memory... 2 Very good and excellent electuary for the memory... 17 Electuary against every impediment of the stomach and it purges bad humors... 21 Electuary for the stomach that supports digestion... 23 Electuary for the bad stomach caused by the spleen and by humors from bad blood... 26 Electuary for distress in the stomach and tuberculosis and for the hardened spleen... 28 Electuary for the memory with many other notable uses... 138 Very excellent electuary against catarrh... 11 Electuary to rewarm the stomach and the kidneys to incite venery... 54 -------- [Page 30] Electuary for the falling sickness... 14 Electuary for blockage or dropsy or tuberculosis or for one who has a bad stomach... 26 Electuary for those who have leakage from the penis... 47 Electuary to shrink and cure the spleen... 115 Electuary for those with fissures below or open under the groin... 84 Electuary for the sickness of gout and arthritis... 95 Electuary of buckthorn, a tested laxative to remove the pain of gout... 95 Lavage for the womb when it has come out of the vagina... 51 Very perfect lavage for illness of the legs... 66 Lavage to heal and clean sores on the legs... 67 The woman who has this prayer on her will soon give birth without pain... 54 Human nature has four complexions: cold, dry, warm and melancholy... 127 The four kinds of nature are: sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric and melancholic... 127 The four digestions of food that are made in the stomach... 24 The four digestions in nature... 128 To know some things about the urine... 128 Nature shows through external signs the distress that is inside... 126 Through phlebotomy man removes blood to be healthy... 126 The value of human blood converted into water by distillation... 91 The virtues of celandine that are contained in the elixir for humans... 132 The virtues of some distilled waters... 137 To remove bad nails quickly... 150 To cure split lips of the mouth, and the hands... 7 To color white hair, beard or body hair dark brown quickly... 18 Liquor to draw torn nerves together... 91 The egg that is layed on the day of Ascension is said to cure fissures... 85 The wolf has many tested medicinal powers, I say when it is dead and not alive... 153 Angelic electuary or electuary of buckthorn, very laxative... 96 Electuary of rosemary; unguent of rosemary; wine of rosemary... 164 The virtues of water distilled from strawberries, that is from the mature fruit... 163 M To make the best and good rose honey... 121 Good and complete laxative of red sugar... 121 Remedies of several kinds for epilepsy... 24 O Oil that is powerful in paralysis and contraction of nerves, in transient spasm and in all cold infirmities... 10 Oil for the sickness called ugly... 15 Most true oil for the sickness of pleurisy and sickness of matrons and colic pains and contracted nerves... 22 Oil against spasm of the nerves in several tested ways... 72 Oil to cure fissures from an accident... 83 Oil made of rosemary flowers with their tested values... 88 Oil against all cold infirmities... 96 Oil of sage flowers for any swelling of cold gout in the elbows, hands or knees... 98 -------- [Page 31] Warm oil to straighten limbs contracted or drawn out through coldness... 102 Oil to heal a cut quickly... 102 Oil that draws fresh wounds together... 103 Oil to heal and soothe any sore... 103 Very excellent oil for cuts or wounds... 103 Precious oil that heals any wound in 24 hours... 105 Lateran oil called oil of the philosophers and some of its virtues... 103 Synthetic oil of yellow sulfur... 103 Oil of yellow sulfur and some of its virtues... 104 Special medicinal oil of sulfur... 110 Oil of St. John’s wort in precious mixtures, with its virtues... 105 Oil of egg yolks with some of its virtues and the way it is made… 73,... 105 Oil of tartar to whiten flesh... 105 Oil of tartar, that is tartar from wine casks, with some of its virtues… 106,... 126 To convert oil of tartar to a liquor... 109 Oil of Roman vitriol, true and perfect, with its virtues... 106 To solidify synthetic oil of vitriol... 109 Oil of talc prepared to whiten flesh... 108 Oil of talc made according to the alchemists... 109 Best and complete oil of pure wax... 109 Oil of turpentine or oil of honey... 109 To make clear and beautiful oil of laurel berries... 110 To make true and complete oil of antimony... 110 Oil of antimony made in the distilling flask... 111 Tested oil against venoms, poisons and worms, in sacred memory of our lord, Pope Clement VII... 112 Oil similar to that above, tested in the time of our lord, Pope Paul III, in 2 prisoners in the Tower of Savella by Monsignor Diomede, the Neopolitan, who was responsible for not cutting off their heads instead. This is the way to make this oil, viz... 112 Synthetic oil against venoms like that above and also useful in hip pain... 113 Oil of scorpions which was made by Saint Bernard against venoms... 113 How to make oil of antimony... 110 Oil of juniper is composed in this way... 111 Ointment for split lips and cracks on hands and feet... 7 Ointment that removes an itch... 33 Ointment for an itch... 34 Ointment to make the body go by rubbing the umbilicus... 34 Ointment for pain in the shins, weakness of the loins and for illness of the kidneys... 47 Ointment for the kidneys for those who are draining from the penis... 47 Best ointment against retracted nerves... 72 Ointment with gargle for those who have the French sickness with 3 syrups to be given before the medicine... 118 Prayer for bad teeth... 8 Prayer against the malady of scrofula and swollen glands... 12 -------- [Page 32] Prayer for headache... 14 Prayer against epilepsy to be carried on you... 15 Prayer against sickness in pregnancy... 24 Most devout prayer for any fever and to carry around the neck... 30 Prayer against every kind of fever... 30 Prayer against gout to say every morning and to carry with you... 95 Prayer to cure gouty sciatica wherever it is and quickly... 96 Prayer against pestilence... 101 Prayer against all the dangers of the world... 152 Prayer against worms for everybody... 37 Simple oxymel, complete and good... 124 Oil of camphor that is powerful for redness of the face and also for more things... 163 P Distress from serious vomiting from the stomach... 20 Cloth processed to strengthen the diseased leg... 67 To heal the vagina of a woman inside and out... 50 For the milk crust that comes on the head of little children... 17 For bones dislocated or injured in the feet or hands or anywhere that at times hurts or is swollen although the wound has healed... 91 Best and holy remedy for dislocated and loose bones... 91 To hold loose bones in the joints... 92 To bring broken bones together and mitigate the pain... 92 Pills of turpentine powerful in sciatica, gout and any bruise or internal distress... 100 Imperial pills and some of their uses... 100 Tested pills against dizziness... 100 Pills to cure ringworm... 17 Pills for the head after meals... 18 Pills for the sickness of matrons... 21 Pills against fever... 29 Pills of aloe to evacuate the bowels... 36 Odorous pills made of wild cucumber that are laxative and work against fever... 34 Decoctions for the overheated liver... 27 Decoction for the overheated and defiled liver... 27 Decoction against hardness and inflammation of the spleen... 114 Decoction against illness of the spleen... 115 Tested little prayer against worms... 37 Powder to make the memory good... 17 Powder for those who are draining from the genitals, be it man or woman... 48 Powder for dripping from the penis... 48 Powder to grow flesh on wounds... 75 Powder to close old wounds and draw new ones together... 75 To remove warts with their roots and also to heal corns... 150 Oil for the stomach to cure one who may have developed tuberculosis... 25 -------- [Page 33] To remove warts or corns quickly with dilute nitric acid... 151 Apple for a bad memory... 17 For epilepsy... 16 Odorous apple that, after eating it, causes sleep... 161 Q When you have water in the ears or other humidity... 6 When a marriage has been damaged through incantations... 56 R Wonderful drying ointment for erysipelas... 63 Cooling unguent for erysipilas, that is rash with fever... 68 Most certain remedy to alleviate the pain of warm gout, most approved and true with an ointment... 93 Remedy against the plague... 101 Escharotic made quickly for cold burning... 75 Quick and very excellent escharotic... 74 *Remedy for animals that have swollen tumors from the saddle or bit... 166 *Remedy for animals with a rupture... 166 *Remedy for one who may be swollen... 165 S Wonderful, tested secret for the eyes... 4 Enema to make the body go... 36 Scrofulas, that is swollen glands, and bad growths removed in several ways... 12 Water that removes scrofulas, growths and warts... 12 Wonderful unguent for scrofulas or swollen glands... 12 Laxative for dropsy and good in gassy hernia... 26 Laxative of tartar and of other kinds to make the bowels go... 35 Treated bandage powerful against open, corroded, malignant, poisoned or infected ulcers that are difficult to cure... 77 Juice of the herb of Saint John, that is burdock, that is powerful against spasms... 92 The method by which a simple syrup is made with some of its virtues... 124 Syrup or beverage of great value that maintains health... 125 Soporifics of several kinds used according to the person and they have been tested for the most part... 160 V/U Wine of eyebright, wonderful for the eyes... 1 Wine of rosemary is powerful against every cold infirmity caused by humidity... 87 Wine of sage for contraction of the nerves and in lunacy and it is very powerful in paralysis... 147 Wine good to drink for hardness of the spleen, and other beverages... 115 Wine made of fennel is powerful for cough, for the lungs and for weakness of the eyes... 147 Wine of long birthwort is powerful against fistulas as long as they are not on the bone... 148 Wine against cold gout... 148 To know how to transmute turbid and sour wine that has a bad odor... 148 How to make wine last all year without spoiling... 149 To remove quickly a musty or bad odor from wine... 149 To transmute wine to preserve it sound all year... 149 To make spoiled wine return to its original state and nevermore be spoiled... 149 -------- [Page 34] Wine good for making strong vinegar, I say very strong, in several ways... 149 To make the dark spots of a leopard on skin with white fur... 20 A gambler who does not play any more... 152 One who becomes mad through something eaten or through sickness... 140 Wonderful unguent for the eyes... 3 Primary and worthy unguent... 13 Unguent against vomiting and relaxation of the stomach... 20 Unguent of Galen, cooling for the kidneys and for any warm malady... 27 Best and complete unguent for itch... 33 Laxative unguent to make one go in both ways, up and down... 36 Unguent to grow flesh to put on sores... 53 Unguent to cure hemorrhoids quickly... 62 Unguent of white lead effective on irritated skin, used for excess bile and salt phlegm and for dry itch and burns from fire and for erysipelas and foraccidents with fire... 64 Unguent for every illness of the body... 65 Unguent to cool and heal every sore... 68 Triapharma unguent, very cooling... 68 Unguent of lead, cooling and drying for infected legs... 66 Unguent of lead for the legs... 67 Unguent of litharge to close up sores... 67 Very precious unguent for the legs... 64 Unguent for the legs with warm humors... 65 Dark unguent to increase and close up flesh... 68 Unguent that heals in 12 days as long as the sore or wound is not fatal, but it is not good for wounds or maladies on the head... 69 Unguent from a monarch of Greece that is useful in any wound on the head or body and is powerful against cut muscles and nerves... 69 Unguent from the above that is powerful for any wound, bruise or blow and works without stinging... 69 Great Egyptian unguent powerful in old sores and fistulas that need to be cleansed. This cleans and purges them of dead flesh and of their putrefaction... 69 Cleansing Unguent of the Apostles... 69 Green unguent that cures and grows flesh in every wound... 69 Gold unguent cures, grows flesh, closes and heals every new sore... 70 Unguent of white lead for decaying flesh and bad fistulas... 70 Unguent of Avicenna, called unguent of venery... 70 Unguent of lesser basil, good and complete. Also of greater basil... 70 Unguent of oil to cleanse wounds that are hard to close and it cures fistulas and bad sores... 70 Related unguent that is powerful in all putrid wounds and grows flesh in them and heals and does not allow corruption... 70 Unguent of turpentine to put on wounds to grow good flesh... 70 Very excellent unguent to clear up sores... 71 Unguent for places where nerves are infected... 71 -------- [Page 35] Unguent that extends nerves that are contracted either by cold or warmth, that is through blockage of the nerves by humors that descend from the head to the nerves in such a way that the natural warmth is impeded. When they lack this they are retracted with weakness or paralysis... 71 Best unguent for cuts or wounds... 71 Unguent for cleaning the nerves... 72 Unguent from the Master Apothecary Bonino, the Florentine. With this unguent he medicated only one time a day and cured every large sore... 73 Unguent that resolves the swelling and hardness that remains after a wound is healed... 73 Unguents of several kinds to extract iron, wood or spines rapidly out of the flesh... 74 Pine tar unguent; Yellow unguent; Rose unguent to refresh the legs... 75 Unguent for inflammation of every kind... 75 Unguent of mummy that grows flesh, consolidates any sore and cleans well... 75 Unguent without wax from the Master Apothecary Ganfredi, who called this ‘Grace of God.’ It is powerful to heal all new and old sores and generates good flesh and does not permit any corruption to enter nor permit bad flesh. It is powerful for all cut or shattered nerves and is powerful against any kind of venomous beasts and in scrofulas and in the malady of Saint Anthony. Many have seen this also through testing it... 77 Unguent Grace of God that cleans, generates flesh and heals any serious wound... 77 Unguent for ulcers in several forms... 78 Unguent made by the Venerable Bede to heal broken bones... 92 Unguent that is powerful in sciatica, cold gout, retracted nerves, sickness of pregnancy, kidney pain, quartan fever and pain from the spleen... 97 Unguent for burns from fire or water... 99 Unguent for burns of any kind that cures them wonderfully and leaves no signs... 100 Unguent for burns from oil, fire or water or from other things. It is tested... 100 Unguent of alabaster for several illnesses... 14 Tested unguent for salt humor of the legs... 77 Z For knees or hands that are swollen through running humors, from the Master Apothecary Pellegrino... 76 To remove the redness from knees or legs that are swollen... 76 Good and beautiful red sugar with some of its virtues... 123 -------- [Page 36] [Blank.] -------- [Page 37] [Blank.] -------- [Page 38] [Blank.] -------- [Page 39] [Blank.] -------- [Page 40] [Blank.] -------- [Page 41] [Blank.] -------- [Page 42] [Blank.] [The Remedies] -------- [Page 43] JESUS Universal water for the eyes according to the formula that is used in our shop, viz: Take 1 lb. each of rose water, water of fennel, water of strawberries, water of bramble, water of eyebright, water of celandine, and dry malvasia wine. At times from all these waters I do not make only one flask. I put in it enough zinc oxide, 1 ½ ounces, for preservation, and aloe, ½ ounce, and fine sugar, 2 ounces, and make all these things into very fine powder. I put everything in a flask and shake it well, turning it upside down so that everything is well incorporated. Then cover it and put it in the sun for 20 days or more and every day turn it once upside down so that everything is well mixed, and in this way it is confected by the sun. By this method the most perfect water will be made for every illness of the eyes, especially for dryness. When the cloudy eyes are bathed, see that a little of it enters in the corner of the eye. Protect yourself from the early morning air and the evening air to preserve health and, with the aid of God, soon you will be cured by this treatment that has been tested many times by me, Master Apothecary Andrea from Farre in Brescia.... 6 Excellent wine of eyebright for the eyes. Take the herb eyebright in an amount at your discretion and put in some grape must before it is boiled for bottling, and when it is clarified, use it to drink and you will always have very good vision and good eyes. If it should be too strong, temper it with mild things. By continuing to use it you will have good vision always. Water for cloudy eyes. Take tips of bramble, plantain, burdock, rue, spirea, fennel and celandine, one handful each, and half a handful of red poppy. Put all these herbs in a glass still and sprinkle on them these powders: zinc carbonate, cloves and hepatic aloe, ½ ounce each, and with ½ glass of malvasia or good white wine begin squirting these herbs with this and then with rose water, alternately. Put on the cover and with temperate fire, little by little, barely be able to distill. Preserve it in a glass bottle and leave it for several days in the sun and it will be made. Then 2 or 3 days of the week, especially in the evening when you go to sleep, bathe the eyes so that it enters the corner of the eyes well.... 7 Another. Take quicklime and put it in well water for one day and one night without touching it. Then lift it out with a card on which you will have put it carefully with a feather. Then put this water, very well filtered, in a bottle and put therein a little sal ammoniac and make it dissolve in the water. Then when your eyes are bathed with it, it will make your vision wonderfully clear.... 8 Another for a warm humor that may involve the eyes. Take fresh cheese, cut finely, and wash it very well as if making a paste. Then with rose water and the white of one fresh egg, mix everything together very well, and when you go to sleep make a little plaster on a cloth and put it on the bad eye and, especially if the eye shows any spotting of blood through dryness, it will make that disappear and go away without any distress.... 9 Another for pain in the eyes. Take 3 apples and extract the juice and take the white of a fresh egg and incorporate them together. Then rub it around the eyes and soon the pain of the eyes will stop. Another for pain in the eyes. Take one carafe of malvasia or vernaza or other excellent white wine and 6 drams of rose water, 1 ounce each of hepatic aloe and fine sugar, 2 quatrini each of camphor and zinc oxide and make everything into very fine powder. Put the carafe, covered, in the sun for 8 or 10 days and 2 or 3 times a day shake it well upside down. Put it in the eyes. Doing this several times will help you.... 10 Another for the above condition of the eyes. Take 2 or 3 lizards and cut them up. Throw away the head, feet and tail. Dry the rest and make very fine powder and this, put in the eye, purifies it. Another for bad eyes. Take 4 to 6 fresh eggs and cook them very hard and take the white and put it in a handkerchief, first wetting it with rose water. Then press it well and the water that comes forth, put therein zinc oxide and fine sugar and wash the eyes and it will make your sight good. -------- [Page 44] Water for bad eyes. Take one handful of rue and put it in a glass vessel and put thereon good white wine. Then put in a large amount of silver and put it in a bowl, uncovered, for 3 days and 3 nights. Remove it and strain it carefully and wash the eyes thoroughly with the decoction and it will make you very pleased. Take rue boiled with white wine and put in a little sugar and zinc carbonate and put it in the eye. Another for bad eyes. Take 3 lb. of honey and 6 ounces of fine sugar and one handful of the herb celandine and some white bread crumbs soaked in juice of rue or in distilled water of rue and water of celandine. Mix everything and distill it in glass and bathe the eyes with this water. Another for the eye that may be bloody. Take 6 ounces of rose water, 1 dram of zinc oxide and ½ dram of camphor and 6 ounces of good white wine and mix these things carefully and put them in a flask and shake it well upside down and put it in the sun for 8 to 10 days or boil it on a bain marie, and with this water bathe the eyes repeatedly and, by continuing it, the signs of blood will go away.... 11 A very good remedy for the eye that has been wounded. Take juice from red clover with the dark mark and put some of the juice in the wounded eye and do not touch it for 24 hours and this will help you.... 12 The best remedy for every painful eye. Take absinthe, pennyroyal, laurel and cumin and grind everything together and make very fine powder. Then compound it with purified honey and boil it slowly so that it is thickened a little. Then put it in the eyes and soon it will remove the pain. Water of celandine or swallow wort for bad eyes. Take the herb celandine, that is swallow wort, which has the same power to heal cloudy vision. Take it in flower and cook it in pure water in which is well-cleaned honey. Afterwards, strain it through linen cloth and distill this decoction in a glass still. Put this distillation in the eyes repeatedly and it will relieve you quickly. Another water for the eyes. Take rose water and burdock, rue, rosemary, flowers of broad beans, celandine, agrimony, fennel and sage in equal amounts and distill all the herbs and collect the water. Leave it in the sun for 10 to 15 days. Then bathe the eyes in the morning and the evening and, if you have a serious sickness, drink half a glass in the evening when you go to sleep. Take care that you do not eat unhealthful things and be careful to drink only a little wine and this will help you considerably. Another to clarify the vision. Take juice of cottonweed and let it soak one night. Filter it and leave it for one night in a bottle and put therein a little zinc oxide and fine sugar. Then rub the eyes with it for 15 to 20 days, 2 or 3 times a day, and you will be cured. Another water for bad eyes. Take one soldo ofzinc oxide in rose water, and one glass of rose water and one quatrino of fine sugar and one glass of racese wine or other strong white wine and incorporate everything together and put it in a covered bottle in the sun for 8 to 10 days and turn it upside down often so that it mixes well. Bathe the eyes repeatedly and see that some enters around the eye and if you feel it a little do not doubt that this is the best sign that you can have of a quick cure against the illness and the need may disappear and you will be cured.... 13 Another water for bad eyes. Take 8 ounces of good malvasia wine, 4 ounces of rose water, 1 dram of verdigris and cloves and tie them up in a piece of cloth and put them to soak in the malvasia. Then boil everything for one miserere and remove the cloth and squeeze it very well into the infusion. The stronger you want the water, the more you should squeeze the button of cloth. Let it clear and put this water in the eyes and soon you will be cured. This has much value for blurred eyesight and is very well tested.... 14 Another water for the eyes. Take a clean pot and put therein 6 pounds of cistern water and put it on the fire and when it begins to boil put in verdigris, white sugar and ordinary salt, everything in fine powder, and let it boil for one-half hour. Remove it and when it is cool, filter it and let it clear well. Then put it in a bottle and wash the eyes with it and you will see wonderfully. This is a praiseworthy thing. -------- [Page 45] For the pain that comes on the eyelashes. Take half a handful each of the herb burdock, sage and nightshade and grind everything and extract the juice and put therein a fresh egg white, well beaten, and mix it. Then wet a stupe in it and put it on the forehead with a bandage and the pain will soon pass away. This is a very worthwhile secret.... 15 Electuary for tearing and everted eyes and for debilitated stomach and to preserve memory. Take the seed of samphire, that is sea fennel, of parsley, of fennel and of bastard lovage, 1 ounce each, and make a fine powder. Then take flowers of rosemary, of borage and of bugloss, 2 ounces each, and cut them very finely. Then take 20 pounds of cleaned honey and put it in a pot and put everything in and boil it slowly on a charcoal fire. Lightly skim it and let it reduce one third. Then remove it and put it in a bottle and put in 2 carats of musk and be sure that this is well macerated and incorporated into the warm electuary. Cover it with good parchment and leave it in the sun for a month and it will be made. If you have any of these infirmities, that is debility of vision with runny and dripping eyes or a debilitated stomach or if one has a poor memory, this augments and preserves even this. The electuary is taken for 30 days continuously, one spoonful every morning, more or less, according to how the patient responds to the electuary, and you will see wonderful results. Many prelates of the holy church use this electuary to their benefit.... 16 Another electuary, excellent for the eyesight. Take seed of fennel, bastard lovage, celery seed, parsley and anise seed, 2 ounces each, and some juniper berries, very mature, and also these herbs: eyebright, rue, burdock, celandine, burnet, betony, agrimony, horehound, pennyroyal, rosemary and borage flowers, 3 ounces each, and all these herbs should be made into fine powder, mixed carefully, of which you should take one scruple each time with good wine or broth early in the morning in the form of a syrup. If you should wish to make it into an electuary with good sugar, take ½ ounce on an empty stomach which will make your eye appear wonderful and clear by continuing it. Keep yourself from adverse things. Another electuary to clarify the sight and also to recover that which may be lost, and approved for other uses. Take 1 lb. of fennel seed, 6 ounces each of bastard lovage and germander, 3 ounces each of celandine, cumin, celery, anise, parsley, pennyroyal, dill, hyssop, flower of dill, juniper berries and eyebright, and 2 ounces each of ginger and cinnamon. All these things should be made into very fine powder and confected with pure white honey and saved for your use. In the evening when you go to sleep and also in the morning, take an amount the size of a chestnut, because it will restore the lost sight, comfort the stomach, purge excess humors, modify the kidneys to break any stones, and reduce any flatulence. A wonderful unguent for irritated eyes. Take lizard dung and snails with shells, white incense and myrrh, 2 ounces each, lard scraped from male pig, 1 ounce, and white wax, 1 ounce, and camphor, ½ ounce, and make an unguent with all these things on a slow fire and it will be made. In the evening put it on the irritated eye and put on a piece of sandalwood and do it several times and, through God's grace, you will be cured. Another for everted eyelids. Take one or more gall bladders from rabbits and a packet of zinc oxide and incorporate these things well and leave them in the sun for 3 or 4 days. In the evening when you go to sleep, bathe the eyes several times and they will recover from their symptom with ease. Refrain from wine. Another for dryness of the eyes. Take the herb marjoram and make it into fine powder and, in the evening when you go to sleep, drink half a spoonful with wine. Then place a little ginger root under the tongue and, sleeping thus, in a short time you will recover from dryness of the eyes. -------- [Page 46] To remove from the eyes any spot or cataract. Take 1 ounce of zinc oxide in solid and in powder form and put it in a bottle and mix it with a little fresh verjuice that is neither too hard nor too sweet but is very liquid. Cover it and put it in the sun for 15 days and each day add a spoonful of the verjuice and at the end of 15 days add a spoonful of rose water. Let it stay again in the sun for 15 days. Then at this time take 3 ounces of old lard of male pig that is clean and grind it finely. Then take strong white vinegar, 1 lb., and put therein the lard to boil in a clean pot until it reduces in half and let it cool and remove the fat congealed on the top. Wash this very well with rose water until nothing remains of the vinegar. Take the zinc oxide and incorporate it very well with this grease until the mixture becomes like an unguent and it will be delicate and it will be made. Save it as something dear in a delicate vessel. When you wish to use it, put a little on the streak or spot that is in the eye in the morning and the evening. Following this you will see the effect take place from day to day and soon you will see improvement because this has been tested many times. Watch what you eat and you will be cured. Another for spots that are in the eye. Take some spearmint that has in the center of the leaf a spot of brown color. Grind it and extract the juice, then strain it and put therein the white of a fresh egg, well beaten, and incorporate well with the juice. In the evening when you go to sleep, wet a piece of linen in the juice and put it on the eye and it will help you a great deal, through God's grace. Another powder that removes cloudiness that is in the eye. Take fennel and rue, each the same amount. Grind them and extract the juice. Then put it in a covered bottle in the sun until it is dry. Remove it and pulverize it and put this powder in the cloudy eye several times and, through God's grace, you will soon be cured. Another powder for cloudiness that is in the eye. Take one gall bladder of a rabbit and throw away the skin that is around it. Then take juice of fennel and white sugar and incorporate them together and put it in a bottle in the sun for 4 or 5 days. With a feather from a chicken, lightly put this in 2 times a day and, little by little, the cloudiness will be removed. Another for the eye that is cloudy and does not see. Take zinc oxide, 2 drams, yellow litharge and camphor, each 1 scruple, and hepatic aloe, 1 scruple, and fine white sugar, 1 dram, and incorporate with everything finely pulverized. Put in enough good white wine to barely cover it and leave it in the sun for 8 days. Then add these herbs, all pulverized finely, viz: eyebright and agrimony; then add these waters, viz: rose water, water of fennel, of rue, of tips of gooseberry, of agrimony, of eyebright, of celandine and of burdock, each 3 drams, and incorporate all these waters with the powder. Leave it in a bottle, well corked, in the sun for 15 to 20 days. Then strain it carefully and bathe the eyes inside and out, 2 or 3 times a day. By continuing to bathe them, you will be cured. This is remedy number 5.... 17 To sharpen the sight of those who may have problems. Take the herb celandine in the spring and dry it in the shade. Then make very fine powder. Eat this powder many times in food and also rub it in the eyes and little by little you will begin to improve the sight and to sharpen it wonderfully. Know that this blessed herb has such virtue that the swallows pick it and rub it in the eyes of their nestlings and soon they can see. If you will do the test you will see the effect is true. Another similar powder to restore the vision. Take leaves of betony, rue, celandine, eyebright, lovage, pennyroyal, seeds of fennel and of parsley, anise, ginger, grains of paradise, cardamon, bastard lovage, hyssop, oregano and seeds of celery, each 1 ounce, and make fine powder of all the aforesaid things and incorporate them, and use some of this powder in your foods like a spice before and during meals and put it in bread. Soon it will restore the vision. This is tested. Another for shortsightedness. Take a quantity of rue and strong vinegar and cook the rue in it and when the pot boils, put a basin over it and some steam will adhere under it. Collect this in a glass and with this bathe the eyes repeatedly and it will help greatly to make the vision long and you will see nearly as well as at first. Take care of the way you live. -------- [Page 47] Water for an eye that burns. Take white lead and wash it with 2 drams of rose water, and take sarcocol gum washed with asses' milk, and tarragon and celery, each ½ dram, and make very fine powder of everything and incorporate it with water distilled from strawberries until it becomes liquid. Then put in a little mother's milk. Then put some of this water in the eye with a feather, 2 or 3 times a day, and soon you will be cured of the stinging in the eye. This is tested. Another for irritation in the eyes. Take 2 ounces of rose water, 1 ounce of white wine and ½ dram of cherry plums. Boil everything together and as it comes to a boil, lift it from the fire and add 1 dram of flowers of copper and let it stand for 2 days. Then strain it and save it in a bottle and bathe the eyes frequently.... 18 Another, a collyrium which removes the cloudiness that is in the eye, lifts pruritis, removes blood and reduces tears. Take ½ ounce of zinc carbonate from Alexandria in very fine powder and 1 lb. of dry white wine and boil them together until it reduces in half. Then take 2 ounces of hepatic aloe and boil this. Then strain it carefully and make a collyrium for the eyes and add 2 drams of camphor and put it in a mortar and grind it well in the mortar and add 3 ounces of rose water and it will be made. You can bathe the eyes in the evening and morning. Another for the eye that has a mesh inside. Take snails with shells and dry them in the oven and make very fine powder and incorporate juice of plantain and celandine, each the same amount, and put it in the eye. By continuing it, soon the spot will go away. Another to remove a spot from an eye. Take a gall bladder from a dead man and dry it and make powder and put it in the eye. Do this several times and soon the mark will be gone. It is tested. Another to remove a spot of blood from the eye. Take juice of wormwood or burdock and the white of one fresh egg, well beaten so it becomes like water. Then mix it with the juice. Then put it in the eye several times and soon it will remove the spot of blood. This is a good secret. Another to remove the web that is on the eyes. Take rock salt, tartaric acid from the best wine and cuttlefish bone, each 1 ounce, and make powder as fine as possible. Then with a little reed above the eye, drop it on the spot twice a day and soon it will be cured. Another to dry running eyes. Take 1 ounce of zinc oxide, ½ dram of hepatic aloe, rose water, water of agrimony and of gooseberry, of fennel, of myrtle, of strawberry, of rue and of celandine, each ½ ounce. Put everything together in a bottle, well closed, and put it in the sun for 8 days. In the morning when you get up, bathe the eyes and also during the day, and you will see a wonderful effect from this water. It has been tested many times. Another for dryness of the eyes. Take incense and make smoke from it in the face, eyes and nose and put the smoke in a stupe in your nightcap and put it on your head when you go to sleep. Do this for three evenings and soon you will be cured. Another for any dryness of the eyes. Gather all these herbs in the first week of May, viz.: celandine, burdock, rue and fennel, each the same amount. Grind them and extract juice, each one by itself, and of each kind take 3 ounces and put them together and put in a few rose leaves and 3 ounces of white sugar and 2 ½ [ounces] each of dragon's blood gum and zinc oxide. All these things should be pulverized very finely. Put them together to distill in glass on a slow fire. Then leave it for 10 to 15 days in the sun, tightly closed, and it will be made. Use it at your pleasure in the morning and evening and soon you will be cured, through God's grace. Another for the eye that tears. Take whites of 2 fresh eggs, layed that day, and beat them so that they become like water, that is into foam, and let them settle so that all the foam is reduced. Then strain it. Put in rose water from white roses and as much fine or white sugar as equals a hazel nut and incorporate it well and, with a feather, wet inside the eye and let it stay. Then put it in again and you will be cured. Water for the eye, wonderful for dryness and use nothing else. Take 2 lb. of Greek wine, 6 ounces of white sugar and distill in glass. Then add 1 lb. of water distilled from eyebright and leave it in the sun for 20 days and it will be perfect for dryness of the eyes. -------- [Page 48] Marvelous unguent for the eyes. Take 2 ounces of fresh, washed butter, 2 drams of zinc oxide, ½ dram of camphor, 1 dram of hepatic aloe and ½ scruple of amber and pulverize everything. Then put the butter on the fire and when it is melted, put therein the above-described powder and at once remove it from the fire and mix it until it becomes like an unguent. Rub the eyes with this in the evening and the morning and soon you will be cured. It is tested. Another for the eye that has milkiness or cataract. Take 2 or 3 handfuls of fennel, rue, burdock, celandine, clary, tips of brambles and pine nuts, enough that each one makes a glass of juice. Also take enough so that each one makes one glass of water extract in the glass still. Do not distill them in lead because that is bad. Then take as much rose water as one of these parts. Put all the juices and the waters together. Then take one pound of Alexandrine zinc plaster already prepared. Heat the zinc plaster well and cool this composition and do this for 7 times. Let it dry in the shade for 8 days. Then grind it very finely in a mortar of bronze. Put the zinc powder in a bowl and put thereon the water previously prepared and mix it one more time and let it dry in the shade. Grind it finely on a slab of porphyry until no more roughness or graininess is seen. Save it in a vessel of glass or well-baked clay, well covered. When you wish to treat, take a stylus of silver and wet the tip and put it in the powder and that much of it put in the eye under the palpebra in the evening when you go to sleep and also in the day when you will be able to stay in repose. Using the powder in this way has the property of removing that heavy humor that is the milkiness or cataract that descends in the eye caused by the heavy humors. During this time take care of yourself. (Two remedies are crossed out here.) Another for sickness in the eyes. Take some ivy picked when it has a reddish color throughout the month of May and grind it very finely and put it together with raw honey and incorporate well. Then put it in a bottle, well covered, in the sun for 15 days and it will be made. Then put some of the medicine in the eyes. It dries up any bad illness and makes the sight marvelously healthy and clear. -------- [Page 49] Marvelous, tested secret for the eyes. Take juices of all of these, viz.: of celery, fennel, burdock, rue, betony, agrimony, strawberry, germander, burnet saxifrage, eyebright, and savin, each the same amount, and mix all these juices together and take 12 grains of pepper ground very fine and put the juices with the powder in a mortar with 2 spoonfuls of honey and some urine from a little baby and incorporate everything together and it will be made. Then rub your eyes with this in the morning and evening and if, by chance, the juice has dried, add some of the said urine. Otherwise, add some juice of these herbs, viz.: ground ivy, fennel, celery, burdock, germander, sage, clover and rue and make juice of these herbs and incorporate it with the above and with this continue to bathe your eyes and soon you will be cured. Another juice for the eyes. Take the herb plantain with the roots when is is mature. Wash it well, grind it and extract the juice and with this rub the eyes morning and evening and soon you will be cured and the eyes will be sharpened. Another water for the eyes and to remove pain. Take juice of celandine, rue, fennel and plantain, 1 ounce each, zinc oxide prepared 9 times in rose water and bile of a bull, ½ dram each, and 3 ounces of cleaned honey and enough rose water. Put everything in a bottle and put it in the sun for 8 days. Then use it to treat at your pleasure and it helps you greatly, not just a little. Another water for the eyes. Take fennel, rue, burdock, rose and celandine, each the same amount, and of these herbs make water in the glass still and with this water wash the eyes thoroughly and it will give you good vision. Another water for sick eyes. Take ½ dram of zinc oxide, 4 scruples of camphor and grind them together finely. Then take half a handful of rue and put everything together to boil in a clean pot in sweet white wine until it reduces one third and when it is cool, strain it carefully, put it in a closed bottle and reboil it in a pot of water on a bain marie. Then leave it in the sun for 8 to 10 days and it will be made. Treat with it in the morning and evening to bathe the eyes. Be careful in your way of living and keep from things unfavorable to you. Another unguent for the eyes. Take earthworms, wash them with white wine, and cook them in ordinary old oil. Then press them well and add into this oil some marrow from the front feet of a ram and with wax make an unguent and rub yourself with this and soon the eyes will be cured and will have recovered from being everted. But note these things that are very harmful to the eyesight, viz.: too much over-eating, too much staying up at night, too much dust, too much writing, crying, smoking, too much drinking wine excessively, luxury, and eating beans, pepper, garlic and onions and many other things. Note that these things make the sight young, that is, juice of strawberry cures the web, fennel, rue, burdock, rosemary, celandine, honey, aloe, fennel, zinc carbonate, myrrh, good wine, mother's milk, rose water and dove's blood and many other things that I do not write down. Know that all these things are used to brighten the vision of clouded and dim eyes for us to see. Keep these in mind if you want to cure quickly. These are the herbs that are good for our sight, cooked in water. With this water wash your face and it will help you greatly to maintain good sight always and without any impediment: celandine, eyebright, verbena, rue, fennel and pennyroyal. If you use these herbs cooked in water and wash your face with them, know that from day to day you will find yourself much more satisfied through using these tested things. -------- [Page 50] To clarify the sight rapidly. Take juice of cottonweed and let it stand for one night. Then strain it and put it in a bottle and put therein a little zinc oxide and fine sugar and with this rub the eyes three times a day and you will be cured. Artificial balsam, very good for any illness of the eyes, the ears and for ringworm. Take 6 ounces of turpentine, 6 ounces of white incense, 1 ounce of Succotrine aloe, mastic, galingale, cloves, cinnamon, citron, cubeb, nutmeg, 1 dram each, and 6 ounces of milk of fig as fresh as you can get it, and make this composition into fine powder and mix it together in the form of dough. Then put the dough in a glass still with its cover and underneath put its collector and distill the dough with very little fire. Be aware that you will extract 3 kinds of water and collect each in its place and when you see the still change color, change the collector and keep the top well covered so that no steam comes out, and of this be very vigilant because this is of much importance as you will see in the result. Note well that the first water that comes out is called 'water of balsam,' the second is called 'oil of balsam' and the third is called 'artificial balsam,' a liquor that is powerful for abcessed wounds and for infected legs, and cures them quickly. It is powerful in scrophulas, in swollen and tearing eyes and in dizziness. Know how to use this water; these are some of its virtues, viz.:... 19 Note that the first water has these virtues: it cures the eyes with swollen eyelids, rheum and tearing and any other infirmity or swelling of the eyes. By wetting some fine cloth in this water and putting it on the eye in the evening and the morning, you will soon be cured. Another. It clears ringing in the ears. Put it in with a little cottonwool in the evening when you go to sleep and again in the morning and you will be cured. Another. It is powerful for ringworm and scabies. Bathe yourself with it in the evening when you go to sleep. Another. I tell you that this blessed balsam is powerful against venomous bites and for pains from cold, putting it on with wet cloths. It is very powerful for blows and for paralysis, through its warming and penetrance. It cures the bad blood between flesh and skin that is putrefied. Certainly this is the best balsam by this great and manifest proof. Do this experiment: take a chicken, plucked and clean and well dried. Then scald it very well in the fire. Then smear it very well with the balsam water 2 or 3 times. Let it dry in the sun and it will never spoil at any time. The balsam even has many other virtues that are not written here. Be very diligent to know how to distill it and it will bring you honor. [One remedy crossed out here in the MS] -------- [Page 51] To cure one who is deaf but not from birth, and even many other infirmities relating to this deafness, approved in several ways, viz.: Take a fat eel of 5 or 6 pounds, cut it in little bits and thread them on a spit and cook them without anything else and collect the fat that is extracted. Then add 1 ounce of fresh bitter almond oil and incorporate it well on the fire and it will be made. Save it for your needs. When you wish to use it, heat it and wet cottonwool and put it in the ear. Then put thereon some leaves of greater sedum and fasten them on with a bandage. Do this several times and it will help greatly. Another for those who have roaring in the ears. Take the herb house leek and make some juice and boil it until it is cleared. Then in the evening when you go to sleep, put it in the ear as warm as you can stand, with cottonwool in the ear where one hears the roaring. Do this several times and you will be cured of such roaring. Another for the roaring in the ears. Take a root of cyclamen and make a hollow in the form of a little bowl and put therein almond oil and lily oil, ½ ounce each, with a little saffron. Then put it on warm ashes to boil. Put it warm in the ear with cottonwool, well bandaged and warm. The same is very powerful to break open an abcess that may be on the head. This is a unique remedy.... 20 For one who is beginning not to hear. Take the herb rue and extract juice and put it in a bottle, well closed. Then make bread dough and put the bottle in the middle, well covered. Put it in the oven and cook it with other breads and when it is cooked, remove the bottle from the bread and put this juice in the ears 2 or 3 times a day and soon you will be cured. Another for the illness of deafness. Take the sap that comes out of the ash tree and place it in the ears with cottonwool. It makes the pain go away and makes the hearing good. Another. Take some cyclamen root, extract the juice, and take an equal amount of asses' milk and boil these. Put it in the ears as warm as you can on cottonwool so that it does not leak and bind it on, and soon you will be cured, through God's grace. For serious deafness. Take a gall bladder of a rabbit and aged ordinary oil and a little cleaned honey with saffron and mix everything together and boil it a little, not too much. Then remove it from the fire and when it is cold put in a little mother's milk. Then put some in the ears, warm, 2 times a day, and it will have a very good effect. By continuing it you will make your hearing much more acute, so that soon you will hear. Another for deafness of the ears. Take 1 ½ ounces of bitter almond oil, 1 dram of bile from a bull or an ox, and 2 grains of ground black hellebore and 5 drams each of musk and vinegar, and boil everything together until the vinegar is used up. Then strain it through a fine cloth. In the evening put it in the ears, warm, with cottonwool, and through God's grace, soon you will hear. Another when an ear commonly exudes matter. Take some rind of pomegranate and extract juice and make it hot and put it in the ear with cottonwool and soon it will clear it and make it healthy, because it has been tested. To cure rapidly the deafness, ringing and hissing that comes in the ears. Take 6 ounces of old olive oil and half a handful of house leek and boil until it is thickened. Then strain it and press it very well between 2 boards. Then take 1 dram each of brandy from the third distillation and mineral oil and incorporate the pressed house leek with this oil and put it on a slow fire until it boils and is thickened, stirring constantly. Then it is made. Save it and when you need it, use it in this way, especially in the evening when you go to sleep: make it warm and wet it in piled up cottonwool and put it in the ear for 8 to 10 evenings and you will soon be free of such ringing and hissing that comes at times after sickness or with the difficulty of motherhood with women. You will be cured of it rapidly because it is tested.... 21 -------- [Page 52] Another for ringing and roaring in the ears. Take fresh sweet almond oil and heat it well and wet some cottonwool in the oil and put it in the ear. Do this several times in this way and it will help you greatly with the roaring. For one who may have ringing and blowing enough that he would seem to have a windmill turning in the ears. Take a vessel for oil, that is a jug or pot where oil has been standing for a long time. Take 2 ounces of fresh coriander and grind it and put it in the vessel of oil. Then put the vessel on warm ashes, which vessel has nothing in the oil except the powder of coriander and make it very warm. Then put the ear to the mouth of the vessel so all that warmth is received in your sick ear or receive the fomentation in one ear after the other, each time at least a half hour. Do this for 4 or 5 days and it will help you greatly as you will see at the end of 4 days. If you are not freed, do this other best remedy, that is, take coriander and make juice according to our method and put therein 3 quatrini of tinting saffron. Then make it very warm and wet cottonwool in it and put this warm in the ear and in this way, through God's grace, you will be cured. Fomentation for the ears to remove the roaring caused by illness. Take one handful each of wormwood, good mint, marjoram and camomile and cook them in good wine. Then put a smooth stone in the middle, that is on the pan, but not in the wine. Place yourself with the bad ear on the stone that is very warm and take the fomentation in the ear so that it is well heated inside. Put in 3 drops of oil of rue or of bitter almond and put them on a little dry cottonwool, several times, and soon you will be cured. Another for sickness in the ears. Take juice of rue, of white onions, of leeks and of wormwood and woman's milk, each the same amount, and ordinary oil and boil everything together until it reduces one-fourth. Then rub from the ears to the wrists and also put a little in the ear with cottonwool. Do this for 3 days in a row and soon you will be cured. Put the juice of mallow in a little pot and cover it with a very dry crust of bread with an opening in the middle and boil it slowly and hold your bad ear over the opening of the pot until it is very warm and do it several times and you will be cured. For one who has lost his hearing. Take a squash that has been standing for a long time in oil and roast it and collect the oil that is extracted and put the shed skin of a snake in it and boil it. Put the warm oil in the ear with a little cottonwool and keep it warm. By continuing this, you will be cured. Wash your head with water in which has been cooked roses, camomile, laurel leaves and sweet clover, and when you have washed and dried your head, take bitter almond oil distilled in a glass still and one ounce each of muscardine oil and beaver marrow and put everything together and put some of this warm oil in the ear with piled up cottonwool and soon your deafness will be helped. Another for problems with the ears. Know that when the spiral of the ear is too full of wax, the result is tinnitus and ringing. At this time one wants to take a loaf of white bread that is just removed from the oven and open it in half and put this on the ear, warm, and then take oil of bitter almonds and warm it and put it in the ear with a stupe or cottonwool and it will be cured. Another if the ear has boils inside. Put therein wool dipped in the said oil and it will bring out the boil. -------- [Page 53] Another for one who does not hear. Take the herb savin and common juniper, each the same amount, and cook them in good white wine until they reduce two-thirds and remove them from the fire and hold the ear to the warm steam, because it has such power that the hearing soon opens and it is a great help. When you have water in the ears or other dampness. Take a new tile and heat it well and put the ear on the tile and the heat will draw forth the water or other dampness that impedes the hearing. All these are approved. Note that if you put brandy in the ears, it draws out the rheum and helps the brain. If you wash the posterior part of the head, it strengthens the powers of the memory. Most perfect remedy for one who may be deaf. Take mint, sage, pennyroyal, rosemary, hyssop, artemisia, horse mint, mountain mint, camomile, tansy, burdock, wormwood, southern wood and centaury, 1 handful each, and boil them with wine in a clean pot, reducing the wine from 4 fingers to 3, reducing 1/3. Then take 2 ounces of old oil, oil of leeks and of almonds, each 1 ounce, juice of rue 1 ounce, malvasia wine 1 ½ ounces and put them in a vessel. Then refill it with the above wine in which the herbs have been well pressed under the press. Put this vessel to boil in front of the fire until it reduces the juice and the malvasia. Then remove it from the fire and put therein these things, finely pulverized: lavender, colocynth, musk and mastic, each 1 ½ grains, and cork the vessel well and put it in a pot full of water and boil it for nearly 3 hours. Then remove it from the fire and let it stay in the sun until it becomes clear. Strain it through fine cloth and press out the substance well. Then take 3 grains of fine musk, well cut up, and incorporate with the oil. So that all will be well incorporated, shake it upside down. Then save it in a suitable vessel of glass, well covered with wax and parchment. Take the pot with those herbs and the wine that is remaining and heat it and when it is very hot put a funnel on the pot with the large end on the pot and make the narrow end enter the ear and take that steam for one half hour. From the fomentation that was made, take that oil very warm, and put 2 or 3 drops in the ear and cover it with heaped up cottonwool and at once go to sleep. When you use the fomentation, hold some dry beans in the mouth and break them up with your teeth and chew them well and spit them out. This is done to open all the porosity of the ears. And with the grace of God, soon you will be cured if it is possible that through medicine it can be cured. Many are cured in this way. If by chance the illness is not cured or there is no improvement, do not do anything else since this is the ultimate remedy. And do not marvel that any roaring comes in the ears not present before, only following the ointment, because this is a good sign of beginning to open the porosity, and do not doubt him who has suffered such infirmity for 30 years. I do not say from birth. Know that in a short time, through God's grace, you will see a great miracle. Use the pills plentifully that purge the head and eat good food and stay warm, nothing else. Another to heal an ear that gives out pus. Take 2 ounces of urine of a healthy child, 4 ounces of white wine and 2 ½ ounces of white honey and juice of mint and of rue, each one ounce, and put everything together and boil it very slowly. Then remove it from the fire and strain it and add ½ ounce of mother's milk and with this, tepid, repeatedly wash the ear when it exudes pus and put in some cottonwool and be confident that soon you will be cured. Another for one who does not hear well. Take 1 handful of marjoram, cut and well ground, and boil it with malvasia wine and ordinary oil on a bain marie until the malvasia is given off. Then strain it and put this oil in the ears that have difficulty in hearing. Do it in winter and not in summer, for that will make you sick. Put it on warm with cottonwool and soon you will hear. It is tested. -------- [Page 54] To stop blood that comes from the nose, which has not been stopped by other remedies. Take 6 ounces of heated gypsum, 3 ounces of dragon's blood gum, 2 ounces of Armenian red clay, 1 ½ ounces of clay from Lemnos, juice of nettle, white bread crumbs, soot and juice of cinquefoil, each 2 ounces, and whites of 3 fresh eggs and strong vinegar and rose water, and finely pulverize everything and then mix everything together very well. Then spread it out on a little cloth large enough to cover the forehead. First write these 3 words on the forehead with the patient's blood, that is, ' gibel, ghoe, gabohr,' written with a little stick. Then put on the plaster and let it stay at least for 3 days before you remove it, if it can stay that long. Also if it was a wound and the blood has not been stopped, write around it the 3 words already mentioned and put on this plaster and leave it for 3 days and the blood will stop. More will not come. It has been tested.... 22 Another to stop blood that comes from the nose. Take some of the herb shepherd's purse and grind it and make juice and wet some cottonwool and put it in the nares of the nose. Do this several times and you will cure. To stop blood from the nose. Take the herb cinquefoil and crush it between 2 stones. Then put it in the openings of the nose and change it frequently and you will cure this. Write with the patient's blood on the forehead the name of A[----]o and as the blood dries, that from the nose is stopped.... 23 Another to stop blood from the nose. Take knot grass, that is polygonum, grind and extract juice and then take some eggshells and make very fine powder and mix with the juice. Then wet some cottonwool and put it in the opening of the nose and hold your breath. Do this several times and soon you will be cured. You can be certain that this is a good remedy. [One remedy rubbed out in the MS] Another, better way to stop blood from the nose and also from wounds. Say these 4 words, that is: 'In Bethlehem a child was born. Constrict vein and stop blood. + Father and Son + and Holy Spirit + Amen' and when you say them, hold your hand on the head or on the wound and say it 3 times, with a Pater Noster at the end each time. Know that if this is learned by heart on Christmas Eve, then it is more powerful at any other time, because this has been tested many, many times and do not marvel that it is true. [Three remedies rubbed out in the MS] Another to stop blood from the nose. Take copper sulfate and heat it and make fine powder and take pulverized dragon's blood gum, each the same amount. Take the white of an egg, beaten, and wet a stupe in it and put the powder on it. Then put it on the forehead, bound firmly, and soon the blood will be stopped. Tested.... 24 -------- [Page 55] For a break in the nose caused by descent of humors. Take 1 handful of rue, cut minutely, and put in the rind of an onion and put in ordinary oil and a little butter and cook it on warm ashes until it becomes like an unguent. Then take a feather and smear the nose carefully, several times, and soon you will be cured. Another to stop blood from the nose. Take the root of rue and grind it and make fine powder and draw it up in the nose several times and it will be clotted. Also, ashes made of rue and incorporated with the urine of a healthy man and put on the forehead, stop the blood rapidly. [Three remedies inked out here in the MS] Another to hold back the blood. Take ½ dram each of mummy, saccharine alum, Armenian red clay and tragacanth gum and some spider web and a little soot and compound them. If this does not suffice, take egg white and incorporate it and put it on and soon it will be stopped, I say rapidly.... 25 [Three remedies inked out here in the MS] To remove the bad flesh that grows in the nose, that is polyps. Take leeks that are young and have not been transplanted and extract their juice and with a little new wax make it into an ointment and add in a little very fine powder of tartaric acid from the wine cask and mix them well together. Then with this ointment, rub the nose inside and soon you will be cured of the polyps. Most perfect water for curing ulcers and polyps in the nose. Take a glass vial full of cistern water, about a half ounce, and disperse in it ½ ounce of dried rock alum as well as natural saltpeter, half a handful of rue and a little less than an ounce of pomegranate rind. Boil everything together until one-third part is consumed. The more the water is concentrated, the better the water will be. For one who has the nose broken inside. Pound a white onion and make juice out of it and draw it up in the nose and it will cure. Unguent for rubbing the nose between the eyebrows and inside, evening and morning. Take sesame oil, violet oil, oil of sweet almonds, each ½ ounce, 6 drams of linseed oil, strained chicken fat, washed rancid butter, water of marjoram and white wax, each 3 ounces. Mix them and make an unguent. -------- [Page 56] To cure split lips around the mouth. Take roasted ox hooves and make powder of them and roasted leaves of leeks, all in very fine powder, each the same amount, and incorporate them with sufficient drams of honey and rub it on in the evening and soon you will be cured. Another to cure hands damaged from cold. Take mastic, incense, clean wax and rose oil, each the same amount, and make an unguent and rub the hands and you will be cured rapidly. Grease for split lips and cracked hands and feet and other developing soreness, viz: Take 1 ounce each of goat fat and beef marrow, 2 ounces of clean wax, 1 ½ ounces each of rose and violet oils, ½ ounce each of oils of St. John's wort and balsam and 4 scruples of camphor. First cut the fat finely and put it on the fire with the marrow and when it is melted, strain it through cloth. Then put it again in the pot with the cut wax and all the oils and stir well so everything is incorporated together. Put in a very little salt ground like flour because it does not melt. Then remove it from the fire and put in the camphor, cut up, and stir until it is cold, and it will be made. If you want to strain it again when cold, do this before you put in the camphor. Afterward, save it carefully for your needs. The older it is, the better for all these infirmities: first in all developing sores, boils and fistulas, for pain from hemorrhoids, for choler with fever, for cracks in the lips around the mouth, for cracks on hands and feet and for the swelling on the knees. It has many other virtues that you will learn daily. It removes pain rapidly in all these infirmities, reduces them and warms them. Continue to rub with it cold in the evening and morning and for hemorrhoids it should be tepid. It has been used many times for chilblains. For pain in the teeth and any other distress caused by dry mouth or from the stomach. Viz. Take ½ handful each of sage, hyssop, myrtle, mastic and olive leaves. The herbs should be fresh. Cut them coarsely and add two cut dry figs and 20 grains of pepper, broken coarsely. Put everything to boil in a clean pot with white wine until it is reduced in half. Strain it carefully. Then hold this wine in the mouth as warm as you can bear. This kills the decay, strengthens the gums and teeth and makes the breath good. If you want to extract a tooth without implements, say, 'In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. Dodo machabeo baruto o grassbii.' Draw the tooth and it will come out without pain. This has been shown. Another to make the teeth firm. Take 2 drams each of male incense, dragon's blood gum, that is the tears from the tree, hematite stone, myrtle seeds, roots and seeds of peony, lavender, cubeb and cloves, 5 drams each of whole red roses, Armenian red clay and cinnamon and 1 dram each of mace, nutmeg and red coral. Mix everything with myrtle syrup, rose honey and sugar. Then put it on the gums and on the teeth and it will restore you to health. Another for teeth that may have a hole or may have a worm in them. Take dilute nitric acid and put a little cottonwool on the tip of a fine iron rod and wet it in this acid. Then with dexterity put the wet cottonwool into the opening in the tooth and let it stay there well pressed in for an hour or more. Do this 2 or 3 times a day and soon it will kill the worm. If it is on an upper tooth, make the patient turn with the head down so that the nitric acid can penetrate more easily. It will soon free one from such distress.... 26 Another for pain of the teeth which have made the jaw swell. Take rosemary, sage, wormwood, pepper and ginger, each the same amount. Then boil them in good, strong wine and hold this wine in the mouth as warm as you can and do this several times in the day and soon you will be cured. Also to remove this suffering caused by the teeth: take strong vinegar and a little ground camphor and put it in a bottle and heat it. Put this warm in the mouth and soon it lifts your pain. Also for this pain from the teeth. Take betony and boil it with strong vinegar and put therein a little honey and boil it enough so it reduces 1/3 and hold this boiled liquid in the mouth as warm as you can and soon it will remove your pain and you will be cured. -------- [Page 57] To remove a tooth without implements using a celandine root. Take the root of celandine, that is swallow wort, and touch the tooth that you want to remove and no others. Do this 3 or 4 times and it will fall out from its place, little by little, but no others. [Eight remedies are inked out here in the MS] Another for one who has decayed teeth. Take 1 ounce each of the juice of the root of bryony and of its leaves and 6 ounces of the root of white lily and incorporate them and cook them sufficiently. Then wash your teeth with this warm and do this in the month of May. Continue it for 8 to 15 days and you will be cured of tooth decay. -------- [Page 58] [Seven remedies are inked out here in the MS] Another for pain in the teeth. Take ½ ounce each of brandy and rose honey and root of Roman pellitory and 10 grains of pepper and heat every thing together and put it in your mouth at the place of the pain and hold it for ½ hour and it will lift your pain. Do it several times and you will feel no more pain. It is tested. -------- [Page 59] Water that makes the teeth white. Take 1 lb. each of ordinary salt and white rock alum, and 2 ounces of sodium nitrate and make everything into fine powder and incorporate well together* and put it in a glass flask and distill it on a bain marie and extract all the water that can come out of it and save it in a bottle, well stoppered. Then when you want to make your teeth white, first clean them with some paste that removes any tartar that you will find there. Then take a little stick of mastic tree (or of any other kind, it does not matter) and wet the tip of the little stick in this water and touch only the teeth and you will see the teeth become as white as the tooth of a dog and you will be very satisfied with it. If you touch the gums with it you will feel a little sharp sting, delicate and gentle, but you will feel nothing more than that. This will please you greatly and the teeth will stay very white. It has been tested many times. *with sufficient lemon juice and leave it to infuse for 24 hours and distill it in a glass still on a slow fire.... 27 Water that makes the teeth white, removes trick letters from parchment and also warts and corns. Take copper sulfate, cinnabar, emery, ammonium chloride, eyebright, ordinary salt and native sulfur, each at your discretion, and grind everything finely and incorporate well and distill it in a glass still on a slow fire and you will make water of 3 kinds. The first will be white, which will be good to make the teeth white with a small stick and to remove trick letters from parchment. The second is somewhat yellow and removes warts and corns from flesh. The third is red, when the fire is increased, and this water heats up iron and breaks it and it cannot be kept except in thick glass. This water will bring you great honor. Do not alter the rules. Another to make teeth white for your pleasure and to give a little entertainment. Take a husk, that is a shell of a chestnut that is ripe, dry it and make fine powder, and take the same amount of nettle seeds, and incorporate them together. With this powder rub the teeth and also touch a little on the gums, first cleaning the teeth of everything unsightly as is described above, so they become very white. But it heats the gums so much that it seems one has a fire in the mouth and it takes so much water that one is amazed at how great is the heat that is felt in the gums. When you want to end the joke, make this remedy in a moment. Take a little rose water and a little ground white sugar and put them together and put this water in the mouth and at once it removes the heat and nothing else and the teeth remain white and you will have had this entertainment. Another to make them white with this powder. Take shavings of deer horn and grind them finely and rub into powder. Put this in a little linen cloth and make a button. Then rub your teeth. By continuing this they will stay very white, almost forever. For the pain in the teeth after eating sour things. Take some purslane, that is fresh portulaca, and when your teeth are on edge and it worries you that you will not be able to eat sour things, rub the teeth very well and it will go away. Also with a little salt or a crumb of cheese masticated very well by the teeth, the problem goes away at once. This has been tested many times. [One remedy inked out here in the MS] -------- [Page 60] Best remedy for quinsy, that is soreness that comes in the throat. Take barley water and diamoron and make a gargle with it. Then take oil of camomile, oil of white lilies and chicken fat, each the same amount, and boil them on a slow fire until they are incorporated. Then with this ointment, rub the sore place under the throat and around to the ears, rubbing well for a while. Then put on a layer of good warm stupe and wrap it and do this in the evening when you go to sleep. Then take the root of Roman pellitory and hold it in the mouth and hold it open, that is under the tongue. If by chance the teeth may have closed, so that through distress the mouth cannot be opened, open it by force and take a leek and roll it in rose honey and put it almost in the throat, forward and back 2 or 3 times and do it quickly and then let him spit out as much as he can and soon you will make a cure. Do not let him drink wine at least for 2 days and eat only bread soup and refreshing things and he will be cured.... 28 Another for sore throat. Take yellow amber, about 8 pieces, and break it coarsely and place it on burning charcoal in a flat pan onto which is a funnel of tin with the large end on the flat pan so that smoke cannot go any other way than up. Put your mouth to the hole from above and in this way you receive all the smoke. Swallow it in the throat and in a short time you will be cured. It is tested. Another to cure sore throat quickly. Take an apple of the green kind and cook it on the fire. Then peel it and mix the pulp with enough raw honey and put it warm on the gullet in the front of the throat where it hurts you and do this in the evening and morning and soon you will be cured. Observe the rules below. This has been tested by a Reverend Carthusian Priest in Lucca in 1561. Another very good remedy for sore throat. Take a handful each of parsley root, fennel root and pellitory of the wall, and 3 fresh egg whites. Boil these roots enough to extract them and crush them in a mortar. Then fry them in a frying pan with oil of camomile, not too much. Then extract them and put in a little barley flour and those 3 egg whites and incorporate well in the form of a poultice and, as warm as one can stand, put it on the sore place where it aches in the throat. Do this several more times, first extracting blood where it is needed and you will cure rapidly. [One remedy is inked out here in the MS] Another for choking. Take 4 or 5 cloves of garlic and peel them and put them intact in a little pan with as much chopped pork lard as a walnut and fry it some and put it in a little dish and make it very warm and rub under the throat and on the arms over the wrists and wrap the throat with a warm stupe and do it 2 evenings and soon you will be cured. But do not drink wine for 2 days. Another for the quinsy that comes in the throat. Take some chantarelle mushrooms, well pounded with yeast from wheat, and put it on the chest and behind on the shoulders opposite, so that it does not touch the neck. It will make certain delicate blisters that break open and give off water which is the malady of the sore throat, so in this way it is cleaned. [One remedy is inked out here in the MS] For falling of the uvula in the throat. Take some of the herb hyssop, fresh or dry, and heat it in a little pan and put it warm on the forehead or on the head. This is powerful against cold catarrh and in depression of the uvula. For this falling, take this herb and cook it in very strong vinegar and gargle with it several times and soon it will be cured. Stay warm.... 29 -------- [Page 61] For one who has bad breath caused by the stomach. Take 1 ounce of powdered sage, 3 ounces of flowers of tamarind, 5 drams of powdered cloves, 2 drams of fine cinnamon, one nutmeg and 2 grains of musk and make everything into fine powder. Then take as much purified honey as suffices to incorporate this powder on a slow fire. Leave it for 3 or 4 days in the sun until it is made into a confection by the sun. Then keep it in a glass vessel for your needs. Take as much as half a chestnut in the morning, during the day and in the evening when you go to sleep . By continuing this you will have good breath and you will feel the smell from the stomach no more. Also it is a protection in time of plague, from which God guard us, to take in the morning before you leave the house, because it is very antagonistic to the bad odors which hurt our heads, for which this confection is very useful. Another for the bad smell of the breath caused by the stomach. Take 1 dram each of dry citron, sedge, fragrant lavender, cloves, nutmeg, aloe, cinnamon, mastic and cubeb, and make them into very fine powder. Then make a paste with pomegranate wine and make little balls like beans and dry them in the shade. Put one in the mouth in the morning and hold it there a little and then swallow it. You will feel it give a little of its comforting odor which will comfort your mind and will give you good-smelling breath, and dispose the stomach to have good digestion. Another to dispose the stomach to send up good breath and to clear up flatulence. Take 2 drams of cinnamon, 3 drams each of nutmeg and cubeb, 1 dram each of ginger, grains of paradise, galingale and cloves, 1 scruple of cardamon and 4 ounces of fine sugar. Make fine powder of everything and incorporate them together and save it for your needs. When you have a bad stomach, take a little of it in the morning with broth or warm wine and soon the trouble with the stomach will pass away. It removes flatulence and gives you good breath for all day. These are tested. Another for removing bad smell from the mouth. Take cinnamon and ginger and cook them in strong vinegar and frequently wash the mouth with this. It is not harmful to drink this vinegar, and you will be cured of the bad odor of the mouth. Another for one whose breath smells bad. The unfortunate one drinks a glass of his urine early every morning. It will help a great deal, and again if you wash the mouth with vinegar in which some mint has been cooked, the bad breath will be gone quickly. It is tested. To remove pain and suffering rapidly from teeth. Take very strong vinegar and put one glassful on the fire in a little pot and put in three quatrini of ground pepper and boil it a little. Then take it from the fire and put therein 1 ounce of rose honey and incorporate well. Then put it in the mouth, warm, several times and also heat the cheek from the outside and soon the pain of the tooth will go away. Another for one who may not be able to speak or may be impeded because of dry mouth. Take root of Roman pellitory and hold it in the mouth under the tongue and it will remove the dryness. Spit it out and you will be cured rapidly. [Two remedies inked out here in the MS] Another for bad breath. Take mint and boil it with vinegar and wash the mouth with this several times and it will help you greatly. And if the bad breath comes from the stomach, take brandy, powdered nutmeg and cloves and incorporate them and drink it any time that you want to talk and it will cure you at once. When you go to sleep, gargle with vinegar and eat some pennyroyal or thyme and it will rapidly cure bad breath caused by the stomach. It is tested. -------- [Page 62] For paralysis of the tongue, hand and other members. Take 1 handful each of powder of musk, and lesser, middle and greater nettles with their roots and sage and roots of burdock, betony, savin and lovage, and wash them and mince them minutely. Then put them in a suitable vessel and put in some wine to the depth of 2 fingers and let it stand at least 4 to 6 days, well covered. Then begin to drink it every day for 10 to 12 days and when this is finished, add more wine and by continuing this, with God's grace, you will be cured quickly.... 30 Another for one whose hands or head tremble. Take leaves of sage and chop them very fine and put them to infuse in white wine. Then give one glass to the patient to drink every morning, warm, in the form of a syrup and he should not eat for at least 3 hours. This will help him greatly. Then make this ointment. Take juice of wormwood and boil it in ordinary oil until all the juice is used up and with this oil, very warm, rub the member that is paralyzed, that is one that has a tremor, and do it several times and it will aid you a great deal. Another for one whose hands tremble. Take wild sage, grind it and extract juice and make a paste with a little flour. Then put therein the same herb and make a pancake and eat it warm. Do this several times and it will help you greatly for paralysis of the hands. Another for one who may have difficulty speaking from some infirmity Take a leaf of lovage with a little musk and put it under the tongue and in a few days you will speak as fluently as before, through God's grace. Oil that is powerful for paralysis and contraction of nerves and spasm and epilepsy and for all cold infirmities. Take 6 ounces of galbanum gum and 3 ounces of ivy gum, finely ground, and mix together and distill in a glass vessel and at first water will come out. On increasing the fire you will have oil. Put them together. Then put in 1 ounce of laurel oil and 1 lb. of turpentine and 3 ounces of brandy made with flowers of tamarind and again distill the water and the oil. Separate the water from the oil and keep the oil as a balsam which will be very white and is equivalent to balsam in all its virtues, viz: a drop of this oil was put on the forehead of a paralytic and another drop on his navel, and at once he raised himself and was freed. Another was dosed in the place where he had pain from a wound with contracted nerves; those places were rubbed warm and soon he was freed. And in other diverse or very different infirmities, it was proved that this oil is miraculous and has great power. Rub the occiput in the evening with this warm oil on going to sleep and in the morning eat ½ ounce of raisins of the dark kind and this improves the memory greatly so that it makes one remember even things past and makes the memory very good and the intellect clear. It is powerful against frigidity and other infirmities caused by coldness. For every ache developing in the throat caused by heating. Take lesser sedum, grind it and extract as much juice as you can and give it to the patient to drink and wet some cloths in this juice and put it on the throat where it is feverish. Even if it is caused by dry heating, it will soon be cured. Another to make the speech fluent. Take two leaves of mint and when you go to sleep or at daybreak, rub your tongue with these leaves and shortly it will make your speech fluent. -------- [Page 63] To cure goiter, that is a bulge or enlarged throat. Take 1 ounce each from sea urchin, sponge, gall from wild roses, that is bedeguar, and dry them in the oven in a pot well covered so no steam escapes. Take 2 scruples each of long and round pepper, starfish and cuttlefish bone, ½ ounce each of cardamon and tartaric acid from red wine and 1 scruple of powdered cloves, and make all of these things into very fine powder and incorporate with a little strong vinegar. Then take flower of wheat and a little fine sugar and make a paste of everything together and make wafers and cook them in a baking pan. In the evening when you go to sleep, take one of these little discs under the tongue and sleep on your back. In the morning drink a drop of vinegar and continue this sequence for several days. Do this in the spring or in the autumn. Take care of yourself. Do not eat legumes nor pork meat nor any kind of acid fruits. Use watered wine reasonably and with boiled water. Continuing this also makes thin those who are too fat. By continuing this you will cure the lump or goiter and it reduces the enlarged throat. Be certain that this has been tested.... 31 Another to remove the goiter with a powder. Take 1 dram each of long pepper and saffron, 1 ½ drams each of ginger, cinnamon and cloves, 3 drams of roasted sponge made into fine powder and 2 egg yolks and everything should be made into fine powder and incorporated well. Use a mold to cook and bake it in the oven. Then grind it and make a fine powder and when the patient is going to sleep he takes a little in his mouth under the tongue. Do this several times and soon the lump will go away and he will become as at first. Another to remove the goiter that comes in the throat. Take 8 grains of long pepper and 8 grains of sorghum that is white inside and as much clean and fine sponge as an egg. Have in mind when the moon begins to wane and in that first Friday of the waning, begin to toast all the sponge and as it is browning, scrape it up little by little in the pan. Then brown the grains of millet, that is of the common millet or Turkey millet or sorghum, and put it together with the sponge and the powdered long pepper and grind it finely and put everything together. Then take a little fine flour and 2 fresh egg yolks, layed on that Friday, and incorporate everything together and put in a little fine sugar and mix everything into a dough. Make it into a little pancake and cook it on the grill. When it is cooked make it into six parts and in one evening yes, the next no, take one of these parts in the evening and go to sleep with that in your mouth. Do all these thing in the same way on the first Friday of the waning moon, that is do the cooking, and the goiter will disappear, of this do not fear. And if, by chance, the goiter may not go away completely this first time, do it a second time and even, if needed, do it a third time and, if not all then, you may do it again and keep to the rules, neither more nor less, than you did at first. So not fear anything and with the aid of God, soon it will go away. This recipe has been tested many times by those who are worthy of belief.... 32 Another to remove goiter that comes in the throat. Take 6 ounces of laurel oil, 3 ounces each of white frankincense, mastic, gum arabic, and clear turpentine and incorporate everything in a mortar and distill all this material in glass and extract the water. Then put a bowl of ashes in this water and redistill it and save this water as something dear. Then with this water, rub the goiter on the outside several times and soon it will disappear into nothing, through the power of this water. -------- [Page 64] Wonderful water for cattarh. Take one quatrino each of hepatic aloe and raw honey and a little Roman pellitory, licorice, hyssop and barley, each the same amount. Then put everything in a large pot full of water and boil it at least until all are cooked. Then remove it from the fire and strain it and press it very well to get all the substance. Then take a little of it warm, one evening yes, the next no, and you will see a wonderful effect in cleaning out this infirmity by spitting out a large amount of catarrhal material which is very hard on the stomach. The spitting out that you will do will cure you quickly. It is tested. Another for catarrh in several ways. Take some absinthe and wear it on the head and it will not allow the catarrh to descend. Take powdered ginger and compound it with hyssop, licorice and gum arabic and put everything into wine and use this to drink and you will be helped greatly. Take 1 ounce each of galingale, mace and nutmeg, 6 ounces each of ginger and cinnamon, 4 ounces of cultivated cubeb, 3 ounces each of saffron, cloves, lavender and cardamon, 2 ounces of long pepper, and 1 ounce of grains of paradise and make fine powder of all these and use it several times and the catarrh will give you no more trouble. Use powdered rosemary in your beverages. For one who has much rheum in the head or may spit a lot, put some camomile in lye and with this repeatedly wash your head and it will help a great deal. Very fine electuary against catarrh. Take ½ ounce each of cumin, prepared coriander and flowers of rosemary and half a dram each of pepper, cinnamon and saffron, 3 drams of tartar from white wine, ½ ounce of juice of rue and as much cleaned honey as needed. Everything should be ground and finely pulverized. Then mix everything together and you will make a good electuary. Then at supper take a dose and you will see a wonderful effect in a few days.... 33 For one who has tremor of the head and also the hands. Take roots of peony and roots of erba bona and of parsley and dill seed, each the same amount, and boil all these things in well water in a clean pan until it reduces in half. Then strain it and press the herbs well and use this decoction to drink in the morning as a syrup and soon you will be cured. Also take the center of a loaf of bread and make toast and put this warm to soften in very strong vinegar and soak it well. Then put it on the paralyzed or shaking member and you will see a great improvement. Another. Take some sage and boil it and with this decoction wash the arms and hands and let it dry on them. Then take the juice of this sage and with this rub your hands repeatedly and do this at least 2 or 3 times a day and soon it will cure you. Also take this sage and cook it with wine. Then put this herb, warm, on the wrists and it will help you greatly. Another to restore one who becomes paralyzed. Take bile from a bull and dry it and make very fine powder and give the sick one some of it to drink every morning and he should eat it in all ways and in a few days he will recover. Another for tremor of the limbs. Take juice of wormwood blended with ordinary oil and rub it, warm, repeatedly on those limbs that tremble. It will be of great benefit and, by continuing this, you will cure. Another remedy for paralysis. Take sage, betony, rue, cinquefoil, roots of fennel, parsley and celery, each the same amount, and triturate everything and incorporate it with very good wine and boil until it reduces ¼. Then strain it and press well and give the one who trembles 4 ounces per dose to drink early in the morning, warm in the form of a syrup, for 30 days. With the aid of God soon he will be improving and will not tremble any more, if the sickness is recent. -------- [Page 65] Scrofula, that is swollen glands, and bad growths arising in several ways. Viz: Take 5 pounds of laurel oil, 3 ounces each of mastic, frankincense, gum arabic, turpentine and egg white and mix them together and distill in a glass flask. Then put into the distillate, 6 pounds of strong ashes of oak and incorporate well and redistill it. Save the water that comes out in a bottle as something valuable which is very good for scrofulous lumps or swollen glands. These often appear near the Adam's apple, that is around the throat and also on the body. With this water you should bathe them repeatedly. Then take some lentils and cook them very well with vinegar and put this warm on the sick places in the form of a poultice and do it several times. With God's grace soon it will cure the scrofula, and rapidly. Another for scrofulas. Take ground salt and vinegar and ox dung and urine of a child 6 years old and mix everything together in the form of a poultice and put it warm with a stupe on the scrofulas in the evening when you go to sleep and it will help you considerably. Another for scrofulas that are not broken open. Take the root of wild squash, that is bryony, and distill water from it in the glass still. Give 3 ounces to the patient to drink every morning as a syrup. Continue for one month and you will help him greatly. Another for scrofulas. Take the herb pellitory that grows on the wall. Pound it between 2 stones and make juice, and wet pieces of finely-woven linen in this and put them on the sore spots. Continue the medication for a month, 2 or 3 times a day, and you will cure. Another to make the scrofulas break open. Take the root of marsh mallow, that is altea , and make powder and take smooth pork fat and mix them together. Then rub the bad area of the scrofulas with it, warm, and shortly it will be broken open. Another for those that are not open. Take 9 live lizards and put them alive in a pot and put in oil of dill, salt and old ordinary oil. Boil this until 1/3 remains and with this oil, warm, repeatedly rub the swellings of scrofula and they will give you no more trouble. Another for those scrofulas that are open. Take a large pot full of white wine, the oldest that can be found is the best, and put in 1 handful each of sage and rosemary, 4 cyclamen roots and 1 ½ ounces of saccharine alum and 1 handful each of dill and salt, and boil everything together until it reduces one third. Then strain it and with this wine, very warm, bathe the sores repeatedly and dry them. Then grind the herbs finely. Take lard or fat that should be old, the amount as much as the herbs in weight or volume, and grind everything together finely. After the sores have been washed, put on this plaster and do this 2 times a day and, through God's grace, you will soon cure. Water that removes developing scrofulas and warts. Take 5 pounds of old laurel oil and 3 ounces each of white frankincense, mastic, gum arabic and turpentine and compound everything and distill it into a glass bowl and put in this water 5 pounds of ashes of the strongest soft cheese that can be found and return it to the still and save the water that comes out. When you want to remove the scrophulas, carefully bathe them repeatedly and as they dry up do this again to the swelling. To remove warts, make them bleed a little with a needle. Then wet them with this water and it wears away the roots of the wart and it will dry up and soon it will go away. Another to remove scrofulas that are closed over. Take 4 ounces each of the urine of a young child and strong vinegar and one spoonful of salt and with this wet pieces of linen and put them on the glands in the evening when you go to bed. By continuing it, they are consumed little by little and you will be cured. Do not eat pork. -------- [Page 66] Wonderful unguent for scrofulas or swollen glands. Take 1 ounce each of clean wax, rose oil and bear fat, 1 ½ ounces each of turpentine and mutton fat, 2 dinari of Greek pitch, 6 dinari of male incense. Then add a little juice of hemlock and mix all these things together in a clean flask. First cut the fats minutely and the other things should be in fine powder and well mixed and cook these on a slow fire. Then remove it from the fire and save it for your needs. Then in the morning and the evening rub it on. By continuing this, you will be cured quickly. Take care of yourself.... 34 Another unguent for scrofulas. Take juice of celery and raw honey, each the same amount, and one egg yolk and a little wheat flour and put everything in a pot, well covered, in the sun for 10 to 15 days and it will be made. Keep it for your needs and rub it on in the evening and morning. Soon you will be cured. Another perfect electuary against scrofula. Take some green lizards and cut off the heads and tails. Then put them in very strong vinegar for 3 days. Then dry them in the oven and make very fine powder. Take 2 pounds of well purified honey and incorporate this with the powder and make an electuary of it. Take one spoonful in the morning early, diluted with very good wine, and wait for the space of one hour. Then take another dose and do this again one more time, that will be 3 times in the morning. Continue this at least for 8 days and, little by little, the scrofulas will be drying up and, through God's grace, soon you will be cured. Keep a good life and do not eat harmful things. [Two remedies inked out here in the MS] Another to cure scrofulas rapidly using a root. Take the root of lesser serpentaria, that is the herb wake robin, wash it well and make it into 3 or 4 pieces, cut with wood not with iron. In the evening when you go to sleep, put one of these pieces in your mouth and with that in your mouth, go to sleep if you can. If not, roll it in a little starch and swallow it like a pine seed. Take it one evening, yes, and the next, no. Do not take too much by mouth because it is hot in the third degree, so it makes your tongue sore. By swallowing it, this root breaks up, erodes, and consumes all the excess humor and if you should have some scrofulas on your back, that skin will all be drying up little by little. When you feel much better, do not take more of it. Know that the roots should be fresh. If they are dry they do not have as much potency. When you have removed the swellings, take the root 3 or 4 times and put the rest underground in a place where they remain fresh and take them from time to time. Be careful what you eat. Do not eat pork meat, nor sour fruit. Do not drink fresh water. Do not use women. Keep your body warm and eat light things. Do not wrap youself up in your problem. Be certain it is true that soon you will be cured. This has been proved many times by persons worthy of trust. Another to cure scrofulas or swollen glands in 40 days. Take a cyclamen root and cut it into 40 slices and dry them in the shade and every morning make a powder of one and give it to the patient to drink with wine or warm broth as a syrup early in the morning. In 40 days you will have made a cure. This has been tested by a well-known anatomist of Pisa. -------- [Page 67] A major and very useful unguent. Take 1 ounce each of oil of fir and turpentine, rose oil and rose honey and compound them with a slow fire and put in this composition ½ ounce of honeysuckle poultice or betony poultice, stirring continuously until you see that everything is well mixed. Then remove it from the fire and at once strain it carefully and continue stirring afterward until it is completely cool, and a major and perfect unguent will be made. Very fine poultice for the head. Take 1 handful each of the herbs burnet, betony, verbena, honeysuckle and St. John's wort. Cut them well and crush them minutely in a mortar. Then put them to soften in good white wine for 3 whole days. Then boil it until it is reduced in half. Put it in a canvas cloth and strain it and press out the juice very well. Then put in the gums that are written below, viz: 6 ounces of pine tar, 1 lb. of turpentine, 1 ½ ounces each of gum arabic and gum ammoniac, 2 ounces of opopanax gum, and 1 ounce each of white wax, sarcocol gum, juniper gum and bdellium. Then add 3 ounces each of juice of plantain and of absinthe. Then incorporate everything together and boil it on a slow fire, stirring continuously. Regarding the gums, it may not be known when this is ready. When you want to know if it is cooked, take a little of it on a spatula and let it cool and if the edge stays firm so it can be spread like diaquilon , then it is ready. Note that you want it to be more hard than soft. Then take some very fine soot and incorporate it in so that it becomes very dark and put in more at your discretion until it is enough. When it is partly cold, put in these other things written here, viz: 1 ½ ounces each of mastic, male incense, myrrh and ivy gum. Then add ½ ounce of mother's milk, wetting the hands to mix it very well. Then make a medicated paste of it, that is in little plasters. It lasts a long time.... 35 [Two remedies inked out in the MS] A major poultice. Take 1 ounce each of flowers of camomile, absinthe and rose, betony, mountain mint, cumin and barley flour and make a plaster with white wine. At the end add rose oil and it will be made. Another for headache. Take white wine and in this wine boil some absinthe and some betony. Then with this wine, wash your head and soon you will be cured. Another for headache. Take 1 handful each of flowers of laurel and rue and dry stalks of garlic and boil them in white wine and water, 1 jug of each. Then wash your head with this well and soon you will be cured of the headache. -------- [Page 68] Best remedy for headache. Take 1 handful each of good marjoram and rosemary and make fine powder of them. In the morning take half a glass of good white wine and put therein a tablespoon of this powder, heat it and drink this early in the morning and soon you will be cured. This is also powerful to save the teeth so they will not decay and it will give you a good breath. It is the thing used by gentlemen. Another for headache. Take some rue and peach leaves and fry them with oil in a pan until they are well cooked. Then remove them and mash them very well and with this warm oil rub the temples and soon you will be cured. Another for headache. Take the herb savin and cut it finely and compound it with rose oil and strong vinegar and cook it and do as above, rubbing the temples, and you will be cured. Another for the aforesaid headache. Take some hemp in green leaf and grind it finely. Then compound it on the fire with strong vinegar. Put it warm on the forehead, and soon you will be cured. Also it is good for one who may have a migraine headache. It is useful for one who is not able to sleep. Grind it with vinegar and put it on the forehead and it will cure. Also make a plaster with some poison hemlock and put it on the forehead. You will see a good effect and it will remove your headache. Plaster to put on the head. Take white resin, cloves, ginger and nutmeg, each in the same amount, and make them into powder, compound them on the fire and put this on a piece of leather and on the top of the head.... 36 For a cut on the head or a wound. Take some of the herb scabiosa and betony and make fine powder. Then put it on the cut or on the head or on wounds and soon they will be cured. If you wish to prove this, take a chicken or other animal and cut open the head. Then put some of this powder on it and you will shortly see a wonderful result that it will be cured neatly and well. [One remedy inked out of the MS] Another for the same as long as it is not fatal. Put these 3 words on something edible and eat it and soon you will be cured: '+ Gibel + Goth + Gabel.' Then take the herb shepherd's purse and put it on the chest so it touches the flesh or grasp it in the hand and, holding it, soon through God's grace, you will be cured. ' Gimel, Goe, Gabor. ' Another for a hurt from a blow. Take rosewater and dove dung and incense, each the same amount, and powder everything and incorporate them together with water and egg white and compound it. Then put it on a stupe and put it on the forehead so it extends from one side to the other and soon you will be cured. Another for a hurt from a blow. Take the herb scabiosa and extract juice. Then strain it and take half a glass of it and add 3 ounces of strong vinegar and one ounce of rose oil and one fresh egg and mix everything together. Wet a fine cloth in it and put it across the forehead and as it becomes dry, put on another and do this until the pain is gone and in this way you will cure. Another for a hurt from a blow. Take a fresh egg and cook it enough in a pan like a pancake with a little rose oil with a little fresh marjoram mixed into the egg. Do not make it too hard. Then put it on the head, that is on the brain, as warm as you can stand, and cut the hair in that part so it is not plastered. Do this 3 or 4 times and you will be cured rapidly. Live with sobriety and stay warm. For one who may be out of his head, that is who may lose his balance. Take rape seed and good marjoram and grind them finely and have the one who is dizzy drink them several times. By continuing to drink this, one will soon be cured and steady. To cure headache rapidly. Take juice of marjoram and draw it up in the nose and at once it lifts your pain. -------- [Page 69] Plaster that is put on the head for pain from a blow and for edema. Take mastic, frankincense, sarcocol, opopanax, galbanum and ivy gum, each ½ ounce, 1 ounce of tar, 1 ½ ounces each of colophony and yellow wax and 3 drams of spurge. First take the gums and cover them with vinegar and leave them to soften for 24 hours. Then grind them in a mortar and make a plaster, well formed. Put it on the head and let it stay thus and it will help you greatly. [One remedy inked out here in the MS] Remedies of several kinds for epilepsy. Take opopanax, dragon's blood gum, musk, antimony, each the same amount, pulverize all finely and incorporate them well and use this powder in food in all ways, in wine, in broth, in soups, and use as much as half a tablespoon of it every day for 2 months. Another powder for epilepsy. Take a pair of live pigeons and put them in a clean pot, not vitreous, with its cover and put dough around the cover so that no gas can escape. Then put it in the oven long enough so it becomes in a form that you can make into fine powder. Then take some bone from the head of a dead man, bake it and grind it into fine powder and incorporate it with the above, or file it and then grind it but it will take more effort. Give ½ tablespoon each time to the patient and give it with 3 ounces of holy water in the morning in the form of a warm syrup for 2 months and you will see recovery, through God's grace. [One remedy inked out here in the MS] Beverage for epilepsy. Take marjoram, peony seeds, goat's rue, musk, opopanax and antimony, 4 ounces of each pulverized finely, and ½ dish of earthworms washed with wine, dried and made into powder. Incorporate everything well and give one tablespoon of it every third evening to the patient with juice of marjoram in the evening when he goes to sleep. If this is done at the beginning of the illness, he will be freed quickly. The juice of Roman mint, given with ½ glass of wine for 3 days, helps greatly. Another for epilepsy. Take musk, peony, Roman pellitory, black dittany and valerian, each the same amount, and make a powder of them and give it to the patient to eat several times in His Name and it will cure. It is tested. -------- [Page 70] Electuary for epilepsy. Take nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, long pepper and white pepper, marjoram and betony, each ½ ounce, 1 ounce of peony root, 1 ½ ounces each of fine sugar and fine theriac. Make powder of everything and put all together and make an electuary as usual. Compound it with clean honey sufficient to incorporate and give this electuary in the amount of a hazel nut for six days in a row, thereafter freely, and especially at the time when the patient starts to feel dizzy as epilepsy or other cerebral changes come on, he should begin the electuary before and after and he will be cured quickly. Another tested remedy for epilepsy. Bring the epileptic and the father and mother and take them to the church on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and there they hear all the mass and also on Sunday and then at the end of the mass the priest binds on the epileptic's head the gospel precept on which is written, 'This kind of demon will not be cast out except by prayer and fasting,' and soon it will cure the mad and demonized epileptic. This is very true. And he should carry near him the names of these 3 kings: '+ Caspar brought myrrh +, Melchior brought incense +, Balthasar brought gold, +' and do this on Thursday or on Sunday and say over him the Mass of the Three Kings and offer on the altar coins of 3 kinds. The note should be kept under the Bible. Do not ever go without this and you will not suffer from epilepsy, that is from the falling sickness. Do these things and do not be negligent. Another for the falling sickness, the best remedy that can be made. If the patient is a man, take 3 pieces of the head of a dead man, and if a woman from a woman, who does not have epilepsy, and grind them finely. Then take 4 ounces of peony water or sage water and a spoonful of this powder and incorporate them and give it lukewarm to the patient to drink in the form of a syrup for 2 months continually, more or less, according to how you see improvement. Then the patient should take care of his way of living and life and in a short time, with the aid of God, soon he will be cured of this infirmity, because this has often been tested. Another for epilepsy. Take the herb dragon root or its seed or root or some of its berries and some of its juice and give it to the patient to drink several times and he will see the effect. Then take some peony root, gathered during the half-moon in autumn and also some of its seed gathered in the waning moon and make very fine powder of all. Take some of the powder you have made above from the head of a man or a woman and also take some fur of a white dog and cut it very finely and blend everything together. Give the sick one a spoonful of this powder in broth or in soup or in any way as long as he takes it and, with the aid of God, shortly you will see him cured. See that he does not know the composition of the powder so that he more willingly will take it and, through the faith that he has to be cured, he will be cured without fail. Also when you are at mass, always say the Pater Noster when the priest says it. When the patient falls, say the Pater Noster in his ear and at once he will get up and be able to walk. Again when one falls to the earth, say these words in his ear, viz: 'The spirit is indeed strong, however the flesh is weak,' and at once he will get up and walk, for these facts are certain and tested many times by men of faith. Another for epilepsy. Take one branch of the herb that is mistletoe that grows on the pear tree or on the tree that has apples and is large and make the branch square and 4 fingers or less in length. Write on the first face '+ Jesus Maria +' , on the second 'Gaspar +', on the third 'Balthasar +' and on the fourth 'Melchior +' and put it on the altar and say over it these 4 masses, first of the Holy Spirit, of the Epiphany, of Saint Bertinus and of the 5 wounds of Jesus Christ, and fasten it around the neck of the patient with a new ribbon with 5 Pater Noster, kneeling, and 3 other Pater Noster for the 3 Nails and when you attach it you say 'I touch the bone of the neck' and leave this on. Another, an electuary for epilepsy. Take 1 pound of red sugar and 6 ounces of flowers of ivy gathered during the half moon, and grind them in a way that makes the sugar rosy and put it in the sun in a clean, covered vessel for one month. Then give the patient one spoonful in the morning and he will not fall as much. -------- [Page 71] Epilepsy. Another to cure epilepsy. Take one dram of deer horn made into fine powder and give it to drink every morning with 2 ounces of warm good white wine with ½ dram of raw anise in fine powder. Give it in the form of a syrup. This beverage will be of great help to the epileptic. Another plaster for the falling sickness. Take 1 ounce each of myrrh, nutmeg, white incense and mother's milk from a woman nursing a boy if the sick person is male and, if female, from a woman nursing a girl. Mix the herbs together, make them into fine powder, make a well-formed plaster and spread it on chamois leather. Then shave the top of the head up to the forehead and put on this plaster, very warm, and let it stay on at least for 6 months and, with the aid of God, he will be healed. But do keep shaving the head every 8 to 10 days so that it holds the plaster and you will see a good result, with God's grace. Another, a different, very good remedy for the falling sickness. Take lees of good wine and first shave the top of the head and with these lees rub the commissure of the head, rubbing until the area becomes blistered. Then take a sharp nail that has a good silver coating and heat it very well. Then press it on this blister and it will break open and all of the sickness will be alleviated and soon, with the aid of God, it will be cured, little by little. These secrets are very useful for falling sickness. When a headache in women lasts a long time. Rub the forehead and the temples with marsh mallow and soon she will be cured. Another. Cook dill seed in oil. Rub the forehead and temples with this and it lifts the pain. Another. Creeping thyme cut and cooked with vinegar in rose oil, confected and put on the head, lifts the pain. Another. Juice of ground ivy, oil and vinegar mixed together and put on the top of the head with wool or cotton. Another. Juice of celandine, taken up in the nostrils, clears the head. Another. Take hepatic aloe and grind it finely and mix it with olive oil. Then spread it on a linen cloth and put it on the forehead and the temples in the evening. Another. Wash the head repeatedly with lye made of cinders and ashes of stalks and roots of large nettle and white grape and this will be found wonderfully efficacious against headache, especially migraine. Another against migraine. Take laurel oil and rub it on the temples 2 or 3 times. It is a wonderfully powerful ointment and takes away the pain. Another for headache. Take rue and grind it with olive oil and then sprinkle into it rabbit bile so that it is mixed smoothly, and the same amount of pork fat, and rub the forehead and the temples and all the pain will be alleviated. Another. Grind pennyroyal and its flowers together and give it to drink with wine or warm water and you should fast right up to the nones and it will clear up the head.... 37 Another. Take juice of rue and rub it on the forehead and over it put cotton. Another. Pennyroyal may be cooked with vinegar and put in your nostrils so you feel the odor, and from the pennyroyal make a wreath for your head. Another. Take a fresh hen's egg and cook it hard in the ashes. Then divide it in half and bind it warm on the forehead when you go to sleep. Soon you will be freed. Do this when your head hurts. Another for ache of the forehead. Take stonecrop and cumin cut together with egg white and bind it on the forehead. Arabian pills for every headache. Take 4 ounces of aloe, 5 each of bryony and cherry plum, 1 ounce each of citrus, Indian plum, Kabul cherry plum, mastic, scammony, wild spikenard and roses, 1 dram of crocus, 3 drams of musk and mix together with the juice of culrage or absinthe. Another pill for headache. Take 4 drams of fine mastic, 10 drams of hepatic aloe, 3 drams of fine white mushrooms and make pills with juice of artemisia. They can even be taken with syrup of French lavender after a light meal without stopping their action. Against the swelling of the eyes in a headache. Take rose water and rose oil and ground salt and mix with a stick and put in a drop of vinegar. Then wet cloths in it and put them on the forehead and soon the pain will lift and make you sleep. Tested against headache. Take juice of plantain and a little rose water, a little vinegar, a little mother's milk and the white of one fresh egg, each the same amount, only more or less milk at your discretion. Then wet some cloths in this mixture and put them on the forehead so they reach from one ear to the other and the pain will go away. -------- [Page 72] When a man has fallen from a high place and has been bruised or hurt inside. Take 10 drams of senna with waters of endive, violet, plantain and bugloss, each the same amount, and put in them ½ dram of mummy and a scruple of madder and give it in the morning on an empty stomach and one should not eat for 3 hours. If it should be a little child, give only ½ dram of senna and add only 4 grains of mummy and 4 grains of madder and it should be taken in the morning, as above. It clears and refreshes and makes the blood return to its place. Then this is followed with other restorers: unguents, poultices, cupping glass or lancet with bleeding either from the common vein or from the liver to draw 6 ounces of blood. For the same. Take 6 drams of senna, freshly extracted, 1 dram of pulverized rhubarb, 4 grains of mummy, 4 ounces each of water decoctions of spleenwort, of white maiden hair fern, of black maiden hair fern, of liverwort, of barley, of maiden hair fern, of mint and of nutmeg, with which the senna, rhubarb and mummy are incorporated. Give it to the sick one to drink one hour before daybreak in the form of a syrup. Plaster for the same. Take ox dung equal to a thousand herbs, horse dung and ass dung and boil them in good vernaza wine until they become in the form of a plaster and put this on the sore place and soon you will cure. Enema as above. Take urine of a virgin child and mild lye and the same amount of thick broth, so that each equals two good bowls, and put in 3 ounces of honey and 2 ounces of rose oil and a very little salt. Use it one hour before daybreak or at the 20th hour. Plaster to put in the center of the head to dry up all the humidity and when things may have fallen on the stomach. Take 1 dram each of male incense, musk, mastic, coral, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, dragon's blood gum, spruce gum, myrtle, and dry roses and make this into very fine powder and incorporate it on a slow fire and when you remove it from the fire, add a little mother's milk and mix it well until it is cold and it will be made. Then spread some on chamois leather the size of a wafer and pierce it with the tip of a knife so that it may have an opening and cut the hair in the center of the head and attach it warm. Do not remove it so it may detach by itself. If the person is not sufficiently cured, put another on again. By Master Apothecary Antonio Brag[--]ti. -------- [Page 73] To cure the falling sickness, that is one who falls from that bad sickness, with the aid of God. Take the herb called burdock, and some rue. For 15 to 20 days in a row the patient shoud eat this herb at meals or before meals with bread or in fritters or in whatever way he wants to eat it. Begin to do this 15 to 20 days before the full moon and watch carefully, if you can, to learn the day, the hour and the place where the moon rises. On that day, hour and location of the moon, draw blood from the patient from the vein under the tongue. Do this 3 times in a row, that is for 3 moons. This is verified and tested and greatly praised by experienced doctors who say that at that point the moon stirs all our blood and doing this bleeding under the tongue may diminish the bad blood which ascends to the brain, and so free the body of this kind of sickness, little by little. Warn the patient not to cohabit with women because that has very adverse effects. That is said to me by one who tested it. Another for falling sickness. Take leaves and seed of the herb dragon root or the root or some of its berries and give it to the sick one to drink. Also take some peony made into powder and take bone from the head of a dead man who has been in a coffin and scrape it with a knife or file it, and the fur of a white dog, cut finely. Put everything together and give it to the patient to drink with 3 ounces of red wine with broth or soup. If it is a little child make it smell rue repeatedly. Then rub some bread with roasted oil and give it to eat. It helps greatly. Then take a nail from the coffin of a dead man and make it into a ring and put it on the marriage finger and it greatly helps in this falling sickness. Have the patient wear around the neck this little charm, viz: '+ Amen + treat + your + old age + gently + remove + fevers + disease + and also repel + sudden + death'. Soon you will be cured, through God's grace. Oil for the sickness called ugly. Take 2 ½ lbs. of old ordinary oil and 1 ½ lbs. of malvasia or other potent wine, 1 handful each of rosemary, hyssop, ave lustro , marjoram, sage, rue and southern wood. All these should be washed and clean and cut finely and boiled together until the malvasia is reduced in half. Then add two thirds of the items written below, viz.:1 ½ ounces each of galingale and musk and 1 ounce each of cloves, cinnamon and ginger and let all these items cook on a very slow fire until the rest of the malvasia is used up. Then strain it through a fine cloth and put the remaining third of the items into the pure oil that has been strained and add 1 lb. of ordinary oil to the above. Then it should be put in the sun, well-covered, for several days and it will be made. With this oil rub the sick person all over the stomach and the back up to the head, going down as far as the kidney and the edge of the kidney. Through God's grace soon he will get better. Prayers carried on the back against the falling sickness. Write these prayers and carry them on the back or around the neck as a note, saying 5 Pater Noster with faith and devotion. The one who does this will no longer fall from this sickness, through God's grace. Viz: 'Jesus of Nazareth, King of Judea, in your name make me whole and by your compassion free me, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.' We pray, 'God who directed the archangel Raphael to aid your servant, Tobias, in this life of variety and danger, you made him the guardian by whom we are protected and aided in the present life, for we live in danger and we look forward to come to joy in heaven. + + +.' We pray, 'Gracious and most high omnipotent God as we honor the holy day of your Saints Cosmas and Damian, may we be free from all threatening evils by their intercessions, through our Lord, Jesus Christ. Gaspar brought myrrh, Melchior brought incense, Balthasar brought gold.' Do this on Thursday or Sunday and say the Mass of the Three Kings and make 3 gifts of 3 kinds with this second prayer. -------- [Page 74] Another prayer for the falling sickness to carry with you. Viz.: 'God was, God is and God will be. So as the body is lifted, God on high who is the Lord, the consecrated host and the living flesh, as you are the Son of the Virgin Mary, free me, your servant (name), in the name of God and of the Virgin Mary and of Saint Bartholomew and of the Holy Trinity. So be it. Father + Son + Holy Spirit +, Amen.' Let us pray: 'God who through your Apostle Bartholomew in the temple of Astaroth freed the weak daughter of king Polum from being harassed by demons, may we be worthy, through the merits of his passion, to be freed from the incurable falling sickness and also from all evil, through our Lord, Jesus Christ, your Son.' Prayer for falling sickness. This sign of the Holy Cross is powerful against the falling sickness, viz: first draw this cross with these letters as you see on the page and when you want to put this around the neck say, and have said, 3 Pater Noster and 3 Ave Maria to honor God and the Holy Trinity and the 3 magi and carry it always around the neck and with the aid of God soon you will be cured. It is tested. Also add to this note, 3 peony roots and 3 peony seeds and 3 castor bean seeds and put them together and say over them the Mass of Saint Cornelius and write the prayer for Saints Cosmas and Damian and for the Angel Raphael. Carry this near you with devotion and you will be cured. [There is a large cross with writing that has been inked out in the MS] Most marvelous water of swallows, more than can be believed. It is made in this way for falling sickness. Take young swallows and dry them and pulverize finely the quantity that you will want. Then take the same amount of musk and mix together. Then pour in enough good vinegar and distill it in glass and keep this water. Its virtues are written below, viz: First, taken on an empty stomach it is the right medicine against the falling sickness, chosen because it is effective even if the person may have been suffering for 40 years. Another. Taken on an empty stomach it cures delirium in nine days.... 38 Another. Above all other medicines, it makes the head good, cleans the stomach, soothes and comforts the nerves of the chest, removes nerve paralysis, increases natural acts and warms anyone with chills. Another. Taken on an empty stomach with hyssop it cures the dropsy that is caused by cold and drives away quartan fever. Another. Taken with hyssop it cures headache and makes persons sleep, eat with appetite and digest food. It helps if a pregnant woman takes it because she may avoid losing a baby in the womb. Another. The juice of rue pushed up the nose when there has been an accident, heals it at once. Insufflate the juice in the nose. The membrane within which kittens develop, when pulverized and given in a potion to the patient, is useful for the tissue of the womb. Another. Also it is useful to have one of those nails that hold the candles when the church is consecrated. Carry it with you. Then, when the patient falls, drive this nail in where he hits his head and he will get up cured. [One remedy is inked out in the MS] Be advised that when you gather the root of the peony, it must be picked in the autumn in the waning of the moon and its seed is gathered when the moon is full so that when it is wanted for the falling sickness, you will use this water with certainty for this sickness. It has been tested many times by Monsignor Ber[----]o. -------- [Page 75] [One remedy is inked out here in the MS] For the falling sickness. Take a nutshell full of brandy and put it in a glass of wine and take a little theriac and give it to the patient to drink for 15 days and soon he will be cured. It has been tested. For the falling sickness. Take 6 ounces of a human skull, male for a man, female for a woman, and take care that the skull did not stay for a long time underground, nor from a person who was sick for a long time, nor was wasting from consumption. Take 3 ounces of the finest white sugar, one nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, oriental spice, cloves, white incense, peony seeds (male for a man, female for a woman), each in the weight of a nutmeg. All should be pulverized very finely and should be sifted through a hair sieve. One spoonful of this powder should be taken by the sick person early in the morning and in the evening in chicken broth. He should hold the peony seed under the tongue before he is purged. Meanwhile he should abstain from coitus, from eating pork, from all goat meat, from leeks, garlic, onion and other pungent herbs and from celery and parsley. Through the grace of God, he will be cured.... 39 For the problem of baldness on the head. Take parched maiden hair fern and make fine powder of it and mix it with vinegar and oil and make it in the form of an unguent. This is good for alopecia which is a condition in which all the hair falls out with sores. This is the treatment to cure it. Take oil of myrtle, wine and lye and parched goat hoof made into fine powder. Wash your head repeatedly with this and it stops the hair from falling out. This ash with lye is valuable in overheating of the head. It uses up, dissipates and removes the wet sores. For pain in the head, stomach or chest. Say: '+ The Angel Michael sustains me +. The Angel Gabriel restores me +. The Angel Raphael frees me + from all suffering.' For flesh cracked or bruised or a fall from a height without breaking the flesh. Say over the hurt place this devout prayer several times. Viz: “Saint Peter was seated on the sea shore and Jesus came along and Jesus said, 'What are you doing, Peter, that you are not resting?' Saint Peter said, 'Lord, I cannot because I have a cut in the flesh on my back.' Jesus said to Saint Peter, 'Go to the house and take linen fiber and fat from a young pig. Rub with the fat and the flesh joins. Rub and the flesh mends. Rub and it is cooled and the flesh binds.' In the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.” Flax is the fiber that should be used to tie. Take 3 threads and lard fat, bind around it with these 3 threads and with it, cold, rub the hurt place that is bruised and sore if the flesh and bone are not broken, but only bruised or cut. Rub in the way described above and soon you will be cured. It has been tested many times and it is effective without doing anything else. -------- [Page 76] To cure ringworm on the head in several ways and to remove hair without pain. Take 3 lbs. of male pig lard, as old as you can find, and put it to soak in very strong vinegar, well covered, for 2 whole days. Then remove it and wrap it well in 4 to 6 cabbage leaves or good parchment. Then dip the package in water and remove it quickly. Clear off the hearth and put it in the center. Cover it with embers and warm ashes so it is protected from the fire and let it stay for 2 hours, more or less, according to how hot the fire is. Watch that it does not burn or it will be consumed. Then remove it, unwrap the coverings and clean off the ashes as best you can. Put it between two chopping boards or two little planks and press it as hard as you can and also put it under the press to extract the last juice, as much as you can. Put in 3 quatrini of verdigris, cut very finely, and incorporate it well. Then strain it, still warm, through a fine cloth and save it in a little pot, continuing to stir it until it becomes cold so the verdigris does not go to the bottom but stays distributed. When you want to use it on the head that has ringworm, do it in this way: rub the head with ringworm every other evening, gently rubbing well into the scalp and put on a leaf of cabbage or parchment and a nightcap over that. Wash the head 2 or 3 times a week with mild lye boiled with roots of dock. When you wash it put in a fistful of very fine bran and then dry it very well. When you wash it, pull the hair lightly, so each time those which are most affected will improve some, so little by little you will remove it. When the hair is dry, rub the skin well with the grease so it penetrates and in this way the roots of the hair are aged and removed because the root is what holds the sickness. Then when the head is clean it will regrow all the hair more beautiful than it was at first and in greater amount, and you will be cured. Then rub the head with this oil: take 2 or 3 live lizards, that is Ligurian green lizards, and drown them in a pot full of ordinary oil and boil it in front of the fire until they are well broken apart. Remove it from the fire and leave it in the sun for 15 to 20 days. Rub it in carefully every evening where you want the hair to come and it will grow again thick and long. This recipe has been very, very effective many, many times. Tested by me Master Apothecary Andrea. Another to remove ringworm, no less good than the one above. Take pork lard, as above, and cut it into thin slices. Thread on a skewer one slice of lard and one leaf of climbing ivy. Then put it on the fire and turn it very slowly. Put a dish underneath that has some very strong vinegar in it and let it cook that way. When the pork is nearly cooked, remove it from the fire and put the tip of the skewer in the dish and hold it upright and move the fire away from the bottom and drain all the fat into the vinegar. Then put the vinegar and the fat together in a little pot and save it for your needs. When you rub the head of a ringworm sufferer, rub it in the evening and rub it well on the scalp and cover it as described above. Then make some lye to wash the head 2 or 3 times a week. When you have made your lye and strained it, boil it again with a little rock alum, grape leaves, savin and roots or leaves of danewort, one handful each, and a jug of good white wine. Then wash the head with this lye. When it is dry rub it with the grease. In the morning rub the head with warm oil of juniper and, through the grace of God, soon you will cure the greasy ringworm. -------- [Page 77] Pills to cure ringworm. Take 1 dram each of agaric, senna, pulp of colocynth and mastic and 3 drams of aloe and make pills with juice of leeks. The dose should be three pills. This method will cure the wet ringworm and dry it. Using these pills helps to cure the problem of ringworm rapidly. Ointment to remove ringworm rapidly. Take male pork fat in the amount you want and one third part of strong vinegar and set it on the fire and put therein ½ ounce of salt and make this boil very slowly until all the vinegar is gone. Then remove it from the fire and put in these powders, viz: verdigris, sulfur, dried rock alum, soot and dove dung, the amount of these things at your discretion, and all should be pulverized very finely. Then incorporate everything together, warm, and it will be made. Save it for your needs. Make mild lye to wash the head and boil in it some root of dock and wash with this on alternate days and rub the head in the morning and evening, pulling well along each hair. In 10 days it will be nearly cured, through God's grace. Another against ringworm. Take celandine roots and grate them. Then boil them in 6 ounces of rose oil and as it begins to boil, put in 6 ounces of finely minced yellow litharge and a very little of the precipitate, that is, 1 dram as it is prepared. Remove it from the fire and continue to stir it until it is cold and it will be made. Then rub the head that has ringworm and put mixed flour of fava beans and of lupins on it like a spice powder. Rub it carefully in the morning and evening for 3 days, as if washing the head, pulling it through the hair. Then continue to rub once a day for 10 to 15 days and after that it will be cured and the hair will grow very slowly more beautiful than before. This is true.... 40 Another to cure ringworm. Take equal amounts of sage, rosemary, spikenard, camomile and celandine, cut in little pieces, and boil them in white wine and a glass of vinegar until this reduces a third and all the herbs have given up their virtues into the wine. Then strain it and wash the head with this filtered liquid while it is very warm so it cleans well. When the hair is dry take a bit of dried salt beef and make it into fine powder. Put it on the head with a leaf of cabbage on it and tie on a night cap. Do this once a day in this way and afterward you will see a good result and you will be cured. Water for ringworm and for the legs. Take 3 jugs of cistern water and a bowl of very clean barley and boil it for ½ hour. Then add a bundle of dry bark of pomegranate and 1 handful of dry roses and let it boil for ½ hour. Add 4 ounces of crushed rock alum and let it again boil a little. Remove it from the fire and strain it at once, pressing the bark well. While it is still warm put in 2 ounces of chopped white lead and incorporate it well. Then put in 2 scruples of powdered camphor and quickly stir so that it incorporates and does not dissipate in fumes, and it will be made. Save it for your needs. Then wet some pieces of linen in this decoction and put them on the head and also on the legs and continue this for several days and you will be cured. Take care of yourself. For the crust that comes on the head of little children. Take 1 handful each of mallow, sweet violets and fine flour and boil them with enough water and reduce it 1/3 and with this liquid wash the head very well. Then smear the head with this liniment: take butter washed in the decoction described above and an unguent of camphorated white lead and incorporate them using a lead mortar with a lead pestle for ½ hour. Then remove it and rub the head carefully with this and put on pieces of fine linen cloth and do this in the morning and evening and the crusst will be cured quickly by following this prescription. Another. Take old lard, wrap it in a stupe wet in urine and heat it under the ashes and with this rub the head of the little child who has a crust. -------- [Page 78] Powder to make the memory good. Take 1 dram each of caraway, anise, bishop's weed, celery, cumin, mountain mint, cardamon, Indian leaf, galingale, costmary, betony, fennel, marjoram, sweet basil, licorice, pennyroyal, pepper, lavender, parsley and hyssop and make everything into very fine powder, each one separately. Then incorporate them all well and use this powder in all your foods like a spice. But know that in the winter it is better than in the summer for the excess of phlegm. This powder was made by Emperor Fredrick. It is good for continual use by one who has lost his memory through some excessive humor. This powder is active against scotoma, dizziness, defective sight and hearing, and against apoplexy, gout and paralysis and mitigates pain from the kidney and lower parts.... 41 Amulet for bad memory. Take 5 ounces of cistus gum, 3 drams of amber, 2 drams each of cloves and nutmeg, 1 dram of storax and 2 scruples of musk and make fine powder of all these things. Then mix with tragathanth gum melted in rose water and make a ball with a hole through the center and let it dry in the shade. Put it on the back or around the neck with a cord of gold or of silver. Know that this comforts the brain, the nerves and the spirit and it will bring a good fragrance to all your thoughts. Very good and complete electuary for the memory. Take 2 drams each of flowers of rosemary, of borage and of bugloss and the heart of a swallow and take 1/2 dram each of fine cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves and long pepper, 2 grains of musk and 1 ounce each of fine sugar, rose sugar and violet sugar. All these things should be finely pulverized and made into a mixture with one ounce of rose syrup. On an empty stomach take the amount of a hazel nut every morning. Take this electuary for the period of one month and it will give you a wonderful memory that will be maintained. Keep yourself from bad odors and use it in the wintertime to help you keep warm. By using it you will keep your memory perfect. Another to maintain the memory. Take a piece of the root of cyclamen or sow bread and chew it each day. This is the best thing for the memory.... 42 For one whose brain is disordered. Take 2 handfuls of the leaves of cultivated celery and cook them in water. Make a poultice of this herb and put it as warm as one can stand on the head which should be shaved first. Put it on all over the head thickly and do it at least 2 or 3 times and it will help greatly. This is a tested method. In addition you should use this wine: take 1 ounce each of good wine and ginger and 2 ounces each of long pepper and galingale and 1/2 ounce each of cloves, cubeb and nutmeg. Everything should be made into fine powder. Put this powder, incorporated with a little of that wine, in a small linen sack and put it in a vessel with 7 lbs. of good wine and cover it well so it is not able to evaporate and boil it some. Then let it clear with the sack in it and use this wine to drink, but a little each time. This wine is also good in chills and for flatulence and you will be warmed and it will help you greatly. Another for one whose brain is disordered. Take seeds of rue and grind them finely. Drink them with sharp, that is sour, wine and soon you will recover the health of the brain. -------- [Page 79] Pills for the head, after meals. Take 2 drams of giera dough with mushrooms and 1 dram of plain dough and mix them together with water of fennel and make 9 pills. Then take 3 of them at a time and it will make you go very easily.... 43 To make hair on the head, beard or hair on the skin regrow when it has fallen out through sickness. Take raw honey and urine of a young child of 5 to 8 years, each the same amount, and put therein some bees, that is roasted bees, and make fine powder of it and incorporate it with ordinary oil and mix everything together. Then rub the bald place on the head or beard or skin and, by continuing it for a few days, the hair will grow shining and beautiful as before. This mixture should be made fresh, a little at a time, at least every 2 or 3 days because of the putrefaction that occurs from the urine. It will work for you very well. Another to make hair and beard grow. Take as much linseed as you want and toast it in a frying pan and make fine powder and also some roasted bees and use as much of one powder as the other and incorporate it with oil of lizard, that is the green lizard, in the form of a soft unguent. Then rub the bald spot carefully in the morning and evening and soon the hair will grow on the head, beard or skin. Powder of roasted frogs works the same way. First rub with the oil described above and then put on the powder like a spice and hair will grow quickly and in large amounts. It has been tested. Another to make the hair or beard grow long. When you make lye for washing your head, take ashes of grapevine and no other ashes and 1 handful each of the herb agrimony, climbing ivy and maidenhair fern and boil them all together until it reduces 1/3. Then filter the lye and save it and with this wash your head 2 times a week and soon you will see the wonderful result. To make hair beautiful in several ways. Take 5 lb. of white honey and distill it in a glass still with pebbles, that is large and well-washed sand, mixed with the honey and put this in a distilling flask just as it is, with a lively fire so that it distills oil. Then take this oil and when you have dried the head, rub the hair carefully. By continuing this, the hair will become beautiful, I say most beautiful. Another to make beautiful hair. Take oil of poppy and ox gall, each the same amount, and a little white wine and incorporate them as a liquid unguent and when you have dried the head well, rub the hair with this carefully. Then stay in the sun and the hair will become most beautiful. Another to make the hair beautiful. Take 1/2 dram of oriental saffron and the yolks of 8 cooked eggs ground in a mortar. Add the saffron in very fine powder and enough white honey to combine everything in the form of a liquid unguent. Then when you are in the sun, oil the hair and rub it well and when combing the hair first smear the comb with oil of bitter almonds. Continue this for a month, at least 2 or 3 times a week, and if you do it repeatedly your hair soon will become the color of gold and as fine as you would like it. Another to make the hair beautiful. Take roots of endive and cook them with lye. Then when they are cooked, remove them and strain them. Then put this to boil again and put in cumin and crushed licorice, the amounts at your discretion, and boil it a while. Then strain it and with this wash your head 2 times a week and when it is dry sprinkle it with yellow sulfur, wrapping up the hair in a cover so you will not smell the odor. By doing this several times the hair will become the color of gold, pure and shining in a way that will please you. This secret is used by the ladies of Genoa and it is seen there. -------- [Page 80] To whiten hair in the shade, without sun, so that it will be as white and shining as silver. Take 4 ounces of the root of greater centaury, 3 ounces each of gum arabic, tragacanth and rock alum, 2 ounces of white Damascene soap, 1 lb. of white precipitate of alum and 25 lb. of running water from the river. Take the root of the centaury and the same amount of its leaves and cut it very finely and boil everything together until it is reduced 1/3. Then let it stand in the sun for 15 days to become clear. Strain it and save it for your needs. To make the hair blond, rub it on your hair in the morning and wrap your hair in a kerchief and at noon wash the head with ordinary lye in which was boiled 1 handful of pellitory of the wall. Dry it where you wish, by the fire or in the sun, and continue in this way until finally you see your hair white and blond. Also at the same time it will take on a most beautiful shine that lasts for a long time. Know that this blond color is used a great deal in and around Venice and happy is the lady who knows such a secret.... 44 To make the white hair of the head, beard or hair on the skin become dark brown. Take ordinary lye and wash the head and when it is completely dry, rub the hair, beard or hair on the skin with well-warmed oil of tartar with a sponge. Do this at least 2 or 3 times a day and in 3 or 4 days the hair will have changed color to brown and the color will last several days. This secret was used to please the lover of a spruced-up Venetian lady who was 60 years old and she used only this oil and her hair was very shining. If this secret does not seem to have produced the right color for hair or beard, in the last combing with a comb of lead, rub with oil of benzoin gum which will give it a sweet odor. This secret is to be held dear. It has been tested by me, Master Apothecary Andrea, many times. Another to make the hair or beard white. Take 1 and ½ handfuls each of flowers of mullein, French lavender, celandine and ashes of white grape vine and make lye and put 2 lb. of white soap cut finely into 8 lb. of lye and put it in a glass vessel in the sun for 20 days and each day stir it up with a stick so all is suspended. Then wet the hair with this many times with a sponge while standing in the sun. The hair will become most beautiful and lustrous by following this method of the great Venetian ladies. This is a secret that many ladies know. Another to make the hair become long, down to the ground. Take some maiden hair fern and dry it in the shade and make fine powder of it and put it in myrtle oil and when the hair is dry, rub the hair and the scalp with it. Do this several times and it will become long. It has been tested. To make the hair black when it is white. Take 1 ounce each of liquid storax, storax in canes, benzoin gum and sedge, ½ ounce each of cloves and orris root, and 1 lb. of oil of sweet almonds. Then take the benzoin gum, cloves, orris root and sedge and make them into fine powder and incorporate with the other things and distill them in a glass still on a slow fire and collect the liquor that arises and save it in a glass vessel. In the evening when you go to sleep, rub your hair or beard very well and wrap it in a linen cloth until morning. Then rub it with another dry cloth. Two times a week wash your head and when it is dry, rub it carefully. Continue this for several days and you will see it become dark, very dark, and every 2 months or more you can rub it to maintain it in that color and it will have a very good odor. Do it and this will succeed well for you.... 45 -------- [Page 81] To make gray hair dark. Take equal amounts of soft dark soap and quicklime and yellow litharge and incorporate them in the form of an unguent and with this rub the gray hair several times and it will become dark. Continue this rubbing according to how you see the need as it turns from being white to dark. Another for the aforesaid and also good. Take the juice of beets mixed with ashes made of chicken feathers and boil them together a while. Rub yourself with this in the evening when you go to sleep. Another to make gray hair red. Take the leaves and tips of the walnut tree when they are tender and pomegranate rind and distill water from them in a glass still. With this wet only your hair and do not touch the skin and continue for 15 days or more. This color will last more than a month and it will make the hair a beautiful red-brown color, clear and beautiful. Another to make the hair dark. Take earthworms and leaves of black figs, the amounts at your discretion, and parch them and make fine powder and incorporate it with oil of sweet almonds. Then rub the gray hair several times and it will become as dark and beautiful as you wish. Another to make the hair on the head or skin dark. Take leaves of the black fig tree in the month of May. Dry them in the shade and make a fine powder of them. Then take oil of camomile and make an unguent, incorporating it on the fire. Rub the hair on the head, skin or beard several times and it will become dark. Adding a little milk from a bitch makes it very good. By combing with a comb made of lead, smeared with juice of sage and oil of benzoin gum, it will become a beatiful black. Tested. Another method to make hair dark. Take 5 lb. of rain water, 2 ounces of yellow litharge made into powder, and 2 lb. of strong ashes that are carefully sieved. Put everything together and boil until it is reduced in half. Then let it cool and strain it carefully and with this decoction wet the hair, body hair or beard several times and the gray will become as it was in your youth. This has been tested. To make your hair or beard grow. Take some bees when they are inactive in the month of October and put them on an iron plate and put it on the burning embers to dry them. Parch them until you can make them into fine powder. Parch some linseed and make fine powder of it and take the same quantity that you want of each. Then have oil of Ligurian lizards, drowned alive in oil and boiled in a pot on the fire until they have fallen apart, and leave them in the sun for 15 to 20 days and this will be ready. Make lye with ashes of grape vine and boil in it a handful each of agrimony, climbing ivy and maiden hair fern. Then wash your head or beard where it is hairless with this lye at least 2 times a week and when it is dry rub the place of baldness with the oil. Then sprinkle on the powder like a spice. Do this anointing every evening and soon your hair, beard or body hair will regrow. What may have been falling out through sickness or baldness, as you begin to bathe it, will be falling out no more and soon will regrow. This has been tested and is approved. I give you the complete true information. Another to make your hair and beard grow. Take hens' eggs, in the quantity that you wish, and cook them in water so they become hard and take out the yolk from the center. Put the yolks in an iron frying pan and fry until the oil comes out. Then put this warm in a little sack and put it under the press and extract all of the substance that can come out. Take 2 horns and the roasted dung of a goat and make them into fine powder and mix all together. Rub the place where hair is needed and soon it will grow on the head, beard or body. -------- [Page 82] To make body hair, beard or hair fall out where you wish. Take 4 ounces of fresh quicklime and 1 ½ ounces of orpiment, both pulverized very finely, and put them in very strong lye. I say the prime ingredient is the lye with which soap is made. Put these in a little pot on a slow fire so it boils very slowly until it develops a little body. If you would like to know when it is cooked, dip in a duck feather and remove it at once and if the feather is bare it is cooked. Remove it from the fire and it will be made. Save it for your needs. When you would like to remove body hair, beard or hair from the head, first rub the place with oil of sweet almonds and you will not feel any burning. Then as soon as you have greased the spot, put thereon this composition and let it stay until you do start to feel it. Wash it away with tepid water and rub the irritated place with another unguent made in this way, viz: take pork fat, cut finely, and melt it on the fire and put in rose oil and the white of an egg and incorporate everything well together. Rub with this where you feel it and soon the irritation will pass away. Then wash with rose water and plantain water and soon it disappears where you felt it and in that place neither hair nor beard ever grows. This has been tested by me.... 46 Another to remove body hair or hair on the head. Take the root of the herb celandine and extract the juice and take a little cottonwool and wet it in this juice. Then wet the body hair or hair on the head that you want to remove and the hair will go away rapidly and if it returns, do it again one more time after which the hair will not return. Another to remove body hair. Take 2 drams each of colophony and new wax, 1 dram each of gum ammoniac, mastic and gall of goat, and mix everything together well. Rub the place that you want and let it stay on for a little while. Then wash it away. By doing this several times the hair will go away rapidly by itself. Another so that it will not return. Take the juice of climbing ivy and orpiment and ant eggs and strong vinegar at your discretion and incorporate them on a slow fire. Then rub it on, warm, and do this several times and the hair will go away and will not return. Also, only the ant eggs mingled with the milk of a bitch and juice of psyllium will do the same, so the hair will fall out soon. This is tested.... 47 Another to remove hair where you want. Take a flask of fresh urine and put therein a bowl of quicklime made into powder and boil it so it reduces in half. Then take 3 ounces of finely ground yellow orpiment and boil it for a bit. Put in one glass of juice of horse mint and ½ glass of strong vinegar and several ant eggs and let it boil a little, stirring it well and it will be made. Save it in a bottle and when you wish to use it, warm it up and rub where you want the hair removed and soon it will fall out and will not return for a long time. This has been tested. Another to remove hair where you wish. Take white henbane, ant eggs, orpiment and ivy gum, each at your discretion, and mix this powder with very strong vinegar in the form of an unguent and put it where you want a few times and you will see a wonderful result. Another if you do not wish hair to regrow. Take 2 ounces of ivy gum and 4 ounces of strong distilled vinegar and mix with a little Greek pitch, mastic, gum ammoniac and orpiment and incorporate this well. Rub it on and the hair will not grow back. -------- [Page 83] Water to remove body hair, warts, calluses and scabs. Take 2 lb. each of strong ashes of Turkey oak, well-burnt, and litharge, 1 lb. of quicklime, 6 drams of copper sulfate, 8 jugs of the strong lye that is the primary ingredient from which soap is made, and 1 dram of ammonium chloride. The things that are to be ground should be ground separately and put them all in the lye and boil it very slowly until it reduces so there remains only one jug, and it will be finished. Save it in a large glass vessel, covered so that it does not evaporate and it stays good always. Then use it at your pleasure, always bathing lightly and thoroughly only that exact spot that you wish to free from hair. Another, you can make powder of egg shells and bile from a bull and mix them. But first make the spot smooth with pumice and then it will go away. Another way, take some fresh horse manure and put it on for 10 days, changing it 3 times a day. Dilute nitric acid does the same, by leaving it on the wart, wetting it and doing this for 9 days, 2 or 3 times a day. To make a spot of white hair dark like leopard spots. Take 1 ounce of white litharge and 2 ounces of quicklime and 3 ladles of water and boil everything in a clean little pot on a slow fire until the material thickens. Then remove it from the fire and stir it well with a small stick and it will be made. Save it for your needs and when you want to use it, take a brush made of pig bristle and with this stain the hair where you wish to treat it and stain it well so it penetrates. Then let it dry in the sun and knock out the powder with a rod and you will see that spot of tan color. If you wish it darker, do it another time and it will be more or less dark according to your pleasure. This is a secret very well tested for things most beautiful to do, such as this spot of dark tan. This is the finest secret that I give you of this mixture for your hair or beard to make them dark tan. Remedies in several ways for the stomach that does not retain food. Take one or more quinces and cook them in very good white wine and then eat them before meals and it will do you much good. But first rub the top of the stomach with warm oil of mastic and take a slice of toasted bread and wet it in very strong vinegar and when it is warm put on a little powdered cloves and put this very warm on top of the stomach and bind it on and it will help greatly. Do it several times and it will cure. Another for the stomach that does not retain food. Take as many quinces as you want, peel them and cook them in very strong vinegar which is the best way and grind them in a mortar and put in a little well-ground mustard and incorporate with the quinces. Then put this warm on a linen cloth and put thereon powdered mastic and powdered cloves, each the same amount. It should be as warm as one can bear and put it on top of the stomach and soon it will give comfort so that the upset stomach will retain food. This is tested. Also you can do it in this way. Put some horse mint on a warm, clean brick and squirt good white wine on it. Then put thereon cumin and powdered mastic and put it on top of the stomach as warm as you can and you will feel improvement before it is all cold.. Another for distress from vomiting. Take 2 ounces of yeast from wheat, 1 dram each of cloves, mastic and myrrh and enough very strong vinegar to make a cataplasm for the stomach and put it warm on the stomach on a linen cloth as large as the stomach one hour before the meal. You should know that nothing so improves the stomach that does not retain food. It comforts it very wonderfully. Another for the distress of vomiting. Take ½ ounce each of oil of citron, rose oil, mastic oil, spikenard and mint oil, 1 dram each of cloves, mastic, mint, cinnamon, bran dust and red coral and 2 drams of wax. Mix and make an unguent and rub it warm on the stomach and you will cure quickly. It is true. -------- [Page 84] Distress from serious vomiting from the stomach. Take 3 drams each of fine mint, wormwood, laurel leaves, nettle, myrtle, dry roses, cypress berries, cumin and sandalwood, and 1 dram each of powdered coral, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, saffron, mastic and nutmeg, and ½ dram each of myrrh, lavender and sedge. All these things should be finely pulverized. Then take a slice of bread and toast it and dip this warm into 4 ounces of very strong white rose vinegar. Add 1 ounce each of oil of roses, of mastic and of citron and enough barley flour to thicken all of the above things and make a good plaster and put it as warm as can be borne on top of the stomach. Keep it there very warm and, through God's grace, soon the stomach will be cured. Unguent against vomiting and discharge from the stomach. Take 1 ounce each of mastic, oil of roses and oil of mint, ½ dram of frankincense, and ½ scruple each of fine dry mint, red coral, acacia, clay from Lemnos, and red roses. They should be cut so that all are chopped up and with wax make an unguent on the fire following the usual method and rub it warm on the stomach one hour before the meal. It will help greatly to retain food. Decoction against debility of the cold stomach. Take 1 handful each of wormwood, fine dry mint and pennyroyal, ½ dram each of lavender and camels' hay, 1 dram each of powdered cloves, galingale, cinnamon, mace and nutmeg and make a decoction in 8 lb. of pure water so that it is reduced in half. Then wet a sponge in this warm decoction and apply the expressed sponge very warm to the stomach. Do this several times to take away much of the cold so the stomach will be well restored. An ointment for the cold stomach. Take 1 ounce each of wormwood oil and lavender oil, 1 ounce of camomile oil and 4 grains by weight of powdered cloves, galingale, mace and nutmeg. Pulverize those that can be pulverized and with a little wax make an unguent with which the cold stomach should be rubbed one hour before the meal. Aromatic sachet to put on the cold stomach. Take 1 scruple each of fine dry mint, marjoram, rose and wormwood, and 6 grains each by weight of powdered cloves, nutmeg and bedstraw. Mix and pulverize coarsely and make a little sack which should be sprinkled with water of wormwood. This is applied tepid on the stomach. Keep it warm and it should continually touch the flesh. Usually all these 3 remedies are made for one who has great debility of the stomach through cold so that he retains food with difficulty. These remedies are very powerful. Another for vomiting from the stomach that spurns food. Take Armenian red clay and egg white and a little very strong vinegar and make a plaster of it. Then put it warm on top of the stomach and soon it will be comforted and will retain food. It makes the stomach good and makes it digest. Another to make a bad stomach good. Take 1 handful each of southernwood, rue, pennyroyal and fine mint, and a little honey and boil them in good white wine until they are well cooked. Then strain it and save it in a glass vessel for your needs. When in the morning you feel you have a bad stomach, drink 2 or 3 fingers of it warm which comforts the nerves greatly, clarifies and comforts the stomach and purges it. It also helps much in gout since one who eats this herb before and after a meal will not feel pain in the body during that day. It prevents swelling. This is true and tested. -------- [Page 85] Powder against indigestion from coldness of the stomach. Take 2 drams each of galingale, cassia wood, rhubarb, zedoary, lavender and willow gum and 1 dram each of cinnamon, ginger and cumin and 1 ounce of sugar and make a powder. Another powder for the stomach and it is a cure. Take 1 ounce of white tartar, ½ ounce of turbith gum, 1 ½ drams each of choice cinnamon and cloves, 1 scruple of prepared scammony and an appropriate amount of white sugar. Note that one does not take more of this powder than 1 or 1 ½ drams with broth of red chick peas cooked without oil and without salt or cooked in chicken broth. Take this with care. For those who cannot retain food. Take 2 parts of juice of fennel and 3 parts of honey and boil until it is thickened and give it to the sick person to drink in the morning and evening and he will be cured. To retain food, as above. Take wormwood and grind it with its stems and fry them in a frying pan with olive oil and with this warm anoint from the stomach all the way to the femur and tibia. Thereafter one should rest. Do this two or three times. Another for catarrh and cough of any kind. Take hyssop and dry the leaves in the sun and then make powder and eat this in the morning or drink it with wine or water while fasting up to the tierce. In this way you will be helped.... 48 Another for cough. Take 1 lb. of juice of red cabbage and boil it and skim it and take ½ lb. of skimmed and strained honey and put everything together to boil and put in 1 dram of saffron and 1 dram of tragacanth gum and boil all together until the juice is consumed. The amount of a bean is taken on an empty stomach and it should be allowed to melt in the mouth. Syrup for catarrh. Take 6 ounces of rose honey, 1 handful of dried hyssop and one nutmeg. First boil the hyssop with the nut in an amphora full of water and boil away a third part of the water. Then strain this water and take again about as much rose honey and boil again. Every morning take one cyathus, warmed.... 49 Most perfect oil for the stomach. Take 1 handful each of fine mint, fine marjoram, young thyme, young basil and sage and the same amount each of nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, mastic, cubeb, mace, galingale, cardamon and grains of paradise or, in place of them, sweet spices may be taken. Put everything in a pot and cook it on a bain marie. For stricture in the chest. Take 3 or 4 roots of fennel and as much parsley and a good fistful of clean barley and boil all these things until they are cooked and drink it when you go to sleep and it will help you greatly. For one who is not able to keep food on the stomach. Take 2 ounces of anise and 1 ounce each of fennel and caraway and boil them together. Early in the morning drink a spoonful and it will help you greatly. Best electuary for the stomach. Take the same amount each of gentian, cedar bark, laurel berries and nettle seeds. Put everything together and confect it with honey or sugar and make an electuary. Take a little in the morning and evening and it will give you a very good stomach. It has been tested. To stop vomiting. Take wormwood with vinegar and make a poultice and put it warm on the top of the stomach and it will help you greatly. -------- [Page 86] Confection for the upset stomach which comforts it greatly. Take 3 drams of cistus gum, 1 ounce each of nutmeg, cloves and wormwood, 3 ounces each of galingale and roses, 2 ½ ounces of the flowers of wild grape, ½ ounce each of red and white coral, 5 drams each of aloe wood, mastic and bedstraw and 1 ½ lb. of white sugar and make this powerful confection in the usual way. Take a dose early in the morning on an empty stomach. It will help you greatly to lighten the pain of the stomach and will give you a good appetite. Another for coldness of the stomach and distress in the chest and for dry cough and in flatulence and it improves the appetite. Take 1 dram each of peeled white ginger, cinnamon and basil, 2 ounces each of large dry figs and raisins and 1 ½ ounces of anise, and everything should be well ground. Boil all these things with very good vernaza or the best white wine until it is reduced one third. Make 4 jugs of it. Take 3 ounces of it early in the morning, tepid with a slice of toasted bread, making soup of it. Do this for several mornings and soon you will be cured. Another, an ointment for the upset stomach. Take 1 handful each of fine mint and young marjoram and grind them in a stone mortar and put them in a glass bottle and put therein 1 scruple each of ordinary oil, as old as you can find, powdered cloves and powdered mastic and cover it with parchment and leave it in the sun for 15 days. Then rub the top of the stomach with this composition, warm, and wrap it well with unwashed wool and this will cure you rapidly. Another for the seriously upset stomach. Take quicklime and the same amount of honey and make it in the form of a poultice and put this warm on the stomach and soon you will improve. Make juice from fine mint and drink it warm with powdered cloves and soon it will make a cure. Another for one whose stomach may not be able to digest and who may not have an appetite, put this salve on the stomach. Take 1 ounce of mastic, ½ ounce of bedstraw, 1 dram of a kind of aromatic rose and 1 scruple each of red sandalwood and ground coriander and make a salve with a little oil of mastic. Hold it on top of the stomach and it will help a great deal in digestion and in appetite. For one who may have severe coldness in the head. Take some ivy and prepare it and cook it in water and make lye of it and wash your head with it and do not wash too hard because you will make your head too warm and dried out. It makes the head warm rapidly and also takes away pain in the head. Put in a few ashes when you make this lye and soon you will be cured. Another to cure coldness of the head and every onset of catarrh. Take 2 ounces each of brandy and water from stalks of cabbage and incorporate them. Put a little in your hand and draw it up in the nose and do it 3 or 4 times a day and you will be cured. Then for 3 days in a row, once a day, take beet juice mixed with white hellebore so that it makes you sneeze. But before you do the above things, perfume your head with incense 3 times a week and you will be cured. Another for coldness of the stomach. Take hyssop, marjoram, sage and white wine and boil them in water. Then strain it and drink it warm and it will reduce the coldness. Another for tightness in the chest. Take one quatrino of root of good mistletoe and boil it well in water until it is well cooked and grind it and pass it through a sieve and with a pound of cleaned honey make an ordinary electuary. In the evening and morning take a spoonful of it and hold it in your mouth and it will dissolve and it will have a good effect. Lozenge for coldness of the stomach. Take 2 ½ ounces of the best cinnamon, 1 dram of galingale, ½ dram each of long pepper and ginger, 2 scruples of cardamon and mace, 3 drams of anise and 2 ounces of white sugar. Mix this and make a lozenge. For one who has the nose stopped up through coldness. Take flowers of rosemary and cook them and make perfume of it for the nose and soon you will be cured. Another. The water of fine marjoram drawn up in the nose is best. For the malady from the womb. Take berries of laurel and of ivy and make very fine powder and give it to drink with warm good white wine. She should stay in bed very warm to sweat and soon you will cure her. -------- [Page 87] Electuary against every distress of the stomach and to purge bad humors. Take cinnamon, ginger, cloves, galingale, rhubarb, Celtic spikenard, scammony, seeds of rue, anise, fennel and celery, each at your discretion, and all these should be pulverized very finely. Then confect them with boiled honey in the form of an electuary. Take this before and after a meal and it will help you greatly for distress of the stomach caused by bad humors. It is very good. Another for pain in the stomach. Take 1 handful each of camomile, sweet violets, roses and bran and boil them in good white wine until it reduces in half. Then put these herbs on the stomach and on the kidneys on both sides and they should be as warm as can be borne and it will help you greatly. Then take agrimony and grind it and incorporate it with an egg and eat this warm and you will be cured. Another for weakness of the stomach. Take 1 dram of camels' hay, 1 ounce each of dry wormwood, mint and feverfew, 1 ounce each of mastic oil, quince oil and lavender oil and one glass of fragrant wine. Boil everything together until the wine has evaporated. Then filter it and add 3 drams each of the kind of diarodon from Abatos and aromatic roses and with sufficient white wax make a liniment. Rub the top of the stomach, warm, morning and evening and soon you will be cured.... 50 Another for the pain in the stomach. Take one glass each of juice of wormwood and of southernwood or take 1 handful of each herb and boil these in 4 glasses of malvasia or in other good white wine and oil of camomile or equivalent. Put everything in a pot to boil on the fire without steaming until it reduces two thirds. When your composition is cooked, strain it. Then take 2 ounces each of male incense and mastic and powder them. Put in these powders and incorporate them well. Save it in a glass vessel, well covered. Rub the top of the stomach with this when it is very warm and keep it warm and soon you will be cured. Eat your food well cooked. If you drink some warm juice of agrimony it will soon lift the pain in the stomach. Another for pain in the stomach. Take saffron, pepper, cinnamon and laurel berries, each at your discretion, and make very fine powder of them and incorporate them together. Take one spoonful of honey and one of this powder and mix them. Then mix it with half a glass of good white wine and give it warm in the morning in the form of a syrup and soon it will cure. This has been tested. Another for pain in the stomach. Take myrrh and powder it as best you can and put it in a glass of good white wine and drink it warm. You should take a spoonful of the powder. Stay warm in bed and at the end of half an hour you will be freed and do not fail to do this because it is the way to health. Also take the herb water germander and make 2 pancakes and eat these warm in the morning early and soon you will be cured. Another for pain in the stomach caused by cold. Take wormwood cooked in ordinary oil and rub the stomach repeatedly with this warm oil and put on warm cloths, and soon you will be cured. Do not touch the liver. Also rubbing oil of laurel berries on the stomach helps it greatly. Drinking the powdered berries with warm red wine may cure it quickly. This helps greatly in sickness of the womb. It is tested. This powder makes a good stomach and good breath and opens up the chest. Take 1 dram of long pepper, 1 ½ drams each of ginger, cinnamon and cloves, ½ dram of crocus, 3 drams of roasted sponge and 2 egg yolks and all should be powdered. Mix all together and then put it to dry in the oven and make fine powder. The infirm one should take a little every morning with a fresh egg and soon the stomach will become good and the breath good and the chest is expanded wonderfully. -------- [Page 88] Pills for the malady from the womb. Take 1 ounce each of musk, Roman pellitory, henbane, crocus, lavender and round pepper, ½ ounce each of good opium and white poppy and 4 ounces of Persian filone . All these things should be made into fine powder and incorporated together carefully in your bronze mortar. Make the firm dough into pills. In the evening when you go to bed take one, and the second evening 2, and the third evening 3, and soon the pain of the stomach will go away. Be careful that the stomach is not upset by bad things. Watch that you do not eat those things that are difficult for the stomach such as pork meat and chew your foods well and you will be cured.... 51 Unguent for the stomach. Another for stricture of the stomach. Take 1 dram each of oil of turpentine, of lily and of sweet almond, violets, mucilage, fenugreek, linseed, hyssop, marrow of ox shin bones, human fat and oil of spikenard, 4 drams each of powdered incense, barley flour, laurel berries, 2 drams each of saffron and butter and a little clean wax and make powder of those things that need it. Compound them all together in a crucible on a slow fire and make an unguent in the usual way. In the evening when you go to sleep, warm it and rub the top of the stomach and put on a piece of warm wool. Do this oiling every day and through God's grace soon you will be cured. Take care of yourself, eating little and that well cooked and well chewed, and stay warm. Another for stricture of the stomach and for cough. Take dry figs and hyssop and pound them together and boil with raw honey. Then in the morning take a little of it, drinking it in any way, and make it warm as you can so it works rapidly. Do this for several days and it will make you well. Another for stricture of the chest. Take 4 dry figs and add some mustard seeds and licorice seeds and cook them in white wine and press them and drink the wine and soon you will be cured. It has been tested. For the malady from the womb and for the sickness of pregnancy in women. Take 3 ounces each of old ordinary oil and oil of camomile, one soldo each of powdered mastic and male incense, 2 scruples of clean wax and butter and a handful of the herb ground pine dried in the shade and made into fine powder. Add a root of greater comfrey, cut finely, and ½ glass of vinegar. Then boil everything in a clean pot on a slow fire until it is reduced 1/3 and it will be made. Save it for your needs and when you want to treat the stomach, warm it and rub it. It should be well wrapped with warm cloths.. Also rubbing with this mixture cold is valuable in sciatica and in kidney pain and you will soon cure these illnesses.... 52 Another for the malady from the womb and in pregnancy. Take some cumin and boil it with wine until it is reduced 1/3 and then strain it and save it. Give 2 fingers of it to the patient to drink in the morning early in the form of a warm syrup and she will be cured rapidly. Also you may do this for ladies with illness in pregnancy. For sickness with sharp pain in the stomach and severe tenesmus. In the evening when you go to sleep, rub the stomach with rose oil that should be very warm, rubbing downward very well and put thereon a warm cloth. While you rub downward, you or another who rubs you, says this prayer 3 times for 3 mornings in a row. First say the Pater Noster and then say, viz: “Saint Sixtus was not able to walk to Jesus Christ on the way to meet Him. Christ said to Saint Sixtus, 'What is wrong, Saint Sixtus, that you are so troubled?' 'I am ill from a sharp pain, so I am not able to walk.' Then Christ said to the sharp pain that it should go from him into the sea and nevermore return.” In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. You should do this rubbing confidently and closely with the prayer for great pain of the stomach and very soon you will cure. This has been tested by me and by others. Another for the tightness in the chest through catarrh. Take one glass of water and put it in a little pot and put therein 1/3 part of clean barley flour and in a little piece of linen put pieces of fine cinnamon and as much grated licorice and boil this slowly. Skim it well and boil it until one glass remains. Then strain it through a sieve and add well-ground almonds with 1 ounce of sugar and again make it boil. In the morning at dawn take it in the form of a syrup for 40 mornings and you will be cured. It has been tested. -------- [Page 89] For the digestion in the stomach. Take the root of lappola , that is ground furze, and clean it carefully and scrape it well and separate the center and take the softer part and eat that with salt and pepper before the meal and it will warm up the stomach and comfort it completely, helping you digest without difficulty.... 53 Another to help the stomach of one who has lost appetite. Take 6 to 8 grains of pepper and cut each grain in 2 or 3 parts. Do not crush them; it is better so. In the evening infuse it in two fingers of racese wine or other great wine like corso or malvasia. Early in the morning drink it and swallow the pepper and rest for a while or walk in a closed room for 2 hours and you will feel movement in your body and a good stomach. Do this for 3 mornings in a row and you will be cured.... 54 Another to provoke the appetite. Take 2 ounces each of sumac, acacia, mastic and roses and to these add oil and wax enough to make a poultice and put it warm on the top of the stomach and as the stomach is warmed your appetite will return at once. *To make the stomach good and to cure headache. Take well-cleaned roots of marsh mallow and cook them throughly in water. Then grind up pistachios to make ½ lb. and take ½ lb. of Venice turpentine and recook everything together. Then save it in a vessel for your needs. In the morning take an amount the size of a nut and it will give you a very good stomach. It is tested. Dominick.... 55 Best remedy for dry cough. Take 1 ounce of ground licorice and 12 dry figs and 2 ounces of barley sugar and boil these things in a flask of very good white wine until it reduces 1/3. Then strain it and put therein a little tragacanth. Drink this beverage warm and, by continuing it, you will soon be cured of the cough. Also it cleans out your chest. This has been tested. Another for the new or old cough. Take some gum that forms as tears on cherry trees and dissolve it with good wine and a little water and heat it and drink it in the form of a syrup. Keep yourself warm. That wine cures every old or new cough when you drink it and rest. Another, an electuary for cough. Take seeds of watercress, myrrh and clean honey and compound them in the form of an electuary. In the evening give it to the patient and soon he will be cured. The best remedy for stricture of the chest and heavy cough. Take 6 ounces of dry, fat figs and hyssop leaves dried in the shade and made into fine powder, and cut the figs finely. Then take 2 lbs. of honey and put these things together and boil and skim it very well. When it is cooked, strain it carefully and it will be made. Save it for your needs. In the evening, eat very little and you will be able to take an ounce of it. In the morning take a little more and it should be warm. Soon it will work well and it will help you a great deal. For the heavy cough make this beverage without fail. Take clean barley flour and cook it in a little pot with a little water so that it is a broth and put therein 1 ounce of clean honey and incorporate well. Then empty this liquid into a bowl and put in enough sugar and make it as warm as the patient can drink it and soon he will be cured. If he has a great cough give him a bowl of it to drink also in the evening. This beverage matures the coldness that is in the stomach so it makes you spit out a large amount through the mouth. Be the person young or old, he will soon be cured. The body and the head should be kept warm. Drink white wine and eat some licorice and soon you will be free of the cough. Another for the man or woman who may be chilled. Take old male pork fat and ordinary oil and chicken fat, each at your discretion, and a little saffron. First dissolve the fats and strain them. Then put in the oil and the saffron and incorporate them well on a slow fire. Rub the top of the stomach and the soles of the feet with this warm oil. By keeping the stomach and all of the body warm you will soon cure. It is tested. Another for flatulence from the stomach. Take parsley and rue and make juice of them and drink a glass of it and soon you will be cured. Remedy for stomach pain. Take 3 ounces each of juice of mint and of rue. Make it hot and drink it and the pain goes away at once. Another for the above pain of the stomach. Take gentian root and cook it in good white wine and eat the root and drink the wine and it will help you greatly in stomach pain. -------- [Page 90] Most effective oil for pain of pleurisy, sickness in the womb, colic pain, retracted nerves and for old pains. Take the oldest light olive oil that can be had. Then take a flask or bottle according to the quantity that you want to make and nearly fill it with true cyclamen flowers. If you can get them, those from the mountain are better. Fill the flask that has the flowers with the oil. Boil it for one hour on a bain marie and let it cool. Then leave it in the sun for a month, well covered, and it will be made. Save it because it is always good, but the older the better. When you want to use it, make it very warm for all infirmities and wrap with warm cloths. Do not fail to rub 2 times a day and when you rub for the pain of pleurisy, rub the place that hurts. The oil should be very warm, as hot as can be borne, and rub 3 or 4 times following the pain or rub along the back, keeping it warm. Blood may be drawn from the sick person as needed. Do not drink wine, but eat bread soup without salt and do not eat heavy things or things weakening and cooling and eat little. Use one or more enemas so that the body is cleared. With these and other good remedies, with the aid of God, soon you will be cured. Know that this oil has been tested for all these infirmities. This is one of the most precious oils among all other treasures. There is not found another like it that can be put among the balsams. Whoever has this oil near him will never be a poor man because it has been proved by use. Once in the case of a woman, a drop of this oil fell on her by chance. It was on her private parts and miraculously cured her, almost a thing not to be believed, but it is true. Another to cure the pain of pleurisy, a most healing remedy. Take half a handful of the herb bear's claw, and 1 handful of the herb wild wormwood. Heat a fire shovel on the fire or a frying pan and put the herbs to soften, squirting them with wine or with the urine of a little child. Then put this herb mixture, as warm as one can stand, on the painful pleurisy and follow the pain where it goes with this poultice, always very warm, and as the pain starts to leave, this is a good sign of a cure, through God's grace. But first draw blood from the side where the pain is. The patient should not drink wine and should rest, stay warm and you will cure him. He should eat bread soup without salt and with boiled water or with barley and nothing else. Perfect remedy for the illness of pleurisy. Take flowers of red poppy and dry them in the shade and make very fine powder of them. Then take 2 parts of this powder to one part of fine powder of hazelnut shells and give it to the patient to drink with a little cinnamon with warm broth or water distilled from camomile. First draw blood from the arm where the pain is and be careful what is eaten and soon it will be cured. Another very good remedy for pain of pleurisy. Take camomile and boil it with water until it is reduced one third. Then drink this water warm and put the herb in the form of a plaster as warm as one can stand on the pain and keep it warm. By doing this and observing the rules given above, through God's grace, soon it will be cured. Another for pain in the chest. Take linseed and fenugreek, cut finely, and bring them to a boil and throw away that water and add a little more water and a little butter and let it boil and take the fat from it and heat it and with it rub the painful place and you will cure. For the best remedy, take blood from the common vein where the pain is. Then take dry figs and grind them with fat and oil of camomile and put this on the pain in the form of a warm poultice. Another to cure pain in the chest. Take a greengage apple and cut away all the center and make it in the form of a cup. Then put therein a little male incense made into fine powder and cook it on the grill. Give it to the patient to eat and soon, through God's grace, he will be better. It has been tested. -------- [Page 91] For the sickness of pleurisy, very true and tested. Take a quantity of red poppy and dry it in the shade and make very fine powder and save it for your needs, and may God let one escape that need. Take a spoonful of this powder and put it in a glass with 2 ½ ounces of very warm water of camomile and give it to the patient to swallow all at one time. In a short time it will help him. Do not neglect drawing blood from his arm and making there an ordinary cut. He may eat bread soup without salt and may drink barley water. He should stay warm with low light and little speech because this sickness is very dangerous and goes through 4 changes where it lies between life and death. These are, from the start, at 3 days, at 5, at 7 and at 9 days. If he survives for 9 days you will have good hope of health, with God's grace, if he is treated during those days in which he needs good care. Then from time to time he will be able to broaden his life but should not drink wine soon. In this way you will save him with good care and good remedies and quickly. Do not doubt that he will soon be cured. Another for the pain of pleurisy. Take mallow, fenugreek, linseed, wheat and butter and mix them together and make it very warm and put it in the form of a poultice on the pain and you will help the pleurisy greatly. Another for the pain of pleurisy and to purge the stomach. Take one and a half handfuls each of rue, southernwood, pennyroyal, mint and hyssop and extract juice and drink a little warm in the morning and the evening and it will help you considerably. Say 3 times over the pain in the chest, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord + + +' with 3 Pater Noster. For coldness of the stomach and the suffering it causes. Take white bread made of wheat as soon as it is removed from the oven and, still warm, remove all the crust and put the loaf to soak in the juice of celery. When it is well soaked, reheat it. Then press out the juice and put this warm loaf on the stomach and keep it warm. Do this 2 or 3 times and soon you will cure. It is tested. To improve digestion. Take honey and ground pepper and mix them on a slow fire. In the morning and also during the day, take a little of this by mouth and it will comfort your stomach and will make you digest food well and you will eat with appetite. For one who may have asthma and tightness in the chest. Take the root of tamarisk, washed and very clean, and cut it in fine slices and eat it before meals in the morning and the evening. Likewise, make a decoction of it and use this to drink and it will help you greatly. In all the ways that you eat it, it will be very good to help you recover your breath with greater ease and without harm to your body. Be careful in your way of life and especially keep from anything restricting and by keeping the stomach warm, through God's grace, you will be strengthened. Another. Hyssop, tamarisk, burnet saxifrage, maiden hair fern, root of sea holly and fennel, each as you please, and distill this and drink this water. It is useful for asthma. Very good remedy for sickness of pregnancy. Take 3 ounces each of galbanum gum, and opopanax gum, 1 ounce of male incense, 6 drams each of cinnamon and cloves and 2 drams each of nutmeg and musk. Grind those which can be ground and make pills with white wine and give 3 to 5 each time and, because they are harmless, give it at any hour and it will cure rapidly. -------- [Page 92] For sickness in pregnancy and malady from the womb. Take a pine cone, fresh or dry, that has within it pine seeds and grate it and grind it very finely and in the evening give a spoonful of it in warm broth or white wine to the woman when she goes to sleep and, if she arises early, also early in the morning, although that is not important. And if she lacks a strong digestion caused by malady from the womb give her a good spoonful, warm, in the morning with warm wine or chicken broth. She should stay warm and take this powder when she feels distress because it acts rapidly. It has been tested by me for both men and women and especially it has worked wonderfully in nuns. Most approved remedy for pleurisy. Take some shells of wild hazel nuts and make very fine powder of them and give a good spoonful to the patient with a pain in the chest to drink with chicken broth or an appropriate water for 2 or 3 mornings. It should be warm. This powder has this property that it breaks those blisters of blood that gather around the heart. But first draw blood following the usual method. The patient should not drink wine, stay warm and you will cure him. Also the tooth of a wild boar, that is the tusk, filed and finely ground, and given to drink with a little linseed oil does the same. Take 1 ounce of linseed oil with a little ground tusk and boil it and give it to drink. It may cure the pleurisy soon. It has been tested. For sickness in pregnancy caused by coldness. Take 1 lb. each of juice of Mercury's herb, of borage and pellitory and 6 ounces of malvasia or very good white wine. Put everything together and boil until it reduces in half. Then strain it carefully and divide it in 7 parts and give it to the patient to drink in the morning in the form of a warm syrup. Before she takes it, first she should urinate and empty the body if she can and you will see a wonderful effect that the pain will leave and she will give birth at her time. Another for the sickness from the womb and in pregnancy. Say these words 3 times in the left ear in the morning early, viz., 'May I be accepted as a vessel of the Lord and I will call for help in the name of the Lord.' Say 'Amen' 5 times in honor of the 5 wounds of Jesus Christ and say it for 3 mornings with 3 Pater Noster and you will cure her rapidly. Another, the best beverage for sickness in pregnancy. Take ½ ounce each of fresh coriander and laurel berries and 2 nutmegs and grind them all into very fine powder. When the woman feels pain within the womb she should take a spoonful of this powder with warm broth, 2 or 3 times a day. Also she should take it with a fresh egg and soon you will cure the pains of pregnancy. Furthermore, if you take the powdered the seed pods of laurel and mix the powder with wine, it will help greatly in the sickness of pregnancy. Another, a fomentation for sickness of pregnancy. Take some dry pine cones and make a fomentation of it from below, keeping it well covered so that the vapors are not lost and it will be of great help to you. Electuary for the stomach and to aid the digestion. Take 4 ounces each of galingale and ginger, 2 ounces each of nutmeg, cloves, cut and cleaned licorice, 1 ounce each of mace and cinnamon, ½ ounce each of long pepper, grains of paradise and cardamon, and 1 lb. of cleaned honey and make these things into fine powder and then incorporate everything together and you will make a perfect electuary of it. Then every morning take 2 ounces of it, more or less according to how you feel the need, and do this 2 hours before a meal and it will give you a very good stomach, comforting the digestion and your feelings. -------- [Page 93] The 4 digestions that the stomach makes of food. First note that if you drink brandy in the morning and the evening with wine, it removes the phlegm from the top of the stomach and improves the appetite, soothes the stomach and cures bad breath, as much through an effect on the stomach as through the action on the brain. Note that the first digestion is made in the stomach and it digests the food and the substance of the food is passed to the liver through certain veins which transfer the mixture. The second digestion is made in the liver and the substance which the stomach has sent to the liver is converted into blood and the liver sends it through the veins. The third digestion is done in the veins which nourishes the limbs. The fourth digestion is made in the limbs through the capillary veins. The excess of the first digestion is the feces which nature sends to the bowels. The excess of the second digestion is urine which the liver sends to the kidneys. Then the kidneys distill it to the bladder through 2 pores which come from the ureters which are suspended in the flesh. The excess of the third digestion which is made through the veins is sweat. The excess of the fourth digestion is the nails and the hair. This is enough for you to know about the secrets of digestion of the stomach. Prayer against sickness during pregnancy. 'Lord God of the angels before whom the angels stand in great fear, + Amen + Amen + Amen +. Womb of sorrow, womb of flesh, womb of blood and pain, may it go away. It is calling unendingly, just as the pig roars, as the bear murmurs, as the deer jumps. I implore you, womb of sorrow, by the Holy Virgin Mary that you gather up your strands and return to your place where God brought you without hurt to the body. I implore you, womb of sorrow, by the seat of majesty and the throne of heaven. I implore you, womb of sorrow, by the God who causes rain and drops to fall in the days of the world. I implore you, womb of sorrow, by the God who was crucified and his side transfixed with a spear and from his side came blood and water. I implore you, womb of sorrow, by the 9 levels of angels and by the 12 apostles and by the thousand martyrs and confessors and also the virgins and by the four rivers of Paradise, Phison, Tigris, Euphrates and the River Jordan, that flow from Eden. I swear to you by the blessed Mary for health to make your servant well who is not able to continue. Amen + Amen + Amen + Agios + Agios + Agios + Otheos + Otheos + Otheos + Sanctus + Sanctus + Sanctus + Hervanus + Serphanus + et Qiriacus + End. ' First make the sign of the cross, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. Know that this prayer has aided many gentlewomen who have read it every morning and then have carried this continually near them and have stayed free always so the womb has never given them sorrow, through the power of God.... 57 -------- [Page 94] For the woman whom pregnancy makes ill and to restore her to health. Take fine mint, hyssop, corn poppy that is red poppy, each the same amount, and make fine powder of them and save it for your needs. When you want to use it take one ounce or an ounce and a half of this powder and put therein 3 scruples of ground saffron and incorporate everything together. Then give it to the sick one in a fresh egg. She should take it early in the morning and should stay in repose one hour or more. But in the evening, rub all the body with 1/2 ounce each of oil of camomile and of white lily, 1 ounce of oil of berries and 10 threads of saffron. Make it very warm and rub the body and wrap on a warm cloth and she should stay warm. In the morning she should take an egg as described above and soon it will make her contented and without pain. If this does not work the first time, do it again the following evening and you will have the desired result. Another for sickness of pregnancy when there is pain. Take laurel berries and make fine powder and give the patient a spoonful in warm red wine in the evening or the morning, according to the hour when the pain assaults her. When she takes it, she should stay in repose. Do this once or twice or more, according to when you find that it works, and soon you will cure her. Make a fomentation under the nose with an old shoe and soon you will cure the sickness of pregnancy. Another, a prayer against sickness of pregnancy, viz. 'I implore you, womb of flesh and blood, womb of sorrow, by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen, by the seat of majesty, by the holy birth and by all the glory of the heavens, by the day of judgment and by the four rivers of Paradise, the Jordan, Phison, Tigris and Euphrates, return to your correct place in the servant [name]of God, and by the blessed Virgin Mary. The Lord disposes. Without pain, the spirit overcomes, the spirit rules + Amen. + So be it. + So be it. + So be it. +, in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.' Another to cause the period in women and also for one who may have a fever. Take lesser comfrey and grind it. Then put it in a little sack, as long and wide as a finger, and carefully put it in the vagina in the evening when you go to sleep and it will cause the period wonderfully. Eat some pennyroyal and other aromatic herbs for 8 days and soon you will be cured. It is true. Another to cause menstruation immediately in some women. Take one dram each of musk, sweet flag and celery seed and pulverize it well and at night when the woman goes to sleep she should take half with warm wine. From the other half make a suppository to be put in the vulva of the woman and menstruation will start. It is tested. Another to cause the period. Take the herb savin and extract juice and give it warm to the woman to drink and the period will come. Also take equal amounts of powdered savory and powdered creeping thyme and incorporate with clean honey. She should drink it with warm wine. It provokes the period rapidly in the ordinary way. Another to cause the period. Take water distilled from orris root. She should drink it with sugar. It cleans sickness within the womb. Also oil of iris is effective if the womb has come out. This can be resolved in some women if they eat 6 drams of this oil and when there is sickness in the womb it will be cured. Give 5 pills in the evening and it will do her good. Another to cause the period of women immediately. Take 3 tips of Mercury's herb and 3 of mallow and boil them in a jug of good white wine and put therein as much yeast from wheat as a chestnut and 2 scruples of whole saffron and boil it for ½ hour. Then strain it and press it well and give 4 ounces of it to drink in the form of a syrup early in the morning. In the evening wash between the legs downward with lye boiled with roses and camomile and in the same evening rub the body with a mixture of 2 ounces of laurel oil, 1 ounce each of oil of lily and camomile and 2 scruples of saffron and keep it warm and soon her period will come. Do this in the rising of the moon in its first, second, third or fourth quarter. -------- [Page 95] If it is thought that one is tubercular, use this powder. Take some large snails in shells in whatever amount you want, and wash them carefully and thoroughly. Then cook them in good vernaza or the best white wine. Remove them from the shell and dry them in the oven in a pan so they do not brown and make very fine powder of them and save them in a clean bottle. Then give a spoonful to the patient to drink with this water, that is with 2 ounces each of water of chicory, of borage and of betony. Give it tepid in the morning at dawn in the form of a syrup. The patient should sleep thereafter for at least an hour. Continue this for 9 mornings and it will give them much sustinance and will also help cure them. Another to cure one who may have refractory tuberculosis. Take one or more glasses of juice of root of elecampane and a glass of purified honey and put them together in a clean little pot on a slow fire and when you have it well skimmed and cleaned, put in a glass of the above-described powder of snails and mix it well and make it in the form of an electuary and save this. Give a spoonful of it to the patient to eat in the evening when he goes to sleep and also in the morning when he gets up. By continuing it for a few days you will see the wonderful result that there will be a rapid improvement. Another to aid in curing one who has developed consumption. Take some goat's milk and put therein some powder made from tamarind or cook some finely-cut tamarind in the milk. Then strain it and fill a bowl and put in a spoonful of the above-described powder of snails and give it warm to the patient to drink early in the morning. Then he should sleep for an hour or repose as long. Continue this beverage for a least 15 days and soon you will see great improvement. Another electuary to cure refractory tuberculosis. It is tested. Take ½ ounce each of cinnamon, cardamon, ginger and cloves and 4 scruples of saffron and some of the powder of snails described above and powder made from turtles in the way that you made that of snails and take one full bowl of each, and one bowl each of flowers of rosemary and borage, ½ bowl each of flowers of broom, of nettle and of mallow, and 1 handful each of white roses, blue violets, rosemary, hyssop, sage, marjoram, mint, melissa and root of couch grass, half a handful each of white dittany, horehound, celery, southernwood and rue, and root of elecampane, scabiosa and root of asparagus, each at your discretion, and ½ ounce of laurel berries. All these things, except the flowers, should be dried in the shade, not in the sun, and made into very fine powder. You can make more or less of it, according to how difficult it seems to you to make it. Use this powder at your discretion. Then take 1 lb. of fresh butter and 2 lb. of clarified and clean honey. Put the honey and butter on a slow fire and when it is well clarified put therein the powder described above, little by little, while it boils and incorporate it well. At the end put in the powdered spices with the saffron and mix them very well on a slow fire until it becomes in the form of an electuary and save this in a suitable bottle in a cool place. Give the patient one dose in the evening when he goes to sleep and also in the morning and he should rest for one hour. By continuing this electuary for one who needs it, soon he will feel and improvement and increase in strength. He should take care of how he lives, keeping to a good life and not being intemperate. That will be sufficient for you to cure him with the remedies described above. -------- [Page 96] Oil for the stomach to cure one who has tuberculosis. Another oil to rub the stomach of one who has become thin with consumptive illness and to cure quickly. Take 1 dram each of flowers of rue, of dill, of marsh mallow and of broom and put them in a pot in the oldest ordinary oil that you can find and cover it with parchment. Boil it for one hour on a bain marie and let it cool there. Then let it stay in the sun for 10 to 15 days and it will be made, the most perfect oil for this consumptive illness. Take a little of it in a small bowl and make it very warm and rub the stomach well in the evening and morning and put on a stupe of tow with a warm cloth on it and wrap it well so that it stays warm. This application will help greatly with the remedies given above. After lunch do some exercise so the blood is rewarmed and, with the aid of God, and refraining from anything intemperate, you will be better and better and will be cured of this illness and will become as fat and young as before, through God's grace. Also if you sometimes use the following beverage, it will help you greatly in the above sickness. Take clean roots couch grass and rosemary, each the same amount, and make very fine powder and take one spoonful and drink it with goat's milk with a little purified honey added. Do this in the evening or in the morning and it will greatly help the stomach. These are tested. -------- [Page 97] Bath for warming the womb. Take 1 handful each of mugwort, savin, red madder and flowers of camomile, ½ handful each of wormwood, mountain mint and oregano, ½ ounce each of sweet flag, lavender, camels' hay, rue, anise and Sicilian fennel. Make a decoction of all of these herbs in 4 pails of water and boil until it reduces one third part or one half. Then put it in a basin or other vessel made so the woman can sit there for warming below and while she is on the bath, one can make her a sachet with these herbs to smell them there and she should stay there for a good hour. She should continue this bathing according to how she sees the need for it. Bath for cooling the womb. Take 1 handful each of leaves of endive, lettuce, red roses, flowers of water lily, white poppy, teasel, leaves of willow and leaves of white grapes, ½ handful each of mallow and marsh mallow with the roots and sweet violets, and ½ ounce each of seeds of melon, of lettuce, of squash, of endive, of citron and of escarole. Mix and make a decoction with 4 pails of water and boil until it reduces one third. Then with the tepid bath in a suitable vessel and with the stomach empty, the woman should sit uncovered, without clothing, so that she does not sweat. She should stay for an hour. It will be necessary for her to continue this for many days. This bath with other things will help greatly to discharge part of the warm nature caused in the womb. Bath or poultice for cooling the kidneys. Take 2 ounces each of rose water, water of endive, of lettuce, of house leek, of stone crop, of water lily and of squash, 3 grains of camphor and 3 egg whites well beaten in these waters. Then, with this warm, bathe the kidneys with a sponge or linen cloth, continually bathing the kidneys for the space of an hour, more or less, according to how you feel. Do this in the evening and the morning and soon you will feel better. Then rub yourself with the following unguent, viz., take 2 ounces each of oil of rose and violet, 1 dram each of red and yellow sandalwood, 1 ½ drams of vinegar and 4 grains of camphor and incorporate with wax on a slow fire. When you have removed it from the fire, put in the camphor and not sooner, because everything might go up in smoke. Mix it until it becomes cold and the unguent will be made for cooling the heated kidneys. Use this unguent after the bath and soon it will free you from every pain of the kidneys. For one who may be tubercular. Take 5 large dry figs, ½ ounce each of sweet fennel, maiden hair fern, celery seed and licorice, and half a handful of hyssop and horehound. Grind all these things coarsely and boil them in 30 lbs. of cistern water until it is reduced in half. Then strain it and save it and take 3 ounces in the form of a syrup in the morning and it will help you greatly. -------- [Page 98] For dropsy caused by the spleen. Take some leaves of dwarf elder that grows around ditches, that is wild elder. Dry it and make fine powder. Then take some rose honey and incorporate this powder well and make 3 pills and take them in the evening when you go to sleep. This will make you go from the body. Then you should make oil from its berries which should be well ripened. Take the oldest olive oil you can find and put in it these seeds that are very ripe and boil them in a glass vessel on a bain marie for an hour. Put it in the sun for a whole month. After you have taken these pills, rub the body in the evening with this oil and it should be very warm. Do this rubbing every evening and especially on the hard spleen which is responsible for the serious dropsy. Do that several times with this ointment and if it is not helping you, do this other method. Take some of the ground leaves of dwarf elder and make juice of it and heat it very warm and with this rub the body and you will see a wonderful result. Also bathing areas of warm gout several times with the juice of this herb will make the great pain cease. But be advised that in the evening that you take the pills, do not rub the body, but in the morning you can rub with the warm juice and you will feel the greatest benefit. Note that on the day you rub the hard spleen you may want to take 3 pills of colchicum for 4 days before the moon is rising and this will do you very great service. Also take those elder berries that are very ripe, dry them and make powder. Use it to eat like a spice in soup. Also eat a large amount of lemon balm which is well suited to put our body in order, that is the spleen receives the above things for its health. Using the remedy described above and keeping youself from many adverse things and, with the aid of God and also with good self-governance, you will be cured quickly, because many persons who use this medication are completely cured of the blockage of dropsy and the spleen is returned to its good state. Most approved remedy for the person who may be swollen with dropsy. Take orris roots, as many as you wish, clean them and wash them well, cut them and grind them in the mortar. Put them in a pot and put therein a little water and also a little vinegar and heat it well until it comes to a boil. Then put it again in the mortar with a little of the broth and regrind it very well. Press it and extract as much juice as you can with the press. Strain it and take 6 ounces of this juice and 2 ½ ounces of raw honey and put them together and return it to the fire in a little pot. Make it barely start to boil and skim it well. Then strain it again, warm, through fine cloth and save it for your needs. When you want to give it to the swollen patient, give him 2 ½ ounces as a warm syrup for 3 mornings in a row. He should stay in bed in repose with enough covers on his back to sweat and when he is sweating, rub him thoroughly and let him sweat. Soon there will be a bowel movement. He should not eat before there are at least 2 bowel movements from the body. Then he should eat lightly and little and well cooked and not eat any fruit nor other watery things, nor sour things and, through God's grace, soon you will cure because this has been tested many times and through God's grace people are cured. -------- [Page 99] For blockage and swelling. Take 16 lb. of malvasia or good, lively white wine and put therein 1 handful each of these herbs: horehound, sage, hyssop, fennel, endive and bugloss and put everything in a clean vessel without odor and boil it until it reduces in half. Then strain it and press the herbs in the little press and extract the substance, incorporating it with the wine. Then put it again in the pot and put in 6 ounces of clean honey and reboil it for a quarter of an hour. Strain it again so it is very clear. Save it in a glass flask, well covered, in a cool place for your needs. In the morning give the patient 6 ounces to drink as a warm syrup and put in one-half tablespoon of very fine powder of tartar from white wine. Do this for 8 to 10 mornings in a row. Then stay in bed to sweat. Dry yourself very well. Afterward get wrapped in a robe and walk in the room so that the blood is rewarmed and eat when you feel some appetite. Eat things good for you and well cooked. Drink little and stay warm. Continue with this beverage as described and soon, with God's grace, you will be cured. This has been tested by many persons and they are cured and well, through God's grace.... 58 Crush some roots of fennel and celery and extract juice and take an equal weight or measure with a little good white wine in the form of a warm syrup. By continuing this for several days you will soon be cured of the swelling. It has been tested. For one whose face has become yellow. Take the herb betony and dry it and make very fine powder of it and drink it warm with good white wine early in the morning as a syrup. The good color will return soon to your face. Also boil some of this herb in malvasia with 1 handful each of southern wood, horehound, burnet saxifrage, chicory, absinthe, marjoram and rosemary, and give 2 ounces of this as a syrup. Use this beverage to drink and the color of your face will return to the way it was before. If you will do this you will be cured rapidly. It has been tested. Water for blockage of the veins. Take 1 handful each of the herbs scabiosa, bugloss, sage, fennel, hyssop and horehound and distill all these herbs in a glass still with a jug of good white wine and when it has been distilled, take all that water and redistill it. Then save it in a glass vessel and give 2 ounces of it to the patient every morning in the form of a warm syrup. It should be taken early and it will help the person greatly. Electuary for stomach problems caused by the spleen and humors from bad blood. Take 2 ounces each of fresh roses and rue, 4 ounces each of roots of endive, of chicory, of betony and fennel and 6 ounces each of borage and verbena. All these things should be cut and ground finely and, if desired, they can be candied in 3 lbs. of honey. Then put in these spices: 1 ounce of cloves, 1 dram of saffron and 2 ounces of nutmeg, and incorporate them well and cook it a little and use it and it will help you. -------- [Page 100] Electuary for blockage or dropsy or consumption or for one who may have a bad stomach. Take 1 ounce of steel filings and clean them of roughness in this way, viz: take the steel filings which should be filed finely and put them in a clean pot and put thereon some strong white vinegar, as strong as possible. Cover it well and put it in a warm place. Every evening remove all the vinegar and replace it with new and do this for 5 or 6 days in a row. The last time leave it in and boil this on a slow fire until the vinegar is all consumed. Then remove it from the fire and grind it on porphyry or hard marble until it is almost impalpable and it will be made. Know that this is the true secret of preparing steel and do not prepare it if you do not need it because it soon becomes rusty and is not good. Therefore make a little at a time. You should know that this is very good for blockage of the liver. This preparation has been tested by use. Then take one quatrino of fine cinnamon, 2 q uatrini each of saffron and cloves, and grind everything finely and incorporate with 1 lb. of cleared and clean honey and make an electuary in the usual way. In the morning on an empty stomach and in the evening when you go to sleep, take one spoonful of it and wait ½ hour before you go to sleep and you will see a wonderful effect. It has been tested. One who has been blocked for 9 mornings should go before sunrise to a hedge of the plant called God's flower and on his knees say, 'God save you, God's flower.' He should say 3 Pater Noster and Ave Maria. Then he should urinate on the plants, saying, 'Do what the Lord ordered you to do,' and he will free himself from the blockage and be cured. Another for dropsy. Take juice of bedstraw, nutmeg, fennel and absinthe, each the same amount, and give it several times to the patient to drink and he will be cured. Again grind rue with wine or with beer and drink it several times it will help greatly in swelling of the body. Eat some betony with honey and soon one will be cured. Laxative for the dropsies and to help in flatulent hernia. Take 1 ounce of juice of greater comfrey, 10 drams of iris juice, 6 drams of radish juice and 1 lb. of Syrup of Five Roots and boil them in enough water of endive and fennel and make a thin syrup in the usual way. The dose should be 2 or 3 ounces and it draws out the yellow water rapidly and heals the dropsy quickly.... 59 To make you urinate take 2 drams of tartar and 6 drams of turpentine and wash it well with 4 to 6 waters. Incorporate everything together with a little rose honey and a very little mastic. Then take some during the evening into the morning and during the morning into the evening and it will make you go several times from your body without distress. Water for the liver and to cause urination. Take celandine, juniper, henbane, spurge and peeled elecampane, each the same amount, and grind all together and distill in a glass still and save the water in a well-stoppered flask. Note that this water is very good for the liver when it is bathed repeatedly to remove heat. Bathing the pubic area repeatedly causes urination of gravel. For one who falls from epilepsy, bathe the ears and the nostrils and he will soon recover. It also helps one who has a headache. By bathing inside the ears the pain will soon cease. -------- [Page 101] Treatment for the heated liver. Take 1 lb. of water of endive, 4 ounces each of chicory, of waterlily, of nightshade, of wormwood and of liverwort, ½ scruple of camphor and 2 ounces of rose vinegar. Put everything together in a clean pot. Then heat it and make a decoction in the usual way, that is wetting a piece of wool or a sponge, wetting it well. Press it out and put it warm on the right side of the liver. Keep it warm and as it cools rewarm it again. Do this 3 or 4 times in the evening and in the morning and soon you will feel much better. Each hour when you use the decoction, rub the top of the kidneys with sandalwood unguent and it will help greatly. The unguent is made in this way, viz.:... 60 Galen's unguent for cooling the kidney and for every overheating. Take 4 ounces of rose oil, 2 ounces of white wax, ½ dram of yellow sandalwood and ½ scruple of camphor. Put the oil and the wax in a little pot and put it on a slow fire. Then put in the sandalwood made into very fine powder and continue stirring until it has developed a little body. Remove it from the fire and put therein the cut camphor and stir quickly until it is cold. Then wash it in a bowl with water of roses, of violets and of plantain, each the same amount, 3 or 4 times and the last time leave in a little of this water. Save it in a covered bottle as the powder and it will always be useful for heated kidneys and for every other overheating. Rub with it in the evening and in the morning and you will cure. Another unguent for cooling the kidneys, also from Galen. Take 2 ounces of rose oil, 1 ounce of white wax, put it on the fire in a pot until it is completely melted and incorporated. Remove it from the fire and put in 4 scruples of cut camphor and one egg white, well beaten, and stir it continuously until it is cool. Then wash it with water of roses and of plantain 4 or 5 times and at the end leave a little of the water and keep it for your needs. Rub the kidneys with this in the morning and evening and it will help you greatly and also will help remove the cause of the infirmity. This is a universal and tested remedy. Also if you need to improvise you can take a fresh egg white and incorporate it with a very little rose vinegar and bathe along the kidneys and it will help at once. Another cooling and white unguent. Take 6 ounces of rose oil, ½ ounce of turpentine, 3 ounces of veal fat, 2 ounces of white wax, 1 ounce of rose water, 1 dram of camphor and 2 fresh egg whites. Put the oil and the turpentine on a slow fire. When this has decreased by ¼ or 1/3 put in the fat. Remove it from the fire and put in the egg whites and the camphor with the rose water and keep stirring until it is cool. Then use it to rub where the kidneys hurt. Also sometimes it is used in scabies and it is very helpful in this serious irritation and may cure it. *For one who may be spitting blood caused by a broken vein in the chest. Take powdered coral and give it to the patient to drink with powdered egg shells. *Another. Take 1/3 of a glass of betony juice every day in the morning on an empty stomach and in 2 months you will be healthy. *Another for expectorating bloody sputum. Take 1 handful each of endive, liverwort, hops, maiden hair fern and plantain, 2 ounces of licorice, 1 ounce each of raisins, hulled barley and violets, 3 drams each of white poppy seed, red sandalwood and barberry, 3 drams each of tarragon and licorice juice, 6 jujubes, 3 ounces of plantain water, 6 ounces of white sugar and 4 ounces of barley sugar and make a syrup.... 61 -------- [Page 102] Physic for the heated and damaged liver. Take 3 ounces of water of liverwort and give it to the patient to drink in the morning in the form of a warm syrup with a little sugar for 9 mornings. This greatly strengthens the liver and helps the lung and helps in cholera caused by blockage. This herb is also good for one who is impaired by this infirmity when the herb is used for eating or drinking. A drink of it made into powder will help you greatly. Also the juice of fumitory is very good to drink cold and also in syrups with sugar. If these beverages are used often in the springtime, a man stays healthy all year. They have been tested. For one who may have arrythmia of the heart, especially if frightened, so he may not be able to sleep. Take some clove basil and some of its seeds, ginger, tamarind and fresh anise, each the same amount, and make fine powder of everything. Then mix it with rosewater and water of cherry plums. If you drink a half glass of it in the morning and evening when you go to sleep, it will help you greatly in such distress. If you do not have such waters, take some white wine and boil these herbs in it and drink this wine in the same way as the water. By continuing it, through God's grace, soon you will be cured. Most perfect water for phthisis. Take snails in shells and wash them carefully and well with fresh water. Then boil them as much as needed. Remove them from the shells and wash them very well with salt until that thick foam goes away. Then with fresh water skim it well and let them soak a while. Distill them in a glass still on a slow fire so they do not burn. Also put in some fresh cypress nuts, finely cut, 1 handful of cut rosemary, 1 lb. of borage flowers, 6 ounces of bugloss and for each pound of snails put in 4 ounces of sugar and incorporate everything. Save the water that comes out of the distillation in a covered glass vessel. Take it at your pleasure in the morning when you arise, in the evening when you go to sleep, before meals and after meals and make the effort to drink it as warm as you can because it serves you better than it will if it is cold. The more of it you will drink the sooner you will be cured. Taken a little and repeatedly, it will give you great sustenance and will give you a good and active stomach and, through God's grace, you will soon be cured. It has been tested. Another for phthisis. Take some of the herb coltsfoot and pork lard and beat them together and incorporate a fresh egg in the form of a pancake and eat it warm. Do this for 9 mornings in a row and you will see a wonderful result. It is useful to fatten a person who is thin. For one who spits blood through having broken a vein in the chest. Take some mouse droppings and make them into very fine powder, about half a spoonful, and put it in a half glass of plantain juice with a little sugar. Give the patient some of it as a tepid drink in the evening when he goes to sleep and also early in the morning. In a few days you will be healthy. Take care of yourself. Eat things well cooked and well chewed and stay warm and you will be cured. -------- [Page 103] For the heated liver and to diminish pain from the spleen. Take the leaves and flowers of tamarisk, as much as you wish, and dry it in the shade and make fine powder of it. Then give the patient one spoonful of it in a fresh egg or in wine early in the morning. Then give him a few raisins with a finger of wine for 15 to 20 days. He should take care of himself by not eating things bad for him and soon he will be much better. Also you can take half a handful each of buds of the rose before they are open, betony, valerian, sage, mint, horehound, rue and leaves and flowers of tamarisk. Dry them in the shade and make fine powder of them. Give a spoonful every morning in a fresh egg to the patient who is sick from over-heating of the liver and to diminish pain from the spleen. Also if he eats the powder in any fashion, it will help him greatly and soon he will be cured. Another to cure the liver. Take 3 ounces of juice of chicory with 1 ounce of sugar for 3 mornings and the liver will soon be cured. Electuary for distress of the stomach, for tuberculosis and for the hardened spleen. Take well-washed mallow roots and remove the central part and take 1 lb. of that and cook it in water. Grind it and pass it through a cloth sieve. Then return it to the pot on the fire and add 1 ½ lb. of clean honey and boil it until it is well incorporated and add a sparrow, cleaned and finely ground, and incorporate it well with your spatula. Remove it from the fire and let it cool a little. Then add ½ ounce of cinnamon and 1 ½ ounces of powdered licorice and mix very well and it will be made, the best electuary for all the above infirmities. Take a spoonful of it in the morning and one in the evening, one hour before meals. If this electuary is used for impairment of the spleen and for distress of the stomach, over time you will be cured. Take care of your way of life, and especially refrain from fruits and from other green plants and sour foods and legumes. Do not drink cold water and most of all do not touch pork meat, nor women, and exercise temperately and stay warm. Observe this and in a short time you will be cured through God's grace. Prayer for sickness of the womb. '+ In the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. Womb, which through many roots has possessed wrongly the whole body of this servant (name) of God, I swear to you by the Father + and Son + and Holy Spirit, by the Blessed Virgin Mary, by the angels and archangels, by the cherubims and seraphims, by angels at the throne of God, by the prophets and by the twelve apostles, by the 24 elders, by the hundred and forty-four thousand innocents, by the holy virgins who stand above the heavens, that you should return to your place, just as he came forth from the womb of Hannah dedicated to God. May he who in heaven reigns constrain you that you may not continue the pain in this way. I implore you by our Lord, Jesus Christ, that you return to your place, that he who lives in heaven and reigns may constrain you and sustain your servant (name), Amen.' + Christ conquers, + Christ rules, + Christ orders +. A grea + otheos + agios + reschiros + agreos + athanatos , Amen. Carry this with you and you will be cured soon. Another prayer for the same. 'In the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. I implore you womb of sorrow, by the Father + and Son + and the Holy Spirit + and by the Holy Trinity + one indivisible +. I implore you womb of sorrow by the Messiah + omnipotent God +. I implore you womb of sorrow by the twelve apostles of God +. I implore you womb of sorrow by all the saints of God +. I implore you womb of sorrow by the 4 Ecclesiastics of God +. I implore you womb of sorrow by the 4 evangelists of God + . I implore you womb of sorrow by all the angels, archangels, cherubims, seraphims, angels at the throne of the all-powerful God + who ceaselessly proclaim praise and exaltation of the omnipotent God. I implore you womb of sorrow.... -------- [Page 104] by all the names of the omnipotent God, that furthermore you may not harm nor should you harm the woman (name) who is a servant of God, nor the man (name) who is a servant of God. I implore all the roots of the womb that you do not harm, nor molest, nor disturb the woman or the man who is a servant of God (name). Pater agla helii o emanuel adonay, alpha e omega. So God was crucified for the redemption of the world and suffered on the Cross and on the third day was resurrected from death. He set free Enoch and Peter from the sea and the three boys from the fiery furnace, Shadrach, Mesach and Abednego +, so may you think your servant worthy to be set free from all burning and heat of the womb. + Christ conquers, Christ + rules, Christ + orders. + May Christ from that pain defend you. Amen + + +.' Another for pain from the womb, to Saint Bridget. 'God who allowed the blessed virgin Bridget to overcome harm, do this for your servant, you who are increate Father +, increate Son +, increate Holy + Spirit. Christ, son of the living God, free this, your servant, from all pain. Christ, son of the living God, free this, your servant, from burning and pain. Caspar brought myrrh +, Melchior incense +, Balthasar gold +.' Who carries with her these three names, their power will free her from sickness by the presence of the compassion of the Lord. Amen. 'Jesus of Nazarus, King of Judah, + Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have pity on your servant (woman or man) +. Jesus passed through the multitudes. + Christ conquers, + Christ reigns +, Christ rules +, Christ is God made man. + Jesus Christ the King comes in peace and God is made man +. Asto, agato, alpha et omega + tetragramaton +. Merciful creator, my God, all tremble before you. All the angels and archangels worship the word of the eternal Father.' A tested prayer for pain in the womb. Say: 'O illness in the womb, with as many as a hundred roots, it moos like a cow, jumps like a deer, howls like a wolf, barks like a dog, roars like a lion, stares like a fish, hisses like a serpent. In the body a baby cries. O illness of the womb, + I implore you by the God + of Abraham, by the God + of Isaac, by the God + of Jacob, by the God who confines the roots of the fern, may he restrain you from this wretched servant. Again I implore you womb, by the angels and archangels, by the prophets and innocents, by the virgins, by the saints and by Saint Gregory, and by the wounds of our Lord Jesus Christ, and his holy birth. God restrain you to your place where you belong. Holy Mary aid and set free your servant (name) from the illness of the womb so that it does not have power to harm your servant (name) of God (name) neither by day nor night, neither sleeping nor waking, neither drinking nor eating, neither walking nor sitting. Return to the place from which you came, from skin to skin, from foot to foot, from flesh to flesh. Amen. Agios, agios, agios, kirie eleison, kirie eleison, kirie eleison. Lord God who freed Susanna from false crimes, and Saint Agnes from torments, and Saint Catherine from the hands of the Emperor Maximian, and Saint Margaret from the hands of the Devil, so free your servant (name) from the sickness of the womb as you freed the Virgin Mary and her women. Amen.' Know that the mother of Saint Gregory was much tormented by many sicknesses and pains of the womb and she said this prayer as a remedy from these illnesses and at once she was freed from them. This prayer should be read in bed every morning and carried by the woman for 5 mornings. With a consecrated candle burning, she should say 5 Pater Noster with 5 Ave Maria, kneeling, and, through God's grace, soon she will be freed. For one who has a trembling heart or may be fearful both sleeping and waking, say this prayer in the evening with the Pater Noster, viz., “In the name of God and the Virgin Mary and the Holy Trinity. Madonna, the Holy Mary, was standing a long time by the sea and a sad lady came to her. 'Why is it, sad lady, that you weep and sigh?' 'I have only my son and I am losing him from scorbattulo .' 'Come away, sad lady, and take the fruit of the bee, a white comb for the head and risen bread and put it on the chest of your son.' At the end of 3 days he will be cured and free, if it is pleasing to God and the Virgin Mary and the Holy Trinity. So be it. + + +” Say this 3 times and you will have no more fear. You will be cured. -------- [Page 105] To reduce the flow of menstruation when it is too heavy. Take 3 plantain roots with the leaves and cook them in river water and give some of that to the patient to drink and soon menstruation is checked. For illness of the womb. Take equal amounts of roasted deer horn, incense and mastic, all pulverized, and put that in the private place of the patient. Electuary to take by the stomach against womb pain. Take 1 dram plus 1 scruple each of cloves, cinnamon, crocus, nutmeg, long pepper, zedoary, mace, cubebs, galingale, cardamon and ginger, ½ ounce each of rosemary leaves and flowers, 2 drams plus 2 scruples each of mint, sage, thyme, hyssop, betony, mugwort, marjoram, anise seed, fennel, coriander, red coral and ground pine and make an electuary with honey. First take herbs that are well matured with aroma and many flowers and when making the electuary, always mix with a wooden spatula. Another electuary for comforting the womb. Take 2 drams of choice cinnamon, ½ ounce each of mugwort and nutmeg, and 1 dram of laurel berries. Mix them and pulverize them finely and make an electuary with 6 ounces of honey. *Remedy to make hair grow after a disease causing baldness, tested in Lucca, 1559. Take a pound of clear and good honey, an ounce of ground pepper and a quantity of fresh roots of reed and distill them. First put enough washed gravel to cover the bottom of the still. Bathe yourself in this water in the morning and evening for 8 days and you will be cured, that is it will make the hair grow and if you continue it, the hair will continue to grow. *Remedy for one who has no hair, to make it grow as soon as you have begun. Take a pound of malvasia wine and ground long pepper and distill these in a glass still or vitreous decanter and wash with this water in the morning and evening for 4 to 6 days and you will be freed. Tested in Ferrara in 1566. *Take 2 handfuls each of mountain hyssop and southernwood, 2 lb. each of fresh malvasia wine and fresh milk, and 6 ounces of mustard seed. Infuse these for 3 days and then distill in a still as above and bathe where needed. -------- [Page 106] [Blank page.] -------- [Page 107] Ointment for the ridge of the kidney in quartan fever. Take 1 handful each of sage, rosemary, rue and mistletoe, and put them in a clean pot and put therein one glass each of ordinary oil and oil of rue and malvasia or strong white wine and boil it covered on a slow fire until one third or a little more remains. Then remove it from the fire and strain it through cotton cloth and press the herbs in the press and extract all the substance. Put these together in a little pot and again on the fire and put therein ½ ounce of ground white mastic, 1 ounce of clean wax and 1 scruple of male incense and let it boil very slowly so it reduces one third and it will be made. One hour, more or less, before the day of the fever comes, rub along the backbone, beginning above and ending below. The ointment should be very warm and rub well downward and keep the patient warm and you will cure. Another for quartan fever. Take 1 ounce each of old theriac and brandy distilled 3 times and make it into 3 parts, and heat one of these parts and rub along the backbone, beginning at the neck down to the coccyx and also across. Do this 3 times in a row when the fever comes and soon you will cure it. Another for quartan fever. Take 6 ounces of good brandy and put it in a little carafe and put therein one ounce of whole cloves and a little root of dwarf elder of the white kind, well washed and clean. Then cover it and let it stay in the sun for 2 or 3 days. As soon as you feel that the fever is coming, take 2 ounces of it. It should be rather tepid and drink it at once. Always keep it well stoppered because it will lose its substance. Stay warm in bed and take this 3 times before the fever assails you and, through the grace of God, soon you will be cured because this has been tested. Another for quartan fever. Take 1 handful or more each of wormwood, rue, southernwood and mugwort, so that you extract 3 ounces of each kind totalling in all 1 lb. and 8 ounces of aged ordinary oil and 4 ounces of laurel oil and incorporate everything. Put it in a small pot on a very slow fire until it reduces in half to obtain all the juice. Then strain it and return it to the fire and put therein 1 ounce of new wax and as it melts remove it from the fire and it will be made. Then a half hour before the fever is near, turn the kidneys to the fire and rub along the backbone well downward and put a warm cloth there and go to bed so you stay warm. Do this 3 or 4 times and the quartan fever will not come again. Take care of yourself and you will be cured.... 62 Another. Take an apple, not too ripe, and divide it in 3 parts and each morning of the fever eat one piece of it. Say 3 Pater Noster and 3 Ave Maria and write on one piece these holy words, viz., 'Jesus Christ died on the wood of the true cross.' On the second day say 6 Pater Noster with 6 Ave Maria and write this, “ At the hour the earth trembled, Jesus Christ said, 'Why do you shake, earth? You do not have chills or fever.' ” With the third piece say 12 Pater Noster with 12 Ave Maria and write, viz., 'Who says these words will have neither chills nor fever.' At the end say 24 Pater Noster with 24 Ave Marie with devotion and the quartan will go away quickly. It is tested. Another for quartan fever. Take a large loaf of bread warm from the oven and at once plunge it in a basin full of very strong vinegar and let it soak, well covered. Then distill it in a glass still with all the vinegar that remains. Give one ounce of it to the feverish one to drink before the fever comes. It will make the bad fever go during the attack and afterward and he will soon be cured. -------- [Page 108] Best beverage for quartan fever. Take 1 handful each of betony and ground pine and 2 jugs of good white wine and boil it until it reduces one third. Strain it and press the herbs in the press and extract the substance and save it together in a clean vessel. When the quartan comes, drink one glass of it warm and at once go to bed in order to sweat, well covered, and if you sweat it is a good sign of rapid cure. Do this 4 to 6 times when the fever comes and you will be cured. Another for quartan fever. Two to 3 hours before the quartan fever comes, for 3 times in a row that is for 3 mornings, take the herb cinquefoil, that is potentilla, and eat it in the form of a salad with a slice of bread and make 7 little pieces of it and not more nor less. Be certain that the quartan will go away rapidly and without other distress. Be careful what you eat and soon you will be cured. Another tested remedy for quartan fever. Take ½ dram each of gentian and peony root and make very fine powder of and make it into 5 parts and when the hour of the fever comes make a good fire and give one of the parts of this powder to drink with good warm wine. Then rub the ridge of the kidneys with laurel oil. Do this 5 times. Then put him warm to bed and in a few days he will be free. The first time you find a little improvement, this is the best sign that you can have of a cure but you know he must take care of himself and stay warm. To get rid of quartan, tertian or quotidian fever rapidly. Take the head of one femur and make very fine powder of it. One spoonful should be given to the patient in a drink or in food and he will be freed. In three to five times he will be freed quickly. It is tested. Another for quartan fever. Take a clean pot and fill it with dried holy thistle. Then fill it with water and boil it until it reduces in half, keeping it well covered. Remove it from the fire and strain it with care, removing the herbs. Then give 4 ounces of this liquid to the feverish one before the paroxysm comes. He should go to bed at once, well covered in order to sweat, and soon he will be cured of the quartan because all the heat will be expelled. It is tested. Another medicine for quartan and tertian fever. Take half a glass of vinegar and put in a fresh egg and let it stay covered for one whole day. Then the next morning break this egg in the same vinegar and drink everything together in good spirits. When you have drunk it you will feel great agitation in the stomach which is a good sign because the vinegar in this way breaks the scorching heat that is in the stomach that is the fever. It will make the fever disappear both above and below the stomach. Know that for a year the fever will not come because this is reported by good testimony. You will be cured. Pills against fever. Take 1 dram of lapis lazuli and 2 drams of pills of India and incorporate them with rose syrup and make 3 pills. Take one, one hour before the fever comes and repeat this 3 times until the end of the fever and soon you will be cured. Be careful to keep warm and eat lightly. For a little child who has a swollen abdomen. Take seeds of heliotrope and give it to drink with wine or broth for 3 or 4 days and soon the child will be freed. -------- [Page 109] Most devout prayers for every fever and to carry around the neck. 'Omnipotent immortal God who through his mercy gave his grace to his most holy apostle, Saint Peter, so may God give to this being (name) or to this one (name) that neither fever nor other malign spirit may vanquish them nor have power over them. I implore you, fever, that you rise up from this being, by the 7 names of Christ, which names are these, viz., saladon, hasitolan , the third name, the fourth sattolia , the fifth hanaii , the sixth cielo , the seventh zuampiero . I implore you, fever, without any question, that you must come forth from this being (name), by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, by our omnipotent God, by his holy birth, by the baptism, by his passion, by his holy resurrection, by the joy when he arrived in heaven, by the majesty of the Holy Spirit, by the virginity of the glorious Virgin Mary and by all the holy angels and archangels of God who tell of the day of birth, by the virtue of the princely cherubims and seraphims, by the hundred thousand delegates who stand always at the seat of God, by the 12 apostles, by the 4 evangelists, by the martyrs, by the virgins, by the heavens, by the moon , by the sun, by the earth and by all the stars of God, to remove its power over this being (name), if it is the wish of the Lord God to free this being (name) from every fever, secondary, tertian, quartan, sextan, or septan, in the name of God the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit.' “Before the gate of Galicia, Saint Peter fell with the fever and Christ turned and said, 'Why do you stop, Peter?' Saint Peter answered and said, 'Lord, I have the fever.' Christ said, 'Say this prayer and at once you will be freed.' Saint Peter, giving thanks to God, was satisfied.” So each person who will read or will have it read will be freed of every fever as said above, in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Note that this prayer is done in bed for 5 mornings over the sick person with devotion, with 5 Pater Noster and with the blessed candle burning and, with the aid of God, you will cure. It is tested. Another prayer against fever. Viz., Saints Gosimo and Damian prayed to the Lord that whoever carried these names would be cured of fevers 4, 3 or 2 and in the future: 'Lord Jesus + Christ free your servant (name) of all fever through these sacred names of God, Agios , Yschiros , Athenatos, E leyson , Amen. Pater Eleyson + Yscheros,... 2 Eleyson + Athanatos,... 3 Eleyson , Amen. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.' Write this down and below write the name of the sick person. Over this say a mass for these saints and say 5 Pater Noster and attach it around the neck. It is certain you will cure. Another prayer against fever. Viz., “When Christ put his foot on the wood of the holy cross all the world trembled +. The unbeliever said, 'What ails you, Christ, that you tremble? + Do you have a fever?' + 'Never do I have it.'” Say these words with devotion + and carry them on you, 'Through my love + you will never have fever +, neither quotidian + nor tertian + nor quartan +. Christ is born +, Christ suffered and was resurrected from death +, Christ conquers +, Christ rules +, Christ commands +, Amen +. Lord Jesus Christ, free your servant (name) from all fever and from all evil of the body, Amen. So be it. So be it. So be it. Amen.' Memorize and say it in the ear of the patient and write it down on a little paper and put it around the neck. This is powerful in women's sickness and for mother's ills. With 5 Pater Noster attach it to the father or the mother of a little child and soon you will cure the sick one. It is tested. Another to remove fever very quickly. You who have the fever, get up at dawn and go out in the clear air and on your knees say the Pater Noster with the Ave Maria and say this, viz., 'Tertian fever, quartan fever and fever of any day, you must leave me as the dawn becomes the day + + +.' Say it 3 times in the morning and for 3 mornings in a row. It is tested. -------- [Page 110] For curing fever and wounds and dripping from the penis, with tested water. “In the name of the holy and indivisible Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. In the name of the most holy night in which the Virgin Mary gave birth when Christ was born. Christ died and Christ rose again and commanded that those with wounds be healthy and well cared for without putrefaction and chills, without fever and without vomiting blood, without broken bones and without any pain or illness. So Christ orders and the blessed Virgin Mary prays. Just as the foreign unbeliever pierced the side of our Lord Jesus Christ with a spear and the blessed wound healed and did not lead to putrefaction but healthy flesh grew in honor of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, such wounds will be healed well without any scar by the seven words which he said on the cross to God, Father omnipotent, 'Forgive those who know not what they do.' Amen. ' I say today you will be in Paradise.' ' Ely, ely lama zabatani.' ' Woman, behold your Son.' 'I thirst.' 'Into your hands I commend my soul.' 'It is finished.' In the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. Ghet, ghimel, igbabil.” Then the patient should say the Pater Noster three times in honor of the most Holy Trinity. Then take the water and say, 'I bless you water through Jesus Christ, the Son of him who is our only Lord, who in Cana in Galilee, as a sign of his miraculous power, changed you into wine, who walked over you with his feet and was baptized by John in the Jordan, and you are all in one with the blood coming forth from his side. He said to the disciples that it cures all wounds. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.' Again, 'I bless you, water, in the most holy name of the Virgin Mary +. I bless you + water + in the name of all the holy works of God. I bless you + water + in the name of that most holy night when the blessed Virgin Mary gave birth to his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. I bless you, water, by the most cruel death of our Lord Jesus Christ. I bless + you by the resurrection and by the decree that he made when he ordered that without any impurity, danger, pain, chills, any cut nerves will be well healed and clean and without any illness the wounds will be healed. In this way also wounds upon which will have been poured out this water for all maladies be healed, in the name of the Father + Son + and Holy Spirit. Amen.' These words are said as an invocation over a dish full of water with a Pater Noster and an Ave Maria. First wet the clothes that you place on the wound and the patient should tell the circumstances and say 3 Pater Noster with the Ave Maria. Put the cloths on in the form of a cross. Treat 2 times a day and put the soiled cloths on the fire and no cloths from women. You know what that means. Also this water is powerful for the person who has white menstruations or problems with the kidneys, by drinking one glass in the morning early in the form of a syrup with 3 Pater Noster. Continue this for 10 to 15 mornings and you will cure. If one who has quartan fever drinks it, he will be cured quickly. Prayer against any kind of fever. 'Lord, free your servant from the pain of tertian or quartan fever, just as you freed Peter and Paul from imprisonment and Susanna from false charges. When Jesus was coming out of the temple and was entering into the house of Simon, the mother-in-law had a great fever and they implored him for her. Standing over her, he sent the fever away and she recovered immediately and attended to them. Jesus is the king. So be it. Jesus + Jesus + Amen.' Carry this prayer with you and it will cure you rapidly. Another. Take the gall nut from the oak and see that you find therein a spider. Attach the gall nut to your neck with the spider alive and when the spider is dead, the fever will go away and will not return.... 63 -------- [Page 111] Prayer against fever. 'May the power of the Father, the wisdom of the Son, the excellence of the Holy Spirit free your servant (name) from all fever through the intercession of the Virgin Mary and through the merit of the holy martyrs, Cyprian, William, Albert, George and Sigmund, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. Christ who was born is the Father. Christ who died is the Son. Christ lives again in the Holy Ghost. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.' Carry this with you. Prayer against fever. 'Christ was born, Christ suffered, Christ was crucified. Free your servant (name) from the fever to the honor of the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, Saint Peter, Saint Gismond, Saint Anne, Saint Bartholomew and Saint Honofry and all of the saints of God, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. + + + .' Prayer for quartan fever, to carry around the neck. '+ Lord Jesus Christ lamenting with your holy tears which you shed when you revived Lazarus, so may you deign to free your servant (name) from quartan fever and from any other. Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ rules. + Satan bound, the angel loosened. Christ freed. Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Amen. + + + .' Write this on fresh parchment. Prayer for quartan fever. ' + One Father + One Holy Spirit. Aflam Dei , Amen . Sanet orem , + cum dabram + biacum + drabam + cum dabma + adabram + bia + + + manfon + bafoc + deraram. Lord free your servant (name) from so many cares, Lord, Amen. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.' Write this on parchment from an unborn lamb. Carry it with you. Prayer against fever. 'The power of God the Father, the wisdom of God the Son, the goodness of the Holy Spirit free me, your servant (name), from all fever, quartan, tertian and quotidian at once and from all illness, Amen + + + .' Carry around your neck and you will be cured. Tested prayer against tertian fever. Take 3 leaves of sage and eat one each morning and on the first have written these words, 'Christ is peace,' on the second 'Christ is rest,' and on the third 'Christ is the perfect remedy. It is done.' Say 3 Pater Noster each morning and eat the leaf with devotion. Keep yourself from irregular ways and the tertian fever will not come again. Likewise you can write these other words, that is, on the first leaf, 'Christ is born,' on the second, 'Christ conquers,' on the third, 'Christ suffered.' Or another time when there may be tertian, write on the first leaf, 'Christ rules,' the second, 'Christ was resurrected,' the third, 'Christ orders,' and all the tertian fever will go away. This is tested. Prayer against fever. “Saint Peter was sitting in front of the gate of Galilee and he had fever. Lord Jesus came and said to him, 'Peter, why are you lying here?' 'Lord, I am full of fever.' 'I constrain you fever at once, tertian, quartan, quotidian, by the living God and by him who has power over all things, so you do not have power to harm this person, the servant (name) of God.' Lord, in your name, heal me, and by your goodness free me, your child (name), from this fever and from every other illness. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.” Prayer against fever to wear around the neck. First say a Pater Noster, in the name of God, Amen +. “When the unbelievers were leading Jesus Christ to be crucified, + + + , Christ began to tremble + and the unbeliever said, + 'What is the matter, Christ, that you tremble? + + + Do you have fever?' + Christ said, 'No, I have no fever + and never will I have.' ” One who will say these words or will carry them on him + + + to the honor of God and the Holy Trinity + will never have fever + and if he has it, he will be freed quickly. 'Christ died + and was resurrected. Amen.' -------- [Page 112] Prayer against fever to carry on you. '+Christ was born. + Christ suffered. + Christ was raised on the cross. + Christ was placed in the sepulchre. + Christ who was set free from death, free your servant (name) from the rigors of quartan, tertian and quotidian fever. + Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Chirst orders. Amen. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.' Prayer to carry around your neck. Write, ' Abricholaus + Abricholau + Abrichola + Abricol + Abrico + Abric + Abri+ Abr + Ab + A +.' Attach it around the neck for 3 days and not more. Then remove it and burn it and the fever will go away and rapidly. It is tested. Prayer for fever and headache, to carry around the neck. '+ Jesus, son of Mary. + The power of the Father, the wisdom of the Son, the virtue of the Holy Spirit, save and protect your servant (name) from all fevers and headache, to the honor of Saint Honofry + . Have mercy + on us + + +.' Put it around the neck with 5 Pater Noster, and you will cure. Prayer against fever. Say 3 masses in honor of God and of Saint Vincent and stay to hear these masses and for each mass say the short credo 12 times and say these 4 words, viz., 'Peace in heaven, Peace on earth, Peace in my time.' Say nothing more and soon, with the aid of God and the Virgin Mary and Saint Vincent, you will be cured. Water to drink for quartan fever. Take a pot that holds 3 glasses and fill it with clean water and say over it 3 times this devotional prayer, with 3 Pater Noster in honor of God and the Holy Trinity, viz., “When our Lord was martyred the air, the sky and the earth shook. The unbeliever said, 'Are you afraid, Christ, or do you have a fever?' 'I am not afraid and I do not have a fever, and who drinks this water through my love and through my charity, the fever will go away and never return.' Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.” At the blessing take a little of this water in your mouth and spit it on the wall. Do this 3 times and what is left over from the 3 glasses, throw on the fire, and you will be cured. Prayer for fever. “Saint Peter was sitting before the gate of Jerusalem. Then the Lord came and he said, 'What are you doing here, O, Peter?' He responded, 'Lord, I am cast down with my fever.' Jesus said, 'Arise, Peter, and send away this fever.' He rose up and at once was healthy and followed him. Peter said, 'I implore you Lord, great and good Lord, that whoever will have carried these words with him, fever will not be able to harm him.' Jesus said, 'So be it, just as you have asked.' ” Carry these words with you and they will free you. Amen. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You will be cured. Another for fever. 'Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is peace and life and the remedy for all fever. Lord God omnipotent, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity, one God ineffable in three persons, who is and will be. Free your servant (name) from all chills and fever, quotidian, tertian, quartan and from all pain. Amen.' Carry it with you. Another for tertian fever. Make a pot of juice of wormwood and put therein these ground spices, in the amount of one julius , that is, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and mace, and boil it a little until it has the body of an unguent. Then rub the ridge of the kidneys. In four days you will cure. -------- [Page 113] Against fever of any kind. Write these 3 words on wafers and give them to eat, one each morning. On the first, 'The Father nourishes,' the second 'The Son is wise +,' the third 'The Holy Spirit cures.' Another. Write these names, ' Maphorum + Myphorum, + Muphorum + Hysamuel +,' and give it to the patient. Another. Write, '+ Christ sustains,' on the second '+ Christ died,' on the third '+ Christ was resurrected +. Free your servant (name) from every fever and pain.' And soon you will be cured. Another. Write these words on whatever you wish so that you can eat it, '+ Christ was born' ' + Christ was crucified' '+ Christ was resurrected from death, +' with 3 Pater Noster each time, and you will be cured. Another for the quartan and tertian fevers. Write these words on a crust of bread and give them to the patient to eat, and soon he will be cured, '+The Father is peace + Onetoy +,' on the second '+ The Son is life, Sabaoth + Adonay ,' and on the third '+ The Holy Spirit is the remedy + alpha and omega , Jesus Christ + Amen. + + +.' Most devout prayer for all sickness. Viz., 'My Lord God, el eloy, eli sabaoth, elion, ele adonaya, tetragramaton, sadai , Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Holy Trinity, one God, have pity, have pity on me, agios, otheos, agios, ischiros, agios, athanatos, eleyson, gracious God, on me a sinner. Incline your ears to me and hear, open your eyes and see my weaknesses, tribulations, infirmities and misery. Succor me and aid me in my necessity through the reverence and love and the most holy name of your holy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and through the reverence and love and intercession of the most holy Virgin Mary, your mother, and all your saints, to you who live and reign in the world of men. Amen. Eiot et vau, tetagramaton, Lord God aid me and pity me and free me from all anguish and from all fever. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.' Prayer against fevers. 'God who liberated Daniel from the lions' den and Mary Magdalene from 7 faults and Susanna from false charges and Jonah from the belly of the whale and Peter from the sea and Paul from bondage and the three boys from the fiery furnace, so free your servant (name) from quotidian, tertian and quartan fever and from all other infirmities. + Christ conquers, + Christ reigns + Christ orders +. Lord hear my prayer and my cries that come to you + in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, + Amen. Lord God is alpha and omega. Through the Holy Trinity and through the blessed Virgin Mary, you, fever, must go and leave this servant of God (name) through thoughts of saints in honor of God and set free the servant of God (name) from all quodidian, tertian and quartan fevers. + The power of God the omnipotent Father + the wisdom of the son of God +, the virtue of the Holy Spirit defend and free your servant (name) from all fever and pain of the body and head, through the virtue of the Holy Trinity and Saint Honofry and the blessed Job, Amen. So be it. + Free your servant of God (name) from all fever and pain of body and head + through the grace of the Father + through the compassion of the Son + and through the mercy of the Holy Spirit +. Abricolaus + Abracolau + Abracola + Abracol + Abraco + Abrac + Abra + Abr + Ab + A + + +.' Say 3 Pater Noster with the Ave Maria and through the grace of God, soon you will be cured of all fever and pain of the head and body, because this has been tested many times. For dryness of the mouth caused by fever. Take quince seeds and sorrel seeds and tie them in a little piece of fine linen and put this to soak in fresh water until the water becomes a little viscous. Put some of this water on the tongue and it will take away much of that great dryness in the sick person and he will have great relief. It is tested. -------- [Page 114] Water for a rash of whatever kind, oily or dry. Take a large flask for the fire with a wide neck and fill it full with 15 pounds of cistern water, or with rose water or other odoriferous water if you will make it as some great master apothecaries do. Put in 1 ounce of sublimate, 2 ounces of rock alum and 1 ounce of salt. This is the principle preparation and everything should be finely ground. Put this flask in front of the fire on a brick and let it boil uncovered until it reduces down from the neck. Remove it from the fire and let it cool. Then put therein the juice of 6 lemons and of 3 or 4 sour oranges and the whites of 4 fresh eggs, well beaten, and shake the flask very well upside down so that everything is incorporated well. Then strain it through fine linen cloth and return it to the flask and put it in the sun, covered, for 3 or 4 days and it will be made, a noble, high class water for itch, perfect for any need. It lasts a very long time and never spoils and will be very odorous and white. When you want to use it, shake it up and wet a little sponge in this water and squeeze it out a little and bathe only the joints of the wrists carefully instead of the whole body, alternately on one evening and not on the next. Rub yourself with this for 3 or 4 evenings, according to how much rash you have and the last time that you do not want to do any more, wash all your body with good lye and change to other clothes and all the itching will go away. Where you have sores, that is oily scabs, wet around and around, but do not touch them which will make them irritated. You should know that this water has such virtue that after you have bathed the first time you will not feel such itching again because it clears away that corrupt blood that flows with the thin humor through the flesh. This pulls water out from the joints and makes them dry, without harm to the rest of the body which remains free and healthy. Also where this water does touch, it will make the flesh white and fade the dark signs on the body and make the flesh very sweet smelling and spotless. This has been tested. When you would like to bathe some little child, do not shake the water but take from that on top that is clearer and less strong and gentler and the child will be pleased and soon will be cured. You should know that the escort of our Lord, Pope Clement VII, and also his steward of the holy palace who were both treated by me were healed and cured more quickly than one would believe possible by this water which was made with musk roses. This water was much praised by them without knowing the composition. If you do not make it with rose water, make it with plain water from the cistern and it also will take on the odor and will have the same effect. In either form it has been tested many, many times.... 64 Another water for simple itching. Take a little carafe full of cistern water and put therein 2 ounces of rock alum and ½ ounce of salt with everything finely ground, and boil it on a brick facing the fire until it reduces one fourth. Then remove it from the fire and when it is cool, strain it through a piece of fine linen and save it for your needs. In the evening when you go to sleep, wash carefully all the joints of the arms and legs and the wrists on alternate evenings. When all the itching has stopped on the body, on the last evening, take a bath and change clothes. In these days be careful of your diet. Do not eat harmful things, not green vegetables, nor fruit, nor pork meat, but for 6 to 8 days drink cooling fresh waters with ½ ounce of rose honey added which will help your stomach greatly and will cool the liver so that all this material will be dried up and will go away and you will not notice it. This has been used many, many times on various persons and it has worked wonderfully in poor and rich persons. Be well. -------- [Page 115] Best and perfect unguent for a rash. Take 2 lb. of ordinary oil, 6 ounces of new wax, 2 ounces of strong white vinegar, 8 ounces of washed turpentine, 1 ounce each of laurel oil and salt, 2 ounces of white sublimate, 6 ounces of rock alum, 1 lb. of white lead, 4 ounces of Alexandrian clay, 6 ounces each of yellow sulfur, butter and yellow litharge and the yolks of 4 fresh eggs. Take the oil, the vinegar, the wax and the turpentine and put them in your ladle or bowl and put it on the glowing coals without flame and leave these to melt well but then at once stir with your spatula and do not let them boil. Then remove it from the fire and do not return it. Put in all the other things very finely powdered, beginning with the rock alum, salt, white lead, clay, sublimate, sulfur, butter, litharge and the yolks go in last. One by one incorporate them well with your stick until when you put in the last thing it should be cold and everything should be incorporated equally and with great diligence. At the end put in a little rose water and it will be made, unguent for itch, best and perfect for every requirement and wherever it is needed. All the rash will be gone if, in the evening when you go to sleep, you rub the wrists carefully and the joints of the arms, hands and legs. Do this for 3 or 4 evenings. Then wash all your body and you will remove all the greasy scabs. Change your clothes and all the rash will be gone and you will remain clean and clear. But first of all you must be careful what you eat. Do not eat pork meat which is contrary to health at this time. Do not be surprised that I have given you the procedure, weight and measure for a large amount. In our shop in Lucca I keep about 7 or 8 pounds of it, putting it in jars for 9 to 12 quatrini each, according to the size. Each little container cures one or two persons quickly. It is very true that one can make it without a few of the ingredients and it will do almost the same if more is put on the rash. Another for rash. Take 1 lb. of ordinary oil, 3 ounces of white wine or rose water and put them in a pot on a slow fire and boil it very slowly. Take 4 ounces of white sulfur and wrap it in a little cloth and make a button of it and boil it in this oil until it is reduced one third. Then remove it from the fire and strain it at once and put therein these things, warm: 3 ounces of white wax, 4 ounces of finely ground white lead and ½ ounce of liquid storax and continue to stir until it is cold so that everything is well incorporated together. If it does not seem sufficiently white to you, add another bit of white lead with ½ ounce of salt ground like flour. Then at the end wash it with rose water and you will have a very fine and elegant unguent. With that rub carefully in the evening and soon you will cure. This has been done many times. Another for rash. Take 1 lb. of white wine, 2 ounces of vinegar, 3 ounces of white sulfur, 1 dram of liquid storax, and 2 ounces each of rose water and clean wax and if the rash may be oily add these: ½ ounce of laurel oil, 2 ounces of turpentine, and ½ dram of myrrh. Incorporate all these things in a little pan or in a little pot on a slow fire and continue stirring until it is done. Remove it from the fire and stir until it is cold and it will be made, an admirable unguent. Save it like powder. When you go to sleep, use it to rub yourself carefully and, through God's grace you will soon return to health. It is tested. Another to remove a rash. Take liquid storax and wash it with rose water and then incorporate it with the juice of lemons and pomade. Rub the rash and soon it will go away. This is something elegant and tested.... 65 Water for a rash. Take 2 lb. of dried tartar, ½ lb. of rock alum, ½ lb. of ordinary salt, 1 ounce of sublimate and 10 lb. of well water. Powder everything and boil it and with this wash yourself in the evening and soon the rash will go away. It is tested. -------- [Page 116] Beverage against a rash. Take as much root of black hellebore as will fill ½ a shallow pan and put it to soak in water of scabiosa for 2 whole days, changing the water 2 times a day. Then remove it from that water and soak it in a half glass of honey for one night. Add half a glass of white wine to this honey. Boil everything in a pot for a half hour on a slow fire and it will be made. Take a finger of this liquor warm in the morning and it will help you greatly. Unguent that removes a rash. Take 6 ounces of laurel berries and crush them coarsely and boil them with clear water until it reduces two thirds. When the water boils put in a little good salt. Then remove the cooking pot from the fire and let it cool and collect the fat that is on top and save that. With this ungent rub the wrists in the evening when you go to sleep and soon you will be cured. Another to remove a rash. In the evening when you go to sleep, take the oil lamp with a little oil and put in one quatrino of white sulfur and put it on the hot ashes until it is melted. Then when it is cold, rub the wrists carefully for 3 evenings and wherever you have the rash you will be cured. Another, a universal remedy for a rash. Take 3 ounces of olive oil, 2 ounces of powdered white lead, 1 ounce of yellow litharge made into fine powder, 2 drams of sublimate in powder, ½ ounce of ground salt and the juice of 2 lemons or sour oranges. Then take a little pot and put therein the oil and the salt and boil them. Put in the litharge, the sublimate and the white lead and let it cook so that it takes on a little body, always stirring. Lift it from the fire and put in the juice of lemons and stir with the spatula until it is cold and it will be made. Save it like a powder for your needs. In the evening rub where you have the rash and especially around the greasy crusts. Do not go to bed at once because they should dry by themselves and they will go away and you will be cured. Take care of yourself. This unguent does not hurt the body at all for any use. It has been tested. For a rash. Take 3 ounces each of old butter and turpentine and wash them with water of scabiosa 7 or 8 times. Then add 1 ounce of ground salt, 6 ounces of ordinary oil, 1 ½ ounces of ground rock alum and put them in a pot on a slow fire and put in 2 ounces of clean wax and as it begins to thicken, remove it from the fire and put in the juice of lemons or oranges and the yolks of 3 fresh eggs, 4 ounces of rose water and 2 scruples of finely cut camphor and stir with the spatula until it is cold and very well incorporated, because that is important. Then rub only the joints in the evening, one evening yes, the other no, and you will see it works well and will have a good odor. -------- [Page 117] Ointment for rash. Take 5 ounces of olive oil and 1 ounce of laurel oil and put them in a little pot on the fire and when it boils put therein 2 ounces of crushed white lead, ½ ounce each of clean wax and rock alum and a pinch of ground salt and boil it until it thickens. Then remove it from the fire and stir until it is cold and put in the juice of 2 lemons and it will be made. In the evening rub the rash throughly and soon you will cure it. This is an easy ointment. Ointment to remove a rash. Take 1 ½ lb. of white wine, 3 ounces each of white sulfur and incense, 1 ½ ounces of ground salt, 2 ounces of lard and 1 ½ ounces of clean wax. Boil it on a slow fire until it reduces more that one half of the wine and remove it from the fire and add 1 ½ drams of liquid storax and stir until everything is well incorporated and it will be made. Then rub the rash thoroughly and soon you will be cured. Wash yourself and change clothes and you will not have any more sickness. You are cured. For parturition and against quartan fever. Take a baby swallow in the nest on a day in March and remove the eyes with a needle or stylet and then bind a thread of silk on one foot. Return it to the nest and let it stay there for 4 days and at the same hour that you removed the eyes, take it and kill it and you will find in the stomach 3 little stones, one red, one white and the third green....[Comment: The rest of the remedy is censored with a marginal note: 'I do not advise that this be done. It is a superstition.'] Odorous pills against fever made of wild cucumber and they are laxative. Take the quantity that you want of wild cucumbers and let them stay piled up together so that they are warmed up. Then grind them and press them on the press. Extract the substance well, filter it and let it stay in a basin in the sun until it becomes firm in the way that one might be able to make a dough of it, in order to make these pills. When you wish to make them, put in a little rose honey and a grain of salt and a little powder of sweet fennel and incorporate these well together. Then form your pills. These are given to evacuate the body vigorously. Give one or 2 or 3 each time but not too much because they have a strong action and take into account the person to whom it is given. If he is robust stop at 3 and not more and you will see a good effect. To send away chills with fever. Take 2 scruples of euphorbia and steep it in 1 ounce of brandy. Then take 2 ounces of wormwood juice and incorporate these together. Give 1 ½ ounces to the patient to drink two hours before the chills and fever may come and the chills will not come. Then give one of the pills above and no more sickness will come, through God's grace. -------- [Page 118] Perfect poultice for pain of the body. Take ½ glass of boiled wine and 2 egg yolks and 1 handful of wheat bran, 1 handful of the flowers of camomile from those lees that stay in the flasks of oil of camomile, 2 ounces of old chicken fat and 2 scruples of powdered saffron. Put all these things in a pan and incorporate them together on a slow fire. Then, as warm as one can bear, put it on the body of the sufferer and as it cools rewarm it and replace it on the body. Do this several times and soon the pain will lift so it will not be felt any more.... 66 Another for pain of the body. Take the juice of centaury and give it to the patient to drink. Alternatively, give wine in which this herb has been boiled. This herb mitigates pain of the body. Note that if the juice of this herb is given to drink to one who may have blood polluted from a blow or by a fall or bruising or in any other way whatever, he may soon be cured. Another for pain of the body. In the month of May take 1 handful of spearmint, that is Roman mint, and put it in an ampule with ordinary oil and put therein 1 ounce each of powdered cinnamon and mastic. Cover it and leave it in the sun for one month or more and keep it for your needs. When you want to use it, make it very warm and rub the body and put on warm clothes and soon it will remove the pain of the body so that you will not feel it any more. Another for constipation. Take the herb cinquefoil, that is potentilla, crush it and extract juice and then incorporate it with the same amount of good white wine. Drink this warm in the morning before eating and soon you will be cured of the constipation. Salve to cause a bowel movement by anointing the umbilicus. Take 2 or 3 gall bladders from oxen and distill them in a glass still on a slow fire. First will come out water which is good only to wash sores. Then will come out oil which you set aside. Take a little brandy and put in a little colocynth and let it infuse for 3 days in a row, well covered. Add this brandy to the oil made above in the amount that you want. Cover the ampule well and keep it thus for 3 days and each day shake it upside down so that the brandy is well incorporated because it is very hard to incorporate. Then boil this ampule on the bain marie very slowly for a quarter or a third of an hour and keep it covered so that it does not lose steam because the effectiveness would disappear. Remove it and save it for your needs. When you wish to use it, make it very warm and rub your umbilicus with it and put thereon a walnut shell so that the nightshirt does not touch the umbilicus and in a short time you will see it work well to evacuate the body without harm. Keep this for a simple and valuable secret which has been tested. Another for one who may be constipated, to cause a movement. Take a half shell of walnut and fill it with butter. In the evening when you go to sleep, bind it on the belly button and leave it there all night and in the morning you will have a bowel movement. Remove it and do not leave it on for it will make you go too much. This is a useful secret. Another ointment to rub the umbilicus to cause a bowel movement. Take some young canes of elder wood. Scrape away the outer bark lightly and take the inner bark..... -------- [Page 119] Cut it, grind it and extract juice with force in the press. Put the juice in one or more stems of hollow reed and close the ends well with cork so that no water can enter. Then boil them in a pot of water for at least an hour and a half or more. Remove the tubes from the water and when they are cold you will find the juice completely congealed in the form of an unguent as long as the water did not enter the tubes. When you want to use it, heat it in an egg shell and rub around the belly button very well and put on a warm cloth. Soon you will have a bowel movement. By rubbing repeatedly, as said above, it softens your constipation and removes that swelling. I have done this many times and it has brought me honor many times. Laxative of tartar and other kinds to relieve constipation. Take some tartar from white wine and grind it very finely. Then wash it with a warm decoction of Mercury's herb 4 or 5 times so it is reduced at least in half. Drain it well and put it in a clean pot and put therein 2 parts of beet juice and one part of honey and boil it very slowly until it becomes in the form of an electuary. Remove it from the fire and save it for your needs. Give the patient one spoonful of it early in the morning and it will have a wonderful effect. Another to cause a bowel movement, a tested laxative. Take the cores from the soft tips of danewort, the wild elder that grows on the edge of ditches, and eat it in any way you wish and soon it will cause a bowel movement. Likewise take some of its seeds when they are fully mature and dry them and make them into very fine powder and give it to drink in broth or wine and soon there will be a bowel movement. Another laxative. Take the root of the white lily, cut it, grind it and extract juice with the press and take 3 ounces each of the juice of spurge and savory and put everything together to boil. Put in about as much cleaned honey and make it boil slowly until it becomes in the form of an electuary. Then give the patient ½ ounce per dose and it will do much good. Another laxative. Take the juice of the mulberry in the way described above and drink it with broth or wine. It will make you go with a bowel movement very easily and quickly. Another laxative to cause a bowel movement. Take 2 ounces of senna in leaf, 1 ounce of tartar and ½ ounce of red sugar and mix everything together. Take one spoonful of it early in the morning and soon you will go. It removes melancholy and poor spirits and similar infirmities. Another laxative. Take 1 ½ ounces of senna from Levant in fine powder and add a bowl of broth and put it in a pot and put therein a little whole cinnamon and boil it a little. Then give it to drink to one who has constipation through not being able to have a bowel movement and soon he will go and it will not take long. It is tested. Another powder that causes a bowel movement. Take 2 ounces each of turbith, autumn crocus, tarragon, cubebs, buckthorn, cloves, fine sugar and ginger. Make fine powder of everything and put it together and save this. One takes a spoonful of it in broth or wine and soon it clears up the body. Another for flatulence in the body, a rapid remedy. Take 1 ounce of spotted cumin and eat it. Next drink half a glass of good malvasia and stay in repose and in less than ½ hour you will feel no more pain in the body and soon you will urinate. It is tested. -------- [Page 120] Additional laxatives to relieve constipation. Take 4 large, dry figs, 6 jujubes, one spoonful of honey and as much yeast as a walnut. Put all these things into a large pot full of water and put it before the fire to boil so it reduces a little less than one half. Then when it is cold, strain it and save it for your needs. Early in the morning take one half glass of it in the form of a syrup and it will do you very good service. Again, take as much white soap as one fava bean and boil it in an ampule with ½ glass of good white wine and give it to the patient to drink and he will be cured well. Other varieties of laxatives. Take spurge and boil it in strong vinegar. Then let the vapors escape and it will be made. Take 8 to 10 drops of the boiled liquid and ½ ounce of rose honey and combine them in the form of a syrup and drink it. You will see a good effect on constipation. Again, take some broth from cabbage that has been well cooked so that the substance remains in the broth. Then take one half a spoonful of tartar from white wine, made into very fine powder, with this broth in the form of a syrup in the morning and it will make you go 3 or 4 times from the body, gently and without distress. Again, take Mercury's plant and boil it with water and oil together and drink a bowl of this boiled liquid and soon it will put your body in order. Another laxative. Take 2 ounces of flowers of cassia, 3 ounces of red sugar, 1 ounce of mucharo roxato , ½ ounce of laxative preparation of prunes and mix everything together in the form of an electuary. Take a dose early in the morning and it will greatly refresh the intestine and you will go easily without any distress.... 67 Again, take 4 drams of violet sugar and 1 dram of the laxative preparation of prunes and mix them together and give ½ ounce of it in the morning and it will have the desired result. Another laxative. Take 1 ounce of cassia obtained in canes, 1 ounce of mucharo roxato , one ounce of violet syrup and a drop of rose water and mix them in the form of a syrup. Take it early in the morning but do not go out too much at the time. It will give you a good result, I am not worried about that. Another wonderful laxative. Take 1½ drams of the prune preparation, 6 drams of cassia flowers, ½ ounce of barley sugar, ½ scruple of scammony, 1 ounce of musk roses and incorporate everything well together. Then take the regular dose as usual and you will see a wonderful effect. It is tested. Another for one who is constipated. Take some betony and cook it in water and drink this water warm and soon it will cure. Another powder that relieves constipation. Take 1 ounce of senna leaves, 2 drams of cinnamon, 7 drams of cloves, 6 drams of tartar, 5 ounces of scammony and make very fine powder of everything and put them together. In the morning take 1 ½ drams in broth in the form of a syrup. It will make you go and it will cleanse the phlegm from the stomach. Again, take 2 drams each of the small and flat roots of turbith, ginger and cultivated bishop's weed and 2 ounces of white sugar and make powder. A 1 dram dose of this is equal to 4 of the other powder. It has great efficacy, especially for those who suffer the distress of weak nerves. -------- [Page 121] Enema to cause a bowel movement. Take 2 ounces each of fennel, anise, fenugreek, rue, camomile, dill and centaury and 2 drams of colocynth and boil all these things in good white wine and when they are well cooked, put them in a canvas cloth and press them under the press. Take that substance and put therein 3 ounces each of oil of camomile, of dill and of rue. Then make your enema, taking as much of this material as is needed and you will see it cures very well and it will help you. Another enema. Take 1 handful each of honeysuckle, mountain mint and nettle and enough white wine and make it boil until it reduces one third. Then make an enema of this boiled liquid in the usual way and it will help you greatly. Another enema for excessive flatulence. Take the usual decoction to make an enema, that is 1 handful of beet, mallow, sweet violet and Mercury's herb. When it is well cooked, strain it with care and return it to the fire and put in fennel, pepper and saffron at your discretion. Then restrain it through a linen cloth and take a portion and put it in another pot and put in a pinch of ground salt and a yolk of an egg, beaten in a bowl with some of the decoction. Empty it into the pot and add ½ glass of olive oil. Give this, tepid, to the patient, as you know how to do. As soon as you have made the sick one take it, put the feet up and raise them a little so that the enema can work better. It lifts the distress rapidly. Laxative unguent that causes vomiting and defecation. Take white and black hellebore, autumn crocus and the roots of henbane, each the same amount. Cut them and grind them finely. Then incorporate them with old lard from a male pig. Boil it on a slow fire until it becomes like an unguent. After it boils, strain it under the press so that all the substance comes out and it will be made. Save it for your needs. When you wish to cause a bowel movement, rub only the soles of the feet and soon you will have a bowel movement with violence and haste. If one wants to evacuate the stomach by vomiting, smear the palms of the hands and soon you will have a beneficial effect. Note that when you wish to stop its action, either above or below, rub the part described above with the poppuleon unguent and soon the action will be stopped. This has been tested. To reduce flux of any kind from the body. Take some acorn caps from the oak and grind them and make very fine powder. Give half a spoonful of it to the sick one early in the morning in the form of a syrup with red wine or with water distilled without anything added. He should repose for a while. Do this for 3 mornings and, through God's grace, soon he will be freed. Another unguent which causes a bowel movement when put on the navel and causes vomiting when rubbed on the stomach. Take 1 ounce each of powdered aloe and turpentine and enough ox bile to knead them together and make an unguent of this and rub it on as described above and it will have its effect and quickly. -------- [Page 122] Pills of aloe to evacuate the body. Take aloe with the infusion of rhubarb and make pills of it. Take them at your pleasure, especially when you need them and take 1, 2 or 3 of them in the evening according to how you feel because they are not harmful. Also they have this property: by easing the stomach the pills relieve headache, make the body work easily, benefit the vision, reduce swellings in the intestinal parts, purify the lungs and even have many other good effects that I do not write here. Another for pills to evacuate. Take ½ dram of juniper gum, 2 drams of autumn crocus, 5 drams each of colocynth and scammony, 1 dram of rock salt with rose honey and make paste for pills. Take one of them a week and walk and then do not eat for 5 hours. This paste keeps a year. It will make you go from the body and helps you for that day. Another medicine for purging the bowel. Take 2 drams of rhubarb, pulverize it and confect it with 2 drams of rose syrup and 4 drams of decoction of polypody fern. Take it in the morning with a little rose water and it will make you go so that you will be cleaned out. Take it by mouth. Beverage for distress of the body from having retained urine. Take some roots of couch grass of the white kind, wash them and cook them well and press them under the press. Drink 6 ounces of this boiled liquid in the form of a syrup. Do this 3 or 4 times in the day when you expect the pains to come or as soon as they have come and they will go away rapidly and you will urinate considerably. This beverage also helps greatly to break stones in the kidney and in the bladder. It has been tested. For stopping diarrhea quickly. Take 1 handful of rosemary and boil it in very strong vinegar for a bit. Then take the cooked rosemary and put it on a cloth in the form of a plaster and put it on the body very warm. Do this several times, rewarming it and putting it on, and soon the diarrhea will be cured. This has been tested. Another beverage to reduce diarrhea as much as is desired. Take the rind of the poppy and make very fine powder of it and take 1 ounce of it and 1 ounce of ground cloves and boil these in red wine until it is reduced 2/3. Give 4 ounces to the patient to drink in the morning in the form of a syrup and then he should sleep at least 2 hours and then he will be freed from the flux. It will be stopped quickly. It is tested.... 68 Another. Toast a slice of bread, that is the crust, and soak it in warm strong vinegar. Then put on it powdered cloves, cinnamon and mastic, each the same amount, and bind this warm on top of the stomach and soon the patient will be cured. He should stay in repose for a while. Another to restrain diarrhea rapidly. Take 1 ounce of powdered dragon's blood gum and put it in strong vinegar with plantain seeds and the whites of 2 eggs. Make it into a plaster and put it on the kidney and on the pubic region and it restrains the flux. Another, an ointment to rub the body to restrain the flux. Take 1 dram each of rose oil, myrtle oil, quince oil and mastic oil, 1 scruple each of white and red sandalwood and stems of giant reed, ½ scruple of camphor and enough white wax to make an unguent on a slow fire. Then rub the body with it and soon the flux will be restrained. Another to restrain flux from the belly. Take a slice of cheese of cow's milk and toast it on the fire. Then put on it some plantain seeds like a spice and eat this 2 or 3 more times and soon the diarrhea from the body will be stopped. It has been tested. Another for restraining the flux. Take wild wormwood and cook it with a fresh egg in the form of a pancake and eat this early in the morning for 2 or 3 mornings and it will help you greatly. Another. The herb primula, green or dried, eaten with an egg may help you greatly. Another for simple diarrhea. Viz., take leaves of rosemary and boil them in very strong vinegar and make a plaster of it on a cloth on the body as warm as you can bear. Soon you will be cured. It is tested. -------- [Page 123] For destroying worms. Write on the toenail of the child these characters, J.O.B. First you should say the Pater Noster in the right ear of the sick person and then you should say, 'Saint Job had worms and then did not have them. They died through the intercession of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So be it. + + +.'... 69 Another also powerful not only for humans but also for animals. Viz., take a pail or vessel full of water and make three signs of the cross + + + over it, saying 'May this be consecrated in the name of the Father + and Son + and Holy Spirit, + Amen.' Then take a little knife with a white handle and make the sign of the cross + with the handle over the water, saying, 'In the name of the Father + and Son + and Holy Spirit, + Amen, I exorcise this water through the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, Amen, and by the living God, by the true God, by the only God, by the patriarchs, by the prophets, by the angels, by the archangels, by his dominion, by his supremacy, by his power, by the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, by the 24 elders who daily praise God and by the 144,000 innocents and by the most blessed Holy Mary, mother of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and by all the saints of God, so whichever man or woman or horse may have worms and may drink this water, quickly will be freed and the worms will degenerate and die.' You should say 3 Pater Noster with 3 Ave Maria with the words which follow which should also be said three times, 'In the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. Job, Job, Job had worms and they died and he was freed, thanks to God, thanks to God, thanks to God. As he was truly liberated so this man or woman or horse will be freed from worms. Amen. So be it. Agios.' Give him this water to drink and keep this blessed water always in your house to use it for these purposes. Another, a marvelous ointment against worms. Take ½ ounce each of mastic and hepatic aloe and 3 drams each of colocynth and myrrh and make very fine powder of them. Then take 1 handful of this and dry it in the oven when bread is removed. Grind it and make fine powder. Then take 1 lb. of ordinary oil, the oldest you can find, and half a glass of absinthe juice and 2 ounces of petroleum oil. Put the petroleum oil with the olive and boil this for the space of 3 Pater Noster and then put in the above powder, little by little, always stirring, and let it boil for ½ hour. Then put in as much clean wax as a nut and it will be made. Then rub the patient who suffers from worms. It should be warm and rub the top of the stomach and the chest as far as the navel and do not miss it. Rub the kidneys, all the wrists, the temples, the nares of the nose and soon, with the aid of God, the patient will be cured. It has been tested. *Another for round worms or worms. Make the sign of the holy cross on the forehead of the infant and say three Pater Noster and these words in the right ear of the infant, 'Saint Job had worms and Saint Job was freed and the worms were dead. Man was created and brought forth. The Lord God is strong and powerful.' In the ear or in the mouth say 3 times, ' Galba, gabella, gabellatum est jospes mortes vermes,' and you will cure this sickness immediately. *Water for scabies. Take 10 lb. of cistern water, 1 lb. of lees from a charred barrel of yew which held dyes for tinting glass, 3 ounces each of salt and rock alum and ¼ ounce of sublimate. Grind everything and boil them in a clean pot or carafe. At the end of one hour it will be made. Remove it from the fire, let it cool and strain it. With a sponge bathe with this water for 4 evenings, one yes and the next no, and on the alternate evenings wash with warm lye and change your clothes. Use a clean blanket and you will be cured. When this water is used to bathe it becomes turbid and so when you use it that will happen. -------- [Page 124] [This page is blank.] -------- [Page 125] For illness in the body caused by worms. Take 2 fingers of good white wine in a glass and put in a piece of sulfur the size of a bean and not more to infuse. In the morning strain it through fine cloth. Then give it to the sick one to drink and at once he will be cured and many worms will go out. It is tested. Another for sickness from worms. Take 1 lb. of old olive oil, 4 ounces of ginger root, 3 ounces of peach kernels and 1 ounce of juniper berries. Grind everything and make very fine powder. Put everything in the oil and boil it on a slow fire until it reduces in half and becomes like an unguent. Incorporate it well with a stirrer and let it cool. Save it in a clean place. The older it is, the better to treat your needs and the needs of others. When you treat with it rub only the wrists, the hollow of the throat and the navel and do this rubbing 2 or 3 times in a few hours and soon you will be cured by the action of this medicine. Much has been said of how well it works. Another to cure sickness from worms very quickly. Take 4 or 5 cloves of garlic and bruise them in a bowl and put in a little strong vinegar and mix it well. Then rub the wrists, rubbing them well, and especially the body, and as you have finished one time, begin to rub hard one more time and do this 2 or 3 times and at the end of ½ hour you will be cured and little by little you will feel better. Then rub with the ointment that you have made above and, through God's grace, there will be no more of this sickness. Another, a bandage for little children when such children are upset because their movements are bothered by pain from the worms. At once take some peach leaves and put them on the body where they are needed and wrap on the leaves and soon the child will be soothed and without distress. Another one for everyone, large and small. Take 1 handful each of peach leaves and well-washed roots of white couch grass and boil them to reduce in half. Strain and press them under the press. Give the patient as much of this decoction to drink as he can drink. The more he drinks, the sooner he may be cured. Also you can give patients water distilled from peach, couch grass and holy thistle, as much of it as one can drink because by drinking all this water, it is as if it makes the worms burst and they are all defecated as water. The child may soon be cured, by the grace of God and Saint Job. Another for worms. Take 1 dram each of saffron, aloe, cloves and incense and 1 ounce of laurel oil. Then take a sour orange and make a hollow in half of it by removing the center. Then put in all the above things made into fine powder, but do not put in the oil. Put the orange on the warm ashes. Then put in the oil mixed with the juice of one orange and let it cook on the ashes. Rub the child with this ointment, rubbing the wrists, the temples, the navel, the fontanelle of the stomach and the nose and soon you will see it work well. All the worms will go out from below and you have succeeded. To cure worms rapidly. Say, “Fever and worms which are in this body, as Jesus Christ said on the Cross, 'It is finished,' in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit +, Amen.” Say it 3 times in the morning for 3 days and hold your hands in a cross on the body and, through God's grace, soon the person will be cured. It has been tested. -------- [Page 126] Confection against worms for adults and children. Take 1 ½ drams of scammony, 3 drams of turbith, 1 dram each of cinnamon, cloves, herb bennet and ginger, 2 drams each of dittany, myrrh and holy wormseed and 6 ounces of fine sugar. Compound all these things and make a good confection and save it for your needs. When the person feels pain in the body because of worms, at once give him 1 dram if he is an adult and if he is small give him ½ dram and the pain will cease at once and the worms will all go away through the bowels. This is a rare secret. Tested charm against worms. Make a little note and attach it to the neck of the child and let it stay until it falls off by itself. When it is attached to the neck, say 3 Pater Noster and 3 Ave Maria and bind it 3 times to the patient. This charm has been tested repeatedly, that is, write this, viz., 'Job was freed of worms. Just as they were dead and he was freed, may these be dead, may they be gathered, may they go out, may they be turned to water through the incarnation and compassion of our Lord, Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.' Be confident that this will cure rapidly and they will not return again. Another for worms. Say, “Fever and worms that may be in this head, in this chest and in this body, you are finished, as Christ at the end on the wood of the holy cross said, 'It is finished.' ” Say it 3 times in the ear of the sufferer and you will cure rapidly. Carry it with you. It has been tested. Another medicine against worms. Take 1 lb. of ordinary oil, 8 to 10 cloves of garlic ground between 2 stones and 1 handful each of leaves of peach and of absinth, ½ a handful of goat's rue and 2 or 3 nails that are rusty and put them in 2 ounces of white wine and put everything in the oil and boil it until it appears that all the wine has been dissipated. If you want to know when this is ready, put a drop of it on a hot grill and if it sizzles, the wine is not used up. When it is finished remove it from the fire and strain it at once and press the herbs on the press and when it is still warm put in 3 ounces of clean wax and stir with a wooden spatula until it is cold. Save it in a bottle for your needs. When you wish to treat, rub the wrists and the fontanel of the stomach and it will cure. Prayer against worms for every person. First say and have the patient say 3 Pater Noster with 3 Ave Maria. Then say these 3 verses in the left ear of the patient and attach them around the neck, viz., 'Increate Father, + Increate Son, + Increate Holy Spirit, + Infinite Father, + Infinite Son, + Infinite Holy Spirit, + Eternal Father, + Eternal Son, + Eternal Holy Spirit, + in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen + + + .' Another prayer against worms for everyone. Say and have the patient say 5 Pater Noster with 5 Ave Maria. Then say these words in the right ear and also in the left, viz., “Night and Day were walking on the road and they met Jesus Christ, the little son of the Virgin Mary, and he said to them, 'Where are you going, Night and Day?' They said, 'Lord, we are going to the mountain to find the herb to kill worms.' Christ said to them, 'Go to my house, Night and Day, and you can say that you have found Jesus Christ, Son of the Virgin Mary and soon you will be cured.' + In the name of the Father + Son + and Holy Spirit. + Amen, + + + .” Another to cure worms. Put your 2 forefingers on the forehead of the patient in a cross and do this 3 times early in the morning with 3 signs of the cross. Then say these holy words, viz., 'Christ made Job. Job had worms and through the grace of Jesus Christ, Job killed the worms. + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.' Then say three.... -------- [Page 127] Pater Noster with 3 Ave Maria in reverence to God and the Holy Trinity. Attach this amulet around the neck with a thread twisted by a virgin young girl on which is written the following prayer, and when you attach it to the neck of the patient, say and have the patient say 3 Pater Noster with the Ave Maria in reverence to God and Saint Job and Saint Honoffry. This is the holy prayer, vz., '+ Power of the Father, + wisdom of the Son, + compassion of the Holy Spirit + free your servant (name) of God + from all illness and worms and convert them into water, to the honor of the blessed Job and Saint Honoffry, martyrs of God, in the name of the Father + Son + and Holy Spirit +, Amen.' To shut down diarrhea from the body little by little. Take 4 ounces of water distilled from oak leaves and give it to the patient to drink warm in the form of a syrup. Give 3 ounces of it at 2 hours, 2 ounces of it one hour later and then give 1 ounce. In this way it will reduce the flux so that it will stop. If this kind of water alone does not help sufficiently, add a mixture of water of sorb apples and of knot grass, each the same amount, and give it as you have given the first. If this also does not work as rapidly as needed, add more kinds of waters, that is water of pine cone, of liverwort, of cornelian cherry, of quince and of myrtle or rose water, each the same amount, and give 3 ounces of it to drink each time in the form of a warm syrup, 2 or 3 times a day. You should know that this beverage reduces the flux admirably because there are 3 kinds of illness of flux, that is from fat, from bile and from the liver, which the greater number of times is fatal. But be warned that you should take care of yourself with great diligence, so that soon, through God's grace, you will be cured. Also this last composition is useful in red menstruation of women when it does not stop. Give 4 glasses in the day, that is 3 ounces each time to the patient and in 2 days you will cure through God's grace. It is tested. If by chance at the end of the 2 days the body has not responded it may be beneficial to use an ordinary enema with camomile and it should have a good effect and will cure. Another for diarrhea. Take some mint, powdered cloves, mastic, nutmeg, strong vinegar and malvasia wine, all these things at your discretion, and make a poultice of all these things and make it warm and put it on the body. If you suspect there are worms, put therein ½ ounce of powdered aloe and you will cure rapidly. Be confident since it is tested. Another enema to cure diarrhea rapidly. Take the shin bone and parch it and make fine powder of it and cook it in water. Then take some of this boiled water and put in one ounce each of rose and violet oils and mastic oil and add the yolk of a fresh egg and make the enema. If this helps, do it again until the body has had a good result and feels good and, through God's grace, soon you will cure. Herb that reduces diarrhea rapidly. Take that herb that grows in the gardens and in other household places which is called sparrow tongue or toad flax and grows 3 fingers high from the earth and grows as a little bush, that is densely, and has little leaves of light green color and little flowers like little white tips and spreads adventitiously ..... -------- [Page 128] on the earth in dry places with little rootlets fine and winding, Pick this herb during the half moon. Wash it well and dry it in the shade and make very fine powder of it. Then cook a fresh egg to drink and put in one spoonful of this powder and incorporate it. Then drink it and do this in the evening when you go to sleep and also early in the morning and rest for an hour. Do this 3 or 4 times until you see that the flux begins to stop. Do not give more which overdoes the action and soon it will cure. Know that this herb is very powerful to reduce diarrhea and especially it is very suitable for that from the liver. Also it is powerful for the women who discharge excessive blood. This has been tested many times. To reduce diarrhea from the body and other fluxes. Take 3 ounces each of urine of a healthy man, fine ashes of turkey oak and yellow litharge and mix them and make little balls of it and dry them in the shade. When you wish to use them, mix them with plantain juice, one or two each time, and put this warm on the navel in the evening when you go to sleep and soon it will restrain the body so you will not go too much, and soon you will be cured. Another, tested pills for diarrhea. Take 2 ounces each of dragon's blood gum, mummy, opium, myrrh, acacia and frankincense bark and 1 ounce of gall. Prepare it with plantain juice or knot grass juice and make a dough in the usual way and see that the sick person takes 3 pills in the evening when he goes to sleep and soon the flux will stop. It has been tested. Another for the sickness of dysentery. Take the herb cinquefoil, grind it and make juice and mix it with good red wine and give to the sick one to drink on an empty stomach. Do this several times and soon you will cure. Also if you take a clove of garlic and make several holes in it and fry it a little in ordinary oil and put it in the anus and do this several times, soon you will cure. Again, take the herb called ave donna and make a fomentation to put on the buttocks. Then put on a tent with the same herb over the opening of the anus. Another. To remove the burning sensation in the posterior, make this fomentation. Take a jug of malvasia or a very good white wine and put in yolks of 3 fresh eggs. Boil this in a pot on the bain marie with 3 cabbage leaves in it. Then with this warm, make a steam bath for the sick one for his rear from below through a stool or a little chair that is perforated in the center. It should be well sealed around so that the fumes are not lost but all are received from below. This will remove the pain quickly. Another for the burning sensation of the rear from whatever causes the heat. Take 1 handful each of pomegranate rind and bark of wormwood and cook them in ordinary oil and make a poultice and put this warm on the anus and do it several times and soon you will cure. Again, if you are in the forest and feel serious itching, at once take some mud or muddy water and smear your rear and soon you will be cured. Another, a fomentation for fluxes from the body. Take Greek pitch, Armenian clay, mastic, incense, dragon's blood gum, pea pods and pennyroyal, all at your discretion, and put all these things in a pot and boil with violet oil. Put a very large funnel on the pot and put the narrow end in the anus and take the fumes in this way as much as you can and you will be cured. *For burns from water or fire. Take peeled onions and grind them in a mortar, however many seem to be enough, and put them on a piece of cloth in the form of a plaster and at once put it where you are burned. Do this until you are cured. *Another. Take snow and fill a pot and bury it at a depth of half an arm's length in the ground outside, that is in the garden, and at the end of three months it will be made. Remove it and use it until one is cured. Medicate 3 or 4 times a day with wet cloths. -------- [Page 129] Several kinds of very rare remedies for painful colics. Take 6 ounces of the oldest olive oil that you can find, 3 quatrini each of saffron, incense and powdered cloves, 20 laurel berries and 1 ounce of clean wax. Pulverize everything and put them together in a little pot on a slow fire for the period of one miserere. Remove it from the fire, stirring continuously until it is cold and it will be made. Save it for your needs. When you want to use it, warm it and rub the body well and put on warm cloths and turn on your back. In the space of one hour you will begin to get improvement and, with the aid of God, soon you will be freed of the painful colic and you will not feel more distress. Another. Take sifted flour and flour of millet and boil them with oil of rue and of camomile, the same amount of each, and with this warm rub the body and soon you will be cured. Another against painful colics. Take 2 handfuls of elder flowers, 1 ounce of sweet flag, 3 ounces each of pulverized peach kernels and cherry stones, 2 ounces of pulverized medlar stones, 1 ounce of mullein root and 6 lb. of table wine or malvasia. Put all together in a well-stoppered glass vessel for 3 days. Then distill it and save this distillation for your needs. Give the patient 2 or 3 ounces at a time in the form of a warm syrup and soon he will be cured. This was proved in a gentleman who was given up for lost. Another against painful colics. When you are at mass, when the body of Christ is lifted, say 'Pure host and holy body, Lord Jesus Christ, free me from the pain of my side.' When the blood is lifted, say 'O worthy body, O holy blood, Lord Jesus Christ, free me from the sickness in my side.' At the end say one Pater Noster and soon you will be cured. Another against painful colics. Take some of Job's tears planted this year, break them up and extract the good, dry it and make fine powder of it. Give one spoonful of it to the patient to drink with ½ glass of good warm wine and soon the pain will stop. It is tested. Another for these illnesses of the side. Take galbanum gum and make a round plaster of it and put thereon powdered cloves and heat it well and put it on the navel and do not move it but let it detach itself from its place and you will see a good effect. It is tested. Another. Elder flowers given to drink with warm wine help the pain in the side greatly. Do this several times and soon it will be cured. It has been tested. Another against pain in the sides. Take 6 ounces of water distilled from elder flowers and put in 2 ounces of ground sugar, heat it and give it to the patient to drink as soon as he feels the illness. At the end of one hour he will begin to improve. This was tested by a bishop who was on a journey and in the morning he rode without impediment. Another for this pain in the sides. Take some milk vetch and boil it well. Then make an enema of this decoction and soon the pain will cease. Another for this sickness of the sides. Take 4 drams each of melon seeds, squash seeds and ground pine and 3 drams each of spices for an electuary, theriac and sandalwood, 3 ½ drams each of anise and asparagus seed, 1 ½ lb. of fine sugar and 1 dram of cinnamon and make an electuary of it in the usual way. Take it early in the morning and you will see the good result that the pain will soon lift and you will be cured. *Another. The root of hyoscyamus, that is henbane, carried on the back on bare flesh, is powerful against the pain in the sides. *Another. Well-ground parsley seed, as much as will stay on a julius , given to drink with warm wine, acts powerfully in the pain of colic.... 71 -------- [Page 130] Wonderful poultice for the pain of colic. Take 1 handful of horehound, 2 ounces each of linseed flour and barley flour, 4 ounces each of olive oil and camomile oil. First cook the horehound. Then remove it from the fire and put in the flours and incorporate them well and put it warm on the body where it hurts. Do this several times and soon the pain will cease. Then give powder of parched deer horn to drink with warm wine and it will lift the pain. Also make this. Rue cooked with butter and oil will work wonderfully and it lifts the pain quickly. Also stir celery in the frying pan with oil of dill and of camomile and put it warm on the painful place after first rubbing with scorpion oil. Do this several times and you will cure rapidly. Another for pain in the side. Take 2 drams of round birthwort, 1 dram each of cloves, cinnamon and saffron, all in powder. Give it to the patient to drink with good warm wine, one hour before the meal. Do this 4 or 5 times and soon he will be cured. Another for the above. Take some betony, dry it and make powder and give the patient one spoonful with wine or with water of camomile and soon you will cure him. Another for the above. Take laurel berries and climbing ivy root, each the same amount, and make powder and put them together. When the pains come, give the patient one spoonful of it with good warm white wine and he will be cured. Another for back pain. Put your hand where you have the greatest pain and press it as hard as you can. Say these 4 words with 3 Pater Noster and say them 3 times. That is, 'Maker of man. Redeemer of man.' and soon the pain will go away. Another for back pain. Take 1 ½ drams each of rose sugar, of diambre and filonio , mixed with warm wine, and take it 2 or 3 times and you will be cured rapidly.... 72 Another for back pain. Take some ivy seeds when they are mature at Christmas time, dry them and make powder. Then take white onions and distill them in a glass still and save this water for your needs. When it is needed, take a glass of this water, put in a spoonful of the powder described above and make it warm and give it to the patient to drink early in the morning for 5 or 6 mornings and, through God's grace, soon the pain will be cured. Another for the above. Take linseed flour and barley flour, each the same amount, and 1 handful of camomile with oil of rue or camomile and make a poultice of it and, as warm as can be borne, put it on the pain and soon it will pass away. Another to cause urination. Take 1 handful each of pellitory, marigold, horehound, parsley and corn poppy and fry them slowly in a pan with butter and oil. Then put it on the pubic area in the form of a warm poultice and part of it also behind on the rear, well bandaged, and stay warm and soon you will urinate and will be cured. Another for back pain. Take 3 jugs of malvasia or good white wine. Then take 1 handful each of parched cherry stones, peach stones, apricot stones and elder flowers and grind everything in a bronze mortar and make into fine powder. Put everything in the wine and distill it on a slow fire in a glass still. Save this distilled water as something dear. Keep it well plugged so that no gas escapes. When a person feels a pain in the back, give him a glass of it to drink warm and then in 2 hours give another glass. Do this and the pain will cease soon and will not give you more trouble. This is a good, tested secret. Another for back pain. Say, 'Pains do not return any more and be fixed there firmly as Christ was at his death. Pains stay by yourself as Christ did by himself. Pains go away in the name of God and the Virgin Mary and Saint Laurence. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen + + +.'... 73 Another for back pain. Take lard from a male pig and boil it in a little pot with oil and place it on a linen cloth and put it warm on the navel. You may be cured soon. -------- [Page 131] A confection most approved and effective for pain of colic. Take equal parts of rose sugar, diambre and filonio , totalling ½ ounce, and add these alternately to wine and boil it. When the pains come, take this electuary at once and soon you will feel better. It is tested. -------- [Page 132] (This is an empty page). -------- [Page 133] Tested and good enema for back pain. Take 3 or 4 heads of garlic and boil them in ordinary oil until they are well cooked. Press this oil well and when the oil is tepid, make an enema of it and soon you will cure. Another enema that may cure painful colic rapidly. Make a bowl of saba , that is new wine cooked one or 2 times, and the colic will go away at once. Another enema for pain in the side. Take one glass each of oil of camomile, of dill and of laurel and urine of a healthy man and make an enema of it in the usual way. When this pain comes from not being able to urinate, take one dram each of the red seeds of the winter cherry, well ground, and ground seeds from cherry stones and mix this powder with good white wine. Heat it and give it to the patient to drink once and then again, one after the other, and soon it will cause a lot of urine and the pain in the side will soon cease and go away at once because you will have urinated. This is a tested secret. Another for sickness in the side. Take 2 or 3 white onions and cut them crosswise and wet them with camomile oil and rose oil and let them cook well on the grill. Then grind them and put in 2 ounces of strong yellow spices and incorporate very well. Then put these very warm on a cloth in the form of a poultice and put it on the painful place on the side, 2 or 3 times, one after the other. At the end of 2 or 3 hours the pain will lift with the urge to urinate and you should feel somewhat better. Also you can take 3 or 4 white onions and cut them finely and boil them in a clean little pot with some of the above-described oil and let them cook well. Then grind them in a mortar and put on the above spice. Do as you have done above. Put it on your painful spot as warm as you can stand it and it will relieve it shortly and soon you will urinate and be healed. It is a thing tested and most true. Another for the pains of colic. Make a ring or a double ring either of gold or silver, that does not matter, and always carry it with you on your finger. On the ring write, ' HCEBEZ + DIA[ -- ]M + N [--] orum + SATBERU +' and nothing else and the pains will not come again. This was developed by a worthy person. Another against the above-described pains. Say, '+ When Christ was born all pain had been suffered. Flee pain, flee pain because the Lord pursues you. + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen + + + .' Say these words with devotion and with 3 Pater Noster. Also it is useful to say them over a beast that may have pains and it will be freed quickly and will urinate, through God's grace. It is tested. Another for pains in an animal. Say these words in the right ear. That is, 'Flee pain, yield pain to Christ. He follows you with the cross and the words by which you and the pain in my heart must leave in the night.' Be well. Another for the pains in a horse. Take the root of wild cucumber and give it to the horse to eat and quickly, quickly, it will be cured. This is tested and it will block pain well and cure it. Another for pain in the sides or pain in the body and this has been shown to lessen the pain rapidly. Take a bowl with some warm ashes within and put on 1 ½ ounces of strong fennel and put them on a little cloth. Then squirt it with good malvasia wine and put this warm on the pain. Repeat it in 2 hours and know that soon it will be cured. -------- [Page 134] Water for pain in the side and it helps in the stone. Take 1 lb. each of water of asparagus, of sea holly and flowers of elder and of pellitory and roots of parsley and of fresh lemon. Then take a full basin of kernels of peach stones and as many kernels of cherry stones and grind them very well together. Put them to soak in a pot full of malvasia or good white wine for 2 days in a row. Then put everything together and distill it in a glass still on a slow fire or on the bain marie. Leave it, well-stoppered, in the sun for at least 20 days and it will be made. Put it away for your needs. When you feel pain or ache from the stone, take 2 ounces or even 3 if needed, with ½ ounce of sugar and take it warm. Do this 2 or 3 times in the space of 2 hours and, through God's grace, soon you will be cured. It is tested and true. Another for pain of colic. Take the head of a wether and boil it with enough water until it reduces nearly in half and boil it with these herbs: 1 handful each of camomile, dill and sweet clover, 2 ounces of fenugreek and ½ ounce each of coriander, anise and cumin. Then remove it from the fire and wet a sponge in this boiling liquid and, as warm as one can stand, put it on the afflicted part and as it cools, rewarm it and soon the pain will leave. Also with this decoction you can make a remedy with one ounce each of oil of camomile, of dill and diafinicon and you will see a wonderful result, because this has been tested. Also you can make it with pure good wine and it will cure rapidly.... 75 Another. A decoction and powder for pain in the sides caused by stone or gravel. Viz., take a pot with 4 bowls of rain water or water from the cistern and put in the following things, viz., take one bowl of chick peas, 1 handful each of roots of parsley, of marsh mallow, of mallow, of nettle and of pellitory that are well washed and clean. Cook them well and boil until it reduces in half. Then strain it and keep it in a clean vessel, covered, to use for your needs. Then make this powder: take the sponge-gall that grows on the branches of the wild rose that is called the bedeguar gall. They should be well matured so they have worms inside. Dry them and make fine powder and again take kernels of peach stones and medlar stones and bark of the long kind of hazel nut and make very fine powder. Then take 3 drams of the powder of the bedeguar gall and 2 drams of powdered cinnamon and 1 dram each of medlar and hazel nut. Take a bowl of the decoction described above and put in a spoonful of oil and incorporate this well with the powder. Early in the morning take it in the form of a syrup and do not go to sleep and soon, through God's grace, the pain will cease and you will urinate much gravel. This has been tested. If you do not have some of the above decoction, take some broth of red chick peas or other appropriate broth and add this powder or use warm good white wine and stay in repose and keep warm. Another for pain in the side. It also helps in pain of stone and pain in pregnancy. Take some crayfish from the river and from springs when they change their eyes or their exoskeleton and dry them in the oven after the bread is removed or in a covered baking pan on the fire until you can grind them and make very fine powder of them. Then in the evening when you go to sleep, take a spoonful of it in good, warm white wine, 6 to 8 times and you will see a good effect on the pain of the sides from stone and in the pain of pregnancy. This is very true.... 76 Another for pain in the side and pain from stone. Take 2 ounces each of roots of dragon root made into juice and good white wine and 8 cloves made into fine powder and incorporate these and warm it and give it to the patient early in the morning. Do this for 4 or 5 mornings and it will help greatly and rapidly in pain in the side and pain from stone. -------- [Page 135] To cause retention of urine for one who suffers from flow. Take pomegranate rind and boil it in water and give that to the patient to drink. Then dry the rind and make very fine powder or instead roast the rind and make fine powder. In the evening when he goes to sleep, give the patient one spoonful to drink in a glass of the boiled liquid or wine. It should be very warm. Do it several times and he will not urinate as much. It is tested. Soft tips of oak boiled with red wine, ground and put several times in the form of a warm plaster on the pubic region keeps the urine from coming out. Another to cause retention of urine. Take the insides of the scaly skins of the leg of the chicken and wash them with vinegar and string them on a thread and dry them in the shade and make them into fine powder. In the evening when the patient goes to bed, give ½ spoonful of the powder with the above-described boiled liquid or with wine or warm broth and soon the urine will be retained. Tested. Another to cause retention of urine in one who cannot. Take 4 ounces each of roots of wild elder and betony, fennel and horehound and 1 ½ drams of mullein flowers, 2 drams of white roses and 6 ounces of cleaned honey. Put everything in a pot and boil it very slowly on a slow fire and add 3 jugs of ordinary water and boil it until only one jug remains and not more. Then strain it and press the herbs very well, extracting the substance and save that for your needs. Give 5 ounces of it to the patient to drink 2 hours before daybreak each time for 4 mornings in a row. In the evening of the same days, rub the area of the kidneys with unguent of sandlewood. Then give 1 dram of finely-powdered rusty fern, that is erba dorata , to drink in distilled water, with 2 ounces each of water distilled from over-ripe jujubes and water distilled from the head of a goat and these should be tepid. Continue this drink until you are cured or nearly. By continuing this, through God's grace, you will be cured. This is a rare and great secret. This malady, where the urine is not retained, comes from dislocation of the neck of the bladder and the anatomy of this has been studied and it is all seen very clearly. Another who urinates during sleep in the bed. Take some goat hoofs and ox hoofs. Dry them and make very fine powder. Then take 1 dram of each, and 1 ½ drams each of acorn caps, myrtle and shepherd's purse all made into fine powder, and put these powders together and give them to the patient to drink with very warm broth or red wine, one glass each time in the evening when he goes to sleep. Do it several times and keep the stomach warm. By continuing this, through God's grace, soon you will cure so that he will not urinate in bed. It It is effective even for one who may be a hermaphrodite, that is a man who may include the genitalia of a woman or a woman those of the man, being created that way by nature. This secret has been tested by many and has helped, through God's grace, many who are cured completely and others who are helped considerably. Another for one who urinates in bed and does not feel it. Take 1 ounce of nettle seeds made into very fine powder and ½ ounce of powdered mastic and put them together and take some dough as large as a fist and knead therein these powders. Then form it into a loaf and cook it in the oven. Then divide it into 3 parts and each morning take one part for 15 days in a row and, through God's grace, you will regain health.... 77 Another for one who may urinate too much through coldness of the kidney or may not be able to retain urine. Take a quantity of bladders of fish from the river, a bladder from a sow, a bladder from a wild boar and half a lung from a kid. Dry everything and make them into very fine powder together. Then take a little galingale and galbanum gum, each the same amount, and carefully make them into fine powder and incorporate everything together. Then in the evening when the patient goes to sleep, he takes one spoonful of it in broth, wine or water and it should be tepid. Do this when the moon is in the first quarter and in a few days the meatus for the urine will be reduced so that one will not urinate too much. This has been verified. For those who urinate in bed. Take some of those flowers that remain on the plant all winter and pulverize them finely and give them to drink as you wish and one will not urinate again in bed. Water of pine nutsdistilled when green will help hold urine wonderfully. -------- [Page 136] For one who urinates blood, either man or woman. Take some purslane, as much as you wish, and boil it in water until it is well cooked. Then strain it and press it very well so that you extract the substance. Take 5 ounces in a glass and put therein a spoonful of powder of yarrow dried in the shade and a spoonful of juice made from climbing ivy. Mix these well together and heat it and give it to the patient to drink early in the morning. Continue this drink until the blood begins to stop and at once stop. Do not take more because this much will soon cure, with the aid of God. Again take the horn of deer made into very fine powder and give it to the patient to drink with 1 ounce of mother's milk early in the morning and soon he will be cured. It is tested. Another to cure rapidly one who urinates blood. Take some fresh betony and eat it and also make very fine powder of it and take a spoonful early in the morning with red wine in the form of a syrup for 15 days and, through God's grace, you will be cured rapidly. Another for one who urinates blood. Take maiden hair fern, grind it and make fine powder and put half a spoonful of it in a fresh egg to drink. Drink this for 3 or 4 mornings and soon it will help you greatly. Also take the whites of 2 eggs, well beaten, in a bowl. Incorporate 1 scruple of camphor and make a cotton stupe and soak it in the bowl and put it all across the loins. Do this in the evening when you go to sleep at least for 4 evenings in a row and soon it will be cured. Take care of yourself. Another for one who urinates blood. Take rosemary, grind it and extract the juice and place it in a glass vessel and in the morning give the patient 2 ounces of it to drink with 1 ounce of pomegranate wine, fairly warm, for several mornings and soon the urine will change color so there is no more blood. You should know that these secrets are from several persons and have been tested in many persons, but the amount needs to be adjusted, as for all medicines. Another for one who urinates blood. Take 1 ounce each of mallow, olive leaves, celandine, roses, sweet violets, willow leaves, sage, barley, betony, pomegranate rind, scabiosa, plantain and bugloss, 3 drams each of saffron and hepatic aloe, 4 ounces of raw honey and sufficient white vinegar and put everything together in a little pot and boil it a little. Then put some of this boiled liquid in a one pint pitcher and warm it sufficiently and put it into the penis or keep bathing it repeatedly. Soon you will be cured of urinating blood. For pain of the kidney, to cure it rapidly. Take the whites of 2 fresh eggs, 1 ounce of plantain juice, ½ ounce each of oil of violets, oil of water lily and rose unguent and 2 scruples of finely-cut camphor and incorporate everything together very well. Rub the kidneys very well with this unguent in the evening and in the morning and soon the pain will cease. This is a tested remedy and it acts in a few days. Another for one who cannot urinate and who has pain in the kidneys. Take golden rod and make very fine powder of it and give one tablespoon of it in a fresh egg to drink early in the morning. The patient should stay in repose at least 2 or 3 hours and soon it will cause urination and the pain of the kidneys will cease. Continue it for 12 days and soon you will cure. Another for pain in the side. Take 6 drams of liquid storax, 5 drams each of chicken fat, goose fat and duck fat, 4 drams of rose oil, 2 ½ drams of red wax and 1 dram of butter. Liquify the fat, the oil and the butter together. Then strain them so thay are well incorporated and put in the storax and it will be made. Spread it on a cloth and put it on the pubic region and soon you will urinate. For one who urinates blood from the penis. Take cinquefoil with the roots, well cleaned, and put it in a little pot with very good light red wine and boil it for one hour. Stopper it well around when you put it in the pot. Then strain it carefully and in this wine put a little brandy and give 1 ounce of it, warm, to the patient to drink in the morning and evening for 4 to 6 days and soon you will cure. Another. If a sick person urinates without knowing it and and wants to restrain this, put into the decoction above some powdered acorns and have him drink it in the evening. -------- [Page 137] Most excellent and rapidly-acting secrets for one who cannot urinate. Take some of those little animals that are called porcelets or sow bugs that roll up in a circle like a rosary and stay in the moisture under bricks. Take an amount that are clean and put them between two pans and dry them in the oven after the bread is removed. Grind them and make very fine powder and save it for your needs. Then give the patient a spoonful of it to drink with broth or wine and also with 3 ounces each of water distilled from pellitory and celandine with 1 ounce of ground sugar. Give it warm in the form of a syrup. Then make the patient draw near to the fire so that the warmth feels good and soon the desire to urinate will come and he will urinate. This medicine is most appropriate for one who has not been able to urinate for a day or more and where the urine has been going between flesh and skin and for one who may be turning yellow and swollen from not being able to urinate. Whether it is a man or a woman, soon either will be freed, through God's grace. This has been tested many times by men worthy of belief.... 78 Also give repeatedly to drink 3 ounces each of tepid water distilled from pellitory and celandine with sugar in it and soon the patient will urinate. Also put on the pubic region a sachet with some warm ashes in it and you will provoke urine rapidly and the patient will urinate at his pleasure. Another for one who is not able to urinate. Take some roots of reed, of broad beans and of asparagus, each the same amount, wash them well, cut them and distill them in a glass still. Then give a glass of it with ½ ounce of fine sugar to the patient to drink early in the morning in the form of a syrup and as much again when he goes to bed. He will soon urinate with much gravel. Another. Take a radish or a white radish and grate it and put this, very fresh, on the pubic region and soon it will provoke urine. First take some warm and suitable beverage by mouth and you will urinate abundantly and you will urinate much gravel. Another to cause urination freely. Take 1 handful each of celery seed, endive seed and fresh anise seed and crush all these seeds, not too finely, and make 2 small bags with an amount the size of the hand and have a clean pot with good malvasia or the best white wine in it. Put it on the fire to boil until it is ready. Then put in one of these little bags and immediately remove the pot from the fire. Take out the sack and press it well and put this very warm on the pubic region but first shave the region and rub it with equal amounts of warm sweet almond oil and scorpion oil. Then put on the warm sack and when it is cold, remove it and put on the other from the wine that should be very warm, always rubbing first with the warm oils. Keep putting on one after the other and do not let the flesh chill. By doing this good remedy, at the end of 2 hours one will urinate as much as one wishes. Know that this is a rare secret to cause urination. Another to cause urination in a large amount and also a lot of gravel. Take one large, fat young cockerel, clean it well and carefully and put it in a large cooking pot with water enough so there is no need to add any more and cook it well so the bones detach from the flesh and leave it there. Then put in, to boil together, 1 handful each of roots of celery, of parsley, of mallow, of marsh mallow and of sweet fennel and boil until they are well cooked in the broth. Strain it finely and keep it in a cool place and every morning, as long as it lasts, drink a cup with ½ ounce of finely-ground sugar. First put a little sack full of warm ashes on the pubic region and soon it will make you urinate and with much gravel. If you may be undergoing the pain of stone, by continuing this beverage, it will soon break up the stone and you will urinate it little by little, through the virtue of these herbs and roots. -------- [Page 138] For one who urinates with difficulty. Take 1 handful of greater nightshade, that is winter cherry with those red cherries that are in pods. Boil them in good white wine until they are well cooked and cracked. Then strain them finely, pressing well. Drink some of that wine warm in the evening when you go to sleep with a little sugar in it. Do this for 8 to 10 days and you will see a wonderful result with the amount of urine that will come. This is tested. Another for one who has difficulty in urinating. Take the testicles of one rabbit or more, dry them and make powder of them and take bark of cinnamon, of senna and fine cinnamon made into very fine powder and take at your discretion one spoonful or more in good white wine or in mutton broth with a little sugar in the form of a syrup in the evening or in the morning, as it is convenient for you. This beverage is very appropriate for opening the porosity for urine and by using this beverage, nature will cause urine naturally where there is no other impediment. Another to cause urination. Take some parsley with the roots, pellitory on the wall and watercress and boil them until they are well cooked. Then remove them and press them well. Put this in the form of a warm poultice on the pubic region and as it cools, rewarm it and soon you will urinate, if there is no impediment. Another for one who is not able to urinate. Take 1 lb. each of melon seeds, good white wine and coarse sugar and crush the seeds and put everything together and distill it in a glass still on a slow fire. Continue to drink this water early in the morning in the form of a warm syrup and you will see a wonderful effect and you will urinate a large amount. This is a tested secret. Another, a plaster for one who has difficulty urinating. Take cow dung and incorporate it with some raw honey and heat it and make a plaster and put this very warm on the pubis. Do this repeatedly, keeping it warm, and soon you will urinate. This is a good secret. Another to cause urination, a wonderful secret. Take 6 ounces each of kernels of cherry and peach stones, 3 ounces each of medlar stone and medlars, 2 lb. of ribolla or malvasia wine and 3 ounces of white sugar. Put them in a bottle, well closed, for 3 whole days. Then take 6 ounces each of water of flowers of elder, broom, melon, barberry, pellitory, watercress, parsley and agrimony and 3 ounces each of water of winter cherry, samphire and maiden hair fern. Mix all these things together and distill water from them in a glass still and save it carefully. It is precious. The dose is from 1 ½ ounces to 2 ounces. Keep the patient well covered in bed and when he will have sweated, wipe him well with warm cloths. It is helpful to repeat this again once or twice and he will be freed. This is effective in the difficulty of stone and distress of the kidneys. I have tested this.... 80 Also, make the kernels of cherry stones into fine powder and give ½ ounce of this warm to the patient to drink in a glass of good white wine. Do it several times and soon he will urinate. Another for one who is not able to urinate. Take the hard gallstone that is in the gall of the old ox and dry it and make powder of it. Also make powder of the shells of the wild hazel nut and take as much of one as the other and give the patient who is not able to urinate this to drink with 1 ounce each of water of pellitory, of asparagus, hound's tongue and hops. Give it warm with sugar. -------- [Page 139] For one who is not able to urinate, be it man or woman. Take 2 handfuls of the herb chervil and 2 ounces of crushed licorice and boil it in a clean pot, covered, with 8 lb. of water of hops until it reduces 1/3. Then remove it from the fire and strain it and save it carefully. Give the patient one good glass of this water to drink with a little sugar in it and it should be warm. Put the warm chervil in the form of a plaster on the pubis and across to the penis. Also give another glass of this warm water to drink. The more of it he drinks, the sooner he will urinate freely and with much gravel. This herb is well tested. Continue this for 3 days in a row and reheat the plaster at least 4 or 5 times a day and he should drink enough of this water. Do this more or less according to how you see the need. Do it with confidence that it is tested. Another to cause urination with ease. Take roots of radish, well minced, and put them in 2 little bags of cloth as large as the hand. Then boil them in very good white wine until it reduces ¼ . Then give one glass of it warm to drink early in the morning to the one who is not able to urinate because of some pain or other infirmity. Then put on the 2 little bags, well pressed and warm, one on the pubis and the other on the rear and replace them frequently to keep them warm and it will make him urinate very, very much. This is tested and helps also with gravel. Another to cause urination rapidly. Take olive oil and warm it so that you can hold the relaxed penis in it and as it cools down, rewarm it and soon the desire to urinate will come and this will help you greatly and rapidly. Also in this illness it is a great help to drink some warm juice of betony with some sugar in it. It breaks the stone and little by little you will urinate the gravel and soon, with God's grace, you will be cured. Another to cause urination, very well tested. Take seed of greater burdock, that which is round and attaches itself to clothes, and make very fine powder of it and also take the lining that covers the inside of the gizzard of the chicken, wash it carefully and dry it in the shade, and make very fine powder of it. Early in the morning take ½ spoonful of each with a little sugar early in warm good white wine or broth. Do this 4 or 5 times and stay warm and soon you will urinate well. Tested. Another to cause urination. Take a handful of the herb called pellitory and cook it very well in water. Remove it and press it. Then wet this herb with juice made of mallow and put on 2 scruples of ground cinnamon. Put this plaster, very warm, on the pubis of the patient who should stay in repose and let it stay on as long as you can. If the urine does not come, rewarm it and he will urinate. For one who is not able to urinate. Take some nettles and make very fine powder. Then take ¼ ounce of it in a glass of wine and boil it a little before the fire and let it cool a little. Give it to the patient to drink on an empty stomach. Do this in the evening when he goes to sleep and take 2 or 3 leaves of bear's claw, warm them and put them on the pubis and tie them on and let them remain all night. In the morning remove them and soon, through God's grace, he will urinate. Another to cause urination. Take 1 handful each of camomile, pellitory on the wall, that is paritaria , and absinthe and 1 ounce each of fenugreek and flax seed and boil everything in white wine. Then put this plaster on the pubis, warm, and do it several times and soon you will urinate enough. Do it and you will be satisfied. -------- [Page 140] For the burning in the penis during urination. Take oil of roses and rose water, each the same amount, and the white of a fresh egg and mix them together. In the evening and the morning, rub along the kidneys and put over that a linen cloth. To squirt in the penis take rose water and plantain water, each the same amount, with a little fine sugar and squirt it in the penis with a syringe. If this does not help enough, use some good white wine to squirt in and it will help you and soon you will be cured. Take care of yourself. Eat all things refreshing and do not drink wine. Use barley water and bread broth with melon seeds and stay chaste and soon you will be cured. It has been tested. Another for burning in the penis and for gravel. Take agrimony with its roots and wild tansy. Dry them in the shade and make very fine powder of them. Then give one spoonful in a glass of warm white wine to the patient to drink in the evening when he goes to sleep, for 4 or 5 evenings. Rub the kidneys with the oil described above. The patient should not eat warming things that are not good in this illness. By following this he will urinate soon and without burning in the penis and there will be much gravel and it will remove this warming material. Again, the wild radish is good, that is its ground seed. Giving a spoonful to drink with warm white wine in the evening will help him greatly. Also it is said that a dose of the powered berries of climbing ivy, given to drink with warm white wine every 2 days for the space of 15 days, causes much gravel to be urinated and even breaks the stone, little by little, so the man does not feel it and he will urinate abundantly and without distress. This is a great secret. Do not ignore the rules given above. To cause urination. Take 3 ounces each of water of fennel, of asparagus, of butcher's broom, of celery and of hound's tongue and 2 ounces of wine of sour pomegranates, 6 ounces of Syrup of 2 Roots and 1 ounce of minced licorice. Boil everything together with 2 ounces of fine sugar in a glass vessel until it is reduced one third. Then strain it and early in the morning give a glass of it, warm, and also in the evening 2 hours before supper. By continuing this one is able to urinate at pleasure and without any distress.... 81 Again, one finds some men who have narrowing of the opening of the penis and who, almost without any other infirmity, are having difficulty in urination. One of these was guided into my hands. This was his cure and it was the best and worked for him. In the month of May, I took some roots from beets germinated one or two months earlier and growing in rich soil. I took the longer of these roots, not too thick but slender, being smooth without other little roots around. I washed and cleaned these carefully, wrapped them up straight in a sheet of white parchment and left them to dry in the shade. When they were dry, they were polished and smooth. Then I took one of these roots and smeared it with honey and put it into the tip of the penis until it was into the penis for 4 fingers' depth with a thread hanging out right in the flap of the breeches. When the desire to urinate came, he drew out this root and urinated a lot and easily. This root was enlarging and keeping the opening of the penis large. Then another root smeared with honey was put in again. The first root was washed and cleaned carefully and again wound up in parchment, and as it dried it was as good as at first. By keeping on with this method for several days, the opening of the penis was enlarged by the continued practice and he was urinating easily without this treatment. The man always remained obligated to me by this favor that I did for him and I give you this secret from my own hand. -------- [Page 141] For illness from stone and gravel in the kidneys or in the bladder, to urinate it rapidly. Take as much chervil as the fresh herb as you wish, grind it and extract juice and let it clear. Give 4 ounces of it to the patient with stone or gravel to drink with a little sugar and it should be warm. Give it in the evening when he goes to sleep and he should eat little, that is lightly. Then cook 1 handful of this herb in water of hops and when it has just begun to boil, remove it from the fire and put it warm in the form of a plaster on the pubic area, fastened on for the night, and in the morning you will see a good effect and it is cleansing. Do this at least 4 to 6 times and be confident that soon he will get better. Make this powder: take some snails without a shell, especially those that stay in fields, and dry them and make very fine powder of them and give 2 drams to the patient when he goes to sleep with 4 ounces of good white wine with sugar in it and it should be tepid. He should take these beverages on alternate evenings so that each evening he takes one beverage. In a few days, through God's grace, he will feel such improvement that he will be able to wake up cured and will urinate freely and without distress because the gravel will be pushed out and the stone will be turned to nothing, that is it will be broken and shattered and be urinated little by little without harming the patient and he will be freed. It has been tested. Another to break up gravel. Take 2 drams each of water distilled from lemons, from pods of broad beans and from radishes and 2 ½ drams of seeds of climbing ivy picked during the half-moon of January, 1 dram each of seed of fox tail grass, of broom and of gromwell and make very fine powder and incorporate all together and mix these powders with 5 ounces of the above boiled liquid of chervil. Take ½ ounce of this beverage early in the morning in the form of a warm syrup for 15 days and soon, with God's grace, you will feel no more pain from gravel and less from stone and you will urinate freely. Another for the above-described pain of stone or gravel. Take 2 lb. of the herb saxifrage, 1 lb. each of tansy and parsley, 9 lemons cut finely and 8 lb. of very strong white vinegar and put everything together and distill it in a glass still with a slow fire. Save this water in a glass vessel, well stoppered, for your needs. Give 1 ounce to the patient to drink in the evening and morning, warm, in the form of a syrup. In the evening he should eat little and keep the stomach warm so that it can digest well. When you feel that the stone may bother you in exiting in the urine, take one glass of distilled water of Alexandrine celery, warm with sugar. Know that very soon the pain will lift from you and you will urinate freely. This has been tested. Another to cure the pain of gravel quickly. Say 3 Pater Noster with 3 Ave Maria and then say these holy words, touching with your hand the kidneys of the patient. These are, “In the name of the Father + Son + and Holy Spirit + Amen. + Jesus. I invoke you, stone, by him who first said, 'I am the stone. + I am dead and wrapped and buried in stone. +' As by his death the stone is broken, + so these stones that are in these kidneys must break and splinter so nothing remains, neither stones nor gravel to give the infirm one more pain +. So be it. + Amen. + Atta .” Repeat these words in the evening and morning and soon you will see a result. Through the grace of God and your good actions he will feel no more pain. Another to cause urination with much gravel. Take seed of nettle and boil it in oil of camomile and white vinegar until it reduces one third. Then in the evening when you go to bed, make it very warm and rub the pubic area and all the penis and bind it with warm cloths and soon you will urinate a great deal of gravel. This preparation is also effective in women. It will bring you much honor. -------- [Page 142] To cause a great amount of gravel, and quickly. Fill a large pot suitable for putting on the fire with very good white wine. Take 2 or 3 radishes and grate them and put them in this wine. Put this in the sun covered for 4 days and each day shake it upside down two times. Then let it rest to clear. Give 3 ounces of this wine to the patient to drink before the meal. By continuing to do this several times, the patient will urinate abundantly with much gravel. This is very, very true. Another to urinate gravel. Take 6 ounces each of the herb saxifrage, celandine, sage, saxifrage and seed of gromwell, 3 lb. of raw honey and make very fine powder of these herbs and boil them in the honey until it is thickened in the form of an electuary. Then give it to the patient several times and much gravel will come out with smarting of the penis. Then make this plaster to put warm on the pubic area. Take the herb wild panic grass and grind it well with pork lard and incorporate it on a slow fire and put it on warm. Do this several times and soon the patient will urinate much gravel. Have confidence that this has been tested.... 82 Another to cure the stone that is in the kidney. Take wild mallow and make a decoction of it and blend it with honey and butter and a little mallow seed and winter cherry seed and give it in the form of a syrup to drink warm. It is very powerful to cause urination of much of the gravel that is in the kidney and it will help greatly. To cause abundant urination with a great quantity of gravel. Take one half bowl of red chick peas and 2 rootlets of mallow, well washed and cut, 2 ounces of raisins, 1 ½ ounces of white sugar and 2 ½ ounces of minced licorice. Put everything together in a large pot on the fire with water of hops and boil it on the fire until it reduces 1/3. Then strain it and save it for your needs. Give 4 ounces to the patient to drink early in the morning in the form of a syrup. Do this for 9 mornings in a row and you will see a wonderful effect. Mix the following poultice to put warm on the pubis. Take 1 handful each of mallow and pellitory and cook them in water and in the evening put it on warm so it stays on for the night and you will see a wonderful effect in causing excretion of gravel. If by chance the infirmity is chronic, which many times causes loss of function in the loins, the patient may be unable to urinate normally but does not complain of this. Take watercress, mallow and celery and cook it in ordinary water. When it is cooked put it in the rear on the buttocks and it should be warm. Do this in the morning and evening and by continuing it for several days, you will see a wonderful result in urination. Keep all the body warm and soon he will be cured of such infirmity. Many persons have tested this. Another for gravel and also helps with the stone. Take the skin of a rabbit and the blood of 2 or 3 rabbits and put the blood in the skin and dry everything in the oven when the bread is removed. Then make very fine powder of it and give a spoonful of it to the patient in warm wine or chicken broth early in the morning. By continuing it for several mornings and taking care of himself, the patient will see a good result and will put out a great deal of gravel and the stone will not give him trouble. This is a great secret. -------- [Page 143] To break the stone in the bladder in several ways. Take the blood of a fox and its testicles and make this tepid and put it in the opening of the penis and also bathe under the testicles. Do this several times and the stone will be broken. Also give this blood to be drunk or make it into powder with warm white wine. By using these remedies repeatedly, the patient will soon be freed. Also, smear your fingers with this blood and rub it on the body, that is on the pubis, on the kidneys and under the testicles where the neck of the bladder is. Do all these things in one treatment, that is the beverage, smearing the penis and the other rubbings. Do not live in a disorderly way and do not go out when you do this and very soon you will bring out the broken stone. Another to break the stone when first found in the bladder. Take 1 lb. each of juice of saxifrage, of tansy, of parsley and of celery and 9 ounces of strong white vinegar and mix these together and distill them in a glass flask on a low fire or on a bain marie and give 4 ounces of it to the patient to drink in the evening and the morning and soon he will urinate the stone. Another to break stone in the bladder. To make this remedy, first you should kill a hare or leveret by putting it in the oven when the bread is removed. At once throw it in and stop up the mouth and leave it to die in this way by smothering. Then remove it from the oven and draw out only the intestines and nothing else, not blood and not liver. Then put this as it is in a pot or pan of clay with the feet, the head and everything. Cover it and block around the top with cloth and dough so that no air can escape and let it stay in the oven until it is over-cooked and fallen apart, but not burned, so that you are able to make powder, grinding it many times. Put in all that you will grind and reduce it to powder, all the bone, skin and flesh and save this powder in a bag of chamois leather to use as needed. Then make very fine powder of the seeds of climbing ivy and save this. Also distill some white onions in a glass still and take 4 ounces of this water and put in one spoonful of the first powder of the rabbit and one spoonful of this second part made of seeds of ivy. Warm it and give it to drink in the morning at dawn. The patient should sleep for an hour. Do this for 7 mornings in a row. The patient should stay warm and, with the aid of God, he will urinate much gravel and soon will be free of this distress. Another to cause urination freely when it has been prevented because of gravel. Take galbanum gum and grind it finely and make fine powder of it and warm it and, using your ingenuity, put it in the opening of the penis and on the prepuce and let it stay on and soon you will urinate. Also take watercress and boil it with good white wine for 2 miserere and put it warm on the pubis in the form of a poultice and when it is cold, rewarm it and soon you will urinate abundantly. It has been tested. For provoking urination. Take the seeds of broom and dry them and pulverize them finely. Then take a spoonful of it early in the morning with white wine and also take the same amount of warm water of saxifrage. It has been tested. Another. Take ½ ounce each of seeds of fennel, of anise and of caraway, 1 ½ ounces of gromwell, 2 ounces each of broom, saxifrage, celery, parsley and peony, ½ ounce of cumin seed, 1 dram each of lavender and cinnamon, 3 drams of grated licorice and 1 ½ ounces of white sugar. Make fine powder of these and drink as above. To reduce urination. Take 4 ounces each of juice of plums, service tree berries and cherries and enough sugar and honey to compound these. Use this on an empty stomach in an amount the size of a chestnut and it will reduce urination. -------- [Page 144] [Blank page.] -------- [Page 145] To break stones in the bladder. Take verbena and grind it and extract the juice and give one dose of this juice to the patient to drink on an empty stomach while bathing and at once the stone will be broken and the sick person will be restored to health. If you wish to prove the power of this juice, take some of this juice and put it in a stone mortar in the evening or during the day and on the following morning the mortar will be broken. This has been proved. Another to cure gravel and to cause urination of it freely. Take 1 ounce each of distilled water of lemons, of red mulberries, of asparagus, of pods of broad beans, of pellitory and of roots of giant reed and ½ ounce of sugar. Warm it and give it to the patient to drink early in the morning. Do this for 6 to 8 mornings and you will see a wonderful urination that will have much gravel with burning of the penis and soon you will cure the patient. Another, the best and blessed remedy for the illness of gravel. It has been tested. Take the skin and blood of a hare, roast it and dry it and make fine powder of it. Then in the morning take 1/4 ounce with warm good white wine on an empty stomach and it will make you urinate much gravel. This result has been tested by many talented men. If you would like to test this beverage, put a stone in a bowl and put on some of the wine made up here for drinking. Leave it for one whole day and the next day you will find the stone broken by the power and strength of this rabbit blood. This result has been demonstrated several times. Another to cure gravel. Take the soil from the nest of a swallow and make it into fine powder. Take mallow and boil it and take a glass of the boiled mallow with a spoonful of this powder. Give it to the patient to drink warm in the morning in the form of a syrup for 5 or 6 mornings and the stone or gravel will be urinated and you will cure him quickly. Another to cure the stone or gravel. Take1 handful each of the herb saxifrage, asparagus root and the corn poppy that grows in fields, that is the field poppy, and take 3 flasks of ordinary water and boil everything together until it reduces one third. Then strain it carefully and give one glass to the patient to drink with a little sugar in the evening and early in the morning in the form of a syrup and he will feel it have a good effect, causing the urination of a lot of gravel. If you wish to know a very rare secret, take some blood of a fox or a hare and touch it to the penis and also touch the pubis and soon it will make the stone in the bladder break into very minute pieces and in a little time you will urinate and will feel it come out. This is tested. Another to break stone in the bladder. Take a living hare, kill it and do it so that not a drop of the blood is lost. Cut it open and remove only the intestines, carefully, so that you do not draw out blood and do not wash it. Cut the hare in pieces and fit it in a clean pot with the cover closed around with dough that does not allow air out and put it in the oven after the bread is baked and leave it in long enough so it will be very dry, so by crushing it you may be able to make very fine powder. Pass it through a sieve and save it for your needs in a leather pouch. When you want to give it to a man or woman, give it warm with 3 ounces each of water of saxifrage and of lemons and a good spoonful of this powder with a little sugar in the evening and early in the morning in the form of a syrup. Do this for 8 to 10 days in a row. You should live conservatively, do not cohabit with women, drink fresh and unwatered white wines but not too much. Eat some fresh butter before meals and do not get chilled. By continuing these rules with this beverage, you will feel the stone break in the bladder and you will urinate it little by little and sometimes you will feel it when a large piece wishes to come out. In this way you will be cured rapidly. -------- [Page 146] To break a stone in the bladder. Take a live fox and a rabbit and cut off their heads and with care collect all their blood. Then put it in a clean pot with a cover and close it up with dough around so it cannot leak any steam and put it in the oven until everything is dried so you can make powder of it, very fine and sifted. Put in the head, all the blood, the feet and the skins and the livers of both. The flesh you can eat. Follow the method described above and care for this powder as if it were a great treasure and more to those who have need of it. If you do not believe it, observe this test. Take a spoonful of this powder and put it in a bowl or clean little pot with wine or water or broth and also vinegar and put in a stone and cover it well and keep it in a warm place for 6 to 8 days and you will find the stone broken in several pieces. In this way you will be satisfied and certain. Then for the person with a problem, take a spoonful of this powder and give a good bowlful of it in warm wine, chicken broth or with lemon water in the form of a syrup early in the morning and also you can give it some times when the patient has eaten only a little in the evening. When he takes it, he should take care of himself and keep all the body warm and in a few days, through God's grace, he will urinate the stone. When he feels the stone, have patience that soon he will be cured. You should know that this has been proved. If by chance a man may suffer from a serious cough, he should drink this powder in the morning with wine or warm broth and also eat it on his food. He should stay warm and soon he will be cured and will not cough any more. You should know that this water has great ability to break the stone in the bladder and make it come out rapidly. If you will do this the patient will be cleared of the stone. Another to break the stone. It is a great secret. Take some white onions and distill them in a glass still and give 6 ounces of it warm with a little sugar. Make fine powder of those little bones that are found in groups in the feet of the hare and put in 1 dram of it. And if you have drunk it for 3 or 4 mornings and do not feel any movement, add ½ dram of powder made of climbing ivy seed and it will have a more rapid effect and shortly you will feel a stirring up in the bladder and you will urinate profusely and soon you will be cured. Another to break the stone and in bladder and in the kidney. Take a goat of 2 years in the month of August and at the half moon and kill it after it has eaten nothing for a month before except climbing ivy. Collect all the blood and distill it in a glass still with a slow fire and save the liquor that comes out as something valuable. In the morning early, drink 4 ounces warm with sugar in it and also bathe the pubic area, the penis and the rump and stay in repose for 2 hours but do not sleep. Do this for 6 to 8 mornings and you will see a very good effect. It will break the stone in the bladder and even in the kidney and you will urinate very copiously in a short time. If you wish to test this distillation, make it warm and put therein a stone and leave it in this stew for 6 to 8 days and you will see the result that the stone is in very minute pieces. Similarly it breaks a diamond that is put in this liquor and if one did drink a little of it he would survive but he should be careful of it. If you take the stone that is in the head of the snail without a shell and make fine powder of it and give it early in the morning to drink with warm white wine and sugar and continue this for 8 mornings, the stone will be broken. Even if it may have been old and hard, you will urinate it soon. This has been tested. -------- [Page 147] To cause urination in several ways for illness from stone and gravel. Take 3 drams of orris root made into fine powder and mix it with the raw yolk of a fresh egg and have the sick person swallow it with warm good white wine and with a wafer Do this several mornings in a row. It softens all the body around in back and in front so that one will urinate until all the gravel goes out. You will be cured rapidly. Another for the above malady of the stone. Take some blood of a goat in the month of August and distill it in a glass still and drink 3 ounces of this distillation with ½ ounce of sugar. Make it warm and take it early in the morning and do it several times and you will see a good result with urination of much gravel. Likewise, if you are having great pain from the stone and can feel it by placing the finger in the anus, in this case take 4 ounces of this distillation and 1 dram each of very fine powder made of the blood and liver of the goat and of blood a hare and its liver. Put everything into this distillation and heat it. Then in the morning at dawn, first urinate and then inject all that you can of this composition into the penis with a pump if you can. Stay in repose for 3 or 4 hours and hold it in the bladder longer if you can and you will feel the stone break apart. In order to urinate it, take some rose water and plantain water with sugar and it should be tepid. Inject it into the penis several times and do not hold too much in the bladder but let it come in its time. Do it this way until the burning has been relieved but do not stop doing the first injection every morning. If the penis gives out urine, do not interfere. If it does not give out urine do this second injection and continue the first until you feel free of the stone with the assistance of God. Take care of yourself, eat lightly and keep warm. Do not touch women on the days that you medicate or you may do harm to yourself. Make a vow to God and to Saint Cosmas and to Saint Damian to make a benefaction on their holy day to the praise and glory of God and of these saints and by the faith that you have in God of a cure and of urinating the stone. Know that through God's grace soon you will be cured. It is tested.... 83 Other secrets for malady of the stone. Take 1 lb. of juice of saxifrage and 8 ounces of strong white vinegar and mix them together and distill them in a glass still with a slow fire. Give 1 ounce of this water to the patient to drink early in the morning with a little fine sugar. Continuing this will help you greatly. Drinking the warm juice of St. John's wort in the morning with sugar aids much in breaking the stone. Also cook a scorpion on the grill and give it to the patient to eat in any way that you can so that he does not recognize it and rub all the pubic area, the penis and around to the rear with scorpion oil that should be very warm. He should put on warm clothes and stay warm and it will have a good result. Again, take a bowl of lentils and a good handful of rue and put it to soak in 1 ½ lb. each of water of hops and of hound's tongue and of pods of broad beans and let it stay for 3 days to soak and then give 6 ounces of it to the infirm one to drink in the morning with ½ ounce of sugar. It should be warm. He should stay in repose but not sleep for 3 hours. This beverage aids in breaking the stone and he will urinate all of it. Also take the roots of young elder, wash them and clean them. Then bruise them with a stick and cook them in good white wine with ½ bowl of red chick peas. When this is cooked, strain it and save the boiled liquid in a glass bottle. Give a glass of it early in the morning to the patient to drink warm and it will help him greatly with the stone and with gravel and he will urinate profusely. If you wish never again to feel the pain of the stone, take 1 handful each of cinquefoil, couch grass and fennel roots. Dry them and make powder of them. Give a spoonful in a glass of warm white wine, one morning yes and the next no. Continuing this will help greatly in removing the pain. -------- [Page 148] To make a wine for use against the malady of the stone. Take 3 handfuls of cinquefoil leaves with the roots and 5 handfuls of the roots of couch grass, well washed and clean, 2 handfuls of saxifrage, a full bowl of whole red berries of winter cherry and 2 cut lemons. The herbs should be cut finely. Put everything in a little bag of fine, loosely-knit linen tied with a thread to the top of a wine barrel and fill this barrel with must of good, pure white wine that has not been fermented and let it ferment for 1 month or more in the barrel with the little bag in it and every evening fill it up with some must so that it heats better and purifies itself and throws down all the bad lees. When it will not ferment any more and becomes cold and clear, remove the little bag and strain the wine carefully so it does not become turbid. Then return it to the barrel and stopper it well at the top so it keeps better. When it seems to you that you feel the pain of the stone in the bladder or in the kidney or have some other difficulty with urination, drink a glass of this wine early in the morning, staying in bed and reposing for at least 2 hours. Depending on the improvement that you feel, drink it for 2 or 3 mornings and not more because it will overheat the liver. If you think that you may be drinking too much, drink it one morning and not the next so that it has less effect on you. This wine aids greatly in breaking the stone in the bladder and in the kidney and causes copious urination. You will feel the stones going out of the penis. If the effect is not rapid enough with the remedies above, it is appropriate to use some poultices or ointments on the pubic region or on the penis or kidney. Take care of yourself and eat things suited to the desired result. By doing this you will help nature recover to pristine health, with the aid of God and of Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian. You will not be the first to achieve this and you will be cured. Another to break a stone in the bladder or the kidney and to urinate it little by little. Take 2 drams each of cloves, galingale, millet and cinnamon, all powdered, and parsley, asparagus and saxifrage, dried and powdered, and ashes made from scorpions, and blood of goat and of hare, everything powdered and mixed. Then give one spoonful of it to drink early in the morning with white wine with sugar in it and it will help you greatly to break the stone and it will make you urinate copiously. Another. Take one glass of the following water in the morning and in the evening when you go to sleep. It should be warm with sugar in it and it will make you urinate a lot of gravel. Take 1 ounce each of water of radish, of butcher's broom, of asparagus, of fennel, of celery, of couch grass and of goat's rue. When you drink it, drink it rapidly and soon it will work to make you urinate the gravel gently without distress. Another for the pain in the kidneys caused by the stone. Take a large flask for the fire, fill it with good white wine and put therein these herbs, cut finely, that is half a handful each of mallow, watercress and pellitory and one grated radish, 1 ounce of ordinary oil and 10 cherries of winter cherry. Let the flask boil before the fire for a little. Then remove it carefully so it does not break and when it is cold strain it carefully. Give 4 ounces of it warm to the sick person with a stone or with gravel to drink early in the morning. He should stay in repose. Do this several mornings. Make more of this beverage as you have made this and if you will continue it, be sure that it will cause urination when you want and in excess. Another, an unguent for this malady of the kidneys. Take 3 ounces each of oil of roses and violets and myrtle, 1 ounce each of clotted goat's milk, powdered deer horn and butter, ½ ounce of camphor and 2 ounces of clean wax. Mix everything thoroughly in a pot on a slow fire and remove it from the fire before it boils too much. Put in the camphor cut finely and stir it continuously until it is cold and it will be made. Rub the kidneys in the evening with this cold and it will help you greatly. It has been tested. -------- [Page 149] Ointment for back pain and weakness in the hips and for malady of the kidneys. Take a quince and grate it all minutely and take 2 ounces each of oil of roses, or violets, of camomile and of water lily and put everything together in a little pot and boil it until the fruit is well cooked on a low fire so it does not burn. Then strain it through canvas and press it well so everything comes out that can. Put it again on the fire and put therein ½ ounce each of powdered incense and yellow litharge and 1 ½ ounces of clean wax. When it is well melted, remove it from the fire and put in ½ ounce of camphor cut up and stir it in with a stirring rod of wood until it has cooled and it will be made. Save it for your needs as it is good for 10 years and more. When your back hurts you through weakness or from pain of the kidneys, rub the kidneys in the evening and in the morning, always downward, and soon, through God's grace, you will be cured. Be careful what you eat. Do not eat things warming as they are unfavorable. This has been very well tested. Approved ointment for pain of the kidney. Take 1 ounce of myrrh, one egg white, 2 ounces of rose oil and ½ ounce of white wax. Mix them together and rub down the kidneys. Another for heated kidneys. Take 1 handful each of the herb nightshade, lesser sedum and plantain. Grind them and make juice and put in a fresh egg white, beaten, and a very little rose vinegar. Mix well together, and in the evening when you go to sleep, rub the kidneys and wet some cloths and put them on the kidneys. Also rub in the morning and by continuing this juice, soon you will be cured. Ointment for the kidney for those who are draining from the penis. Take 2 ounces each of oil of roses and violets, 1 dram each of red and yellow sandalwood, 2 ounces of white wax, 1 ½ drams of rose vinegar and 1 scruple of camphor. Put the oil and the wax in a pot and incorporate them well. Then put in the sandalwood and incorporate well on a slow fire. Remove it from the fire and put in the vinegar and the camphor, cut up, and stir continuously until it is cold. Then wash it in 3 waters and at the last one leave a little in and it will be made. Save it for your needs. Take 3 ounces each of rose water, plantain water and portulaca water and in the evening rub the kidneys very well upwards and the pubis and put on a linen cloth and soon you will be cured. Do not eat heating things. Use 1 ounce of red sugar early in the morning as you are getting up and drink at least one glass of fresh water and also 2 ounces each of distilled water of endive, chicory and plantain with ½ ounce of julep. This beverage will refresh all your insides, even the liver, and it helps the blood greatly. Use it for 4 or 5 mornings in a row. If you wish to be cured, do not fail to do these remedies for the draining from the penis. This ointment is also good for women with heated kidneys, even one who may have a white drainage. It is tested. Another water to bathe the kidneys in anyone who has dripping from the penis that inhibits coitus. Take 2 ounces each of rose water and water of plantain, of squash, of water lily, of lettuce, houseleek and sedum and whites of 3 fresh eggs and 4 scruples of camphor and incorporate all well together. In the evening and morning, bathe the kidney well and the front of the body. Then rub with the above unguent as was described and soon you will be cured. This was proved by tests. Another. Wet some cloths in fresh water and put them on the testicles and the penis. Do it several times and soon you will be cured of the dripping. It has been tested. -------- [Page 150] Water that is injected into the penis for those who have dripping. Take 2 ounces each of water of plantain, of squash, of verjuice, of pine nuts, of shepherd's purse, of burnet saxifrage and rose water and 6 ounces of good, clear white wine. Put them together in a clean pot and put them on a slow fire and put in 1 handful of dry roses and 2 drams of powdered coral and raise it barely to boiling. Then remove it from the fire and strain it and save this water. When you wish to treat with it, make it warm just barely above cold. Take it up with a little sugar in a syringe that should be clean inside. Put it in the opening of the penis and hold your hand firm and inject it with force. Do it in this way 4 to 5 times in the morning and the evening and you will cause urination. By protecting yourself from adverse things, through God's grace, you will be cured because one who has tested it renders true testimony. For 9 months he tried but never found anything that might help him and a large swelling like an egg came under the penis near the testicles and material was going in that place whenever he moved his bowels or urinated. Much material gathered there in such a way that a fistula formed and it broke open and through that opening everything exited and nothing through the penis. He was thought to be lost to illness and never more to be a man. Now, with the aid of God, having him obedient to the doctor and using on him the above-described water and the electuary written below and with the good care of the doctor, he was cured but it took many days. But at certain times he was feeling again some pricking within and this was at certain months. It is true that when he was urinating or when the material was coming out, he was constrained to press the penis which by itself was not able to make anything come out. When so much had been fixed for him, he was very content to have received such comfort from God and from men. He would watch and know that, when this material was burning him it was not cured, and if by chance it would happen, he would at once look to his first remedy, to refrain from coitus, to wash himself, to take the beverages, to use the ointments, to take the electuaries and other appropriate powders, because in truth all these remedies have been tested. I give them all to you, for in truth no others have this power. Electuary for those who have dripping from the penis. Take 1 handful each of the herb knot grass, shepherd's purse and plantain, half a handful each of the bark of the service tree and of medlar and boil all these herbs and bark together in pomegranate wine and in 5 lb. each of distilled water of unripe grapes, of pine nuts and well water. Boil it until it is reduced 1/3 and remove it from the fire and strain it and press everything in a little press and extract all the substance. Put all this boiled liquid again in a pot and put in a young fowl to cook, dressed as usual, and let it cook well until the meat is detached from the bone. Then remove it and clean it well from the bones and grind it very finely in a mortar and put in fine sugar so that it appears to you that it is made in the form of an electuary. If needed add some of the boiled liquid to distemper it when you give it or otherwise with chicken broth or with red wine. Give it early in the morning. Then at once give a glass to drink of the water written below when it is cold. Through God's grace you will see a very good result. This is a very rare secret and few persons at this time are not healed by this electuary which is effective in a few days so a person might wish to test this electuary alone. It heals freely, quickly and without taking other appropriate things. It is true that I did many tests and I cured many persons. Through God's grace, they were cured completely and quickly and I tell you this from observing it. -------- [Page 151] Beverage for those who have excessive dripping from the penis. Take 2 ounces each of rose water and water of quince or of myrtle and break in a fresh egg or put in the white of the egg and as much fine sugar as a nut and beat everything well so they are incorporated. Make this mixture in the evening and put the bowl outside in the clear air so the dew falls on it. In the morning, before you drink it, say over it this devout prayer or have it said, viz., 'God was born, God was taken and bound, betrayed and hurt, crucified and died for us miserable sinners. God was resurrected on the third day according to the scripture. As this is true, so this, my sickness, can neither decay, nor putrefy, nor cause any pain, if it is the pleasure of God and the Virgin Mary.' Make the sign of the cross over it with a Pater Noster and an Ave Maria. Then be of good spirits and drink all the water, cold, and repose for an hour. Make this beverage for 4 or 5 mornings and be certain that soon you will be cured. Take care of yourself and do not use women bcause it will be your ruin. Drink well-watered wine and have faith and you will be cured. Beverage for one in whom the penis is dripping, a blessed remedy. Take 6 ounces each of water distilled from sour grapes, water of greater and lesser sedum, of portulaca and of pine nuts and 2 ½ ounces of hepatic aloe made into powder and put it into this water. Redistill it in a glass still with a slow fire or on a bain marie. Put in this water 2 scruples of camphor cut minutely, 1 scruple of yellow litharge and 4 scruples of yellow sandalwood. Put it in a flask in the sun, well-covered, for 8 days. Then in the evening when you go to sleep, wet a linen cloth and put it on the kidneys and across to the hips and another on the pubis and on the tip of the penis. Keep wetting it repeatedly and the material will not come forth as much. In the morning drink a cup of the water made in the way described above and be sure that soon you will be cured. Do not be intemperate nor have too much exertion on those days that you take the medicine and you will see a good result. Powder for those who are dripping from the genitalia, be it a man or a woman. Take 2 drams each of seeds of lettuce, of poppy, of purslane, of hemp, of rue, of plantain and of endive, 4 drams of chaste tree, 3 drams each of roses, mint and water lilies. All these seeds and herbs should be made into very fine powder. Then every morning put 1 dram into a bowl of broth in which the feet of a calf or a cow have been cooked with half a bowl of lentils. They should be well cooked and falling apart. Then strain this broth and save it and give it early in the morning warm in the form of a syrup with a little sugar. Do this for 4 or 5 mornings and, by continuing it, soon you will cure. It has been tested. Another to check the said draining. Take prepared carob and make it into very fine powder and put in a fresh egg from a black hen. Drink one spoonful in the morning on an empty stomach 3 or 4 times and if the illness is recent, you will be cured quickly. Another for one who may be draining from the penis. Take 2 ounces of rose water and incorporate well the white of a fresh egg with a little yellow sandalwood and mastic, the amounts at your discretion. Incorporate everything well together. Then drink it early in the morning. Do not go back to bed, that is not important. Take this for 4 to 6 mornings and soon you will be cured of simple draining of the penis. Another to reduce the draining and quickly. Make milk from seed of musk melon and give 6 ounces to drink warm with 1 ounce of red sugar in the form of a syrup for 5 mornings in a row and soon he will be cured. In the evening, rub the kidneys with rose ointment. This has been tested. -------- [Page 152] Powder for dripping from the penis. Take 1 handful each of fresh almonds, the centers of lettuce and the centers of radishes. First dry them in the shade. Then put them in the oven when the bread is taken out. It should not be too warm. Grind them and make very fine powder and take 3 drams of powdered mastic and incorporate everything well together. Then take a fresh egg and put in a spoonful of this powder and drink it cold. If you do not want to drink it raw, make it barely heated and drink this on an empty stomach in the morning. Do this for 5 or 6 mornings and you will be cured rapidly of the drainage. But be warned that you should not have other sickness as well such as fever because it will not have as good a result. The one who has tested this gives good testimony for it. For the white discharge flowing from the genitalia of a man or a woman. Take some of the herb burdock and eat 2 or 3 bites of it with the dew on it early in the morning. Then make some powder of the seed of this herb, burdock, gathered during the half moon and give one spoonful of it in a bowl of warm chicken broth and give it directly after one has eaten the herb. The flux is reduced either in a man or a woman. If it is an old illness, it takes a few days to cure it and if it is a recent illness, it may be cured rapidly. If you wish to cure rapidly, take a bowl of clean barley and cook it well. Then take a bowl of this broth and beat in 2 egg yolks and half a glass of rose oil. Do not put in any salt and make 3 enemas, using it one day yes, the next no. Observe the rules for good health that are described in the paragraphs above and soon you will be cured. It has been tested. Beverage against gravel and to urinate it abundantly. Take 3 flasks of cistern water and put it in a clean pot and put therein a bowl of husked millet that is cracked and clean and 1 ounce of licorice cut and ground. Put it on the fire and boil it on a slow fire until it reduces one third. Remove it from the fire and strain it carefully, pressing the material very well. Then put this boiled liquid in another clean pot that has no odor. Put in ½ lb. of good honey. Reboil it for a bit and skim it carefully. Then remove it from the fire and save it in a glass vessel to use for your needs. When you go to sleep in the evening drink a glass of it and it should be tepid and you should eat lightly. If the illness is serious, also drink it warm in the morning when you get up. If you do not have any other sickness than gravel, this beverage will work wonderfully. You will urinate so much gravel that it will concern you because you will feel burning of the penis when the urine is going out. If you will use this gentle and glorious beverage repeatedly, be sure that you will be cured rapidly. It has been tested. Another water to drink to cause urination of a good amount of gravel. Take cistern water and boil in it licorice, well cleaned and cut, 6 ounces of honey and half a handful of celery. Boil it until it reduces 1/3. Then strain it and save this and drink this water warm early in the morning for several mornings. Do not eat unsuitable things and soon you will be cured. When you feel the pain of the gravel, drink a generous amount of this water and you will be cured. It has been tested. -------- [Page 153] *For restricting the involuntary flux of sperm. Take one pound each of distilled water of sweet balm, rose water, plantain and endive and infuse 2 ounces of seeds of the chaste tree, one ounce each of follicles of rue seeds, juice of lettuce seeds and cinnamon. They should be put together for a day and a night. Then boil it, remove it from the fire and strain it. One and a half ounces should be taken early in the day with a little warm water. *Unguent for the same. Take one ounce each of plantain juice, sedum juice, solanum juice and teasel juice, 3 ounces each of populeon unguent and rose oil, and ½ dram each of oil of water lily and camphor. Mix and make an unguent. *Syrup for the same. Take 4 ounces of plantain water, 1 dram each of cleaned melon seeds and squash seeds and they should be cleaned and well ground. Then mix them with the water and add 1 scruple of a troche of carob. The sick one should receive this syrup for 7 mornings and he will be cured. Rub the kidneys every evening with sandalwood oil or chicken fat or with the unguent described above. The sick person should eat good meat and dilute the wine well and you will cure him. *For reduced libido. Anoint the penis with juice of catmint and it will bring so much pleasure to a woman that she may neglect others. *The same. Make saliva by chewing cubebs and anoint the penis. *The same. Take powdered ash of goat skin and dry lupins softened with warm oil and rub the penis. *Best beverage for the fleshy growth in the penis. Take 4 drams of newly-cut flowers of senna, 1 dram of licorice juice, 2 drams of the milky juice of roses and 4 ounces of water of hops. Make a beverage of these and take it at dawn for 10 to 15 days. The dose should be 8 ounces, warm. *For the same. Take 1 handful each of grated licorice, mallow root, small plums and raisins, ½ dram each of seeds of marsh mallow, celery, parsley and ordinary seed, 12 lb. of spring water or cistern water. Boil it as described above and reduce to half. Take this as described above.... 84 *To put in the penis for fleshy excrescence. Take water of juniper distilled in glass and the patient will urinate at once and it will remove the growth with blood and without risk. The dose of this water to use is 2 ounces each time with 3 ounces of water of hops. Note that if you wish to help more rapidly, put in a reducing and softening medicament with a candle. *To cool the penis. Take 1 ounce each of rose unguent, unguent of camphorized white lead and use it on the candle as above. *For a fleshy growth. Take 2 ounces of heated rose oil, ½ ounce of white lead, 1 dram each of camphor and zinc carbonate and 1 ½ drams of white litharge. Incorporate everything together and make an unguent of it in a mortar of lead following the usual method. *For the same. Take ½ dram of precipitated antimony, 2 drams of sief bianco without opium, 1 ½ scruples each of mastic, incense and pulverized hepatic aloe. Incorporate everything together and make an unguent in a mortar of lead.... 85 *For the same, to make one urinate. Take water of coltsfoot distilled in glass and give 6 ounces of it to drink in the morning at dawn in the form of a syrup, or give the root to eat or give the seed made into powder to drink with white wine with a little sugar and soon one will urinate. *For the same, to cause urination of gravel. Take the milky juice extracted from the kernels of peach, of hazel nuts, of cherries and of almonds with a decoction of saxifrage and gromwell. Give it to the patient to drink and soon he will urinate much gravel. It is tested. Best secret for the stone for either man or woman and whether it be in the bladder or in the kidney and be it large or small. Viz., Take mille erbe or bovine dung during the month of May from a red ox that runs in the fields and distill it on a slow fire in a still of glass or of pottery that does not have a bad odor. Also this water has the power to remove the cloudiness that is in the eyesight. Note: take some wine made with wild radishes that are cooked in the sun or on the fire. Then take 1 ounce of this wine and 6 ounces of the above water and ½ ounce of water of strawberries and 4 drops of water of little lemons. Put everything together, in all it will be about 4 or 5 ounces. Add a little sugar and rose honey, these both serving to flavor and add to the usefulness of the preparation. Put in some powder made of burdock, as much as will be on one dinaro and also put in some powder of hare dried in the oven and another little bit of powder of saxifrage and of laurel berries, as much of each as stands on one dinaro . Give this beverage to drink with good, warm white wine with sugar. Continue this beverage for several mornings until you see good results. It is true that in illness of the stone a little more of it is given, and for gravel a little less.... 86 *Another to break up gravel. Take juniper berries made into powder and drink it with broth or warm wine with sugar. Otherwise, grind and extract the juice. Drinking that warm has much power to break stone in the kidneys. It is a good and tested secret. -------- [Page 154] To stop the blood from hemorrhoids rapidly. Take 1 ounce each of flour of lupins and egg shell pulverized very finely, 2 ounces of honey and 1 ½ ounces of linseed oil and incorporate them well together on a slow fire and it is made. When you have removed it from the fire, put in 2 scruples of camphor, cut minutely, and stir continually until it is cold and it will be made, the best and gentle remedy. With this rub the hemorrhoids several times and the blood will stop and the pain will go away quickly. Also this is another ointment you can make which is good to reduce blood from hemorrhoids when too much blood is coming out. Take 1 ounce of oil of mastic and boil it just a little and rub the hemorrhoids with this as warm as you can bear. Then put on some powdered gall, made as fine as spice powder. Do this several times and, through God's grace, the blood soon will be stopped. -------- [Page 155] To stop the white flux of women and men in several ways. Take white beans and grind them and make flour and take 1 ounce of it, 2 drams of powdered coral, 3 drams of parched, powdered deer horn, 1 dram of powder made of seeds of yellow violets, 3 leaves of sage cut very minutely and leaves of oak made into powder. Stir everything together and give the patient a spoonful of it in half a glass of warm red wine early in the morning. The patient should repose for an hour. Do this for 3 or 4 mornings. The flow will be stopped quickly by making this binder: Take 1 ounce each of dragon's blood gum and Armenian red clay, the whites of 3 fresh eggs and 2 ½ ounces each of rose water and soot from the chimney. Make everything into fine powder and incorporate together in a bowl. Then make 2 strips of hemp fibers and dip one end in this poultice. In the evening put one strip on the pubis and the other on the opposite side on the rear and let it stay this way, well bound on, and soon you will cure the white flux because it has been tested. Do not have coitus during this period. Another to make the white flux of women and men stop. Take 1 handful of the plant and seed of burdock, half a handful of ripe seeds and leaves of ivy and 1 ounce each of seeds of red poppies and of plantain. Boil everything in a flask of wine until it reduces 1/3. Then strain it and press the herbs well. Give 4 ounces of this wine every morning in the form of a warm syrup. Continue this for 6 to 8 mornings. If the patient takes care of herself as described, the flux will soon be decreased and will stop. Another to stop the white menstrual flow. Use 3 wafers and take one each morning and say a Pater Noster with the Ave Maria and make over them the sign of the cross. On the first one write these holy words, viz., '+ Pater agios + Pater athanatos + Pater eleyson + Pater ymaon.' On the second morning with 3 Pater Noster, write: '+ Pater Deus + Pater fortis + Pater inmortalis + Pater miserere + .' On the third, write with 5 Pater Noster: '+ Pater quies + et quid novenus + est. Free your servant (name) from sickness +.' Do this remedy for 3 mornings in a row and you will see the effect of holy words. To make her sleep, take the gall bladder of a hare and give it to her to drink with red wine and soon she will sleep for 2 hours and it will help her greatly. Another to stop white menstruation. Take 1 ounce of seed of amaranth, that is the velvet flower, the red kind, ½ ounce each of dragon's blood gum and Armenian red clay, 2 ounces of burdock seed, 2 ½ ounces of the yellow flower that is in the center of the vermilion rose, 4 ounces of the seed of sorrel picked on the day of Saint John the Baptist or the day of Saint John the Beheaded and 4 ounces of fine sugar and this will be all. Make very fine powder of all these things and incorporate them together. Preserve this in a packet of leather for your needs. When the woman needs it, she should take one spoonful of the powder in the evening when she goes to sleep with good red or white wine or broth that should be warm, otherwise with a fresh egg. Also in the morning she should take some in the form of a syrup and repose for 2 hours. She should continue it for 6 to 8 days, keeping herself from every pollution and should not eat things warming but all things cooling. I tell you that soon, with the aid of God, you will cure her, since many knowledgeable persons have tested it and they have cured.... 87 Another to reduce the white flux. Make this lavage and put on these tents. Take water distilled from milk vetch and wash the vagina 4 to 6 times a day and it will help greatly. Then take juice from the best valerian and make some tents as long as the little finger made with the usual rules. Wet them very well with the juice and put them on the opening of the womb and you will see a good result. Change them often. Give this syrup: 2 ounces each of plantain juice, knot grass juice and portulaca juice, 1 ounce of rose water, ½ dram of powdered ginger and 1 dram of powdered coral with sugar. Give it warm in the evening and the morning for 7 days and you will cure her rapidly. It has been tested. -------- [Page 156] To stop the white discharge of women quickly. Take 2 ounces of the core of the stems of one-year-old elder, 6 ounces of fine wheat flour, 3 ounces of fine sugar, 3 drams of yellow sandalwood and 5 drams of parched deer horn and make everything into very fine powder. Mix and make it into a dough with enough clean honey and make little fritters cooked in a covered frying pan. In the evening when the patient goes to sleep, she takes one in her mouth and with that goes to sleep. Be careful about those things described above or you will accomplish nothing. Early in the morning give her a bowl of chicken broth to drink, or broth in which a calf's foot has been cooked with ½ dram of powdered coral, 1 dram of parched deer horn and 1 ½ drams of yellow amber. Alternatively these may be put in either good red wine or in a fresh egg. After this beverage, she should rest for a while and very soon, through God's grace, she will be cured. Keep this as certain. First attach around her neck this prayer written on clean parchment with 3 Pater Noster and say 14 times, 'In the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, Amen +. The Lord, the Father and the Holy Spirit are merciful. Amen. The blessed Virgin Mary and [Jesus Christ, Amen. Amen. Glorious mother of God].' Say this 2 times or 3 a day, continuing for 7 days. Then in the evening make this warm broth. Take 1 handful of milk vetch, 4 cypress nuts, crushed, 1 ½ drams of powdered incense and 2 scruples of powdered cloves and boil everything in dry red wine until it reduces 1/3. Then strain it and put in the powdered cloves. In the evening when she goes to sleep, she should wash the vagina very well with this warm wine and should not dry it but let it dry by itself and go to sleep leaving that manis christi in her mouth. In the morning she should take the beverage described above, taking care of herself as described above. It is very certain that she will be cured rapidly because I say I have made it work many, many times and have achieved effects when it was truly desired. They are cured by observing the rules that have been put in place.... 88 Also you can put a band of linen in a box of camphor for one night and gird that around the kidneys and it will help you to restrain the white menstruation. For warming the vagina. Take 4 drams each of crushed white lead, roasted lead and rose oil, 2 drams of white rose vinegar and, if there are festering sores, add 3 drams each of roasted parchment and squash. Mix everything well together an make it in the form of an unguent and medicate with this. But first the sore place should be washed with barley water, plantain water and water of cypress nuts with a little white wine and 2 ounces of honey made in the form of a hot lavage and washed 2 or 3 times a day and then medicated. She should eat refreshing things and soon you will cure her. I give you this as certain through hearing of it. Fomentation for the womb when it has come out of the vagina. Take some lodestone that has been under the earth so it has not seen air and put it in a great fire and make it very hot. Then put it in a tub and sprinkle it with strong vinegar. The woman should stand over it and receive all those fumes. This is done in the evening and at once she should go to bed. Then have some rue and extract the juice. Then make a ball of cotton and attach a thread that can be attached to the thigh. Wet the ball in the juice of rue and put it in the opening of the womb and at once the woman should take the ball and push it in and the womb should go back to its place. However, make a good tie for the ball so it does not remain inside. Then make this ointment to rub the kidneys. Take cyclamen and rue, each the same amount, and grind them very finely and put them in a little pot to boil with old oil until it reduces 1/3. When it is cold, press well until you extract the substance. Then put it again in a clean pot with a little clean wax and incorporate it well. Rub the kidneys and put on warm cloths and wrap them well. Make the woman stay with the kidneys lowered and with the head and buttocks raised. Do this one evening yes, the next no. Do this 3 times and she will be cured. She should eat warm things: doves, hens, cockerels with spices and good wine and soon she will be cured even if the malady is old. -------- [Page 157] To reduce the red discharge of excessive menstruation of women. Take these kinds of distilled waters: water of oak leaves, of sorb apples, of knot grass, of pine nuts, of liverwort, of cornelian cherry, of myrtle or rose water, each the same amount, and heat it and give 3 ounces of it to the sick person to drink, then 4 ounces, then 5 ounces and at the end give 6 ounces when the flow is so severe that it does not want to stop. Do all this 4 times in one day and you will see a marvelous effect. This beverage will reduce the red menstruation marvelously so that no more will come. It has been tested faithfully. If by chance the flow may not have stopped from the body, give it for 2 days and do the usual enema with oil of camomile. If she takes care of herself you will cure her soon, with the aid of God. Be sure of it. Another to stop the red menstruation of a woman. Take some hair from the sick one and bind it around any tree that you wish with a Pater Noster. Then make this beverage: take 3 ounces each of parched deer horn and fresh anise, both made into very fine powder and give one ounce of it to drink in the evening in warm red wine for 5 or 6 evenings and she will soon be cured and put in ½ ounce of broad beans. It has been proved that it stops the flow. Another to reduce red menstruation. Take linen fiber used for thread and cook it in the usual way, that is on the ashes, and in the evening when you go to sleep steam the vagina with the vapors and put one of these skeins as warm as you can bear on the pubis and the other opposite on the buttocks and wrap them well. Then go to sleep. Do this 2 or 3 evenings and soon you will be cured. Take care of yourself and you will be cured. Another to stop the red menstruation of a woman. Make a powder of deer horn and of her hair, ½ ounce each, and incorporate them with 3 drams each of powdered mastic and myrrh. In the morning give it to her to drink with 4 ounces of warm red wine in the form of a syrup for 4 or 5 mornings. Do not doubt that very soon you will cure her. For the rest you know how to care for her and it will bring you honor. Another to stop the red menstruation of a woman. Take 3 ounces of burdock juice, 2 ounces of plantain juice, 3 quatrini of powdered cloves and 2 ounces of endive water. It should be drunk cold early in the morning and should be done several more times. I tell you that soon you will cure her. She should not eat warming things. Another to stop menstruation. Take 4 ounces each of juice of plantain and of knot grass, 3 ounces of rose water, 2 ounces of myrtle water and boil them and add 2 drams of [ ] and 1 dram of fine powdered cinnamon and make it into a syrup. Give it early in the morning and in the evening when she goes to sleep. Do this for several days and soon you will cure her so that too much menstrual fluid will not come.... 89 Another to stop menstruation so that too much does not flow. Take 2 ounces of the stone hematite, crush it and grind it very finely on porphyry and mix it with 2 ounces of plantain juice. Add ¾ of a pound of tansy and divide it into 3 parts and have her take one of these parts every day for 3 days and soon she will be freed. If this medication does not please you, take ¼ of a pound of dragon's blood gum and shells of hazel nuts ground into powder, mix them together and give it to the sick one to drink with dry red wine and cover her well in bed and do this for 5 mornings and if she has not recovered, continue to the end of 9 mornings and she will be cured. She should be careful what she eats, not eating things that are cooling. *Also to the above, one can add roasted bark of pomegranate made into powder and give it to drink with mutton broth and it will stop the menstruation rapidly. It has been tested.... 90 To cure the vagina of the woman both inside and out. Take rose oil washed nine times with five pounds of fresh water, 2 drams of camphor and 1 dram of white wax. Melt the wax with the oil on a little fire and when you have removed it from the fire, put in the camphor, cut finely, and stir until it is cold and it will be made. With this rub the vagina and soon you will cure her. First wash it with rose water and fresh water. Another to cure it inside. Take 6 ounces each of mucilage of tragacanth and kernels of quince seeds, 2 ounces of flax seeds, 2 ounces of oil of sweet almonds and 1 ½ ounces each of oil of lilies, of camomile, of violets and butter and boil them on a low fire and you will have a soft unguent. Rub with this in the morning and evening and soon you will cure her. Another for this illness of the vagina. Take 1 handful of rue and grind it very finely and compound it with laurel oil and wet cloths in it and put them in the vagina and soon she will be cured. Otherwise you can use all three of these treatments together and they will do the work and quickly. She is not to eat warming things and you will cure her soon. It has been tested. -------- [Page 158] To cause the period of a woman. This has been tested. Take 1 handful or more each of fine mint, hyssop and corn poppy, that is red poppy, and dry them in the shade and make very fine powder of them. Then give a dose of 1 ounce or 1 ½ ounces to the woman, each time according to the person, if one is more affected than another. Incorporate 2 scruples of saffron in the dose and give it with 4 ounces of water of maiden hair fern or good white wine or mutton broth or with a fresh egg and it should be warm. Give it early in the morning in the form of a syrup and she should lie down for at least 2 hours and be careful. She should take this beverage for at least 3 mornings in a row. Soon she will have her period and even one who has never had one. In the evening when she goes to sleep, she should rub the body, the vagina and the stomach with the following oils that should be well warmed and she should be well wrapped with warm cloths. Take 3 ounces of laurel oil, 2 ounces of oil of camomile and 1 ounce of white lily oil and add ½ ounce of sweet almond oil and 1 scruple of whole saffron. Heat all together well until the oil takes up the odor of the saffron and she should rub the body with this very warm from the throat down to the bottom and she should stay very warm. You should know that very soon, with divine aid, the menstruation that you expect will come. This secret has worked very effectively in some nuns, giving thanks always to God and observing the rules given above. You will not seek other medicine because this one is the most approved. Another to cause the period of a woman. Take 1 handful each of the herb juniper, maiden hair fern, burnet and nettle seeds. Then take 3 flasks of very good white wine and boil everything together until it reduces one third. Then strain it and press the herbs well on the press. Then return this boiled liquid to the fire and put therein 1 dram of crushed saffron and ½ dram each of myrrh, mastic and incense and let it barely boil. Then remove it from the fire and let it cool and strain it. Save it in a glass flask in a cool place, well covered. In the evening when you go to sleep take 4 ounces of it, tepid, and in the morning take 3 ounces in the form of a syrup. Continue this for 3 or 4 days. Those persons who have tested this give true testimony of having attained the desired outcome in great part, if not fully, and the women have been satisfied. Another to cause menstruation in several ways. Take a root of white lily and roast it. Then crush it and add 1 ounce of laurel oil and ½ ounce of rose oil and incorporate them well together. Then in the evening when you go to sleep, make it very warm and rub all the body and wrap on cloths and it soon softens the hard body and helps the spleen wonderfully and causes menstruation when it is done several times. Another for causing menstruation. Take 1 ounce of nettle seeds and 1 dram each of myrrh and mastic. Make everything into fine powder and give it with grape must or white wine to drink. It makes menstruation return rapidly. Another for causing menstruation. Take seed of masseroni , seed of yellow violet and also the true yellow violet, making everything into powder. Incorporate 2 scruples of saffron well. Then give it to drink with broth or white wine several times and you will see that it brings out the menstrual material. Another for causing menstruation. Take 1 ounce of yeast, 1 ounce of peony root, ½ ounce of madder, ordinary oil that is old and 2 scruples of saffron and mix everything and make it warm and give it to the sick one to drink in the evening and soon the menstruation will come. Take artemisia and boil it and take that fomentation and put it on the pubis. Take some juice of the same herb with myrrh and saffron and make a tent soaked in this juice and put it in the vagina and it will bring the menstruation quickly. Furthermore, take 3 ounces of roses and boil it in 2 lb. of sweet white wine and reduce it 2/3 and give it warm to drink with saffron. Give the juice of the climbing vine that grows in the hedges to the sick one to drink with honeyed water and soon the menstruation will come. Another to cause the period of the woman. Take dried rock alum and mix it with strong vinegar and put it warm on the navel in the evening and soon the period will come. -------- [Page 159] Lavage for the womb when it may be coming out from the vagina. Take one and a half jugs of good white wine and put therein 1 handful each of flowers of camomile, dry roses and flowers of blue violets, 1 ounce of powdered incense and 2 drams of mastic. Boil everything together until it reduces 1/4. Then strain it and with this tepid boiled liquid wet a little fine linen cloth and very gently bathe the cervix of the womb that is coming out and especially those fine crusts that are attached to the part outside that are made by exuding blood. Then when you have bathed it and cleaned it well and dried it with another very fine linen cloth, push it up the cervix very gently and at the same time have a good fragrance under her nose so that she draws the good odor in and she breathes at the same time you push inward. Then make a fomentation from below. So that none of it is lost, take a bowl with a few embers in it and put on them incense, solid styrax, lodestone and powdered yellow sandalwood, at your discretion. It will mix with her breath and as she draws it in this will help you greatly so that the womb will quickly go into place. Do this lavage 2 times a day or 3, depending on whether the infirmity is serious and old and, with God's grace, soon you will cure her. This has been tested in several persons and they were cured quickly and well. She should be careful of what she does and should eat good things, and little and well cooked, and should stay warm, not have much exertion and should sleep alone. Another to soften the womb that descends out of the vagina. Take some old lard from a male pig and the same amount of goose fat, cut them up, melt them and with this slightly warm the womb should be rubbed very well and with care. But first take some roots of dwarf elder, wash them well and cut them finely and cook them very well in water and before the woman rubs herself, first make this fomentation closed below so nothing is lost. Then rub with great care and soon the hardness will be softened and the womb will go into its place rapidly without pain, using dexterity to push it up very slowly. Smelling good odors continuously will help her by having her inhale the odors strongly. Do this several times and you will cure her quickly. Another for one with prolapsed womb. This remedy has been tested. Take some seeds of henbane, that is Hyoscyamus , and make very fine powder of them. Then take a basin with hot ashes in it and put this powder on them and make a fomentation from below so that nothing is lost. But first make this lavage. Take good white wine and boil it with dry roses, cinnamon, nutmeg and camomile. Then bathe the womb well and with great dexterity and it should be dried. Do this fomentation and soon it will return to its place. She should also be smelling something fragrant and take care of herself. Another for the womb that descends out of the vagina, to make it return within. Take 1 handful each of pennyroyal, tansy, camomile, sage, flowers and leaves of tamarind and boil them with good white wine until it is reduced 1/3. Then with this wine, tepid, wash very carefully the cervix of the womb that has dropped out and push it up very slowly with a fine linen cloth and soon you will cure her. It has been tested. Another to cure the womb when it has descended and also the intestine that comes out from behind which is something very bothersome. Take tepid goat's milk and repeatedly bathe the womb or the rear of the man. Then put this powder on it, made very fine like a spice. Take equal amounts of parched deer or goat horn and Greek pitch and add an equal amount of mastic and put it on the womb. Then press it back in very slowly with a fine cloth. Do this several times and soon you will cure. She should take care of herself in all the things as has been said above for 6 to 8 days and you will cure her rapidly. It has been tested. For one in whom the womb has prolapsed make this fomentation. Take mutton fat, grapevine leaves, Greek pitch and pine tar, the amounts at your discretion, and put all these things on the embers and make a fomentation that the woman receives from below so the sick area receives it. Do this several times and soon the womb will return to its place. Another fomentation for the womb that has come out. Take fenugreek, incense and myrrh, each the same amount. This gives a heavy perfume and the womb will return to its place. -------- [Page 160] For one in whom the intestine falls out of the rear. Take the same amounts of raisins, cleaned honey, cumin and incense. Everything should be well ground and incorporated very well in the mortar and made in the form of a soft unguent. Then rub the intestine gently with the unguent and push it up with a fine cloth. Smelling good odors draws in the breath and soon this will cure. You should take care of yourself and not do too much exertion. Stay warm, eat little and of substance and you will be cured. Another to make the intestine return inside from the rear. Take white lead, wild pomegranate, rock alum and antimony, each the same amount, made into very fine powder. Then wash the intestine with white wine in which roses, cinnamon and camomile have been boiled. It should be very tepid. Then when you have washed and dried it gently, rub it with rose and violet oils with a feather. Put on this powder like a spice and push the intestine inside very slowly with the hand using a fine linen cloth. Then put on a thick cloth on the outside and bind it so that the intestine is not able to come out of the body after you have treated it. Then do it again and continue to medicate 2 or 3 times a day until it is cured. The patient should take care of himself and not exert himself too much, so soon, with the aid of God, it will be cured. It is tested. Another to make the intestine return inside when it has come out because of flux. Take rosemary, sage, mint and parsley, 1 handful in all, cut finely with a knife. Take a little hard cheese of sheep's milk and stir everything together with 2 eggs and make a pancake of it and put it between 2 rose leaves, one on top and the other below. Sweep the hearth clean and put this pancake in the center with the leaves until it gets very warm. Then cover it with very warm ashes and let it cook. Then give it to the sick one to eat in the morning and afterward he should sleep. Do this 3 or 4 or more times, according to the need and soon, with God's grace, he will be cured. He should take care of himself and not eat warming things and soon he will regain health. To resolve an inguinal swelling or boil inside. Take galbanum gum and spread it on chamois leather in the form of a plaster and put only this on the inguinal swelling or boil to make it disappear. It will resolve itself quickly and you will be cured. Another to resolve a swelling before it fills up greatly so it will be forced to come to a head. Take one or 2 leaves of savoy cabbage and pork fat and grind them well together and put it on the sore place or swelling. Do this 3 or 4 times and if it wants to go away, it will go away to nothing and will be dissolved. If it wants to form a head, it will mature and may be incised without pain and soon it will be cured. Another for the above-described infection. Take mallow, sweet violets, marsh mallow and linseed flour, the amounts at your discretion. Cook them in water. Then grind this and put in pork fat and make a plaster and put it on warm. To open up boils quickly. Take flax seed and boil it in cow's milk until it is well cooked. Then put this on the boil in the form of a very warm plaster. Soon it will open, whether it is an abcess or whatever it may be. Another to make a boil open. Put thereon dog's dung as warm as you can and it will soon be opened. Another to make it open and quickly. Take cyclamen roots and old lard, well ground and incorporated, and put it on in the form of a very warm plaster. No matter how swollen it is, it will break open quickly and you will be cured. Another to resolve swellings on the groin. Take 1 ounce of lily oil and 3 ounces of camomile oil, 2 drams each of Armenian clay and dragon's blood gum. Boil all these things together on a slow fire and put it on the groin in the form of a very warm plaster. Do this for 3 days and it will be resolved. Another to resolve or destroy it. Take goat's leaf and oil and grind them and put this on and it will remove a carbunculus. Another to cause maturation. Take rose oil, oil of egg yolk, mother's milk and wheat flour and compound them and put it on warm. The same. Take garlic cloves and pepper and chew them in the mouth and put it on the carbuncle and this will work within 3 days. It has been tested. Another. Take some feathers that are on the rump of a live pullet and at once bind them on the sore place and the sick person will be cured and the chicken will die at once. You recognize a carbuncle when it develops with great pain and is very red and inflamed. Another. Take self-heal, grind it between two lodestones and put it on the sore place and it will open in one night and you will be cured. -------- [Page 161] To resolve a boil rapidly. Take one orange and divide it in half and squeeze it into a bowl. Soak therein a cotton stupe, press it and put it on the warm ashes. Press it again and let it stay until it is warm. Then remove it, clean off the ashes, put on a little well-ground salt and put it warm on the boil or swelling. Put that half of the orange on the stupe and bind it well so that it does not fall off. Change it in the morning and evening and soon it will resolve the boil and it will go away. This has been tested. To make a boil come to a head that is on the rib and on the breasts of women. Take crumbs of white bread, raisins or dry grapes, all well ground, and butter, pork fat, bread yeast and cows' milk and incorporate everything on a slow fire and add a little powdered saffron. Then put this warm poultice on a cloth and put it on the swollen sore. Do this in the morning and the evening and soon it will come to a head and break open. Then treat it with rose oil and egg yolk for one day and then with unguents that draw out matter. If you see that there is infection or irritation, then treat with unguent of aloe and of zinc carbonate and others that are binding. Another to cause maturation. Take half a handful each of flowers of camomile, sweet clover and dill and some Florentine iris. Boil them in water and put in barley flour and lupin flour and rhubarb, each at your discretion. Then make a poultice of it and put it warm on the bad swelling 2 or 3 times. If the swelling does not want to resolve or come to a head, add the cooked roots of marsh mallow, pork fat, fenugreek flour, flax seed, oil of camomile and saffron. Put that on and soon it will maturate and open. Another to cause maturation. Take roots of marsh mallow and cook them in water with a lily bulb, linseed flour and pork fat with saffron. Mix everything together and put it warm on the swelling and soon it will draw out to a head. Another to cause a sore place to maturate. Take olive oil, wheat flour, flax seed flour, 2 scruples of saffron and lard and boil these on a little fire, stirring continuously so that it does not stick or burn. Then put it on a cloth and put it on the sore or on the swelling and you will make the sore maturate rapidly. Another to cause maturation and relieve the pain. Take violets, ordinary oil and butter at your discretion with the best wheat flour and put everything in a little pot and boil it on a slow fire, stirring continuously so that it does not burn. When you see that it is well cooked, spread it on a linen cloth and put it warm on the swelling and you will see a wonderful result, either that it breaks open or disappears. Another to make an abcess break open. Take 1 ounce each of dove dung and ashes of woody vines, ammonium chloride, powdered lead and oil and incorporate these together and make a poultice and put on the sore place.... 91 Another to resolve abcesses and scrofulas. Poison hemlock has sharp and flatulent actions. Do not give it by mouth in any form. But if it is cooked in wine with the dung of the ass and with linseed and made into a poultice, it dissolves abcesses and scrofulas. The root with its bark is effective in such illnesses.... 92 For the navel coming out too far from the body. Take purslane and dry it. Then boil it with lard and a little water until it becomes in the form of an unguent. Remove it and reboil it in very strong vinegar. Remove it and press it well between 2 boards. Then rub the navel several times with this paste. It should be warm. When rubbing it, press the navel in very gently and it will go in as you wish. This is used when the baby has had bad nursing from the wet-nurse. This is a good remedy. -------- [Page 162] For the navel coming out from the body from damage. Take 2 drams each of new wax, butter, native sulfur and Greek pitch and incorporate them together on a slow fire and put it on the umbilicus and bind it tightly. Take care of yourself and soon you will be cured. Another to make the navel draw in when it is coming out. Take dried portulaca and cook it in water. Then take lard and grind them together and boil it to a pastille in strong vinegar and express the juice. Rub the navel with the juice. Then bind the pastille on the navel and it will be healed quickly. For those who are not able to be satisfied with their wives, say this prayer and carry it with you. + In the name of the Father + Son + and Holy Spirit. + Amen. We pray, 'God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God who from the rib of the first man created woman, a helper to him as one heart and one spirit and two in one body, so men should leave behind father and mother and cling to their most gentle wives. God of the Holy Trinity, the true God, truth itself, I swear to you, I entreat you in your most holy name, which is ineffable, alpha and omega. Just as you removed the boys from the flames of the furnace, saved Shadrach, Misach and Abednego, so extinguish ire, anger and discord between me (name) and my husband (name). If you would restore us to concord and bind us together in my love, do not allow anything harm my striving for his love (name). My husband should love me and hold me in such affection as was between Adam and Eve and between Abraham and Sarah. So may God give true love and affection between me (name) and my husband (name). Amen.' You should know that this is effective without the Mass. However the husband and wife ought to have it said over this prayer and they ought to be beside the altar when Mass is said, especially in honor of the Holy Mary and the Mass of the Holy Trinity and the Mass of the Holy Spirit. After the masses have been said, the wife or husband in private should cook bread for her husband or his wife and God will aid them. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. Another to reconcile the wife with the husband or the husband with his wife or other persons. Say this holy prayer in the morning with a blessed candle and devotedly and in a few days you will see a good effect. First make the sign of the cross, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. 'Holy Mary, mother of our God, Jesus Christ, Saint John the Baptist, Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Adon and old Saint Simon, strict and crowned, whom God much loved, Saint Leonard, Saint Helen who came to the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ, on Mount Calvary, bring back my husband (name) to my love, Amen. God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, bring back (name) to my love, Amen. The right hand of the Lord is virtue. The right hand of the Lord has raised me. May the right hand of the Lord bring back (name) in virtue to my love. Amen. All the holy angels and archangels, all the holy patriarchs and prophets, all the holy virgins and all the saints of God bring back (name) to my love. Intercede with him. May his father or his old teacher, speaking of his honor, intercede between (name) and (name). Amen. Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, who sent the love and passion of the Holy Spirit into your disciples, through your holy intercession send honest love between (name) and (name). So (name) has said to (name) that he loves her with all his heart, with all his mind, so he can love no other person except (name) said above. Amen. Amen. Amen. So be it. So be it. So be it. +Agios + hotheos + agios + ischiros + agios + athanatos + heleyson + ymas +. Holy God, holy power, holy and immortal, pity this sinner (name). Amen. Come forth, Lord, and hear me (name), a sinner calling to you. Just as you hear all prayers, so hear me (name). Hear me, Lord Jesus Christ. Send your righteous love between me (name) and (name) whom I love as myself in good faith, so that it is not possible for me to stand nor walk, eat nor drink, neither by day or night, nor do or have anything good unless he will love me with all his heart and with all his mind (name). Christ conquers, Christ rules, Christ orders. Amen. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.' Say one Pater Noster and one Ave Maria and be sure that you will have God's grace.... 93 Another for the above. Write these on an unconsecrated wafer. 'Peace to you and from you my peace. I give peace to you. Alpha and omega is the first and foremost. (Names of husband and wife). Eat this and you will have the peace that you desire. Another for the above. Take powder of valerian and give it to the husband to eat or he may carry it near him and the husband will love his wife. Another for the above. Write on an unconsecrated wafer, 'Abraham loved Sarah, Isaac Rebecca, Jacob Laban, Joseph the blessed Virgin Mary. So each esteems each other over all things in the world.' Then put it under the altar while 3 masses are sung and make it into powder and eat it and it will happen. *Another to remove hatred and malice. If anyone may have hatred against you or your wife or your husband, take 3 burning coals and extinguish them with your urine, saying, 'As I extinguish these coals with my urine, so is removed any malice or hatred a man or woman may have against my person +.' As you do this, step over the coals. Do this 3 times with a Pater Noster. -------- [Page 163] Poultice that maturates and softens quickly. Take 2 ounces each of oil of camomile, of dill and of lavender, 1 ½ ounces each of fenugreek flour and linseed flour, 4 ounces of turpentine and 1 ounce of new wax. Put the oil, wax and turpentine together on a slow fire until they are well melted and mixed. Then remove this from the fire and put in the flours and incorporate them well. When it is tepid, put it on the abcess in the evening and the morning. Rewarm it and keep putting it on and keep it very warm. Do this several times and soon the abcess will be resolved either from within or by opening and it will be gone. Another poultice for maturating. Take 6 ounces each of tar and honey and ½ ounce each of incense and fenugreek flour. Put the tar on the fire to melt, then put in the honey, then the incense and the flour and remove it from the fire and mix everything well. Then, as warm as you can stand, put it on the abcess that hurts and is not ready to maturate and is developing. Put this poultice on enough times so the abcess will be excellently maturated and it will give you no more pain and soon you will be cured. Another poultice for reducing the open sore of an abcess without necrosis. Take the yolks of 3 eggs and enough barley flour or dust from the mills to knead the yolks into a poultice. Then put it on twisted yarn with little disks of the poultice and put one on the open abcess. This closes the abcess and makes tissue grow and removes the pain. It will cure you rapidly. Another poultice for closing sores, very well tested. Take 6 ounces of turpentine, 4 ounces of rose honey, 1 ounce of myrrh and enough barley flour. Melt the turpentine on a slow fire, then mix in the rose honey. Remove it from the fire and put in the myrrh and put in as much of the flour as needed to knead into a soft paste. Then it will be made, your good and perfect poultice that you will be able to use at your pleasure on any sore or open abcess in the way described above, putting twists of yarn on the little disks. It will bring you honor. Another poultice for closing all open sores. Take 4 ounces of rose honey, 6 ounces of turpentine, 1 ounce each of sarcocol gum, myrrh and fenugreek flour and enough flour of rye and of lupins to thicken the poultice. Melt the turpentine on a slow fire and then mix in the rose honey. Remove them from the fire and at once put in the sarcocol gum and the myrrh made into fine powder and the fenugreek flour and then the other 2 flours as needed until it has enough body. Always mix until everything is well incorporated and it will be made to perfection. Use it to treat at your pleasure in the way described above and you will cure quickly. Another poultice for maturating any abcess. Take clean marsh mallow roots, cut finely and well ground. These are then prepared. Incorporate very well with 3 ounces each of pork lard and butter on a low fire. Put it warm on the abcess and soon it will be cleared up. Another maturating poultice. Take 3 white onions and cook them on the grill. Then take the yolks of 3 eggs and as much butter as half of everything else and mix well together. Put it warm on the abcess and it clears up rapidly. Also you can add wheat flour and rose oil and this will work well. Another poultice for maturating quickly. Take 2 ounces of marsh mallow roots, 1 ½ ounces of yeast for bread, 1 handful each of sweet violets and absinthe. Boil all these things in water so they are well cooked, grind them in a mortar and put in 2 ounces of powdered dry roses. Then mix all these things with the water and put it warm on the sore spot and soon it will maturate and you will be cured. It is tested. -------- [Page 164] Unguent to put on sores to make flesh grow. Take 3 ounces of tar, 2 ounces of clean wax, 1 ounce each of incense and fenugreek flour and 1 lb. of ordinary oil. Boil the oil and melt the tar in it. Then remove it from the fire and put in the other things and continue to stir until it is cold and it will be made and save it for your needs. This unguent is put on top of a sore on a plaster and not into the sore. This generates good flesh. You do not need more than that, but sometimes other unguents are used. Another unguent for resolving and maturating Take 3 ounces of camomile oil, 1 ounce each of clean wax, fenugreek flour and flax seed flour and incorporate everything on a slow fire. Then remove it from the fire and stir until it is cold and it will be made. This unguent maturates and resolves very wonderfully the infirmity described above. It will bring you honor. Confection for coldness of the stomach. Take the root of sea holly, which is similar to the parsnip, wash it and clean it carefully and cook it in honey, not too much, so that it is softened. Then grind it and put it in a bottle and put in appropriate spices, sugar and cinnamon and save it for your needs. In the evening when you go to sleep and in the morning when you get up, take a dose each time. By continuing it, it will give you a warm stomach and good breath and it will make you urinate a good amount. It has been tested. Another for one who may have coldness of the stomach. Take some roots of the bee orchid, that is the fox stone orchid, in the month of March. Wash and clean 1 lb. and boil them with a flask of good white wine until they are well cooked and at the end add a little rose water. Then place them in a clean basin and add 2 ounces of starch from flour, 1 ounce each of finely powdered cinnamon, cloves and ginger, 4 ounces of fine sugar and 4 grains of finely chopped musk. Incorporate everything well and make small wafers of it and cook them in a covered frying pan or put the pan in the oven. When they are cooked, save them, and when you go to sleep, take 2 or 3 according to the size that you have made. After sleeping you will have the very best stomach and it will augment you in coitus, I tell you, in greatly enjoying coitus. By continuing it, you will see a very worthy result so that your wife will be content. Another to augment intercourse. Take climbing ivy that is pilose on the reverse side of the leaves. Grind it and make juice and rub this juice well on the testicles and shortly you will feel that your generative powers have been greatly increased. Another. Take laurel berries and powder them and mix them with powder of diasatirion , that is the root of the bee orchid made into fine powder. Rub as described and it will have the desired effect. Another. This ointment is powerful. Take 2 drams of native sulfur and 1 dram of pepper. Macerate them finely on a marble slab and distemper them with honey. Then rub all the prepuce and under the member and you will feel great warming. When you wish to go to your lady, wash yourself with tepid water and you will do very enjoyable work. If you wish to please your lady more, rub the prepuce with oils of nutmeg and of wild civet and you will see a wonderful thing in the great love that you will bring your wife. She will not know what you did that she never felt this kind of contentment in similar acts before. This is what men do if they want to give women the best in the world. To make the woman love her husband. Write the psalm, 'Hear my prayer, O God,' and he should carry it on him and she will always love him faithfully.... 94 For a man who does not want to stay with his wife. Take lodestone and white lead and say a mass over them. Then make fine powder of them and give it to him or to her to eat and shortly they will love each other very warmly. To make a man leave a woman and attend to his wife. Take a bean and divide it and write on one part the name of the one who has the power to be discordant and on the other part the other name and throw them apart and they will dislike each other. Doing this and redoing it will be holy work. Keep faith that it has been tested several times. -------- [Page 165] Electuary to rewarm the stomach and the kidneys to incite venery. Take 1 ounce each of the bulbs on the root of the greater and lesser bee orchid, 2 drams of ginger, ½ ounce each of Indian nut and rabbit blood, 4 ounces each of man orchid, sea holly and penciolani , 1 ounce of bran dust, 2 drams each of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamon and carrots, ½ ounce each of seminis buli , ½ dram of Indian leaves, ½ dram of the best musk, ½ ounce each of cleaned pirnea , pistacia kernels, rooster testicles, fox testicles, red chick peas, shelled beans, cleaned crocus, 1 ounce of mandrake root and white sugar and clean honey enough to compound the electuary. This is wonderful to improve coitus and to retain sperm so it will not come forth quickly when the male rod stands erect and strong in battle and it will please you well. It especially improves the sperm ducts and it is a powerful medicine overall for which opportunities are found. Another unguent as above to rub in the evening. Take one gall bladder of a boar and put in this 1 ounce of very fine powder of galingale and mix these together. Dry it and make very fine powder and incorporate it with oil of nutmeg and make it in the form of an unguent. With this rub the penis and, being with your lady, you will give great delight. Another unguent as above to rub the kidneys in the evening. Take 10 large and fresh nutmegs, 3 drams of ground coriander, 4 drams each of long and round peppers, 2 drams each of galingale and Roman pellitory, ½ ounce each of white ginger, cloves and cinnamon and 1 ounce each of mustard, native sulfur and laurel berries. All these things should be made into very fine powder and add 3 ½ ounces of washed and clean bee orchid. Then take 1 lb. of clean honey, 6 ounces of malvasia or other very good white wine, 2 ounces each of oil of mint, laurel oil and juice of catmint, 1 ½ ounces of goose grease and 3 ounces of white wax. In a vessel that has no odor, put on the fire the honey, wine, oil, juice, wax and the bee orchid and boil it until the wine is consumed. Then put in the above powders and incorporate them very well. Remove it from the fire and put in 4 grains of musk, 1 dram of civet and 6 grains of ambergris. They should all be macerated very finely to be almost impalpable and combined with fine sugar. Then incorporate all the composition very, very well and it will be made in the form of a soft unguent and it will be complete. Save it with care in a covered bottle for you and your related friends to use. In the evening when you go to bed, rub the kidneys throughly and the penis and the prepuce. Then stay with your dear wife and take your contentment together until there it will grow again. It is tested. Plaster against coldness of the stomach. Take 1 scruple each of the kinds of unguents made with musk, with amber and with aromatic roses, 1 scruple each of cloves, nutmeg, galingale, ginger, red coral, red roses and mint, 1 ounce of mastic, 3 drams of incense and as much oil of lavender and oil of spermaceti as needed to make this poultice. Then when it is made, spread it on a napkin or on a red, scarlet or cochineal red cloth. Put this warm on the stomach and keep it warm with a red cloth on it. Continue this and it will rewarm your stomach as much as you would wish and as it feels to you to be near, you will be able to raise it. This is tested. To put peace and concord between two people, that is husband and wife.* Say this prayer for 9 mornings and 9 times per morning with a blessed candle burning. When you have finished, say a mass of the Annunciation and you will have the grace you will have so urgently requested. This is the prayer, viz., 'I come to you, Angel Gabriel, and beseech you through your compassion and mercy and through the annunciation of the Virgin Mary and through that peace that you brought to the house of the Lord. May Caspar take you (name) to me, may Balthasar bind you to me, may Melchior lead you to me. So lead me to you and you to me (names). Angel Gabriel, who descended from heaven and brought peace and unity in the house of God, so put this peace between me and (name) that nevermore we are divided. I send the Angel Gabriel to you with honey in the mouth and with roses in the lap, so you can deny to the Virgin Mary that I ever did ill. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen + + + .' *(Above this prayer is written in a different hand, 'It is a superstition').... 95 Another. On a new parchment or from an unborn lamb, write and carry with you. 'O Alpha and Omega, first and foremost, I promise to my man (name) that my love may always be most sweet as was between Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel, Eustace and Theopista, and Jesus with the Church and with his disciples. So may love and peace be unbroken between me (name) and my man (name). + Christ conquers +, Christ rules + Christ orders +. Christ it is who orders that my love of my man and my man of me be made unbroken and inseparable. So be it + + + .' -------- [Page 166] The woman who has this prayer on her will give birth rapidly and without pain. 'In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. + Now, child created in heaven on high, infant come out in the name of the Father who created you. Come forth infant in the name of the Son who died for you. Come forth infant, in the name of the Holy Spirit who protects you. I bear you. Come forth in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. Anna gave birth to Mary. Elizabeth gave birth to Joan, the ancestor. Mary gave birth to the Savior. O little child, in the name of the true Christ, O baby, whether alive or dead, come forth from the womb as Christ calls you to the light. He invites you toward the fountain of life so you may see the splendor of living. Come forth because Christ calls you, just as he called Lazarus from the sepulchre. So be it. God who freed Sarah and gave her a son and likewise who made Rebecca the wife of Isaac, do this through your compassion for your servant (name), in the name of the Father, + Son + and Holy Spirit, + Amen.' Note that when the woman begins to give birth, then the woman attendant or other person says a Pater Noster and Ave Maria and also others in attendance. Then you read this prayer so that she hears it. Then she puts it on her back. As soon as she has given birth, remove it from her and give thanks to God that she has given birth without pain. For the pain of parturition or for one who may have a dead baby in her body. For the woman not able to give birth, take 2 scruples of saffron and mix them with good warm wine and give it to her to drink and it will help her greatly. Also say these holy words so that she hears them, viz., 'The heavens tell the glory of God and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands. Day to day his word comes forth and night to night his wisdom is revealed. They are not discourses nor utterances. The voices of these may not be heard within the bounds of earth. He has placed his tabernacle in the sun. Come forth as a bridegroom coming from his marriage bed. Elizabeth gave birth to Joan, Anna gave birth to Mary, Mary gave birth to the savior. This mother will give birth without pain, in the name of the Father, + Son + and Holy Spirit, + Amen.' Then do this, take half a glass of milk of a bitch and likewise good wine and a little honey and mix them well and give this warm to her to drink. If the baby should be dead in the body, take powdered myrrh and give it to her to drink with warm wine and with juice of burdock, of sage and of mallow and purge the woman and she will give birth at once without distress. Another for the pain of parturition. When the woman begins to feel the pains, look for a stone impregnated so that it has a kernel inside. These are found in the nests of eagles. She should bind the stone to one of her thighs and at once she will give birth. Be advised that as soon as she has given birth, the stone should be removed because the inside may all come out and this results in great danger If you think that the baby is male, tie the stone to the right thigh and if you believe that the baby is feminine, the stone should be bound on the left thigh and parturition will be almost without pain. If by chance the woman is not able to carry the child to its time and that during this time it may be lost without much cause, the woman should carry this stone on her back so that it touches her flesh and she will carry the baby, through God's grace, to its time. Then if the stone is removed as she begins to feel the pains, make it hang on one of her thighs, as described above. If the woman may know that she may have too much heat or warmth and this is the reason that she may not carry the baby to its time, she should eat almost all things cooling during this time. This aids in carrying the baby so it is not detached from the kidneys and stays to the end of its time. You should know that warm things in such a person deplete and weaken the strength and cause fever. -------- [Page 167] Another for one who feels the baby is dead in her body, to make her give birth in a short space of time. Take some of the herb savory cooked with cleaned honey and give it to the woman to eat. In a few days the baby will come forth without pain. If the pains should come after this delivery, make this remedy. Take equal amounts of cabbage leaves, mallow and Mercury's herb and cook them in oil. Then make a poultice and put this warm on the pubis, close to the vagina. The pain will lift soon and the vagina will be cleansed. Another. Take the washed root of elecampane and cook it in water and give this to the woman who has a dead baby in her body. It will make it come out without any danger to her and will stop the red menstrum and will make her urinate a great deal. This medicine is safe and without danger because it has been tested. To know if a woman may give birth to a male or female. Splash a drop of milk from the right breast of the woman in a glass of clear, cool water and another drop from the left breast in another glass at 5 months, 7 months and 9 months of pregnancy. If you see that the drop that falls in the first glass goes to the bottom and the center part stays in a clump and then floats up but stays tightly together, you will judge that the baby will be male. When the milk splits apart or spreads on the water smoothly, judge that the baby will be female. Then do the same with the second glass of cool water with milk from the left breast. See if the 2 signs are confirmed. If the drop goes to the bottom you will say male and if the drop spreads you will say it is female. Try this other sign. If the gravid woman is upright on her feet, call her and watch well which foot she puts first before the other. If she puts the right foot forward first, it is a male in her body and her body will be pointed toward the front. If she puts the left foot first, judge the baby to be female and she will not be as pointed in front but will be greater toward the sides. These tests have been tried many times and for the most part have come out correctly and it holds that they are tested. Another. This is true and tested. When you see a pregnant woman, make the sign of the cross, look her in the face and say together the Pater Noster and the Ave Maria. Then say these 3 little verses, looking at her while she is silent. 'Increate Father, increate Son, increate Holy Spirit, one without creation. Infinite Father, infinite Son, infinite Holy Spirit, one infinity. Eternal Father, eternal Son and eternal Holy Spirit.' Then note well if she puts her hand to her waist to make some adjustment or to arrange something around her neck. If that happens, judge it and say to yourself that she will deliver a male. If she makes a sign from the waist downward, judge the baby to be female. If by chance the woman does not make the sign clearly, say the above words one more time. At the end of 3 times you will see some of these signs appear. If she makes them above the waist, it is judged to be male and if they are made below the waist, it is judged to be female. This sign has been used many times and I have never been in doubt when it is made. It is a simple and straight-forward method and it is true and tested. -------- [Page 168] Electuary so a woman may have sons. Take 1 handful each of sage and fine marjoram and boil it in a large carafe with very good malvasia wine until it reduces nearly by half. Then grind these herbs and put in 6 ounces each of very clean honey, fine sugar and fine powdered cinnamon and incorporate everything well together in the mortar and it will be made. Save it in a covered bottle and when the woman goes to bed, she takes an ounce or more, but first is purged. In the morning before she gets out of bed she will feel a warming movement and then she should have intercourse with her husband and soon the result will be seen. Another potion to have sons. Take some betony picked in the month of May during the waxing moon and dry it in the shade and make fine powder. Take 1 lb. of honey, boil it in a clean little pot until it is well cleared and foamed. Remove it from the fire and strain it and put therein ½ ounce each of nutmeg and fine cinnamon, 2 drams of powdered cloves and 2 ounces of powdered sugar and enough of the above powder to thicken it. Mix everything warm, stirring continuously until it is cold. Then put it away in a bottle in a cool place. In the evening and the morning an amount equal to a nut should be taken for 10 or 12 days. Then she should stay with her husband early in the morning and she will see a marvelous result. Also she should use some in the morning, drinking a fresh egg with a spoonful of this powder of betony in it and relax a while in bed. But if the woman may be too sanguine, remove 3 ounces of blood every month from the common vein and she should eat things cooling. By using the above electuary and staying with her husband and with faith in God and knowing how to take care of herself, soon she will conceive. Every evening she should use this fomentation written below. Viz. Another fomentation for the woman from below in the evening. Take pennyroyal or wild horsemint and boil it well with water. The woman should sit over the steam and receive it from below. She should do this 10 to12 times and stay with her husband and have the womb in a position to become gravid. Afterward she should keep quiet and calm for 3 hours on the right side and she will feel nausea and pain in the body. On observing this she will know she is pregnant. It is tested. Another to know if the woman will deliver a male or female. First you need to know the month when she retained the seed and also the month that she expects to deliver and her name and that of her husband. Take the names and latinize them and count all the vowels, that is a, e, i, o, u. For example, in September there are 3, in May there are 2 and in the name Petrus there are 2 and in Katerina there are 4 for a total of 11. Because this is an uneven number, you should say she will give birth to a male. If the number is even, say it will be female. This is an infallible rule drawn from astrology many times by men of every faith and it has been tested. Also if you may be told that the child, either male or female, is blind in one eye or crippled or lame, only ask the name and look at how many vowels are within the name. If they are even it is fated that it will be on the right side and if they are odd, the left side will be imperfect. If you have not seen it and have learned its name, do this in Latin. To know if a woman loves a man or not. With your hand raised, go to her and say these words in the form of three statements, viz. ' Oracha minor fulgor,' 'Giabat gael rafphael,' Sada minium remuit.' Watch her and if the woman puts her hand to her chest, she does not love you. If she loves you she will put her hand quickly to her face and as your spouse she will come to love you and you will have your desire. For one who is not able to have intercourse with a woman. Take incense from the Easter candle, myrrh, gold, silver, wax and a blessed palm leaf and put everything in a reed tube and say over it the Mass of the Three Kings. Attach it to the left arm on bare flesh and if you try it you will see the result. -------- [Page 169] When a marriage may be troubled by discord. Say to the husband and wife that in the evening when they want to go to bed, they should say devoutly on their knees these two psalms, 'Judge me, O Lord, for I am innocent.' The second, 'The hymn is raised for thee, O God, in Sion.' and all the short creed with 3 Pater Noster and 3 Ave Maria. Then the husband or other person should say this prayer, viz., 'As the 3 magi were to go together to visit Jesus Christ, so we can enjoy holy matrimony together. As Jesus Christ received the milk from the Virgin Mary, so may I be received by my wife in holy matrimony, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So be it.' At the end they say a Pater Noster and soon, through God's grace, they will be unbound and freed from discord.... 96 Another for the man who is not able to fulfil his legitimate marriage with his wife and wants to use her, do this. Take some blessed white wax, enough to make 4 wafers and melt it on an iron shovel on the fire and pour this wax in a bowl with clean water in it. Then make a plaster and cut across it to form 4 parts and make them round in the form of a wafer. Then write on the first of these parts these words, viz. 'God of Abraham, God of Isaac and God of Jacob,' on the second, 'Caspar, Balthasar, Melchior,' on the third, 'Michael, Gabriel, Raphael,' and on the fourth, 'Shadrach, Misach, Abednego.' Take the four written pieces and say over them 5 masses in reverence of the 5 wounds of Jesus Christ. Then take the four wafers and put one in each corner of the bedroom where the patients sleep. They should have faith in Jesus Christ that they will soon be freed because others have proved this. Another to remove evil deeds. Write on 3 unconsecrated wafers these words and for 3 mornings take one with devotion each morning with a Pater Noster and drink it with a little blessed water and soon, through God's grace, you will be free and cured of the evil. On the first wafer write, 'I (name) am innocent of any transgressions. In my Lord God, Jesus, I trust and I will not be weakened. + Jesus conquers, + Jesus rules, + Jesus orders. + Jesus defend me from all spells and charms, Amen.' On the second, 'You Lord Jesus Christ will not withdraw from me. Give assistance to me. Amen. Jesus conquers, + Jesus reigns, + Jesus defend me from all spells, Amen.' The third morning say, 'Break my bonds, Lord, and the evil against me. Praise to you. Jesus conquers, + Jesus rules, + Jesus from all spells and evil defend me, Amen.' Do this with devotion and, with the aid of God, soon you will be free. Another to remove any spells and charms. Write on 9 unconsecrated wafers and give one each morning and say 5 Pater Noster and 5 Ave Maria in robes for 9 mornings. You will see much improvement from the sorcery. Viz., the first morning, 'Peace. The Father is power. +' The second, 'The life of the Son is the highest knowledge +,' and on the third, ' The Holy Spirit is the true being and the remedy for humans.' Another to free a charmed man or woman quickly. Take a glass of wine in your hand and say over it these words three times in a row with a Pater Noster. Continue this for 3 mornings and each time when you have said it 3 times with the sign of the cross, have the man or the woman drink it all. These are the words, viz., 'I exorcise you wine by him who divided the Red Sea for the flight of Israel, by the 140,000 innocents taken from earth, by the 9 orders of angels, by the 10 holy words, by the 5 books of Moses, by the 4 evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and by the Holy Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, so our Lord may undo every charm and all spells and all evil that was done to you as God did through the power of our Jesus Christ who judges the living and the dead of the world. In the name of the Father + Son + and Holy Spirit + Amen. Christ conquers, + Christ reigns, + Christ rules, Amen + + +. So be it, Amen.' Then bind this little prayer on the right thigh of the woman, viz., 'They came out of the belly and they said lies.' If you will do this, soon it will free you. It has been tested. To go on a journey and be secure from dangers. When you go on a journey say the Pater Noster and the Ave Maria and say, 'I would go on the way with Christ before me and with peace. The Holy Spirit be with me +. I commend myself to Christ and the Virgin Mary and Saint Jerome. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.' -------- [Page 170] To remove hardness of the breasts when they may break open and to cure them when they have been cut. Take 3 ounces of flax seed flour, 2 ounces each of fenugreek flour, ordinary flour and pork lard. Take a pot and put therein one carafe of wine and one of water and put in all the above flours and strained lard and put it on a slow fire until it thickens, stirring constantly with a wooden spatula so that it does not stick. Remove it from the fire and stir until it is cold and it will be made. Save it for your needs. Then with this medicate the breast without a tent and without other unguents and you will see a fine cure. If it is put on the breast a little warm, it will do better. Another unguent for the trouble described above with the breasts. Take 6 ounces each of marsh mallow, mallow juice and flax seed flour, 5 ounces of washed turpentine, 3 ounces of rancid butter, 2 ounces of thick tar and 7 ounces each of rose oil and white wax. First cook the roots of marsh mallow well until little water remains. Then press them on the press until all the substance comes out. Put the flour, juice, turpentine, tar, butter, oil and wax in this boiled liquid and return it to a slow fire and mix it well and stir continuously. After it is thickened, remove it from the fire and stir until it is almost cold and save it for your needs. When you wish to use it, spread it on a linen cloth and put it warm on the painful place on the breast, in the morning and in the evening and you will cure it soon. Another unguent as above for pain in the breasts of women. Take 1 ½ ounces each of crushed white lead, rose oil, goat fat and marrow of ox bones, 2 ounces of washed old butter, 1 ounce of clean wax and 1 ounce of lard, ground and washed. Cut up the fat and the marrow, melt them and strain them. Then return them to the pot and put therein the cut wax, oil, butter and lard and mix well on a slow fire. At the end put in the white lead and it will be made. Save it in a bottle for all your needs. Rub the breasts with this. It is good for all the maladies of the breasts and even for a bad accident and for the warm salt humor and even for scabies. This unguent will bring you honor. It is tested.... 97 Another salve for a swollen breast. Take some beet leaves and cabbage leaves and make juice separately and oil of violets, each of these in equal amounts. Mix everything together on a slow fire and let it boil only a little and keep stirring until it is cold. With this medicate in the evening and morning, putting it on fine linen cloth. Soon you will cure her and it will work well for you and you will be honored. Another salve for swollen breasts. Take equal amounts of strong vinegar, mastic, frankincense and bull dung and put them in a little pot and boil it until it is incorporated and it will be made. When you wish to use it, warm it and spread it on a linen cloth and put it warm on the sore place of the swollen and painful breast. Do this twice a day and soon it will be cured. Another salve for pain in the breasts. Take 6 ounces each of clean honey and old washed butter, 3 ounces of cumin and 1 ounce of powdered cloves and put everything together and boil it a little until it is well incorporated and it will be made. Then spread it on warm cloths and put them on the breasts and soon you will cure them. Adding a little musk to this soothes all the limbs. Another to remove the pain in the breasts. Take lard from a male pig and the same amount of white horehound and pound them together and incorporate them on the fire and make a poultice and put it on warm and it will cure the breasts. Another to remove pain from the breasts of women. Take 5 or 6 grains of seeds of broom, make fine powder of them and give this to drink with warm white wine and soon the pain will cease. Also the root of the dwarf elder, ground and put on, will remove the pain quickly. All these remedies are tested and are effective. -------- [Page 171] To cure breasts that may have broken open from a humor or an ulcerated abcess that may discharge matter. Take roots of the herb that is called dropwort which has leaves that draw back like those of burnet saxifrage and has white flowers like those of wild carrot but a little larger and has roots that grow like those of peony but smaller and all attached one behind the other in the shape of a ring. The time to pick it is in the beginning of June when it is blossoming perfectly. Take as much of this root as you wish, wash it well and dry it in the shade if you can and make very fine powder of it. Save this for all your needs. When the woman has an illness in the breast caused by running humors she may have pain more in one place than another and if you see some signs of red and hard swelling there may be an opening from which material continues to leak out. So that this woman may be cured rapidly, do this. Every morning take ½ spoonful and not more of this powder and have her drink it with white wine or warm broth as a syrup early in the morning and she should rest for an hour. If the breast is not broken open, do nothing more. Rub only with violet oil and if the soreness is increasing it will break open by itself and if the abcess is small it will be resolved from within. If the breast has broken open and matter leaks out, do not put anything on it except 3 or 4 folds of white cloth, one on the other, because this powder has the property that by itself the medicine cleans all the matter inside and sends it out through the opening and gently cleans without pain. When a lot of matter comes out that is a good sign that it is curing quickly because all the matter is gathering and coming out. Then, so that this illness will be well healed, she should follow all the rules you give her and it will heal easily and well. Even if the breast was swollen but it came to a head that was not broken open, continue just the same with this powder alone and the illness will be resolved little by little. You need to do nothing more. She should take care of herself for a few days and will be cured. It is tested. This powder is also useful in epilepsy. If you take the flowers of dropwort that are white and put them in a little carafe with pure olive oil and cover it and put it in the sun for 20 days or one month, the oil will take on a very wonderful and pungent odor. This oil has many virtues, especially for pain of the stomach and also for those who may be ill from pregnancy and if it is rubbed on warm it is powerful in pains of the body. It stimulates urine and it may cure leaking of urine. It is useful for pain in the kidneys and it removes flatulence from the stomach, when it is rubbed on very warm. It removes the burning and signs of a burn and leaves the flesh soft. This oil has been tested many, many times by many gentlewomen of the Piedmont.... 98 To soften the breasts and to remove pain. Take 1 ½ lb. of cows' milk and bread crumbs and boil them together and put therein 12 threads of saffron to boil. Then put it on the breast as warm as you can stand in the form of a poultice. Do this in the morning and evening and it will reduce the swelling quickly and remove your pain. Another to remove pain in the breasts. Take the herb cinquefoil and with pork fat, dove dung, honey and wax, each at your discretion, and incorporate everything on the fire. Then in the form of a poultice, put it on the swollen and sore breasts. Keep it on warm and soon it will lift the pain. Another for pain in the breasts. Take 2 ounces of the inner bark of elder, 3 ounces of rose oil and ½ bowl of earthworms well washed with wine, and boil it a little. Then press it well under the press. Put in 1 ½ ounces of clean wax and when it is melted, put in incense and aloe, each 1 ½ ounces. Mix it well and it will be made. Rub the breasts with this several times and you will cure them. -------- [Page 172] To cure the nipples of the breasts when they may be hardened or with some cracks. Take 1 ounce each of violet oil and white wax and ½ ounce of ground incense and mix everything together and stir well and with this rub the nipples of the breasts or the cracks and soon they will be cured. Another for pain in the nipples. Take 1 handful each of dry roses and mallow and cook them. Then cut them finely and put therein rose oil, unwashed butter and barley flour, the amounts at your discretion, and mix it well and put it warm on the breast. If by bad luck a nipple was broken open, medicate first with unguento basilicone and then put on this warm poultice. Do this several times and soon you will cure. Even if they may discharge matter or may be swollen and red, you will cure them soon. Another for cracked nipples. Take brandy, rose oil and powder made from the soles of old shoes that are roasted. Put equal amounts of the oil and powder on the fire and incorporate these and with this salve, rub the nipples of the breasts and soon will you cure them. It should be warm. Another for hair of the nipples of the breast caused by having eaten some hair inadvertently. First say 3 Pater Noster and 3 Ave Maria and also have someone near say them. Where it may be appropriate to the sickness, do it this way or do this in a circle, as you prefer, with the cross in the middle and say these 4 words, ' Rex, Lex, Lux, Pax .' That is enough and soon it will be cured without anything else.... 99 Another for cracks on the breast and also good for lips and hands. Take 1 ounce each of marrow of veal, oil of sweet almonds and clean wax and put everything in a little pot and mix it well and it will be made. With this salve rub the cracks several times and shortly you will cure them. To increase the milk in the breasts and to make it come forth. Take marsh mallow, well cooked and well ground with pork lard, and flaxseed flour and well ground fenugreek, the amount of everything at your discretion, and incorporate them on the fire. Put it on the breasts and it will work well for you and the milk will be increased. Another for one who may have lost milk. Take a hoof of a cow, roast it and make very fine powder and give it to the woman who has lost her milk to drink with wine or warm broth with sugar and soon her milk will return. Another in whom the milk has been lost. Take some of the herb burdock, grind it and extract the juice and give 2 or 3 ounces to drink warm, with sugar in it, to the woman who has lost her milk and she will have it in abundance. Another for the woman who has lost milk either through fear or through other mishap. Find a plant of burdock, and, kneeling, say the Pater Noster and the Ave Maria and say, 'Holy plant, through the power that God has given you, so may you give me some milk as you wish and not as much as you can.' First make over it the sign of the cross. Then pick 3 leaves and eat them. Then uproot the plant and let it dry. At once there will be so much milk that you will not know what to do with it. It has been tested. Another to make milk come and increase in women. Take the green leaves of fennel and boil them with wine or with water. The woman should drink it at meals and before meals, as much as she can, and her milk will be plentiful. If she still suffers from retention of flow or has only ordinary flow, this is the usual medicine. Another to make enough milk. Take 1 ounce each of mouse droppings and long pepper and make very fine powder and give it to the woman to drink with broth or wine with sugar and soon there will be as much as she will want and she will not need more. Another for an illness of the nipples of the breasts. Take the yolks of 2 fresh eggs, 2 quatrini of clean wax, a little rose oil and a packet of zinc carbonate prepared with rose water. Incorporate everything on the fire in a clean little pot and when it is cool, spread it on a cloth and put it on the sore place. First wash it with white wine in which roses, plantain and leaves of the green olive have been cooked. Then dry the sore place and put the poultice on and you will heal it quickly. -------- [Page 173] So the breasts of women do not grow. Take acacia juice and wet some fine cloths in it and put them on the breasts in the evening when you go to sleep and they will become smaller in a few days. If by chance you are not able to get some of this juice, take powdered frankincense and distemper it with strong vinegar and wet cloths in this and put them on the breasts and they will not grow any more and will always stay firm. Another to make the breasts of women stay small and firm. Take seeds of poison hemlock, grind them and make fine powder and put this in strong vinegar. Wet linen cloths therein and in the evening put them on the breasts and they will stay small and firm. Likewise, take the hemlock juice made in the month of May and strong vinegar, each the same amount, mix them and in this wet the cloths and put them on. If you use this and wet them frequently, they will always be firm and white. It has been tested. Another, a water to tighten the vagina and for breasts that show up too long on the chest and wanting them to be firm and not soft. First take 1 handful each of sorb apples or its leaves or bark, pine nuts, wild plums, cornelian cherries, quinces, medlars or leaves and myrtle, half a handful of pomegranate flowers or rind of pomegranate, 3 ounces of rock alum, 4 ounces of pomegranate wine, 1 ½ handfuls of dry roses and 4 fresh eggs cooked in their shells. Put together the herbs and the pine nuts cut or bruised and do one incorporation of everything. Distill this in a glass still and save the distilled water in a glass bottle. This water has all the properties that nature can give to reduce all the external parts such as the vagina, by wetting some cloths and putting them in and out and binding them there. Also for lacerated breasts wet the cloths and put on 2 or 3 double folds. Also for wrinkles of the face, bathe in the evening and the morning. By treating heavily the wrinkles will be seen no more. Also wetting other parts of the body stiffens all the flesh. This is tested. To tighten the vagina make powder of medlar leaves, incense and rock alum, 1 ounce of each, and put everything together in a little linen cloth, somewhat thin or yielding, wrap it and make a little ball and when you go to sleep put it in the vagina. Do this 6 to 8 times and you will see a good result, very likely with no more problem and your husband will be very content. Another to draw milk quickly out of the breasts of women. Cook some mint in wine with some dill, each the same amount, and make a poultice and put it very warm on the breasts and soon the milk will come. Another. If the breasts may be swollen with too much milk, put on a poultice only with mint and it will reduce the swelling. Another to reduce any hardness and swelling of the breasts. Take 1 handful each of mallow and sweet violets and cook them in water. Then beat this with lard on a chopping board and put it warm on the abcess or soreness of the breasts or on any other place. Do this several times and soon the soreness will be reduced and go away. Another to keep milk that is not being used so it will not come out of the breasts. Take cooked, minced beans and put them as a poultice on the breasts. They do not let the milk fall out from the breasts. Another to break down a bad growth on a breast or in other places without cutting. Take flax seed and grind it well with 2 or 3 dry figs and make a poultice with honey and put it on in the morning and evening and soon the pain lifts and the place will break open by itself. It should break open or be resolved and go away and you will be free and cured of this illness. -------- [Page 174] To cure swollen testicles and a man's member that cannot be reversed and other infirmities of these. Take 2 ounces each of old pork lard, laurel oil, camomile oil and rose oil and incorporate these things on a little fire. Then take crushed beans that are well cooked and well broken up and incorporate all the above things and make a poultice. Spread it on a leaf of cabbage and put under it a linen cloth and put it warm on the testicles or penis that is swollen and soon one will see a good cure. Also good for swelling of the testicles is to put on freshly ground rue. It helps considerably. Another to reduce swelling of the testicles or penis resulting from any cause. Take equal amounts of flour of beans and rose oil with a little white wine and compound them together on the fire. Make a poultice in the usual way and spread it warm on a cloth and wrap it on so that it stays all night. Do this also in the morning and stay in repose and soon the swelling is reduced and the pain lifts and you are cured. It is tested. Another for swelling of the testicles that has not been cured. Take some branches of elder and remove the outer bark. Then take the inner bark that is green. Then take a new brick that has not touched water and make it very hot and squirt it with good wine with this bark on it. It should stay until it is very flexible. Put this warm on the testicles and do it several times. Stay in repose and soon you will be cured. Another to reduce swelling. Take 10 ounces of bean flour, 3 ounces each of chick pea flour, cumin, myrrh and coriander, all in fine powder, and as much rose oil and violet oil as suffices to make a poultice on a slow fire. Spread it on a cloth and put it on the testicles. Another, a lavage to make for a man's swollen member. Take mallow, roses and violets and boil them with water and make a poultice with lard and put it on warm. If the penis may be broken open, put thereon this powder, viz. Take hepatic aloe and high quality myrrh pulverized finely and incorporate them with mother's milk. But first rub it with oil of violets and then put on this powder. Another for the above illness, swollen and broken open. Take hepatic aloe and zinc oxide in fine powder and put it on the sore. Then put on a cloth with this unguent, viz. Take ordinary oil, clean wax, mastic, incense and goat fat, each the same amount made into powder, and make an unguent on a slow fire. Then strain it and at the end put in a little woman's milk that is very suitable for illness of the member. Medicate in the evening and the morning and soon you will cure. To help it heal, take equal amounts of white lead and yellow litharge and incorporate them with rose or violet oil and put it on and soon it will be cured. Do not change any of the above rules which are very good. Another to reduce swelling of the member. Take ½ handful each of dry roses, camomile and barley flour, and 3 ounces of rose oil and boil them in white wine and make a poultice and put it on warm and the swelling will soon be reduced. Another lavage for the penis when it is swollen or has broken open. Take the same amounts of the herb shepherd's purse, wild pomegranate and cypress nuts and boil them in white wine and wash yourself with this warm. Then put on this unguent. Take equal amounts of hepatic aloe, incense, zinc carbonate, mastic, myrrh, Armenian red clay, cypress nuts, sarcocol gum, dragon's blood gum and litharge. They should all be made into very fine powder and incorporated together. Then wet the sore place with mother's milk and put on some of this powder, thickly, and soon you will be cured. If you do not wish to make this lotion, you could make this other. Take white wine and boil in it roses and the same amount of violets and wash the penis well with this warm wine. Then take white lead and sarcocol gum and incorporate them with rose oil and rub the sore place several times and soon you will be cured. If the bad place may become ulcerated, take dried rock alum and put it on and in the opening of the ulcer. Do it several times and soon you will heal it and you will be cured. -------- [Page 175] To cure the member of a man that may be sore and ulcerated from several causes. Take equal amounts of powdered aloe and clay from Lemnos and boil them with linseed oil until it is thickened and use that. Again, take squash, pomegranate rind and cypress nuts and boil them in white wine and wash your penis in this warm wine. Then put on powdered cypress. Again, take 4 ounces of rose oil, 1 ounce each of litharge and wax, ½ ounce of white lead and ½ dram each of mastic and verdigris. Make everything into powder and make an unguent of it on a slow fire. When it is cooked it becomes a tan or red-brown color. Put in a little powdered incense. Then remove it from the fire and it will be made perfect and good. Another for the aforesaid sickness of the penis. Take turpentine washed in 9 waters, powdered tartar and red sugar, each at your discretion, and the yolk of an egg. Incorporate everything together and make it in the form of an unguent. First wash your member with warm rose water. Then rub it with this ointment several times. Likewise you could rub with this other salve. Take turpentine, incense, hepatic aloe, myrrh and clean wax and incorporate everything with rose and violet oils. Treat by medicating with this and soon the penis will be cured. Other treatments of several kinds for illness of the member. First take 1 ounce each of Armenian red clay, litharge, white lead and clay from Lemnos, nightshade water, a little vinegar and 3 drams of camphor made into powder. Put them together and make them in the form of a liquid unguent and use this to medicate yourself. Again, take the white of an egg, rose oil and 2 scruples of camphor and mix everything together and with this bathe the penis. Then as you medicate yourself, take care of yourself and soon you will be cured. Another lavage for the penis. Take 1 handful each of camomile and milk vetch, 1 lb. of honey and 4 lb. of well water. Boil everything together until it reduces in half. Wet some cloths or a sponge and put it on the sick place. Do it several times and you will be cured quickly. Another to cure the virile member that is irritated. Take 2 ounces of tartar from white wine, 1 ounce of dried rock alum and 2 drams each of dragon's blood gum, mastic, red sandalwood and incense and they should be made into very fine powder. Put this powder on the bad spot that is raw from inflammation or from other problems and soon it will be cured. For an inflamed penis, take ½ ounce each of litharge and incense, ½ dram of camphor and ½ ounce each of rose oil, rose water, violet oil and mother's milk and make an unguent of it and treat with this. Again, take sage and boil it in white wine and wash yourself with this. Then put on powder of hepatic aloe and soon you will be cured. Again, for the aforesaid illness, take 2 drams of rock alum, pomegranate rind and dry roses in the amount that you want, 2 spoonfuls of honey and 2 glasses of red wine and boil it in a little pot very slowly until it reduces 1/3 and wash yourself well with it warm. Then put on powder of tartar, cypress nuts and camphor, the amounts at your discretion, and soon it will be cured. Another unguent for the inflamed penis. Take 1 ounce each of rose oil, white lead, litharge, burnt lead and rose water and incorporate everything in a lead mortar and do not heat it on the fire and it will be made. First make this lavage. Take 1 handful each of roses, long plantain and pomegranate rind, 2 drams of goat's rue, 5 drams of white tartar, 2 drams of rock alum, 5 ounces of rose honey and 1 dram of verdigris. Then take 3 lb. each of rose water, plantain water and nightshade water and boil all the above things until it is reduced 1/3. Then wash the inflamed or ulcerated penis with this tepid lavage. Then medicate with the above unguent. Do this in the morning and the evening and it will be cured rapidly. -------- [Page 176] To cure the member in which one is not able to reverse the foreskin and has pus in the tip. Take 3 lb. of fresh white wine, 2 ounces of rose honey, ½ handful each of dried roses, camomile, mallow and myrtle, and 1 ounce of incense and boil everything together. Then squirt some of this boiled liquid, tepid, in the penis. Then wet a linen cloth in rose and violet oils and put it on the sore place in the tip. When you wish to reverse the skin, put on it this powder, viz., take ½ ounce of hepatic aloe, 3 drams of parched rock alum, 1 ounce of myrtle powder and make everything into fine powder and put it on the prepuce. By continuing this you will be cured. Another lavage for the sore penis. Take 4 glasses of malvasia or good white wine and put in 1 dram each of dried rock alum, verdigris and saccharine alum. They should be finely pulverized. Wrap them in a thin linen cloth and put this to soak in the wine for at least 3 days and do not move it at any time until the end of the 3 days. Then remove it and hold the penis in this tepid lavage to soak for at least ½ hour. Then wet some cloths and bandage the penis and stay in repose. Do this in the morning and the evening and soon you will be cured. To make a warm bath to relieve a spasm of pain, take a glass of white wine, a spoonful of honey, 2 drams of copper sulfate, ½ handful of dried roses and half a bowl of fine bran. Boil all these things in the wine and when they are thickened, put them on the sore place of the penis as warm as you can stand and soon it will lift the pain. Another for the penis that has pus in the tip. Take equal amounts of pomegranate rind and myrtle and make very fine powder. But first wash the tip with warm wine with 1 ounce of rose water in it. Then put on some of this powder and it will help to remove the pus and the bad odor. A lavage for illness of the penis with pus in any part. Take 1 ounce each of milk vetch, borage flowers, dried roses and dried violets, ½ ounce each of copper sulfate, verdigris and rock alum, 1 ½ ounces each of camomile flowers and myrtle, 6 ounces of raw honey and 3 jugs of good white wine. Boil everything together until it is reduced in half. Then strain it and save it for your needs. Bathe the penis in it several times with it tepid. Wet some cloths in it and put them on the sore place and soon you will be cured. Another powder that is put in the opening of the penis. Take 1 ounce of incense, 3 drams of parched parchment and 2 drams of hepatic aloe and make very fine powder of them. Put it with skill in the opening of the penis and you will be cured. Another preparation for the inflamed and infected penis. Take 6 ounces of rue seeds, 8 ounces of cumin, 2 ounces each of pepper and purslane. Make all of it into very fine powder and incorporate it with as much clean honey as needed on a slow fire and save it in a suitable bottle. When you go to sleep and early in the morning when you get up, take an amount the size of a chestnut and it will comfort the stomach and soon it will cure the illness of the penis. Another for illness of the penis. Take flowers of God's flower and make fine powder and put it on the sick part several times and soon you will be cured. To reduce swelling, put on a leaf of cabbage with lard and the yolk of an egg. Another to cure the penis of a man from any sickness. Take hepatic aloe, zinc oxide and burnt rock alum, each at your discretion, incorporate them and put this on the sore. Then put on Unguento bianco on a plaster. Another powder that restores flesh on the penis. Take 1 ounce each of burnt copper and incense bark, ½ ounce each of mastic and zinc oxide and make very fine powder of it, well incorporated. Then put it in the cavities of the sores of the penis. By continuing this in the morning and evening, be sure you will soon be cured. You should know that these remedies have been tested, either a little or a lot. -------- [Page 177] To cure swellings in the groin, ulcers, warts, abcesses and other incurable sores. Take 3 parts of ammonium chloride, 2 parts of hepatic aloe and fine sugar, and 1 part each of dried rock alum, verdigris and zinc carbonate and make everything into very fine powder. Incorporate it well and put some of this powder carefully in the opening of the swellings and do not touch other parts around because it will hurt you. You can use this in the vagina. Treat every morning and evening and soon this pain or smarting goes away and it is not felt any more. This powder has the property of breaking the root of the swelling so that it dies and it cures rapidly. Another for the ulcers which usually come around the anus, the vagina, in the nose and on the tips of the fingers. Put on some of the above powder in the morning and in the evening and soon the ulcers will be cured. Also this powder is effective in removing all warts wherever they are found on the body. First make the wart bleed a little. Then put on some of this powder and the wart will go away. Also the powder destroys and cures any cancerous fistula, when it is put on in the morning and evening. It is true that in the beginning it does somewhat burn but that soon goes away and you will be cured rapidly and nevermore will suffer such pain. Also ammonium chloride works by itself alone. Another to cure swelling in the groin and to remove warts on the penis. Take 2 ounces of tartar from white wine and ½ ounce of verdigris. Make fine powder and put it on the swellings or warts several times and they will go away. Another to cure ulcers. First say 3 Pater Noster and 3 Ave Maria and this prayer for 3 mornings in a row and 3 times each morning. Say this, 'Go away ulcer, go away unfortunate thing. Go back ulcer. For the love of the Holy Mary, Mother of the saints and of the Holy Trinity, you must not return again.' Each time make the sign of the cross and say, 'In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.' Another to cure ulcers. Take 1 lb. each of Roman vitriol and strong vinegar and cook them together until it is thickened. Then remove it from the fire and add 3 ounces of native sulfur, mix them together and make a powder. Put this on the canker or ulcer and it will be healed. Another for canker. Take garlic with the skin on and crush it. Then put in a quantity of ground pepper and a little pulverized soot from the oven and incorporate them well. First wash the canker with tepid wine. Then put on the poultice which is the main medicine that works on canker and you will be rid of it. Another to cure swellings on the groin or in whatever part it is wanted. Take 2 ounces of ordinary brandy for drinking, ½ ounce of ground fine sugar and as much flower of verdigris as will stand on a quatrino , and it should be in fine powder. Then put everything in a bottle and boil it in front of the fire for one miserere and it will be made. Then treat by bathing the swellings with a little cotton wool on the tip of a little stick of wood. Bathe them in the evening and the morning and wherever they are, they will disappear.... 100 Another water for swellings on the groin or inflammation that comes in the private parts. Take 1 ½ drams of powdered verdigris and 2 ounces of powdered rock alum. Then take a vessel for the fire and fill it with the water that blacksmiths use to quench tools from the forge. Put in these powders and boil it for one hour. When it is cold, strain it finely and with this wash yourself very well with a little cotton wool where it hurts. It is true that it may make you begin to hurt again but that very soon disappears and you will be cured. Another for pruritis in the penis of a man. Wash repeatedly with a decoction of wine wherein has been boiled sage, tamarind and myrtle and it will help you greatly. Also, ashes made of dried squash heal the sores of the infected penis. Also a decoction of wine wherein 1 handful each of olive leaves and dry roses have been boiled is used to wash the member carefully and repeatedly. Very soon it should be cured, wherever the pruritis is. Above all, live carefully and you will be cured. -------- [Page 178] To cure a fleshy growth on the penis of a man, even one that has been there a long time. Take the dregs of distilled honey or, not having such dregs, take a quantity of honey at your discretion and put it in a pot to roast. Then take these dark dregs and put them in another pot, well closed, and put it in a kiln for glass or pottery to calcine for 3 or 4 days and it should have a good fire. You will have a material as yellow as gold which is the best to use on every sore. It destroys the afflicted flesh and then alters and heals the good flesh and it does not hurt. Therefore it is much better to use for sores than the escharotics commonly used by the surgical doctors. Take some of this powder at your discretion and take 2 ounces of dog dung, ½ ounce of tartaric acid from white wine, 3 drams of fine sugar, and 1 dram each of dried rock alum and zinc oxide. Everything should be ground separately and made into very fine, almost impalpable, powder and incorporate everything together. Then have fronds of green olive. Grind them in a stone mortar and squirt them with white wine. When they are well ground, extract all the substance in the press and collect that and add again as much juice of plantain and put both together in a pot on the fire and put therein the powder made above, little by little, continually stirring. Finally add a little fresh wax and a little rose honey and make it like a liquid unguent and it will be made. Save it for your needs. This is very valuable for removing fleshy growths in the delicate eye where strong things that cause pain themselves are not needed. Also use it for the virile member, the vagina and the nose. When you wish to treat a fleshy growth in the penis, first wash into the virile member 2 or 3 times with the syringe filled with a lavage of white wine in which dry roses and plantain leaves have been boiled and mixed with a little mother's milk or goat's milk. To assure that it is washed well inside with this wine, the penis should be relaxed. Then have a little candle of wax of such size that it can enter the penis and on the tip of the candle make a little duct and put therein some of the unguent described above and send it in very slowly until it reaches the fleshy growth and there turn the candle so the unguent remains on the bad part to break it up without distress. Do this several times until it feels better, that is in the morning and evening, and stay quiet with the body upright. In a few days you will find yourself healed and content. Another, a cold unguent for soreness of the member. Take 3 ounces of white lead washed with rose water, 2 ounces each of zinc carbonate and hepatic aloe, 6 grains of camphor, 3 ½ ounces of oil of roses and 2 ½ ounces of mutton fat and make an unguent of all these things without heating. If you use this you will not feel any sensation of burning and it will warm you well and cure you. To cure the itching or pruritis that comes around the testicles. Sometimes between the thigh and the skin of the testicles a rash develops from a scratch with a scab in this skin that is very uncomfortable and you want to cure it. Take 2 ounces of washed turpentine, 3 ounces of crushed white lead, 1 ounce of washed butter, 1 ½ ounces each of juice of purslane and of nightshade, 2 scruples of camphor, 1 ounce of oil of roses, and ½ ounce of white wax and make a very soft unguent. In the evening when you go to sleep, rub yourself well between the legs with linen cloth that should stay on and you will see a good result. Before you rub it, you want to put cups on the buttocks. Follow the rules and soon you will be cured. You know that you should not eat warming things, nor pork meat, nor sour things, nor legumes if you want to be cured rapidly. Doing this you will be cured. It has been tested.... 101 -------- [Page 179] To cure the penis of a man and soon by observing the rules given with these remedies. Take 1 handful each of mallow, dried roses and myrtle and cook them in wine and put it on the penis in the form of a warm poultice and you will cure this rapidly. To treat and cure the penis if it is broken open, take hepatic aloe and pulverized myrrh and put this on but first rub with rose and violet oils. If there are warts or swellings in the groin, take some cabbage juice or some cabbage water. Washing with that helps greatly. If the penis is cankered, ulcerated or fistulous, take 1 dram each of pepper and aloe and ½ dram of ammonium chloride made into very fine powder and incorporate these and put this on and it will soon remove this illness. If the penis is inflamed, rub with laurel and violet oils. Although it may make you smart a little, do not stop rubbing for that reason because the ointment is very perfect. First purge the sick person each week completely with pills of agaric because it breaks up the humors so they cannot run in the penis. Sometimes the penis of man becomes swollen, ulcerous, abcessed, festered and fistulous from various causes such as those that come from one's own daily actions that cause damage because the young man does not consider what may arise from his daily pleasure. Note that the man who has sickness in this member must want to be cured completely, quickly and well. Know that it is expedient for him to live his life more or less as if he had a continuous fever, because the member is very excitable. It senses immediately what you have eaten and that affects its action. If you eat things harmful, it feels that at once and you will be aware of it because you will feel the pain. Therefore you need to eat all things cooling and do not drink wine, nor eat fruit, nor sour things, nor legumes, nor wheat, nor pork meat, nor make use of women because all these things are very harmful. Eat broth with eggs, bread soup with almond milk or melon seeds, fresh eggs, young chickens and other delicate meat and barley water or boiled water with nothing added until it begins to cure. If you do otherwise, you will have trouble. Another for smarting of the penis and for one who urinates blood. Take 1 ounce each of mallow, leaves of olive and of willow, violets, celandine, dried roses, sage, scabiosa, plantain, bugloss, barley and pomegranate rind, 2 scruples each of saffron and hepatic aloe, 4 ounces of honey and enough white vinegar and boil these things until it is reduced 1/3. Then press all the herbs well under the press and extract all the substance and put everything together and make a least a jug of this boiled liquid. Put one part warm in a little bowl and soak in it the relaxed penis of one who has a sore place and of one who urinates blood and it will soon stop. When you go to sleep, wet some cloths in the liquid and wrap the penis. Do this several times and soon you will be cured of smarting of the penis and urinating blood. But do not eat harmful things, but eat all cooling things. Do not eat salted vegetables nor salted meat and do not drink wine and you will be freed. You should know that sickness comes to a man's member sometimes through the misery of any rash around the prepuce that is scratched and that becomes a nodule developing infection. If the man does not clean himself well, in that case boils and irritation arise and the man rubs them and the humor moves in and makes the illness arise. This also develops in the vagina of the woman more easily than in the man because she cannot clean herself as the man can. Therefore she should be prudent in everything regarding similar matters. Be advised to use the above boiled liquid in the way said above and you will always stay clean and will live without fear and be content. Tested aid for one who defiles himself in sleep. Take betony and burdock and make juice of them and drink it and you will not suffer from polluted sleep. If you wish to test this, give a rooster a taste of the juice and he will not tread on hens for 8 days. Against nocturnal ejaculations. Write on the right arm these words. 'My death has saved the people whom Eve has bound,' and make a cross on the chest. This is tested. Do not eat warming things and you will not stumble. -------- [Page 180] To cure hemorrhoids and piles from within and without. Take 1 handful each of the herb greater sedum, agrimony and leaves of the balsam apple and boil them in ½ lb. of oil of roses with 3 ounces of plantain water on a slow fire until it reduces 1/3. Then strain it and squeeze the herbs under the press and extract the substance as much as you can and put that with the oil and it will be made, a precious oil to cure hemorrhoids at your need. When the hemorrhoids give you trouble, take a little in an egg shell and make it very warm and with a chicken feather rub them very well inside and out 2 or even 3 times a day and you will be cured. If you wish to be cured rapidly, before you oil yourself, take a laxative the day before and it should be the ordinary kind to drink and it should be cooling. You should take this kind of laxative for all problems of hemorrhoids and also in piles. Take care of your life and do not eat things that are warming, nor sour things, nor salted meat, but all things cooling. Then after your ointments, I say that, with the aid of God, soon you will be cured. They will not give you more trouble and by following the prescriptions and the rules above, you will soon be cured. Another to cure hemorrhoids. Take 4 ounces of oil of roses, 20 sow bugs, 3 cockroaches and ½ bowl of earthworms washed with white wine. Put everything in a little pot and boil it on the warm ashes very slowly until it seems ready to you. Put the little animals in cold oil because otherwise they will burn. Then it will be made. Rub the hemorrhoids with this oil inside and out with a feather. The oil should be warm. Soon you will be cured. If you wish the cure to be quick, do not drink wine nor eat things that are preserved in salt and you will be cured. Another to remove hemorrhoids. Take the dung of a female cat if the patient is feminine and from a male cat if the patient is male and put it in an oil lamp with ordinary oil and boil it a little on the fire. Then with the warm oil, rub the piles. Do it several times and you will cure them quickly. Another to cure piles. Take a turtle and put it in a pot that is tightly closed and put it in the oven to dry until you can make fine powder. Then wash the hemorrhoids with warm wine and put on them this powder several times and you will cure them. Another to cure hemorrhoids. Take 2 ounces each of clean roots of marsh mallow cut finely, camomile, mallow and cypress nuts and 3 ounces each of flax seeds and fenugreek and cook these well in water from the blacksmith until it reduces in half. Then wash yourself 2 or 3 times a day and you will be cured. Take some roots of figwort, which is similar to dead nettle, grind it and make a pancake and eat it for 4 or 5 mornings and you will be cured quickly.... 102 Another to cure hemorrhoids very quickly. Take some of the green branches of elder and boil them in water from the blacksmith and when they are about cooked, spread them on a smooth cloth of rose-red as large as a hand and with the sick person lying down on his back, put this warm on the hemorrhoids and say a miserere and put on another of the poultices and put on a little rose or violet oil. Do this change every half hour for the period of 3 or 4 hours. I tell you that very soon they will be cured. Maintain it on always very warm. Do this in the evening when the patient goes to sleep and as soon as he goes to sleep the pain will cease. He will find himself already healed and will not feel pain, if he will not do anything disorderly, that is eating anything harmful. You will cure him quickly by doing this. *Another to cure rapidly the piles that come to women after giving birth. Take 6 scruples of camphor ground very finely and one or 2 quatrini of Unguento bianco and incorporate them together and rub in the morning and evening and soon you will cure. Antonio. (One remedy not readable here.) -------- [Page 181] Unguent which heals hemorrhoids quickly. Take 2 drams of zinc oxide, ½ dram of saffron, 1 ounce of rose honey and 2 ounces of rose water. Make all these things into an unguent carefully with a slow fire and save it for your needs. When you wish to treat with it, warm it and rub gently with cotton wool on the outside. If they are inside, make a little tent and put it on. You will soon be cured if you will watch what you eat, do not drink wine or eat things salty and especially things brined, and take a cooling purging enema or a cooling laxative and you will be cured rapidly. Another to heal hemorrhoids in several ways. Take a quantity of kernels of peach stones and clean them so that they are white and grind them very finely. Then compound them with old, washed butter. Heat this and rub with it several times and you will be cured. Further, take roots of celandine, washed with white wine, and make fine powder of them. Wash the hemorrhoids with warm white wine and put on some of this powder and you will be cured quickly. It is said that the herb knotgrass, ground between 2 stones and put on the back, holds back the hemorrhoids so they do not come out and do not hurt. Again, take mature nettles and make powder of them. Take a spoonful with wine or warm broth in the form of a syrup for 9 mornings and you will be cured quickly. Another, a fomentation for hemorrhoids. Take some nettles and the core from the center of a cabbage and cook these well in the water from the blacksmith. Take that fomentation by itself in the rear end and the hemorrhoids disappear. Another to cure hemorrhoids. Take clean roots of the herb pilewort in which the roots seem precisely like the top of a row of piles stuck together. Cook these very well in rose oil. Then distemper them with this rose oil and a little butter and make this in the form of an unguent. Rub yourself with this warm, several times and soon you will be cured. Another to cure hemorrhoids well and quickly. Take old butter, 2 cockroaches and enough rose oil and boil it very slowly until nearly one-half remains. Rub with this very warm and soon it will lift your pain and you will be cured. It is said that one should take 3 lb. of verjuice and 1 lb. of copper sulfate and boil this until it reduces 1/3 and wash repeatedly with this as a warm bath and soon the hemorrhoids shrink and are cured. Another to reduce the bleeding from hemorrhoids. Take oil of mastic and boil it a little and anoint with this and put on powdered oak galls. Another to cure hemorrhoids. Take 1 lb. of rose oil and put it in a little pot on the fire and put therein absinthe, horehound and southernwood, each the same amount, and boil this a little. Then at warm temperature, put these herbs on the hemorrhoids in the form of a plaster. Do this 3 or 4 times a day and put on a warm stupe. Do it several times and you will cure them rapidly. Also take some marrow from the shin bone of veal, an equal amount of butter and some mallow and incorporate these together with powdered incense. Rub the hemorrhoids with this and soon you will lift the pain and you will be cured. Also take some purslane and grind it between 2 stones and put it on the hemorrhoids that exude blood. It stops this soon, removes the pain and cures them. Another to cure hemorrhoids in several ways. Take raw honey and the same amount of liquid varnish and incorporate these on a slow fire and when it is tepid, rub the hemorrhoids inside and out with a feather and soon your distress will cease and you will be cured. Take care of yourself and do not eat warming things but all things cooling and you will be cured. *Another to cure hemorrhoids quickly, remove the pain and break the blisters and then heal them. Take 2 ounces each of fresh white lead and yellow litharge and mix them with rose and violet oils. Grind this finely and make it very warm and rub the hemorrhoids several times and you will be cured. -------- [Page 182] Ways to cure hemorrhoids and piles completely. Take enough old lard from a male pig and cut it in thin slices and string it on the skewer with some leaves of climbing ivy, alternating a slice of lard and a leaf of ivy. Then put it on the fire and turn it very slowly and give just a little fire and when it seems to you cooked, remove it from the fire and put the tip of the spit in a little pot or plate and heat it with the fire from below and keep all the flame away from it and all the fat will strain onto the plate and collect it with care. Take 2 ounces of this fat and 1 ounce of marsh mallow and incorporate them together. Then take a head of garlic and roast it and make fine powder. With this grease rub the hemorrhoids well, outside and inside. Then put on some of the garlic powder. Do this several times and you will cure them quickly. Another to cure these hemorrhoids and lift the pain quickly. Take 4 ounces of the above-described lard, strained, 1 ounces of powdered male incense, 7 ounces each of violet and rose oils, 1 ounce of clean wax and half a handful each of sage, plantain and dried roses. Boil the herbs with the oil and the fat with 2 ounces of butter until it reduces a good third. Then remove it from the fire and strain it and press the herbs well in the press and extract all the substance and incorporate it with the oil. With this warm, put in the powdered incense and the wax cut finely and stir until it is cold so that it is well incorporated and it will be made, a most perfect and worthy ointment which will serve all your needs. When you wish to use it, make some of it warm and with a feather rub the hemorrhoids in and out and soon you will see a very excellent cure. Soon you will be cured. Also take rose oil with the white of a fresh egg incorporated well, and this will do the same. To cure piles, that is large hemorrhoids. Take a good group of snails, that is snails that are large and good, and put them in a pot and put it in the oven and dry them thus completely until you can make very fine powder of them, both the shells and the flesh. Then take 2 ounces each of water of roses, of myrtle, of plantain, of nightshade, of purslane and of house leek and 2 ½ ounces of old, washed butter. Make ashes of one head of garlic and put in 1 ounce of this and ½ ounce of powdered incense and a little ground salt and incorporate these with 6 ounces of the above powder. Then wet some linen cloths and put them on the piles 3 or 4 times a day and by continuing this, soon you will be cured. But you will not be cured so rapidly if first you do not purge yourself and cool yourself well with distilled waters or syrups with muccaro rosato , although senna is better. Be careful of the way you live for 3 or 4 days. Do not drink wine but drink barley water. Do not eat salted vegetables, nor wheat, nor salted meat and all those things that are harmful. Take care of yourself and you will soon be well. You should know that the sickness of piles is called the greater hemorrhoids because they are harder to cure and are not the ordinary hemorrhoids. These piles are of minute appearance and grow around the rear area and around the vagina and always stand out and become a color between red and black. They give very great distress and pain and through the bad blood that nourishes them, they itch. When they are touched by rubbing them they cause you pain. Therefore do not deviate from the rules given above so, with the aid of God, you will soon be cured. (One remedy not readable.) -------- [Page 183] Poultice to cure and dry up hemorrhoids. Take 1 dram each of flour of oak galls, cypress berries, mastic, Armenian red clay and myrtle leaves and make them into very fine powder. Then boil this in very strong vinegar until it is thickened in the form of a poultice and, as warm as one can stand, put it on the hemorrhoids, binding it well so that it does not fall off. Do it several times warm like this and in a few days they will be dried up and you will not feel them any more and you will be cured. Another to remove the pain of hemorrhoids. Take 4 drams of oil of roses, 1 dram each of native white lead and henbane, 2 drams each of clean wax and celery seed, 1 ½ drams of opium, 3 drams of white poppy and ½ dram of mandrake bark. Make everything into very fine powder and incorporate them together on a slow fire with the oil, the wax and a very little vinegar and with 2 drams of yellow litharge. Compound this following the rules and treat with it and you will cure the pain. Another to remove the pain of hemorrhoids. Take flax seeds and boil them with mallow that has been well washed. When it boils and makes viscous foam, then pour in a little oil of white lilies. When the herb is about cooked, take all this material and put it on a linen cloth and, as warm as can be borne, put it on the hemorrhoids and bind it so it does not fall off. Do this several times and it will remove the pain. Also, take the juice of henbane and an equal amount of oil of sweet almonds and have the well-beaten yolk of an egg and put this mixture warm on a linen cloth and put it on the hemorrhoids. Let it stay on and it will remove the pain quickly. Do this several times and you will cure them. To make hemorrhoids, either inside or out, break up and let out blood. Take 2 clean onions and 4 heads of garlic and cook them and incorporate them together with lupin flour, a little vinegar and 1 scruple of saffron. Put it warm on the hemorrhoids and soon it will open them and it will bring out blood. In this way nature will cleanse herself and they will not give you any more distress. Another to break up hemorrhoids both within and without. Take equal amounts of honey and liquid varnish, 2 drams of fresh butter and ½ dram of fine theriac and boil the honey, varnish and butter on a slow fire until it is thickened. Then remove it from the fire and put therein the theriac and 2 scruples of saffron and incorporate these well and it will be made. Save it for your needs. When you wish to treat with it, warm it and rub the hemorrhoids well with a feather inside and out and soon they will be broken and let out blood. Nature is cleaned in that way and you will not feel any more distress from the hemorrhoids and, through the grace of God, you will be cured if you observe the prescriptions and the rules already given above, especially to purge and cool yourself inside with distilled waters and rose honey or syrups and then a pure laxative to drink to cool you. Take care also that your living be regular in everything. Do not eat warming things which rapidly stimulate hemorrhoids, but use all things cooling which retard the hemorrhoids. If you wish to learn better how to take care of yourself, test this and you will learn at your expense as some have done. If you will follow what has been said above, you will always stay healthy of such infirmity. It has been completely tested. *To cure the illness of ulcer or carbuncle. Say, “When Christ was born, the plant and water asked Christ for a gift. 'I ask that you give me grace so I can cure the illness of ulcer or carbuncle.' Christ said, 'You have said it.' + In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. + + +.” And you want to say these words 5 times for 5 mornings over the ulcer with a Pater Noster and it will be cured. *To cure the ulcer. Say 3 Pater Noster and say this 3 times a morning for 3 mornings, viz., 'Go away sickness of ulcer, go away unfortunate thing. Turn back sickness of ulcer, for the love of the Holy Mary, mother of all the saints and of the Holy Trinity. So you must not go on any more.' + + + . Take agrimony and lard and put it warm on the ulcer with 3 Pater Noster and say the prayer above and soon you will be cured. *Another for hemorrhoids. Take 9 fresh crayfish from the river, grind them and put them in a pot with 1 lb. of rose oil, 2 scruples of incense and ½ ounce of clean wax. Boil this until it is reduced one third. Then strain it and press it well and save it. Use it warm and rub inside and out and soon you will be cured. It has been tested. *Another to cure the illness of an ulcer. Say a Pater Noster over the sick place and say, '+ The ulcer has grown but was not planted. God lives. Die ulcer. + Father, Son and Holy Spirit.' -------- [Page 184] A wonderfully drying ointment for erysipelas. Take 2 ounces of rose oil, 1 ounce of rose water, ½ ounce of rose vinegar and 3 ounces of mother's milk. Put everything together and wet some fine linen cloths and put them on the erysipelas and soon this will lift the pain.... 103 Also, you can do this other. Take 2 bowls of barley and boil it in a scant 3 flasks of water from a river and put therein 1 ounce of rock alum and 1 handful of dry red roses and reduce it in half. Then strain this water. First rub the erysipelas with rose oil and wet some cloths in this water and put them on the sick place 2 or 3 times a day and soon you will cure the erysipelas. Take care of the way you live. Another to remove erysipelas rapidly wherever it is. Take the center of a loaf of white bread and cook it in water. When it is cooked, remove it to a little plate and mix it wht rose oil and the yolk of a fresh egg. Do this 3 times a day and before you put it on the inflammation, spit 3 times in your hand and say a Pater Noster with the Ave Maria to the patient and take a little stick of wood or of broom and write with the spit 3 times around the erysipelas, 'Jesus of Nazareth, King of Judea,' with the sign of the cross. Then put on the bread crumb mixture, very warm, and let it stay on for 24 hours. Do this for 3 days and it will be clean and cured. It has been shown by me that as soon as the mixture was on the sick place, it removed my pain, but I did not drink wine and ate very lightly and I was cured. Another, a perfect remedy for choler. Take equal amounts of rose and violet oils and ordinary oil and elder bark of the white kind. Boil everything together on a slow fire. Add ½ ounce of clean wax and 1 ounce of powdered white lead and incorporate everything together until it forms and unguent and it will be made. Add 2 scruples of camphor and rub with this in the evening and morning and soon you will be cured. Take care of yourself, do not eat warming things and do not drink wine for 3 days and you will be cured.... 104 Another, a wonderful ointment for salt phlegm. Take 1 dram each of male incense, white lead, sulfur and hepatic aloe and 2 drams each of rose oil and white vinegar. Put the oil and the vinegar on a slow fire and as it begins to boil, put in the above things, all made into fine powder and ½ dram of clean wax, and when it has acquired enough body, remove it from the fire and stir until it is cold and it will be made, a marvelous ointment. Use it to rub the sore places of the phlegm in the evening and morning and soon you will be cured of it.... 105 And say over them this prayer, after a Pater Noster, 'God was born, God was taken, bound, betrayed, afflicted and crucified and died for our miserable sins. God was resurrected on the third day, according to the scripture, and as this is true so this illness cannot decay, nor putrefy, nor cause any pain if it is the pleasure of God and of the Virgin Mary.' Make the sign of the cross over them and soon you will be cured. Another, an oil for every developing growth. Take a squash that has been in oil, roast it and collect the oil that is distilled through the heat of the fire. Then put some bitter herbs of any kind in this oil and a little bunch of squill bulbs and a few earthworms washed in white wine and a little mastic. Boil everything on a bain marie. Then strain it and press the herbs in the press so that it gives up all the substance into the oil. Hold this oil dear because as it ages, it gains greater power. When you want to rub the developing growth, make it very warm and rub several times and the growth will decrease and truly not progress. You will soon be cured of this illness. Another to cure the sickness of erysipelas. Say over the sickness the Pater Noster and the Ave Maria and this prayer, viz. + 'In the name of the good Jesus may this sickness not grow more. In the name of Saint Angeletta this sickness is ended. In the name of Saint Anastasia and the glorious Virgin Mary this sickness must go away. Amen.' *Another good remedy for the salt phlegm. Take 1 ounce each of strained butter and turpentine, the yolk of one fresh egg, juice and pulp of one orange, 10 grains of saffron and make an unguent. Rub the sick person with this in the evening when he goes to sleep, using the unguent warm. -------- [Page 185] White lead unguent effective in skin irritation caused by choler adust and salt phlegm and for dry scabies, burns from fire, for erysipelas and for serious burns. Take 6 drams each of white lead and litharge, 3 drams each of burnt lead and slag from silver and 2 ½ drams each of mastic and frankincense. Then take 1 ½ ounces of rose oil and 1 ounce of rose vinegar and make the solid things into very fine powder and incorporate everything in the mortar, grinding well so they are well mixed. This unguent should be neither too hard nor too soft but sufficiently soft for all the above infirmities. If you wish it for scabies, add in 5 drams of sublimate of mercury made into powder and this removes scabies rapidly. If you will put in 2 ounces of verdigris it will work better for all these infirmities.... 106 For an itch or other irritation of the leg. Take 6 lb. of good white wine and put it in a pot and put therein 1 handful each of dry roses, pomegranate rind and fine bran, half a loaf of bread crumbs and 5 ounces of old butter and boil this very slowly until it becomes in the form of a poultice. Then place it carefully on a cloth. But first rub the itch or other irritation that you may have with warm rose oil. Then put on this poultice, very warm. Do this several times and soon you will be cured. Another for a sore developing on the leg or a swollen sore. Take 2 handfuls of the herb nervarola , that is goat's rue, and a bucket of fish bones from the head and boil with the herb until it is reduced 1/3. Then with this boiled liquid, warm, wash the leg and keep the leg in the warm bath not less than an hour and the longer you hold it soaking the sooner it will be cured. Do this bathing at least 2 or 3 times a day and with longer times it will be cured sooner. Dry the leg with a fine cloth and do not handle it roughly and put on some of this herb cooked in the form of a warm plaster at least 2 times a day. When you wish to medicate with this digestive, this is the unguent: take 3 ounces of raw honey, 2 ounces of turpentine, the yolks of 2 eggs and enough rose oil to make an unguent. Then spread it on cloths or on threads and put it on the sore place. If by chance the tissue is growing, take some powdered sage and burnt rock alum and incorporate them and put this on the sore and it will break away the fleshy growth because this powder is the most appropriate to remove excess flesh. Also you should continue to medicate with this digestive until the sore has recovered well and is clean. Then put on your excellent poultice or a poultice of diapalma which draws tissues together and heals them and soon you will be cured. But do not eat things that are harmful, such as sour things, wheat or pork meat. Drink little wine and eat things that cool the liver. You should know that the herb goat's rue in a case like this will bring you great honor. It has been tested. Another to cure the leg of any infirmity, even if it is old. Take 2 scruples of saltpeter and a flask of water from turbid rivers or streams and boil until it reduces 1/3. Remove it from the fire and let it clear. Then strain it and save it in a clean vessel. First wash the leg with red wine wherein sage was boiled. Dry it lightly. Then wet 2 or 3 linen cloths in the liquid and put them on the sore place, one on the other. Put thereon a poultice of powdered lead that is bigger than the sore place and bind it on. Do this 2 times a day and soon you will be cured. If the sickness is serious, you want to regulate your life well. Know that, with the aid of God, soon you will be cured. This has been tested. *This white unguent of white lead is powerful for blows and swelling of the eyes and for a bruise. Take equal amounts of white lead and turpentine and 1 part of mercury to 3 parts of pork drippings and incorporate everything in a pottery vessel with a spatula and without fire and it will be made. Then rub it on and put on nothing else and soon you will be cured. This has been tested.... 107 -------- [Page 186] Very precious unguent for the legs. Take 3 drams each of yellow litharge and white lead, 1 dram each of Armenian red clay and clay from Lemnos, 2 drams each of white wax, nightshade juice and strong white vinegar, 1 ½ drams of camphor and 1 ounce of fresh rose oil. All these things should be made into very fine powder. Incorporate them together with the oil, vinegar, wax, white lead, Armenian clay, litharge, clay from Lemnos and the juice. Let it cook until it is perfected, stirring constantly. Then remove it from the fire and put in the camphor and stir until it is cold and it will be made, a perfect unguent to cure any illness of the leg. You will cure with it rapidly. To cure the legs where there are sores. Take 6 ounces of twice-distilled brandy and 1 ounce of finely cut camphor and put them in an ampule, well stoppered, and melt the camphor in the sun or on the fire, keeping it well stoppered with cotton wool and parchment. When the camphor is melted, wet a little linen cloth in this water and bathe around the sore very gently and clean it inside well. Then wet another little cloth in this water and press it out and put it on the sore. Put on a poultice of powdered lead, large enough so the sore is covered. When you medicate, clean the sore well inside and out and you will soon cure it. Another to cure the legs. Take 2 ounces of oil of egg yolk, 2 drams of active sulfur and 1 ounce of pork lard and incorporate everything together in the form of an unguent and put it on the sores and you will cure them. If the sores are old, take 1 ounce each of hops, betony, scabiosa, cinquefoil, greater and lesser comfrey and old wine or strong vinegar and grind everything together and put it on warm in the form of a poultice. By doing this several times you will cure the leg. Put on this unguent: take 4 ounces of clean wax, ½ ounce of turpentine, 3 drams of incense, 2 drams of white lead and 2 ounces each of oil of roses and of violets and ordinary oil. Incorporate these with a slow fire and you will have made the unguent. Treat with this and you will cure. If the sore or wound may or may not be fatal, say and have the patient say 5 Pater Noster with the Ave Maria. Take some fine linen cloth and make it in the sign of a cross on the sick place and say these holy words, 'In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. Christ was born the night of the virgin birth. Christ was lost. Christ was found. Jesus Christ died and was resurrected. Lord Jesus Christ, heal this sore so that it cannot putrefy nor increase. As were the wounds that were made in his precious leg and in that precious side, so may mine be delivered from any fever.' In praise and reverence, make the sign of the cross. 'In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.' Do this twice a day until it is cured. Another for a developing sore breaking open with pain. Take 1 handful each of mallow, sweet violets, leaves of elder, rue and plantain. Make juice of these herbs and put it in a pot and cook it on the fire and strain it carefully. Then put in 1 ounce of new rose oil, 4 drams each of mallow, turpentine and white tar, 1 dram of saffron and as much wheat flour as needed with a little melted lard to make a poultice. Put this warm on the developing sore on the leg or on the body wherever it is. Change it frequently and very soon your pain will be relieved and you will stay free of it and healthy. Another for sickness in the leg. Take a flask of sweet white wine, half a flask of lye and a bowl of husked and clean barley and put these in a pot and boil until it is reduced 2/3. Then strain it and mash the barley and mix it together. Put therein 2 ounces of ground rock alum and 2 drams of camphor mixed with almond oil. That is, take 3 or 4 almonds, blanch them and grind them between 2 stones and press them. Extract as much oil as you will require to mix it because if you were to use more oil, the camphor would go up in fumes and be lost. When you want to treat, warm it and wet cloths and put them on the sore place. Do this several times and soon the legs will be cured. -------- [Page 187] Unguent for every malady of the body. Take 2 ounces each of oil of violets and of sweet almonds, butter, chicken fat, fat from badger and goose and ox marrow and white wax, 1 ounce each of laurel oil, theriac and mutton fat, 1 ½ ounces each of oil of lavender, of dill, of camomile and of mastic, and 2 drams each of nutmeg, cloves, fine cinnamon and cubebs. Note that all the fats should be cut, melted and strained and then incorporated with the oils. Make all the other things into very fine powder. First put the oils and the fats on a slow fire, then the butter, theriac and the spices and last the wax and incorporate everything on a little fire for a half hour. Then remove it from the fire and continue to stir until it is cold, and it will be made. Hold it as something dear because the unguent is good for many illnesses, especially for nerves retracted by cold and for blows and bruises and stabs and other ailments of the body. When it is rubbed on it should be warm and soon you will have a cure. Another very worthy unguent for the legs. Take 1 ounce each of white lead and litharge, ½ ounce of white coral, 2 drams each of zinc oxide and camphor and 1 ½ ounces each of white wax, rose oil, strong white vinegar and plantain juice. Put the oil, vinegar and juice in a pot on the fire and boil it on a slow fire until the juice is consumed. Then put in the wax and as it melts, remove it from the fire and put therein, little by little, all the other things that were made into fine powder and incorporate them. Then stir continually until it is cold and it will be made. Save it for your needs and it will bring you honor. Another unguent for the legs. Take ½ ounce of chicken fat, 1 ounce each of butter, goat dung and oil of camomile, 3 ½ drams each of oil of St. John's wort and ground cinnabar, and some spider web. Incorporate everything on a slow fire and let it boil a little and it will be made. Strain it and save it and treat with it. Unguent for legs with hot humors. Take 4 ounces of washed turpentine, 2 ounces of thick pine tar, 3 ounces each of mallow and butter, 5 ounces of burnt lead, 2 ½ ounces of zinc oxide, 1 ½ ounces of white incense, 5 ½ ounces of white wax and 8 ounces each of rose oil and strong rose vinegar. Take the oil and the vinegar and put them in your pot and put in half a handful each of rue, celandine, elder and goat's rue and boil until it reduces 1/3. Then strain it and press the herbs well, extracting the substance. Put them back in the pot and put therein all the other things, little by little, stirring constantly. Remove it from the fire and incorporate things well, stirring until it is cold and it will be made. Use it at your pleasure. Another unguent for the legs. Take 8 ounces of fat of male goat, 3 drams of turpentine, 4 drams of rose honey, 2 ½ drams of clean wax, 1 dram each of sarcocol gum and incense and 2 ounces of rose oil. Compound everything on a slow fire, as you have made the above unguents. When you have medicated the leg, put on a linen cloth wet with warm red wine. Do this several times and you will have a rapid cure. Another, a noble unguent for many infirmities. Take 2 lb. of powdered human blood, 4 lb. of hepatic aloe, 6 ounces of sarcocol gum, 4 ounces each of juniper resin, gum ammoniac, galbanum, lard, pitch, mastic, bdellium, glue, tartar, incense, turpentine, Armenian red clay, dragon's blood gum, ordinary oil and clean wax. First clean the gums and make powder of those things that can be made into fine powder. Make the unguent on the fire in the usual way, incorporating well all the above things. When you remove it from the fire, stir until it is cold and it will be made. Use it at your pleasure. It will bring you honor when you use it because great effectiveness is in it and it will work well for you. -------- [Page 188] [One remedy is not readable]. Tested remedy for swelling of the legs. Take 3 ounces each of juice of sage, of nettle, of absinthe and of betony, and rose oil, 2 ounces each of flour of spelt, naval pitch and new wax, 1 ounce each of fat from an ass and Armenian red clay and compound all these things with a little fire and stir continuously so they are well incorporated. It should not be too hard, and it will be made. Then use it to rub the legs in the evening when you go to sleep. Do not get overtired and you will be cured. Be careful of what you eat. Do not eat salted food, nor sour things, nor pork meat. Eat all things good for you and soon you will be cured. This has been tested. Another for a malady from fracture of the leg or in other places. Take a leaf of dock and put it on the sore place and bind it on so that it will stay there, because this herb has the effect that it always draws out matter and cleanses the sore. After several days, if the sore is clean, now it needs to join. Take a quantity of these leaves and grind them and extract the juice and put it in a basin and let it rest a while and it will develop on top a kind of colored water. Throw this away and save the dregs and dry them and make fine powder of them. Put this on the sores that are clean. It also helps many other sores greatly. Put on a little each time and soon they will be cured. If you will put on the sores of the legs some of the herb hound's tongue or some of the erba ciciliana, that is a kind of honeysuckle, and continue to treat 2 times a day, soon the wound of the leg will be joined. Drink wine very temperately and you will be cured quickly.... 108 Another unguent to join sores on the legs. Take 6 ounces of ground white lead, 1 lb. of rose oil, 4 ounces of litharge, 5 ounces of white wax and 3 ½ ounces of powdered hepatic aloe. When the oil begins to boil, then put in the white lead, the litharge and the wax and, when it is cooked, remove it from the fire and put therein the aloe. Continue to stir until it is cold so that everything is well incorporated and it will be made. Another unguent for any sore on the legs. Take 1 ounce each of oil of wormwood and of laurel, pine tar, incense and elemi gum and ½ ounce of white wax. Put the oil, the tar and the wax to boil and when they are well incorporated, strain it and put it again to boil for ½ hour. Then put therein the powdered elemi gum and let it boil very slowly. Then put in the incense and at once remove it from the fire and with a stick or rod stir until it becomes cold and it will be made. (One remedy here is not readable.) Another, a perfect and good unguent for maladies of the leg. Take 1 ounce each of rose oil, fir tree oil and yellow litharge, ½ ounce of powdered white lead and 2 drams each of mastic and incense. Then take 4 ounces of butter and wash it in 9 waters and also wash the fir oil and make the other things into fine powder. With a little fire, make an unguent with ½ ounce of new wax and it will be made, a most perfect unguent. Save it. The first thing, wash the sore with tepid red wine and when it is dry, use your unguent to cool and close the sore. Many doctors use this unguent. Another universal unguent for the legs. Take l lb. of rose oil, 6 ounces of strong white vinegar, 2 ounces of new wax and 3 drams each of white lead and white litharge. Make the oil and the vinegar boil very slowly until the vinegar is reduced. Put in the wax and as it melts, remove it from the fire and add the white lead and litharge. Then return it to a very slow fire and stir continuously with your spatula until it is sufficiently cold and it will be made. Then store it. *Another to cure a leg judged impossible to cure. Take 3 ounces of the leaves of dwarf elder and make juice, 1 ounce of strong white vinegar and wheat flour and incorporate in the form of a sauce. First wash the sore with wine boiled with oily herbs and wet some cloths in this composition and treat the sore leg 2 times a day and soon you will cure it. This is tested. -------- [Page 189] Very perfect lavage for maladies of the leg. Take 4 flasks of good white wine and put therein one bowl of clean barley and boil this for ½ hour. Then put in 1 handful each of pomegranate rind and dry roses, 2 scruples each of chopped white lead and powdered zinc carbonate and let it boil again for ½ hour. Remove it from the fire and put in 1 scruple of red sugar, 4 scruples of cut up camphor, 2 ounces of powdered rock alum, and 1 ounce of yellow litharge. Stir continuously until it is cold. Then strain it, pressing the dregs well and the lavage will be made. Save it in 2 glass flasks. When you want to treat with it, warm it and wet therein a linen cloth and wash the sore on the leg and dry it well. Then put on the brutto bon plaster, that is diaquilon , with a pad of dry threads on the sore. Medicate in this way 2 times a day and in a few days you will be cured, if you will watch what you eat. Especially do not touch pork meat because it is bad for illnesses of the leg. Use very little wine, well-watered, and do not eat salted things and few sour things and in a short time you will be cured. Make this beverage to cure the legs. Take 2 flasks of water and 1 handful of goat's dung and boil this until it reduces 1/3 or a little more. Remove it from the fire and let it cool. Then strain it finely. Take 4 ounces of the decoction and put in 1 ounce of theriac and incorporate it. Make it hot and give it to the patient with the bad leg early in the morning and let him repose one hour. You know this beverage is very good for the liver from which comes all maladies of the legs. Use some of this beverage every morning and soon you will be cured. Drink watered wine and be regulated in all other things and you will be cured. For the leg that is swollen. Take white dove dung and boil it with strong vinegar and put this warm on the swollen leg. Do this 2 or 3 times and soon you will cure it. Another water that may cure sores on the legs. Take water from a pure fountain and say over it these words. Also it may cure a wound. Wet some cloths in it and put them on the sore in the form of a cross. Then say the Pater Noster and the Ave Maria. 'In the name of the Father, + Son and + Holy Spirit + , Amen. The day of our Lord when he was born, the day of our Lord when he died, the day of our Lord when he was resurrected, the day of our Lord when he went to God, purge, take or remove this sore, heal and stop the bleeding so it will not develop pus, nor infection, nor any other bad illness. God grant that it be so and his mother, the Virgin Mary +. Father, Son and Holy Spirit +. Amen.' Say this 3 times, one after the other, and you will cure the sores. Lavage for the legs. Take a flask of good white wine and put therein all these things made into fine powder, viz., ½ ounce each of myrtle leaves, wild pomegranate flowers, leaves of long plantain, red roses, cleaned barley, tips of bramble, olive leaves and rock alum. Boil all with the wine until it reduces 1/3. Wash the bad place of the leg with this warm and let it dry in place and treat with the unguent written below. Another unguent for malady of the leg. Take 2 drams each of oil of rose and myrtle, 4 drams each of litharge and burnt lead, 5 drams of powdered agrimony, 1 dram each of incense and white wax and 1 scruple of camphor. Put the oils and the wax on a slow fire and let them incorporate well. Then put in all the other things, made into powder, and let it take on some body, stirring continuously. Remove it from the fire and put in the finely-cut camphor and stir until it is cold and it will be made. Put it away in a bottle until needed. First wash the bad place on the leg with the above lavage and then use the unguent and soon you will be cured. Watch what you eat and you will not suffer any more. -------- [Page 190] Unguent of lead, cooling and drying, for infected legs. Take 1 ounce each of burnt lead, antimony and litharge, 1 dram each of zinc oxide and camphor, 3 ounces of rose oil, 6 ounces of long plantain juice and 2 ounces each of butter and clean wax. First take the oil, the juice, the butter and the wax and boil it a little. Then put in the lead, antimony, litharge and zinc oxide and let it boil until it is thickened, stirring repeatedly. Remove it from the fire and put therein the camphor, cut minutely, and stir continuously until it becomes cold, and it will be made, a very cooling and drying unguent of lead for sore legs. It will bring you honor. Another, an unguent for old sores of the leg. Take 4 ounces of old lard from a male pig, 3 ounces of brown laundry soap, 1 ounce of very fine white sulfur, 2 ½ ounces of raw honey and 1 ounce of clean wax. First take the lard and melt it and put in the soap, the honey, the wax and the sulfur and incorporate everything together well on a low fire and stir continuously for a half hour. Then remove it from the fire and strain it through coarse cloth and it will be made. First wash the sore with warm wine in which is boiled rose and sage and dry it. Then medicate it and soon you will cure. Over it say this prayer. First make the sign of the cross. Say, ' + Christ conquers, + Christ rules, + Christ orders +. Christ defend you from all ills. God in his name may save you and in his compassion free you. From the side of our Lord Jesus Christ came blood and water. I entreat you, blood and wound, by the side and spear with which the side of our Lord Jesus Christ was pierced, that blood may not go forth and it may be stopped. + Agios + Sanctus fortis + Sanctus immortalis + Otheos + Yschiros + Athanatos + Eleyson + Imas. Sanctus dominus + Sanctus fortis + et Sanctus immortalis + Thetragramaton + . O, may the Son, Jesus Christ, have compassion and clean and heal the side, who well may do it. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, + Amen.' Say the Pater Noster and soon it will be healed. It has been tested. Another for infected legs. Put the herb smart weed on the sore leg but first wash it with white wine in which has been boiled some of this herb. Wash it with the warm wine and dry it carefully and bind on some of the leaves of the herb. Treat it 2 times a day and soon you will cure. Also put the leaf of milk vetch, ground between two lodestones, on the cut or other malady of the leg or on the body. Treat 2 times a day and soon it will heal because this has been tested. Also for old sores. Put on the sore place the back of the leaf of the wild cucumber and you will cure it rapidly, first washing the sore with warm white wine, as described above. Also to dry up sores. Take 1 ounce or more each of rose honey and powder of white lead, according to the size of the malady, and incorporate them well together and put it on the sore place, simply with some yarn, and soon you will cure it. Another unguent for the legs. Take 6 ounces of olive oil, 2 ounces of turpentine, 1 ounce each of red lead, white lead and white litharge and ½ ounce of aloe. Make everything in very fine powder. Put in the oil, turpentine and ½ ounce of clean wax. As it begins to boil on a slow fire, put in the powders, little by little, always stirring with your wooden spatula. When it appears to you that it is cooked, according to the rules, remove it from the fire and it will be made perfect. You can use it to treat at your pleasure. Another, a white unguent for the legs or other sores. Take 6 ounces each of oil of roses and violets, 1 ½ ounces of white wax and newly-slaked lime washed with clear water. Dry the lime and make 2 ounces of very fine powder from it. Boil the oil and wax until it is well melted and stirred together. Then remove it from the fire and put therein the powdered lime and stir until it becomes cold and it will be made to serve your needs. It will bring you honor in every sore of the leg and even on the body. Doctors often use this for treating. -------- [Page 191] Unguent of lead for the legs. Take 2 lb. of clean lead and put it in a crucible and put in some sulfur. Put it in the fire to heat until it becomes powder. Then take 4 ounces each of rose oil and yellow litharge and put the litharge in strong vinegar for one night to soften. Put it with the oil in a pot with ½ ounce of powdered soot and 3 drams of white wax and then put in the powder. Make it barely hot in the pot and at once remove it from the fire and stir until it becomes cold. Then put it one more time on the fire and do the same and it will be made. Another of lead, also for the legs. Take ½ ounce each of mastic and incense, 1 ounce each of litharge and burnt lead and 3 ounces of white lead. All the above things should be in fine powder. Put them in a mortar with 4 ounces of rose oil and 3 ounces of strong vinegar and incorporate well with the pestle. As you continue to mix around in the mortar, the unguent will develop. If needed, add oil and vinegar as above and you will have a good and wonderful unguent. Another unguent for fracture or bruise. Take 3 ounces each of white lead, incense and mastic and 1 ounce of litharge and make an unguent of everything in the mortar. First they should be made into powder and then compounded with enough rose oil and vinegar. Use the pestle well, as is customary, and it will be made. Another for a heated condition. Take 6 ounces of white lead, 2 ounces of litharge, both reduced to powder, and 1 lb. of rose oil and 2 ounces of white wax. Compound these on a slow fire and when it is cooked, remove it from the fire and put therein 2 scruples of camphor, always mixing until it is cold and it will be done. Another unguent for an infected leg and it heals any sores difficult to cure. Take 2 ounces of zinc oxide, 1 dram each of white litharge, white lead and sarcocol gum, 1 ounce of rose oil and as much wax as is needed to give it body. Reduce the above things to powder. Put the oil, the gum and the wax on the fire and when these are melted, put in the other things. Let it stand for a little and remove it from the fire and it will be made. More for this malady of the leg. Take 3 ounces each of oily tar and myrrh, 1 ounce of oil of mastic and 2 ounces each of rose oil and clean wax. First melt the tar and the myrrh and then put in the other things and compound this on a low fire, stirring continually and you will make an unguent which will bring you honor, especially for fistulous conditions. Unguent of litharge to close up sores. Take one ounce each of litharge, mummy, mastic and myrrh, 2 ounces each of dragon's blood gum, fenugreek flour, tragacanth and gum arabic, and 2 ½ ounces each of oil of rose and oil of violet. Put the oils and the wax on the fire and melt them. Then remove it from the fire and put in all the other things made into fine powder. Return it to the fire and cook it a while, stirring continuously, and it will be made. Another for every sore on the leg, old or new. Take 1 handful of the herb agrimony and grind it and boil it in white wine and also add 1 handful of dried roses and boil it for one miserere. Wash the sore inside and out with this warm wine. Take 1 ounce each of mummy, long birthwort, round birthwort, mastic, myrrh, dragon's blood gum, hepatic aloe, zinc carbonate and braised squash and 2 drams of Armenian red clay. Grind these as finely as you can, and put it on the sore like a spice powder. First wash the sore with the herbs that were boiled in wine and put the powder on the sore in the form of a warm plaster. Bind it on so that it stays and stays warm. Do this 2 times a day and you will see a wonderful result. Even if the sore shows the bone, you will cure it soon. *Another to treat a sore without festering and without pain. Take rose oil and fir tree oil, that is the tears, as much of one as the other, and distill them together in a glass still on a slow fire. Then save it in a glass bottle, well closed, and use it when there is need. This oil never allows festering and does not cause pain and the sore may be cured rapidly. -------- [Page 192] Lavage to heal and clean sores of the legs. Take 2 flasks of water from a stream or fountain and put therein a bowl of barley and boil it until it reduces in half. Put in 2 ounces of rock alum and 1 ounce of crushed white lead and boil for at least one miserere. Then remove it from the fire and strain it and press the barley well so that the substance goes into the decoction and save this in a glass bottle. When you want to treat, take a little in a small pot and warm it and wet some linen cloths in it and put them on the sores of the leg. Do this several times and you will cure the sores quickly. It even helps those sores that come on the head, wetting them with the cloths. Another lavage for sores of the legs. Take 2 glasses of the urine of a healthy man or child, 2 ounces of raw honey and ½ ounce of rock alum and put everything together in a small pot and make it boil very slowly. Wash the sores of the legs with this lavage and let it dry in place. Then take clean marsh mallow roots and first remove the heart from the center and dry them and make very fine powder. When the sore has been well dried after lavage, put thereon enough of the powder, like a spice. Then put the medicated cloth on the sore in an appropriate size for the sore on the leg. By continuing this, you will cure it soon. Medicated cloths to heal sore legs. Take 6 ounces of fresh rose oil, 1 ½ ounces each of cinnabar and litharge and 1 ounce each of incense and burnt rock alum. Put the oil on the fire in a pot and put therein the cinnabar and when it wants to boil, put in the litharge and after it boils a little it will become dark. Then put in the incense and the rock alum. When you see it has incorporated well, put in your cloths to dress sores, as many as you want, and stir them well with a stick in this unguent until they are soaked. Then remove them, still warm, and spread them to dry in the shade and they will be made, medicated cloths. Put these cloths on all sores of the leg and they will comfort greatly and cure them rapidly. Another medicated cloth to make easily. Take 1 lb. of rose oil, 4 ounces each of yellow litharge and white lead and 2 ounces of clean wax. Pulverize and incorporate everything and cook it well on a low fire. When it is well incorporated, soak your cloths well therein. When they are cold, use them to treat. To make a medicated cloth. Take 3 ounces each of beef suet, crushed white lead and clean wax and when it is melted, dip in your cloths and they will be made and dry them. Another medicated cloth. Take 6 ounces each of ordinary oil and rose oil, 5 ounces of white lead and 1 ounce each of diaquilon and powdered St. John's wort. Put everything in a pot to compound them and when it becomes dark, that is a sign that it is cooked. Then put in your cloths for medicating and soak them well in this composition. When they have picked it all up, remove them and put them to dry in the shade so that the powder does not all shake off and they will be made. Use them as you wish. Very fine plaster to clear up sores. Take 1 ounce each of wax, black pitch and colophony, 2 ounces each of elemi gum and turpentine, ½ ounce each of mastic and sarcocol gum, 3 drams each of rock rose gum and eyebright, 5 drams of myrrh and 3 ounces of rose oil. Put all these things in the pot and with a slow fire compound them well, stirring continuously with the spatula so that they do not stick. When they are well cooked in the usual way, remove them from the fire and continue in the usual way for plasters and it will be done. Preserve the powder for your needs and it will bring you honor.... 109 -------- [Page 193] Unguent to cool and heal every sore. Take 1 ounce of litharge, 1 ½ ounces of fresh white lead, one quatrino of male incense, 1 ½ drams of rock alum, 1 lb. of pork lard, 4 drams of the best turpentine, 1 dram of hard pine pitch and 3 ounces of clean wax. First cut up the lard and strain it. Then return it to the fire and put in the rock alum and dissolve it and put therein the turpentine, the pitch and the wax. Wait a little and put in the litharge, white lead and incense. Let this boil very slowly on a slow fire, stirring continuously so that it does not stick or burn. Then remove it from the fire and have ready a thin pointed sack and put it in so that it will strain out and with 2 sticks take the little bag and move your hands from here to there. Squeeze and pull downward and in this fashion you will make it come out by force. Do this quickly. When it has been pressed out, stir with your rod until it becomes cold and it will be made. Save it in a glass bottle and keep it in a cool place. It will keep for a long time and use it for your needs. Another unguent for general use. Take 1 ounce of ox marrow, 6 ounces of ordinary oil, 10 ounces of rose oil, 1 lb. of strong vinegar, 5 ounces each of litharge and white lead, 4 ounces each of turpentine and good pitch and 3 ounces of clean wax. Put the pot on a slow fire and put in the oil, wax, marrow, turpentine and pitch and leave them on the fire until they are melted and incorporated. Then remove this from the fire and strain with the pointed sack as described above. Put the empty pot back on the fire and put in the vinegar and rose oil and boil them a little. Put in the litharge and white lead and make it boil slowly, stirring continuously with your spatula so that it does not burn and let it boil until it is hardened so that you can make fine powder of it. Then return the first composition to the fire, that is to the pot, and when it begins to boil put in the powder that you have made above, little by little, incorporating it well with your spatula. Do this for a quarter of an hour. Then remove it from the fire and make medallions of it. Note that if you want, you can make a plaster, unguent or medicated cloths with it as you wish. This unguent is for cleaning sores because it cools, breaks down, draws down and joins sores and is universally the first choice of everyone who treats patients. It is very well tested. Another unguent for every sore. Take 3 ounces each of white wax, pine pitch and turpentine, 1 ounce each of incense, mastic, Syrian storax, and round birthwort, 2 ounces of elemi gum, 6 ounces each of juice of betony and of tansy and fresh rose oil. First put in the pot the oil, juices and wax and incorporate them. Then put in all the other things, made into powder in the usual way, little by little and incorporate well with your rod so it does not burn and let it boil enough so that you know it is cooked. Remove it from the fire and continue stirring while it cools and it will be made and perfect. Another unguent for sores. Take equal amounts of celery, rosemary, sage, rue, tansy, plantain, lorenzana , marigold, wormwood and honeysuckle and make juice of all and take as much of each one as the other and put them together and take 2 lb. of olive oil and incorporate with the juices and before you put it on the fire, put in 2 drams of galbanum gum and 1 ounce of verdigris. Then put it on the fire and boil it a little with care and put in 6 ounces of clean wax. Remove it from the fire and continue to stir until it is cold and it will be made, a very worthy unguent that will bring you honor. -------- [Page 194] A cooling unguent for erysipelas, that is the burning rash, or other rash. Take 2 ounces each of rose oil, strong white vinegar, chopped white lead and juice of rue, 1 ounce of goat fat and ½ ounce of white wax and compound these on a slow fire and make a soft unguent and it will be done. Wet some fine linen cloths in this and put them on the sore places and by continuing this, the rash will soon be resolved and you will cure it. This has been tested. Another for the burning rash. Take 1 ½ ounces each of juice of fumitory, of dodder, of hops and of spleenwort and roots of elecampane and boil them in good white wine. When they are well cooked, extract them and grind them. Then incorporate them with the above juices. Put this again on the fire and put in 1 ounce of pork fat and ½ ounce of clean wax and let it boil very slowly until it begins to have a little body. Remove it from the fire and it will be made. See that it is rather soft and use it in the way described above. It is powerful not only in the burning rash but for every salt humor, if it is that kind of humor. Triaparma unguent, very cooling. Take strong white vinegar and litharge, the amounts at your discretion, and put them on the fire until they are thickened enough and continue stirring until this is cold and it will be made. Know that this unguent helps greatly in those festering sores that are very red around the sore and cause pain. Put this unguent on little plasters and soon it will remove the pain and the redness so it will not be seen and will not pain you. Soon you will be cured of this sickness, if you will take care of yourself. Another unguent of white lead for consolidating inflamed sores. Take 4 ounces of rose oil and 1 ounce each of finely crushed white lead and clean wax and dissolve the wax on the fire in the oil. Then remove it from the fire and put in the powdered white lead and stir until it is nearly cold. Then put in 2 fresh egg whites, well beaten, and incorporate them well in this unguent with a spatula and then it will be perfectly made. Put it away for your needs. This unguent is very powerful in removing the redness that is around every sore and cools it, cleans it and makes flesh grow. It cures rapidly. Another unguent for making flesh grow. Take 2 ounces each of olive oil and fir tree oil, 1 ounce each of galbanum and pine resin, 3 drams each of incense, mastic and myrrh and 1 ounce of clean wax. First put all the gums in the olive oil and when they are dissolved, strain them carefully. Then put them back on the fire and put therein the wax, the fir tree oil and the powdered incense and let it boil until it seems cooked to you. Remove it from the fire and stir very well and it will be made. This is powerful to make flesh grow and it does not irritate. Dark unguent to close and increase flesh. Take 2 ounces each of naval pitch and clean wax, 3 ounces each of incense, cypress nuts and fenugreek flour and 1 lb. of olive oil. Put the oil, the wax and the pitch on the fire and incorporate well. Then make all the other things into fine powder and put them in and incorporate well together and boil it enough on a slow fire and it will be made. Do not forget to stir as usual. This unguent closes and grows flesh in all sores on any place in the body. Another to heal a sore in 5 days. Take some of the herb that grows on the bark of the willow tree that looks like velvet and is called by the name 'moss' and grows on the shady side of the tree. Put this herb on the bleeding sore and if it is not bleeding, make a little blood come out so that the herb is able to stick to it. Do not remove the herb. The herb has the property that it does not detach itself until the sore is healed. It has the ability to stop blood and it cures rapidly. -------- [Page 195] Unguent that heals in 12 days, providing that the sore or wound is not fatal. It is not good in wounds involving the head. Take 1 lb. of oily pine tar, 2 ounces of laurel oil or mastic tree oil and 4 ounces each of sage and elemi gum. First put the tar on the fire until it clears well on a slow fire. Then put in the gum and the other things and incorporate them well on a little fire, always stirring until it is cold and it will be made. Use it at your pleasure in the way you use other unguents, medicating twice a day. But do not medicate the head. Another unguent similar to the above. Take 4 ounces each of white wax, rose oil and turpentine and ½ ounce of fava bean flour. Incorporate everything on a slow fire, stirring continuously until it is cold and the unguent will be made. With this medicate twice a day. Unguent from a monarch of Greece which is powerful for every wound of the head and body and is also powerful against cut muscles and nerves. Take 1 handful each of pimpernel, betony and burdock, all in leaf. Grind them together and put them to soften in a flask of good white wine for 3 days in a row. Then boil this very slowly until it reduces in half. Strain and press the herbs firmly and extract all the substance. Take half a glass of juice of ribwort plantain, one glass of juice of wormwood, 1 lb. of good turpentine, 6 ounces of thick pine tar and 1 ounce each of gum arabic, mastic and white wax, and all these things should be pulverized. Boil them in a pot until nearly cooked. Then put in a glass of mother's milk from a woman who is nursing a male child. Continue stirring it as usual and, when it is removed from the fire, until it is cold. Do not remove it from the fire until it has made a good body and then it will be made, an unguent with which to medicate wounds in the head and cut muscles and nerves. It will cure these quickly. Unguent from the above that is powerful in any wounds, bruises or blows and does not hurt when used. Take 1 ounce of betony, ½ handful of burnet saxifrage, 1 handful of burdock, 3 ounces of good turpentine, 2 ounces each of thick pine tar and clean wax, 1 ½ ounces of tragacanth, 1 ounce each of liquid storax and mastic and 1 ½ ounces of mountain mint. Take all the herbs and cut them very minutely and then grind them very well and put them to soak in 4 lb. of good white wine. Boil this until it reduces in half. Then restrain the wine. Those herbs that are large and are not able to pass through the strainer, regrind very finely until they can. Then return this to the fire and put in the tar, wax, tragacanth and mastic. Everything should be powdered and the tar should be well cleaned. Make it boil enough, slowly, and stir continuously so it does not burn. Before you remove it from the fire when it is cooked, put in the storax and the turpentine and at once strain it one more time and do it at once so that it is hot, in a pointed sack, pressing with 2 sticks back and forth, or use a slotted cane and grasp it with the hands, one at each end, and draw downward very slowly. Soon all will come out so that nothing remains in the sack. Continue stirring with the stick so all is well incorporated and when it is cold it will be made, the most perfect unguent, good for any wound, bruise or blow on the leg or on the body. It does not sting at all and where it enters, it cures rapidly and you will use it with honor. It has been tested. -------- [Page 196] The Egyptian unguent, powerful for old sores and fistulas that have need of assistance. It cleans, removes dead flesh and putrefaction at the same time. Take 4 ounces of rose honey, ½ ounce of verdigris and ½ ounce of strong rose vinegar. First put the vinegar on the fire and then put in the rose honey and heat until it is well incorporated, stirring it in. Then put in the powdered verdigris and let it boil until it comes to be a reddish color and it will be made. Remove it from the fire and stir with a spatula until it is cold and it will be finished. Put it in a cool place and then use it. The Apostles' unguent for healing. Take 6 ounces each of white wax, pine tar and oil, 3 ounces each of incense, bdellium and milk vetch, 1 [ounce] each of opoponax gum and aloe, 2 ounces each of gum ammoniac, myrrh and galbanum, 4 ounces of litharge, 1 ½ ounces of turpentine, 2 ½ ounces of sarcocol gum and 2 ounces of verdigris. First put these things to soak in vinegar: the bdellium, opoponax and gum ammoniac and they should be coarsely broken up. Then put the oil in the pot and put in the tar, galbanum, sarcocol and turpentine and make these melt. Then strain it with force. Return it to the fire and put in the 3 gums that you put in the vinegar and add the vinegar itself and bring this to a boil. Then put in these other things, all made into fine powder: litharge, myrrh, aloe, milk vetch and incense and incorporate them well with your spatula. Strain this one more time with a pointed sack with 2 sticks or a split reed, drawing downward so that it quickly extrudes out. Return it to the fire and put in the cut wax and boil slowly until it comes to perfection. Put in the verdigris, finely chopped, and at once remove it from the fire and stir it continuously until it is cold so that the green color is well incorporated and it will be well made, the Apostles' unguent. It will be green. It will rectify fistulas and scrofulas and other sores and it is powerful in ulcers. It removes dead flesh from sores and consolidates them. This is powerful above all other unguents. Green unguent that heals and closes every wound. Take 1 lb. of olive oil, 4 scruples of fir tree oil, 3 ounces each of turpentine, pine tar and Greek pitch, 2 ounces of clean wax, 5 ounces of goat fat and ½ ounce of verdigris. Put the oil, the fir tree oil, turpentine, tar, pitch and the cut-up fat in a pot and melt them completely. Then strain them in a pointed sack, pressing firmly with the sticks. Return it to the pot and put in the cut-up wax and make it boil enough to be cooked. Put in the verdigris, chopped finely, and let it incorporate well on the fire, stirring continuously. When it is cooked, remove it from the fire and stir until it is cold and it will be made, a wonderful and worthy unguent that can be used to treat every wound. If you want to make it stronger to eat away dead tissue better, add more verdigris and also a little rock alum and add it in the way described above and it will be made. Another strong unguent. Take 3 glasses of malvasia wine, 3 ounces each of saltpeter, rock salt, dried rock alum, one glass of strong vinegar and 2 ounces of fine verdigris and make this boil until it reduces in half. Then take 5 ounces of oil of balsam with powdered orris root and compound them with 1 dram of pine tar, 1 ounce of turpentine, 1 ½ ounces of clean wax and enough fine powder of balsam leaves, that is the balsam apple, so the composition becomes somewhat green. When it seems to you to be cooked, take it from the fire and stir until it becomes cold and it will be made, a perfect and good unguent. Few know its virtue. -------- [Page 197] The golden unguent cures, grows flesh, consolidates and heals any fresh wound. Take 1 lb. of rose oil and 1 glass of very good wine and put it in a pot with 3 ounces of turpentine and put in these 3 clean herbs, cut and ground very finely and boiled in this oil until they are well cooked and strained thoroughly through muslin: 1 ½ handfuls of tansy, 1 handful of tamarind flowers and tips, and ½ handful of lesser centaury Then take 6 ounces each of calf and sheep fat, cut minutely, melted, strained and mixed, 1 dram each of frankincense and saffron, 1 ½ drams of pine tar and colofony resin, 2 ½ drams of incense, sarcocol gum and myrrh, 3 drams of mastic and 3 ½ ounces of clean wax. Make powder of all these other things using force and compound them together until everything is well incorporated. Strain it one more time, pressing the sack well so that nothing remains. Return it to the pot and make it boil on a slow fire, stirring continuously so it incorporates well. Before it is cooked, put in the wax and the saffron and remove it from the fire. Wash this warm with milk 3 times and cool it and it will be made. Put it away for your needs, because it is in name and in fact the golden unguent. White lead unguent for broken flesh and bad fistulas. Take 1 dram of gum ammoniac, 3 drams each of bdellium, frankincense, mastic, milk vetch and sarcocol gum, 2 drams each of myrrh and galbanum, 1 ½ ounces of yellow litharge, 2 ½ drams each of aloe and opopanax gum, 2 drams of verdigris, 2 ounces of pine tar and 2 ounces of white wax. First soak the ammoniac, bdellium, galbanum and opoponax in strong vinegar, enough to barely cover them and leave them for 6 hours and not more. Put 1 lb. of ordinary oil in a pot and put therein the litharge and make it come to a boil on a slow fire. Then put in the gums that were soaking in vinegar, straining them first. Boil it until the vinegar is consumed. Then put in all the other things, made into fine powder, and at the last the wax and let it boil very little, always stirring so it does not burn. Remove it from the fire and stir until it is cold and it will be made for your use. Unguent of Avicenna, called the unguent of Venus. Take 1 ½ ounces of white wax, ½ ounce each of pine tar and gum ammoniac, 2 ½ ounces of turpentine, 2 drams of opopanax, 1/2 ounce of verdigris, ½ ounce each of bdellium, milk vetch, incense, myrrh and galbanum, 1 ounce of yellow litharge and 1 ½ lb. of olive oil. Put the oil and yellow litharge in a pot and boil it a little on a slow fire. Put the gums, broken up, to soak in vinegar and strain them when you put them in the pot. Then put in the other things made into powder and let this cook sufficiently, using your ladle, on a slow fire so it does not burn. Before you remove it from the fire put in the verdigris, made very fine, and the wax, cut minutely. Then remove it from the fire and stir until it is cold and it will be made, a perfect unguent. Note that this unguent needs 2 pounds of oil if it is made in the wintertime and 1 ½ pounds in the summer. Some call this the Apostles' unguent. Use it. Little basic unguent, good and perfect. Take 3 ounces each of Greek pitch and thick pine tar, 2 ounces of turpentine, 1 ounce of clean wax. Put 6 ounces of ordinary oil in the pot and put therein the above things made into powder and boil it on a slow fire, always stirring. When it is cooked, put in the wax and at once remove it from the fire and stir until it is cold and it will be made. You can use it at your pleasure. -------- [Page 198] Unguent of oil to fill up wounds which are hard to reflesh and to cure fistulas and bad sores. Take 1 ounce of opopanax gum, ½ ounce of lint shavings from old and clean linen cloth, 1 ½ ounces each of good white wine, rose oil and myrtle oil and ½ ounce each of litharge, aloe, sarcocol gum and myrrh. Make an unguent in the mortar without fire, grinding each well by itself. Then put all together, incorporating with the oil and the wine until it is sufficiently in the form of a good unguent, blending now wine, now oil. Some add 2 drams pulverized copper sulfate, compounding this little by little in the mortar until it is really the way you wish and it will be made. A related unguent that is powerful in putrid wounds, grows flesh in these and heals and does not allow corruption. Take 1 ounce each of myrrh, hepatic aloe and sarcocol gum, 3 ounces of cleaned honey, ½ glass of good white wine and 2 drams of copper sulfate. Make powder of everything and mix it on a slow fire, always agitating it with your spatula until it is thickened in the form of an unguent. Remove it from the fire and stir and it will be made. Save it to use for your needs. Major basic unguent. Take 6 ounces of rose oil, 3 ounces of cooked naval pitch, 4 ounces of turpentine, 2 ounces of rose honey, 3 ½ ounces of clean wax and one quatrino of saffron. Put the saffron to soak in vinegar until it falls to the bottom. Put the oil and the turpentine on the fire to incorporate, then the rose honey and the pitch in the pot and boil for one miserere, always stirring on a slow fire. Then put in the well-soaked saffron with the vinegar and at once put in the wax and as it melts, remove it from the fire and stir until it is cold and it will be made, perfect and good. Save it for your needs. Unguent of turpentine. Putting it on wounds regrows good flesh. Take 1 lb. of old olive oil, 3 ounces of turpentine, 2 ounces of thick pine tar, 1 ½ ounces of clean wax, 1 ½ ounces each of varnish, incense and mastic, and 2 ounces of fenugreek flour. Put the oil, wax, turpentine and the tar on a slow fire and boil enough to incorporate them. Then put in the incense and mastic made into powder and the varnish and cook it so it does not burn. Lastly, put in the flour, as much as you need so that it makes an unguent in the usual form. Remove it from the fire at once and stir until it is completely cold and it will be made. This unguent, put on wounds and sores, cleans them and refleshes nerves and increases tissue and soon cures. Another unguent to regrow tissue. Take 3 ounces of rose oil, 1 ounce of clean wax, 2 drams of saffron, 2 ounces of fir tree oil, ½ ounce of mastic and 1 ½ ounces of myrrh and make fine powder and put all these things in the pot and make them melt so they are incorporated. Strain this warm at once through the strainer. Then put it again in the pot on a slow fire and so it cooks enough but does not burn. Remove it from the fire and stir it for a piece and it will be made. This grows flesh on sores. Say over a sore or wound. ' God was born, God was taken and bound, betrayed and suffered crucifixion and died for us wretched sinners. God was resurrected on the third day, according to the Scripture. As this is true, so this illness can neither become corrupt, nor putrefy, nor cause any pain, if it is pleasing to God and the Virgin Mary.' Make over it the sign of the cross. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. Another. Say, + 'Christ was born. + Christ died. + Christ was resurrected from death. +' Let us pray, 'We have received warnings for our health and we hear divine instruction that has been made for us to say the Pater Noster and say it all. Lord, free your servant from all present and future illnesses.' Put some cloths on the sore in the form of a cross and in 2 or 3 days you will be cured. + + + -------- [Page 199] Very worthy unguent to clear up the legs. Take ½ ounce of bear fat, 2 ½ drams each of vulture fat, chicken fat and mutton fat, 4 ounces of rose oil, 2 drams each of wild olive, mummy and marsh mallow, 2 ounces of clean wax, 4 drams each of pine tar, linseed oil, Armenian red clay, white lead and rotten stone, 10 seeds of round pepper, 1 ½ drams each of camphor, mastic and incense and 1 dram of dragon's blood gum. First take all the fats and cut them finely, melt them and strain them through muslin. Return them to the pot and put therein rose oil and linseed oil and incorporate them well with the fats. Then remove the pot from the fire and while it is warm put therein the mummy, the dragon's blood gum, tar, Armenian red clay, white lead, incense, rotten stone, pepper, wild olive, marsh mallow and at the end the wax. All the above things are made into fine powder. Return it to the fire and reboil very slowly and stir continuously with your spatula. When it is cooked, restrain everything with care, passing it warm through muslin. Then put in the camphor, cut minutely, and stir until it is cold and it will be made. Put it away for your needs. You will be able to use this on strips of leather or chamois and let it stay on the sore place for 3 or 4 days. Then change it and do this for 10 to 12 days and you can use other unguents that will make flesh grow rapidly. Watch what you eat. Do not eat harmful things and soon, with the aid of God, you will be cured. Unguent for an infected place involving the nerves. Take 1 ounce each of goat fat, earthworms and clean wax. Put 4 ounces of rose oil in a little pot and put therein the fat, cut minutely, and the earthworms washed with vinegar and the cut wax. Melt everything together on a little fire. Then strain it finely and put the composition again in the pot and finish cooking slowly, stirring continuously until it has made enough body. When it is cool and well blended, preserve it and use it for your needs. Best unguent for cuts or wounds. Take 1 handful of roots of marsh mallow, well washed and clean, and boil them in 2 lb. of olive oil on a slow fire until it reduces ¾ and until the roots become dark in the pot. Then remove it from the fire and strain it through muslin, pressing the roots well. Then put it back on the fire and add 3 ounces of turpentine and 1 ½ ounces of clean wax and compound this in the form of an unguent and it is done. Spread it on little plasters and treat the sore or wound and it will bring you honor. Another for sores or cuts that spurt blood. Take some dung from the ass and some rabbit fur and cut everything finely and pulverize it and put it on the sore, firm and thick, so the blood that is not able to stop flowing will soon be staunched. Then medicate it as usual with unguents and it will be cured. Say over it these words, 'Cross of Christ aid me. + Blood stay in yourself as Christ did in himself. Christ save me. Blood stay in your vein as Christ did in his grief. + Christ protect me. Blood stay fixed and strong as Christ did in his death. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.' Carry it with you and say it 3 times in a row and the blood will be stopped. More to staunch blood from sores, wounds or veins. Take sarcocol gum, mummy, Armenian red clay and dragon's blood gum, each the same amount, and make everything into very fine powder and incorporate them together and put this on sores, wounds and also on a vein from which the blood is not able to stop flowing. Put on enough and soon the blood will be staunched. Then medicate with unguents. -------- [Page 200] Unguent that distends contracted nerves, be it either from cold or heat, that is through obstruction of nerves through humors that discend from the head to the part of the nerve in such a way that they may impede the heat and the nerve fails and is contracted, debilitated or paralyzed. Take 4 drams each of the fats of bear, horse, duck, goat, badger, ass and mutton, 2 drams each of gum ammoniac, juniper gum, bdellium, incense and ivy gum and 1 dram each of powder of mountain mint, pennyroyal, catmint, gratiana , St. John's wort, white dittany, cut-up lemon rind, lavender cotton, white iris, amber and French lavender. First cut up all the fats, melt them and strain them, dissolve all the gums and strain them and make all the herbs into powder and mix them. Incorporate the above 3 groups together and put all of it to fill a male cat or a duck. But in truth, it is better to put them in a young, male red dog, because a Carthusian friar told me that a gentleman's son who was much crippled was cured and one of the friars received 40 dinari from that gentleman for having freed his son, through God's grace. He told me that he had cleaned a young red dog for roasting and he filled it with aromatic things. He said that he had not recorded the things that he put in but he knew well that he cured him with the fat that he collected from that dog roasted specifically to aid that youth. Then after this he had them say a mass of the Holy Spirit. However, it seems to me that it will be best to take a red dog and put in all of the above ingredients and roast it on a spit and when it is well cooked, to collect all the fat that drains from the back because in this exists all the virtue. Value it and save it in a clean glass vessel. Then incorporate this fat with these unguents, viz. Take 1 ounce each of Marciaton unguent , Aragon unguent and Agrippa unguent and 2 ounces each of marsh mallow and laurel oil. Incorporate these unguents with the strained fat on a very slow fire. When you have incorporated them well, you will have made your ointment, perfect and good, and this is the preparation from the Reverend Priest himself. When you want to treat the above infirmity, heat it and rub the sick person in front of a good fire. Then wrap it with unwashed wool with other warm cloths around it and put it to stay on and do this with the ointments several times and you will see a wonderful effect. This is very true and it is tested. Another oil powerful for the above, tried and true for retracted nerves with pain and spasms. Take flowers of privet, that is vistrici , and fill a pot. Then fill it with ordinary oil and boil it before the fire until it reduces one half or more. Strain it and press the flowers well and keep it for 3 or 4 days in the sun and it will be made and keep it with care. When you want to treat, make it warm to rub the nerves that have pain and spasm and put on unwashed wool. Soon you will be restored to health. Another unguent for the nerves. Take 2 ounces each of oils of mastic, of myrtle, of quince and of lavender, 1 ounce of mastic, ½ ounce of celery seed, 3 drams each of hypocistis and acacia, 5 drams of liquid storax and enough clean wax to make an unguent. Rub the painful nerves using warm, unwashed wool and you will be cured. Another similar unguent. Take 1 ounce each of laurel oil, of oil of fox, of camomile and of eyebright, 1 ½ ounces of bear fat and enough clean wax to make an unguent. Incorporate everything together on a little fire, stirring continuously so it does not burn. Then rub the painful nerves.... 110 -------- [Page 201] Tested oil for nerve spasms in several forms. Take 2 lb. or more of clean wax and distill it in the usual way with a glass retort. Oil will come out for use in the way described below. Put into this oil 1 ounce of mastic, 3 drams of saffron and 2 drams of camphor, all made into fine powder. When you have incorporated them, again distill it in the retort or other glass vessel. A very odorous oil will come out which you should save in a glass bottle, well closed at the top, because the gases might escape and its power would be lost. This oil has many very great virtues, especially against nerve spasm. It is powerful for every bruise, blow or kick that has clotted blood. It should be very warm when you use it and rub with it 2 times a day and keep the sore places warm with unwashed wool which is very appropriate in such a problem. While you are rubbing you will feel the pain alleviate and this comes from the soothing odor. Many experienced men have approved of it. Another oil for spasms of nerves or from blows. Take 1 ½ ounces each of rose oil and oil of dill, 3 ounces of Venetian turpentine, ½ bowl of earthworms washed in white wine and 1 ½ ounces each of thick pine tar and eyebright. Boil this in a little pot on a slow fire, but not too much. Then strain it carefully, pressing well so the substance comes out and it will be made. Save it for your needs and when you want to use it, put it on very warm with unwashed wool and you will be cured rapidly. More to comfort the nerves. Take 2 ounces each of juice of rue, oil of dill and chicken fat, 1 ounce of oil of tartar and ½ ounce of powdered mastic. Cut the fat minutely and put everything together in a carafe in the sun, well covered, for 15 to 20 days and then it will be made. Make an ointment of this. It should be warm when you use it. By continuing this, you will be cured quickly. Another very useful oil for nerves, spasms and sores. Take 3 lb. of the oldest olive oil that you can find, 6 ounces of malvasia wine or other good white wine and 1 handful each of flowers of camomile, sage, rosemary, wormwood and rue, cut finely. Put everything together to boil until it is reduced in half on a slow fire. Strain it and press the herbs in the press and extract all the substance by force. Return the oil to the pot and put therein ½ bowl of earthworms washed with white wine, 2 ounces each of sulfur and the white wine described above and reboil it a little. Strain it again through muslin and while it is still warm add 3 ounces of clean wax and then add 1 ½ ounce each of cloves, incense, mastic and laurel berries, all made into very fine powder, and 1 dram of saffron. Stir well with your spatula until everything is well incorporated. When you want to use it, make it warm and rub and soon you will cure, with God's grace. Another unguent for nerves retracted and drawn up by infirmity. Take 1 ½ lb. of earthworms washed with white wine, 1 ½ lb. of fat from the horse and 1 lb. each of bear fat, marmot fat, badger fat, oil of balsam and sweet almond oil, 5 lb. of old butter, 4 lb. of old olive oil and 1 handful each of wormwood and sage. First cut all the fats and melt them and then add in the oil and the herbs, cut minutely, with the butter and the earthworms. Boil everything for a piece. Then strain it finely under the press and extract all the substance and put it again in the pot and put therein 3 ounces of clean wax and as it melts, remove it from the fire and it will be made. Continue stirring until it is cold and it will be done. Save it for your needs for drawn and retracted nerves. It should be warm when you rub with it and put on warm unwashed wool and continue in this way and soon you will cure. -------- [Page 202] Best ointment for retracted nerves. Take a goose, and it should be fat, pluck it and clean it as if you wanted to eat it and cut off the neck and the feet. Then take a live cat that should be fat, kill it, skin it and clean it as if you wanted to eat it and cut off the head and the feet. Then cut it up minutely including the bones. I say, very minutely. Grind this together with one pound of lard from a male pig, 1 ounce of powdered cloves and 2 ounces of finely-ground clean wax. Grind and incorporate everything well together. Then put everything inside the body of the goose and cook it. Tie it up on the spit and bind it so it stays firm. Then roast it and keep the fire very low until it is cooked or over-cooked, but not burned, until the bone is seen. Collect all the fat so that nothing is lost, not a drop, into a bowl of strong white vinegar. Because you will want the fat that is above the vinegar, save this as something dear. It is the fat which has this property, when retracted nerves are rubbed with it warm, using it several times softens them and makes them return toward their pristine state. Keep them warm with unwashed wool, which is very appropriate. Observe the rules and soon you will be cured. More for retracted nerves. Take some fat from a sheep and some of its marrow and cut each minutely. Then fry these in good white wine. Then wash the sick place with this wine, very warm, and bathe it for a while and do this several times and you will cure. A cleansing unguent for the nerves. Take 1 lb. of Venetian turpentine, 1 ounce each of sarcocol gum, myrrh, flour of lupin, of flax seed and of fenugreek and ½ ounce of clean wax. Dissolve the turpentine and the wax on a good fire. Then remove the pot from the fire and put therein all the other things made into powder and stir with the ladle so it is well mixed until it is cold and it will be made, an unguent good to cleanse those sores that are on the nerves. Another to cure cut nerves. Take 2 ounces each of these five kinds of oil, that is laurel oil, petroleum, oil of mastic, of dill and of tartar, and badger fat and 1 ounce of clean wax. Incorporate everything on a little fire and make a soft unguent. It should be warm when you want to use it. Do this several times with warm unwashed wool on the cut place and it will help you greatly. Another for nerves retracted through cold. Take ox dung in the month of May and boil it in good white wine. Bathe the painful nerves with this wine and it should be warm. Do this several times and you will help greatly. Keep the nerve very warm and soon you will cure. More to cure these sores on nerves and other diverse sores. Say over the sore, first making the sign of the cross, “O highest wisdom and power, O eternal light, O creator of heaven and earth, O you who saved human nature and were placed on the cross + for us, wretched sinners, to save us. Remember, Lord, when you said, ' Hely, hely, lama zabatani. Hoc est corpus meum, Agios, Agios, Agios, Ischiros, Athanatos, Adonay. ' As you, Lord, were freed from the wounds of your side on the most holy cross + which you bore to Mount Calvary, as you, Lord, were wrapped in white cloth, as the wounds did not bleed with either fever or decay, so these will not, if it please God and his Son. Suffering of Christ, may these be healed. Suffering of Christ, may they be healed in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.” Say this over the wounds when you pray. Then take a little cloth of a man's shirt and put it in the form of a cross on the wounds and they will be healed quickly. -------- [Page 203] Unguent from the Master Apothecary, Bonino, the Florentine. He treated with this unguent once a day and cured every serious sore quickly and well. Take a carafe of vernaza or other very good white wine and put therein a handful of ground betony and let it infuse for 3 whole days. Then boil it in front of the fire until it reduces in half. Strain it and press the herb under the press until you extract all the substance and put them together. Then put in all these gums which should be clean and well washed, that is, 6 ounces of thick pine tar, 4 ounces of galbanum, 3 ounces of juniper gum and 2 ounces each of gum ammoniac and Armenian red clay, 1 ounce each of ivy gum and hepatic aloe and ½ ounce of dragon's blood gum. All these should be melted and strained carefully and incorporated with the above decoction. Return it to a slow fire until you incorporate them and they become like honey. Then remove it from the fire and stir until it is cold and it will be made, an noteworthy unguent which will cure any wound rapidly. It has been tested. Another unguent for the above from the Master Apothecary Bonino. Take 6 ounces each of ordinary oil and thick pine tar and 3 ounces each of rose oil and clean wax. Put everything in a pot to melt on a slow fire. Then strain it and add 2 ounces of powdered turpentine and boil it for the time it takes to say an Ave Maria. When it is cold, wash it with water and let it stay to soften for the night. In the morning, drain it well of the water. Then incorporate 3 ounces of betony juice and stir until it is well mixed and it will be made. Use it at your pleasure for all wounds. It will bring you honor, and quickly. Unguent that resolves the swelling and scab after the wound is healed. Take 2 ounces each of dregs of oil of lily and of linseed, bdellium, clean wax, liquid storax, galbanum, opoponax gum, chicken fat or goose fat and pig lard, each at your discretion. Take the bdellium, galbanum and opoponax and grind them in a mortar and take the storax and the wax and grind them together and add the gums. Then put in the strained fats and the oils and incorporate very well with the pestle and do not spare the labor and you will make a wonderful unguent to remove the swelling and hardness that remains after the wound is healed. But first you need to wash the healed wound with wine that has been boiled with marsh mallow, mallow and flax seeds and when it is washed this should be very warm. Dry it and use this unguent and you will see a good cure. It is tested. Another alterative to remove the scab of a healed wound. Take 6 ounces of good pine tar, 2 ounces each of clean wax, linseed flour and fenugreek flour, 1 lb. of camomile oil, 1 ounce each of goose fat, chicken fat and goat fat and 6 drams each of mastic and incense. Put the tar and the wax to melt on the fire and strain it through muslin. Return it to the fire and put in the powdered mastic and incense. Then put in the fat, strained and clean, and let it boil a little. Then put in the flours and remove it from the fire and stir with your spatula until it is cold and it will be made. Use it at your pleasure as described above. Another to remove the signs of wounds and other marks rapidly. Take oil of tartar and human semen, the same amount of each, and incorporate them together and heat this in an eggshell and rub the red signs 2 or 3 times a day and soon the signs will disappear. This is very well tested and truly proved. -------- [Page 204] To remove the red marks and scars from wounds in several ways. Take 30 fresh eggs layed on the same day and cook them in water so they become very hard and take the yolks and put them all in a little frying pan or other little pan and do not put in anything else and make them fry slowly on a low fire. Then mince them and put them in a bag of strong cloth and put them under the press and tighten so that the liquor comes out and save this as something dear. If by chance little or nothing comes out, put the press tightly closed as it is in a humid place and soon the oil will come forth. Collect it and when you have it, preserve it. Use this warm to rub on the red marks and the edge around the wounds so when they are cured they soon fade so that little by little they will disappear. Another to remove the red marks from wounds or other scars on the body. Take fresh and clean shin bones from animals. Put them to soften in white vinegar as strong as you can find for 10 to 12 days, keeping them covered and in a warm place. Then break or cut them as minutely as you can and distill them in a glass still with a very low fire. Save the water that comes out as something valuable. First heat this distillation and bathe the red marks from wounds or scars and by continuing this for several times they will be faded so they will hardly be seen. If the illness is fresh, soon it will disappear so it is seen no more. This has been tested. Another ointment for the above, to make the signs of wounds, cuts or scrapes go away. Take some bulbs of white lilies and cook them in water. Then grind them in a mortar and take 1 ounce of pork lard and add 3 drams each of powdered mastic and incense, 1 dram of camphor, ½ ounce of powdered white lead and some rose oil and make the unguent on a slow fire. Repeatedly rub this unguent on the red edges caused by wounds, scrapes or other scabs and continue it and soon they will go away. It is tested. Another water that removes the red marks and edges and even warts and rashes quickly. Take 1 ½ lb. each of oak ashes or other strong ashes and pulverized litharge, 6 ounces of powdered quicklime, 3 ounces of copper sulfate, 1 dram of ammonium chloride and 8 lb. of strong lye that can float an egg and is the kind used for soap. Put everything together in a covered pot and boil on a slow fire until one third remains and stir several times and it will be done. Put it in a vitreous vessel and keep it well covered so that it does not get too much air because it may lose much of the substance and effectiveness. Then with this composition, rub where you have red signs or other marks or warts or rashes. By doing this several times, they will go away. If it causes burning or irritation, take as much as you can of such irritation and when you cannot bear it, just put on a drop of rose water or plantain water or other water and at once the burning will stop as if you never felt it. You will be cured quickly because it has been tested. Another to take away the marks on the flesh and also other scars from scratches. Take some urine from a healthy man and distill it in a glass still on a slow fire. First water will come out and later, by increasing the fire a little, oil will come out. Collect each one separately. You should know that continued use of the oil is what removes large spots and grows new flesh and makes them flesh color. The water that comes out first makes beautiful flesh. -------- [Page 205] Unguents of several kinds to draw out iron, wood or spines from the flesh. Take 6 drams each of yeast from frumenty and honey and 1 dram each of mistletoe from oak and ammonium chloride and dissolve everything in water and add 2 drams of fenugreek flour and enough old oil and incorporate everything together on a little fire and make the unguent. With this, warm, rub the sore place in the morning and evening and it will draw out the material that is inside or will put it forth with pus at the same time and you will cure quickly. Another for the above illness. Take some leaves of heliotrope and grind them between 2 stones and put them on the afflicted places and it will help you remove the discomfort rapidly. Another for the above illness from iron, wood or spines thrust in the flesh. Take roots of marsh mallow, washed and very clean, cut them finely and boil them in ordinary oil in a pot until they become dark. Then strain them and press them through cloth and put therein 2 ounces of clean wax and 3 ounces of turpentine and incorporate everything together close by the fire and stir until it is cold and it will be made. Treat with this, warm, and soon you will cure. Another for the above illness. Take the roots of giant reed and powder of mountain mint and incorporate them well, grinding everything together with a little honey and yeast from frumenty and some galbanum. Then put this on the sore place several times, warm, and soon it will draw out the splinter and you will cure. Another to make flesh grow rapidly in the wounds . Take powder of Florentine iris and incorporate it with the white of an egg. Then dry it and make very fine powder and put it on the wound. If iron is in the wound, put on agrimony mixed warm with ground lard and soon it will draw out the splinter. Do this several times. It has been tested. Another to withdraw iron that may be fixed in the flesh. First say, with reverence, a Pater Noster and an Ave Maria. See if it possible for you to touch the iron with 2 fingers where it is in the flesh or with the tip of the finger, and as you feel it, say with reverence, 'Longino was a Hebrew, son of a Pharisee, who wounded Jesus Christ and wounded him in the right side. We beseech Jesus Christ just as the iron wounded him, so may this iron that I touch come forth from here.' Say this 3 times in a row, touching it with your fingers, and say a Pater Noster and soon the iron will come out and you will cure it, with God's grace. Another, a water to treat and cure the above wounds. Take clear and clean water and bless it three times in a row. Say the Pater Noster first each time and say it without deadly sin and without a weapon on you and when you treat the patient he should have forgiven the offense and have said the Pater Noster and the Ave Maria. Wet some cloths in this water and put it on the wound in the form of a cross and treat it twice a day until it is cured. This is the prayer that is said over the water, viz., 'In the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. In the name of God and the Holy Trinity and by that holy night when the glorious Virgin Mary gave birth to the blessed Jesus Christ. Christ was born, died and was resurrected and ordered that all these wounds should be well healed and well cured without cold, without heat, without blood, without pus, without cut nerves, without rotted bones, without fever, without death and without any other illness. So the glorious Virgin Mary ordered for this pure water and for every water which makes every liquor and precious unguent which may have been used as did Jesus Christ and his sweet mother, the Virgin Mary. By these and those words that you have said over the wood of the holy cross, so the true power will come from Jesus Christ in this blessed water that should cure your servant (name), in the name of the Father + , Son and Holy Spirit, Amen + + +.' Do not change the orders said above and save this water that is always good to cure any wound or cut, through the power of Jesus Christ. It is tested. *Another to draw out a thorn from the flesh. Take fresh roots of giant reed and lard and grind them together and put this warm on the puncture and the thorn will come forth onto the plaster. Do this several times. It has been tested. -------- [Page 206] Pine tar unguent. Take 6 ounces each of rose oil, clean wax and thick pine tar, 4 ounces of turpentine, 1 ounce each of incense, mastic and galbanum and 2 ounces of honey. Put the galbanum, mastic and incense to soak in strong vinegar for one night. Then put these in a pot without the vinegar and put them dry on the embers until they are melted. Put in the tar to melt, then the oil, the turpentine and the honey and incorporate them very well with your spatula. Put in the wax, cut finely, and let it boil a very little. Remove it from the fire and strain it warm through bunting cloth and stir until it is cold and it will be made. It will serve your needs and bring you honor. Yellow unguent. Take 6 ounces of rose oil, 5 ounces of clean wax, 4 ounces of turpentine, 2 ounces of marsh mallow and 1 ounce each of incense, mastic, galbanum and opopanax gum. Put all the gums to soften in strong vinegar that barely covers them. Then remove them and liquify them alone in the pot, stirring until they are melted. Then put in the oil, turpentine and marsh mallow and incorporate them well and let it cook. Lastly put in the wax cut into little pieces and, as it melts, remove it from the fire and strain it still warm through bunting and stir until it is cold and it will be made, to use at your pleasure. Know that for all unguents it is necessary to stir until they are cold, using your stirring rod or spatula, and this rule holds in making all kinds of unguents. Digestive. Take 1 ounce of turpentine, the yolk of a fresh egg, rose oil, fresh barley flour, saffron and dried rock alum, each at your discretion, and a little rose honey. When these are heated, compound them together and it will be made. Then use it to treat at your pleasure and it will bring you honor. Protective. Take 3 ounces each of rose water and nightshade water, 2 ounces each of oil of roses and oil of myrtle, 1 ounce each of Armenian red clay and dragon's blood gum and 1 ½ ounces of white wax. Compound all of the above things on a slow fire, stirring continuously until it is cold, and it will be made. Use it and it will bring you honor. It has been tested. Caustic for afflicted flesh. Take fresh honey, skimmed, and put therein 1 ounce each of rock alum and verdigris, both pulverized, ½ ounce each of turpentine and rose oil and a little strong vinegar. Mix everything together on a little fire and it will be made. Use it as needed. Another escharotic. Take 2 ounces each of male pig lard and turpentine and ½ ounce of mercury and compound them in the usual way described above and add ½ ounce of clean wax. Then have prepared ash of grape vine and add as much ash as can be taken up by the unguent. Compound all these well and it will be made, pleasant and beneficial. To make troches of red lead in order to open sores. Take 4 ounces of white flour bread dough, uncooked and well risen, 1 ounce of red lead and ½ ounce of mercuric chloride, well ground, and compound everything with rose water. Then make your troches with care and dry them in a warm oven, but do not let them burn. You can form as many troches of different kinds as needed. A quick and very fine escharotic. Take ½ ounce each of saccharine alum, rock alum, litharge, white lead and mercury, 1 ounce of mercuric chloride and grind everything finely and rub them through a fine sieve. Then compound them with butter the size of a nut, and lastly put in the mercury and stir this with a stick until it is well incorporated with the other things. When you put it on the afflicted flesh, it breaks it open and it is good when this happens though cautery.... 111 -------- [Page 207] *Another escharotic. Take 6 ounces of the master ingredient described below, 1 ½ drams of copper sulfate and 1 scruple of opium. Boil this until thickened and when it is done, remove it and put in the opium and incorporate that and it will be made for cauterizing abcesses and removing excess flesh. It works in ½ hour, more or less. Cautery for cold burning quickly. Take lye strong enough to float an egg, made from oak ashes and lime, that is the master ingredient from which soap is made. Fill a pot and put therein 6 ounces of powdered quicklime, 2 scruples of fine orpiment and 1 lb. of fresh honey and boil it very slowly in a vitreous pot, well covered and wrapped so that no air comes out or all will be destroyed and turn to liquid and have no strength. Boil it with a low fire until it becomes hard when it is cold. Save it and when you wish to treat, that is to open the flesh by cautery, put a little of the above material or powder in a ring suitable for the place where you want to make the opening in the flesh and put in the ring something round that presses on the flesh. Bind it on in the evening and in the morning you will find an opening as large as the ring and you have your cautery there which you can wash without any distress. Put on a single chick pea or little ball of wax and on this a leaf of hellebore that draws out much material. Clean this 2 times a day. In this way you will make an opening without giving distress to the patient and you will have good success. Another to make a simple escharotic. Take 2 bowls of oak ashes and one bowl of quicklime and boil them in a pot for a bit. Then extract out the clear water, as much as you can, and boil that in another little pot and boil it very slowly so that it thickens. Let it cool down by itself and when it is cold it will be firm and hard. If you are able to reduce it to powder that is better. Preserve it in a vitreous vessel, well covered so it does not see air because it will become very liquid. This powder is called 'cold fire.' If you put it on the flesh it ulcerates where it touches. Do the cautery in the way described above. Also, if you take the leaf of clematis and put it where you want to cauterize and put on one bean and bind it on tightly with a bandage, the flesh will be broken and you will make the little opening easily. All these are tested. Powder to regrow tissue in sores. Take 1 ounce each of incense, Florentine iris, mastic, fenugreek flour, aloe and juniper tears and make very fine powder of everything and incorporate them together and take powdered roots of marsh mallow, washed and clean, and mix everything. Pass it through a hair sieve and it will be made. Use this powder to put on sores. It generates good flesh and cleans the sores without any stinging and cleans the dirt and quickly heals the sores.... 112 Also this other powder regrows flesh on sores. Take ½ ounce each of clear frankincense, hepatic aloe, dragon's blood gum, sarcocol gum and myrrh and make very fine powder of them all. Pass this through a hair sieve and put it on the sores and soon good flesh will grow and you will cure the sore. Powder to consolidate old sores and unite new. Take ½ ounce of dry cypress nuts, 1 ½ drams each of mastic, sarcocol gum and Armenian red clay, 3 drams each of dragon's blood gum and Florentine iris and 2 drams of litharge. Make very fine powder of all and pass them through a hair sieve and use it for your needs. First clean the sore and put thereon some powder and you will cure it. Another powder to consolidate all sores. Take 3 ounces of powdered bugloss and 1 ½ ounces each of dragon's blood gum, tragacanth and gum arabic. Make fine powder of all of the above things and pass them through a hair sieve and incorporate them well. Then put it on old or new sores and soon they will be healed. It has been tested. -------- [Page 208] Rose unguent to cool sore legs. Take 6 ounces of oil of roses, 1 ½ ounces of white lead, ½ ounce of white wax and make an unguent in the usual way. When it is cooked, wash it 4 times with rose water. Then add 4 ounces of yellow litharge and incorporate in the usual way and you will have a well-formed unguent. Treat every illness of the legs with this. You should know that in this illness you need to be careful of your eating. Do not eat harmful things and it will be cured. Another unguent for the above illness of the legs when they may be difficult to heal. Take male pork lard and grind it finely and melt it and take the same amount of turpentine and incorporate these together on a slow fire and it will be made. Rub the legs and the sore with this ointment as required and you will cure them rapidly. Make this powder for the above illness of the legs. Take hepatic aloe and betony and make very fine powder. Put this on the sores and soon it will cure them. It has been tested. Another unguent for the legs. Take 1 ounce each of litharge, burnt rock alum and burnt saccharine alum and incorporate them together with very good white wine. Add powder of plantain, of yarrow, of chervil and of hepatic aloe, the amounts at your discretion, and make the unguent. Use it for every illness of the leg and it will bring you much honor. It has been tested. For the above illness of the legs. Take the herb hound's tongue and boil it in good white wine and wash the sore place with this warm wine in the morning and the evening, if you can, and let it dry on it. Then put 3 or 4 leaves of this herb on the sore and you will cure it quickly if the leaves are green. Unguent for inflammation of every kind. Take 1 ounce each of white lead and burnt lead, 1 dram each of bone of deer horn, rock salt and dragon's blood gum and 1 ounce of violet oil and mix these well in the mortar until they are well incorporated. Then add 6 grains of camphor and incorporate well and make the unguent in the usual way. Use it to medicate. First wash the sore with a decoction of fumitory and snails. Rub the sore with this unguent and soon you will be cured. Be certain that this has been tested. Do not eat pork meat. Unguent of mummy for growing and consolidating flesh. It is good for every sore. Take 2 drams each of mummy, dragon's blood gum, fenugreek flour, mastic, tragacanth and gum arabic, 3 drams of yellow litharge, 1 lb. of rose oil and 1 ½ drams of clean wax. First dissolve the wax in the oil. Then remove it from the fire and put in the above powders, little by little, with a little rose water. If it needs it, return it to the fire briefly and continue stirring until it is cold and it will be made. Its effect will bring you honor. The virtues of the mummy. Mummy is warm and dry in the fourth degree and it helps considerably in a cold and phlegmatic abcess. It restores bone. It removes the internal pain from every blow. It is of great help for intestinal rupture by putting it between the thighs in the form of an unguent and binding it on tightly. It will cure rapidly. Complete the cure by taking a dose of one dram of syrup several times.... 113 To cleanse sores. Take 6 ounces of strained rose honey, enough fenugreek flour and barley flour to thicken, and with this treat the sores. This will bring you very wonderful honor. It has been tested. Another for cleansing. Take 1 ounce of strained rose honey, 1 dram of turpentine, 1 ½ drams of myrrh and barley flour to thicken. First mix the turpentine and rose honey on the fire and then put in the myrrh and thicken with the flour and it will be made, the best unguent to clean perfectly. By using it you will see the proof of this. Another for cleansing. Take 6 ounces of turpentine, 1 ounce of rose honey, 1 dram each of sarcocol gum, myrrh and fenugreek flour and enough rye flour. Make the unguent in the usual way and save this for your needs. When you use it, you will see its effect. -------- [Page 209] To extend a nerve that has been retracted by illness. Take equal amounts of marsh mallow root, dried violets and flax seeds and boil everything with mild lye until it reduces 1/3. With this warm liquid bathe the painful place with a sponge several times and soon you will see improvement. More to make retracted nerves return. Take some marsh mallow flowers and put them in a glass ampule and fill it with ordinary oil, the oldest that you can find. Cork it well and put it in the sun for one month. Rub the painful place with this warm oil and you will cure it. Another unguent for retracted nerves. Take 2 ounces each of laurel oil, mineral oil, mastic oil, dill oil, oil of tartaric acid and badger fat. Incorporate everything together on a little fire with sufficient clean wax and make the unguent. Make it very warm and rub the painful place and soon you will cure it. It has been tested. Poultice to mature an abcess quickly. Take marsh mallow roots, white lily bulbs, butter, lard from a male pig, mallow, fenugreek flour, flour of flax seeds and saffron, the amounts of each at your discretion. Make a good poultice and put it on the sore very warm. Do this several times and you will cure it rapidly. This has been tested. Golden poultice, powerful for wounds. Take equal amounts of Greek pitch or colophony, which is the same thing, sulfur and white incense, all of which are well ground, and incorporate them with egg white. Rub a piece of parchment well with this mixture and press it on the wound tightly with the finger, cleaning out the blood well. Put on the little piece of parchment and bind it on with a bandage and the wound will heal most rapidly. This secret is from one who never wanted to teach it to anyone. By chance he was wounded and was constrained to teach it to one of his friends to treat his own wound, so he revealed it and soon he was cured. Poultice for a wound that may be infected with worms. Take 1 ounce each of bdellium and juniper gum, ½ ounce of musk and 2 ounces of turpentine. Dissolve the bedllium and the juniper gum in strong vinegar and strain this. Put in the turpentine and the musk. Then put in 2 ounces of oil of white lily. Cook this on a slow fire for a reasonable period, stirring continuously, and remove it from the fire. Thicken it with flour of lupins and of fenugreek and it will be made. Use it as you please and it will bring you honor. To cut a limb without pain to the patient. Take 3 ounces each of mercuric sublimate, arsenic, realgar and cinnabar and 4 ounces each of turpentine and naval pitch. Pulverize everything finely and distill them with a glass tube and extract water and save this. Then make a knife of dry olive wood, cut as thin as is possible. When you want to cut a limb, first wet the knife in this distilled water and the more often you wet the knife with the water, the better you will cut without great pain to the patient. This secret was used by Master Christopher from Norsia, renowned in such acts of surgery, and he was said to have made excellent cures.... 114 -------- [Page 210] Water that removes the signs from the edges of wounds. Take some water that stands in the little blisters that form on elm trees, that is the liquor inside. Otherwise, take a quantity of these blisters and put them in a flask with a long neck and close it well. Put it in a place that stays warm for 15 days. Remove it and put it in the sun for 15 days. That totals one month, day and night. Then distill it in a glass still on a slow fire. Save the water that comes out very carefully. When you wish to treat, dip the tip of the finger in it and rub well around the edges or the sign as much as you can. Do it this way 2 or 3 times a day. Soon the mark will no more be seen because this water tones down the red sign and makes it white as the flesh so it is not distinguishable. This has been tested. This water removes scabs much better when mixed with water that drips from grape vines. *Another for the above. Take roots of Florentine iris and boil them to reduce in half. Then strain and press well and wash with this and soon the mark of a wound will disappear. By Master Apothecary Pellegrino. Knee or hand that is swollen from humors that run down. Take the center of a loaf of white bread and put it in a little pot and put therein mild lye and 1 ½ ounces of oil of roses and a little pork lard well ground and a little whole saffron. When it is well cooked, break up the bread with a ladle and add a very little fine wheat flour so this will hold together better. Then spread this very warm on one or 2 leaves of cabbage and put it on the swollen knee or hand. Doing this very warm very soon lifts the pain and removes the matter and the swelling is much reduced. It will not cause more distress and the area will be rewarmed. To resolve one that does not come to a head. Take mallow and sweet violets and cook them in water and crush them on a cutting board with a little lard and put this very warm on the swollen knee or hand or other sore place. It will lift the pain. Do it several times in the morning and evening and you will soon cure it. If you take a stupe of carded cotton and wet it in urine and put it on the warm coals and put this warm on the swelling, wherever it is, it will soon lift the pain. It brings the matter to a head without distress and it makes a head that you can cut open. Medicate with egg yolk and turpentine for 2 or 3 days, morning and evening, and rub around with rose oil and soon you will cure it. To remove the redness of a knee or leg that is swollen. Take a piece of skin the size of a palm from each side of a dog. Take 1 lb. of pine resin, 3 ounces of galbanum, 5 drams of mastic and 5 grains each of musk, amber and civet musk. Melt the resin and the galbanum and as they melt add the powdered mastic. Watch that it does not burn and mix them well. Then spread this warm on the dog's skin to the thickness of ½ a finger. Then have prepared 15 or 20 sow bugs that curl up like little balls and grind everything together in the mortar with a little pork lard to form a soft unguent. Rub this well on the plaster and put it very warm on the knee or on the flesh of the leg and bandage so it stays on and if there is hair, it should be cut. Leave the bandage on for 2 or 3 days and then remove it. If it has made blisters, break them and press out that water. Wash the leg with wine in which has been boiled olive leaves, agrimony, rose and plantain and dry it. In the evening replace the warm plaster. Continue this one or 2 times every week. All the moisture will be resolved into water and the redness and swelling will be removed. If there is a sore, treat it as usual and soon you will cure it. This is tested. Take care of yourself. -------- [Page 211] Unguent or poultice from the masters Ganfredi which is said to be powerful, by the grace of God, truly to cure all new and old wounds and to grow good flesh. It does not allow any corruption to enter nor permit any bad flesh to develop and it is powerful for all cut or shattered nerves and it is powerful against all venomous beasts and draws out the venom, and for scrofula and Saint Anthony's fire and many other ills that you will discover through more experience. Take 1 ounce each of galbanum, opopanax gum, olibanum, bdellium, verdigris, mastic, myrrh, frankincense, long birthwort and colophony, that is Greek pitch, 1 ounce of gum ammoniac, 1 dram each of lodestone and tragacanth, 2 drams of hematite, 6 ounces of clean wax and 1 lb. each of olive oil and fine litharge. Make all into fine powder except the wax, galbanum, gum ammoniac and opopanax gum. First put the three gums to soften in strong vinegar for one whole day. Melt them in a pot with the vinegar on a slow fire, stirring continually so they do not stick and boil until the vinegar is consumed. Then mix with a little odoriferous wine and strain it and set it aside. Put the oil on the fire and make the wax melt in it. Put in the above powders and the litharge and stir continuously because it readily sticks to the bottom. Then the gums, little by little, then the verdigris, the myrrh, the birthwort, the mastic, the incense and the other things are put in little by little, always stirring so that it does not attach to the pot and with a little fire. Continue this until you see it change to a dark color. If you want to know when it is cooked, let a drop fall in cold water and if it becomes hard, it is cooked and if not, leave it a while on the fire and do not stop using the stirring rod. When it is cooked, remove the pot from the fire and put it in cold water until it is cooled in the water to a form that you can handle. Rub it with ordinary oil and when it is done, preserve it as a paste in a bottle. It will last 100 years and is always good. This has been tested. These are its virtues. As is said above, it is powerful to heal every sore, old or new. It is precious above every other unguent. It joins better, modifies, generates and consolidates good flesh more in one day than others do in a week and still does this wonderful work without corrupting anything where it is used and will not generate putrefying flesh. It is powerful against every cut or swollen nerve and is powerful against every bite of venomous animals and even draws out the venom. It is powerful against any developing abcess, fistula, cancer and Saint Anthony's fire and for those abcesses that develop inside the body or in the head. When this unguent is put on, it immediately starts to resolve the infirmity. Doing this several times is approved for all the above infirmities with this, that the infirm one is kept from all things adverse to him. By observing the rules, he will be cured rapidly, through God's grace. The cerate of optimum value, called God's Grace. Take 1 handful each of burnet saxifrage, betony, burdock and valerian, all cut finely, and put them to soften in an earthenware basin with good, fragrant white wine for 4 whole days and boil this in a clean pot until it is reduced in half. Then strain and press the herbs in the press. Put in 1 lb. each of turpentine and strained pine tar, 6 ounces of white wax and a glass of urine from a little child. Return it to a slow fire for ½ hour and stir continuously because it may boil over. Remove it from the fire and stir until it is cold and can be made into a brick. Then put it again in a container and melt it on a slow fire and at once put therein 1 ounce each of well-pulverized mastic, olibanum, and myrrh and 3 ounces of mother's milk and put these together and stir until it has thickened. Shape it very well with the hands and you will have made the best cerate which has these virtues. It is powerful for cuts and for nerves, for any swellings and to draw out iron or wood from bad flesh, for dog bites or bites of venomous animals, to bring abcesses to a head, to clean up ulcers, fistulas and carbuncles and for every developing growth and for scrofula. It even has many other great tested virtues. -------- [Page 212] The unguent, God's Grace, to heal and clean every serious wound. Take 2 handfuls each of greater and lesser centaury, honeysuckle, wood sorrel, plantain and ribwort plantain, 1 handful each of comfrey, self heal, mouse ear, clary and tansy, ½ handful each of dill, wormwood and feverfew, 2 ½ ounces each of roots of red madder and ground wheat and 1 ½ handfuls each of flowers and leaves of St. John's wort, agrimony, burdock, toadflax and horsetail. Cut everything as finely as possible, then add in these fats, which are 1 lb. of unsalted pork fat, 2 lb. of fragrant rose oil, 1 ½ lb. each of clear turpentine and beef suet and 1 lb. of mutton fat. Regrind everything together from the beginning and incorporate with 3 lb. of very fragrant wine. Let it stay all together in the sun for 9 to 10 days. Then put it in a pot on a slow fire until the wine is consumed and stir with your rod so that it does not stick on the bottom. Then strain this warm under the press and extract the substance well. Then put it again in the pot on a slow fire. Put therein 8 ounces of very clear turpentine, 3 ounces each of mastic and fresh pine pitch, 2 ounces of elemi gum and enough white wax and make a firm unguent that you can soften with fragrant wine and then with cow's milk or goat's milk and at the end with a little brandy to make a wonderful secret remedy to heal all wounds from the head to the feet, because this unguent has been made from much testing. Healing bandage powerful against corroding, malignant, poisonous, tingling ulcers that are difficult to cure. Take 6 ounces of unguento populeone , 3 ounces of rose unguent, 1 ½ lb. of rose oil, 8 ounces of veal fat, 2 ½ ounces of pork lard and 3 ounces each of juice of plantain and of nightshade. Boil everything together on a slow fire until the juices are consumed. Then strain it at once. Then add 6 ounces of white lead and 2 ounces each of yellow and white litharge and 1 ½ ounces each of red lead and clay from Lemnos. Reboil everything from the beginning very slowly and continue stirring with the rod until it becomes dark and put in a little white wax, enough to thicken and 1 dram of cut-up camphor. Make a healing bandage in the usual way and this will bring you very great honor. For the swelling or mass that comes behind the heels. Take some brambles and burn them and make 1 ounce of very fine ash and incorporate with ½ ounce of powder of burnt shoe leather. Then wash the sick place with warm wine in which has been boiled equal amounts of rosemary, cypress nuts and dried roses. When the feet are dry, put on some of this powder thickly in the morning and the evening. Bind it on so that it does not fall off and very soon you will cure them because this has been tested many times.... 115 To care for cold feet. Take 1 handful each of the herb gooseberry, which is called ciese de prete , sage and nettles and boil them together with water, with which the feet are then washed and dried. Then rub the feet with laurel oil. Do this 5 to 6 times and you will not feel as cold. This has been tested. *Another to protect from cold. Take ground eyebright and mix it with laurel oil and fat from a fox and rub the feet and hands. Cook nettles with laurel oil and rub the body and you will not feel the cold. The nettles should be gathered before the sun comes up. To remove a ring from a finger that is swollen. Take bean flour, vinegar and salt and mix everything together. Thicken it a little on the fire and put it on a cloth in the form of a poultice. Put it warm on the swelling and soon it will be reduced and the ring will come off. This has been tested. -------- [Page 213] Healing bandage that is only treated cloth. Take 2 scruples each of rose oil, white lead, turpentine, clean wax and lard from a male pig and put everything together in a pan or pot, the oil, turpentine and wax, and as they melt put therein the lard and continue stirring. Lastly put in the white lead and when you see it increase in height, put in one cloth at a time, always stirring top to bottom so that everything becomes incorporated well. Then put in the others until all the material is used up and the pieces of cloth become dry. If you wish to make less, put in less cloth. You will have made a bandage to cure the leg. For problems with the knee or other illnesses of the leg. Take 3 lb. of ordinary oil, 1 lb. each of yellow litharge and clean wax, 3 ounces of red lead and 4 ounces of white lead and incorporate everything on a slow fire and make an unguent in the usual way and treat with this. Also make this other unguent. Take 1 ½ lb. of rose oil, 2 lb. of yellow litharge, 8 ounces of white lead and 6 ounces of clean wax. First put the oil and the wax on the fire and melt them, then the finely-powdered white lead on a slow fire and continue stirring with the rod and when it has boiled enough, put in the litharge and incorporate well until it is cooked. Remove it from the fire and put in 6 scruples of camphor, cut very minutely, and stir until it is cold. The perfect unguent will be made, good for every illness of the knee. It has been tested. *For fissure or cracks of the lips. Take hairs from the tail of a horse and bran and put them in a heated iron pan and stir until it reduces to powder. Then take equal amounts of egg white, tragacanth and gum arabic and mix them with the powder. Bring it into the form of an unguent and rub the fissures or cracks on the lips. Putting on this unguent also restores the down of the beard or hairs that appear white among the gray. *Oil extracted from the kernels of roasted nuts heals wonderfully. Also powdered egg shells mixed with honey heal best. *Take litharge, fresh butter, washed turpentine, bovine marrow and mastic. Mix them together and rub them on. *Melt oil of white lilies and clean wax and rub it on. *Take equal amounts of gum arabic, tragacanth, oil of roses, oil of violets, chicken fat and clean wax and make an unguent. *Against swelling of the lips. Take juice of parsnip leaves and make an unguent with litharge and anoint the lips. *For fissures of the lips. Barley sugar dissolved in water of tragacanth heals fissures of the lips. *For fissured and cracked heels and hands. Take washed turpentine, salt, fresh butter and egg yolk and mix them together. Rubbing with it joins the cracks firmly. It is tested. Butter and clean wax, melted together and put on cracks, will heal them quickly. *For fissures or cracks of lips, hands or nipples. Take 3 drams of marsh mallow, 1 dram of oil of juniper. Mix them and make an unguent and anoint the cracks. *Unguent for the mouth. Take 2 ounces of rose oil, 1 ounce of white wax, 2 ounces each of male frankincense, orris root, fat from a horse and sepi bircini and make an unguent. *For cracks in the hands and feet. Take nettle juice and a little salt and incorporate with ordinary oil and rub the cracks and soon they will be cured. Rub goose fat thickly on the lips. Also boil the seeds of myrtle with white wine and wash yourself with this and it will help you greatly. *For a salt humor in the legs. Take the herb red sow thistle, also called crespini , make it into juice and mix with an equal amount of rose oil and enough clean wax. Add the yolk of one egg and make the unguent in the usual way. Use it and shortly you will be cured without using anything else. It has been tested.... 116 -------- [Page 214] *A water to take away a scrofula. Take cyclamen roots and roots of arum and of bryony in equal proportions and put everything to distill in a glass still. Wet some linen cloths in this water and put them warm on the scrofulas for 10 to 15 days and it will help your health greatly. Another to take away a scrofula in 40 days. Viz. Take 2 cyclamen roots, washed and well cleaned, and cut 20 slices from each one, in all it will be 40 slices. Dry them in the shade and each morning take one slice, made into fine powder, with 2 fingers of very good white wine. It should be taken in the form of a warm syrup and early. At the end of 40 days you will be cured of the scrofula. It has been tested. *To make ambergris ointment. Take 1 ½ ounces of sarcocol gum, 1 ounce of Florentine iris, 1 ounce of punice stone, ½ ounce of benzoin gum, 2 drams of Syrian storax, 1 dram of ash from a willow tree and ½ scruple of fine civet musk. Pulverize everything to impalpability. First put the sarcocol gum in a box of brass with a little water of dried roses on a slow fire and as it softens, as it will quickly, divide this gum into 4 parts, little by little. First knead one part with storax and benzoin gum together into a wheel of dough, making 3 parts as large as a knife handle. Then with another part make 3 parts with powdered pumice. Then make another part into 3 parts with orris root and make the fourth part into 2 little ones with powdered carbon. Take one of these pieces and rub it with a little civet musk, carefully in the dough. Put it on one or the other color, turning them as if making a rosary of mixed colors of dough. Then put them on a piece of cloth and bind it so that it takes on the shape of a mushroom and put it in a little box with cotton wool. Carry it in the chest or similar warm place and it will be made.... 117 -------- [Page 215] Unguent for ulcer in several forms. Take 1 ounce each of galbanum, white diaquilon , Spanish pitch, clean wax, white tar and old lard, 2 ounces of ordinary oil, 3 ounces of white incense, ½ ounce of powdered cloves and 3 ½ ounces of well-ground powder of fresh water crayfish. Make all of the above things into an unguent in the usual way. This will bring you honor in all your treatments. Another, a marvelous powder to cure an ulcer. Take the head and feet of a crane and dry them in the oven and make it into powder. Take flax seed, dregs of ink, pomegranate rind, betony and shepherd's purse and make powder of all. Roast the seed, the dregs and the pomegranate rind very well and incorporate them. Mix half of the above powder in fresh oil and save the other half, well covered. But first put some powdered litharge and verdigris on the ulcer, according to whether the ulcer is old or new or if it has eaten away some flesh. If it is new, put a little powder on it and if it is old, put on more. Both before and after wash the sore inside and out with very good warm wine. Dry it well with fine linen cloth. Then put therein some of this powder made with oil and fill the sore well. Treat one day yes, the other no, and with the aid of God, you will soon cure it. This has been tested. Another to cure an ulcer so it grows new flesh. Take the head of a rabbit with the skin and everything and dry it in the oven and make very fine powder. Take the feces of a healthy man from 20 to 30 years in age and dry it in the oven and make very fine powder. Incorporate both together and put it on the ulcer and have prepared some juice made of rosemary and put it on the sore, that is on the powder. When you want to treat, first wash the sore with warm white wine in which was first boiled ivy, cypress nuts and tamarind, in equal proportions. Then put on the powder and then the juice and bandage it carefully. Do this twice a day and soon you will be cured, with the aid of God. Be careful what you eat. This has been tested. First say over it these 4 words, viz. 'In the beginning and the end there is God. There was the ulcer. God lives and the ulcer dies. In the name of the Father +, Son + and Holy Spirit +, Amen.' Say this 3 times with 3 Pater Noster. It will bring you honor. To remove an ulcer and cure it quickly. Take a large live toad, a live turtle, a mole that stays underground and some human feces. Put all these things in a pot with a cover. Then lute it well around with lute of wisdom or with dough and when it has dried, put it in the oven after the bread is removed. See that the pot does not leak anywhere. From the amount that you put in, you can judge when to bring out the pot so you can make very fine powder of everything that you have put in the pot. Then take filings of steel, the finest that you can get, or 12 to 15 drops of extract from thin steel. Grind them and make very fine powder and in addition as much ground glass and a little ground pepper and make very fine powder of each by itself. Then take an amount at your discretion and mix them together and incorporate the powder with some fresh honey until a firm dough is made. Then let it dry and make a very fine powder and save this for your needs. Put some of the powder on the ulcer or rub it in the abcess and it will be removed quickly when the illness is new and not too deeply rooted in the bone. Then it will be difficult to cure, being so deeply rooted. Keep to this rule that has been tested by very worthy men.... 118 *Tested unguent to cure a carbuncle. Take 2 drams of large dry figs, ½ dram of true senna, 1 dram of gum ammoniac, 3 drams of turpentine and equal proportions of flour of fenugreek and of flax seed. Distemper this with rose honey and make an unguent. -------- [Page 216] To remove a fistula in several ways. Take tartaric acid from a cask, heat it and make fine powder, and an equal amount of long-leaved plantain, that is ribwort, and make fine powder and incorporate them together. Then put some of the powder on a tent and put it on the opening of the fistula. Otherwise make a tent of ribwort leaves and put on some of this powder and treat with this. Alternatively put one powder on and then the other to see which works better. But take care how you live, because these fistulas may come in several kinds. That is, some are warm and some cold and you should know that the cold fistula of gout makes its opening little and minute. To cure them, take ribwort juice and an equal amount of egg white and the best quality rye flour and incorporate everything together in the form of a poultice. Put it on the sore place and let it stay until it comes off by itself. When it comes off, do it again and soon you will be cured. Continue this until you are cured. If you wish to remove the bad tissue of the fistula, take copper sulfate made into very fine powder and distemper it with butter in the form of an unguent and put it on the fistula. It is said that in 24 hours it will be cleaned up and you will soon be cured. Keep yourself from adverse things. When you treat the fistula, say this prayer over it with the sign of the cross, viz. '+ Christ conquers, + Christ rules, + Christ orders, + Christ protect you from all evil. God, in his name, may make you well and through his power free you. From the side of our Lord, Jesus Christ, blood and water came out. I implore you, blood and wound from the side and the lance which pierced the side of our Lord, Jesus Christ, may blood not come out. + Agios + otheos + ischiros + athanatos + eleyson + ymas + sanctus + dominus + sanctus fortis + et sanctus immortalis + thetragramaton + ha filii david miserere. + Clean and heal the tissue. Jesus Christ may do it well. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen + + +.' *Prayer against ulcer and fistula. Viz. 'In the name of the holy indivisible Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. He conquers and destroys the root. Atta, Atta. I implore you ulcer or fistula, by the omnipotent Father, by the holy Virgin Mary, by Saint John the Baptist and all the saints of God which are in heaven who in the name of Christ stand in the book of life, by the twenty-four elders, by the twenty-four martyrs who in the name of Christ have suffered, by the cherubim and serafim who daily before God incessantly proclaim, saying holy, holy Lord God, Sabaot, king and Lord God, Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. This is as true as the heavens are firm. All power is God's. Dry up ulcer or fistula or mark which is in this servant of God. Lord, holy Father, omnipotent eternal God who made heaven and earth and placed them in the orbit of heaven. The Lord is King of kings. I beg that this ulcer or fistula or mark dry up. Merciful Lord, heal your servant as you healed Christ, the Son of God, who suffered through you. Holy angels and archangels of God, patriarachs and prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins and all the saints of God, remove all tribulation and pain of ulcers, fistulas and marks, through Christ, our Lord, Amen. I implore you, ulcer or fistula, by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen, by the dread day of judgment, by the four evengelists, by the twelve apostles, by the twelve prophets, by the twenty-four elders who daily praise and adore the Lord, by the ruler of the world, our Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God who was crucified on the holy cross for our sins. I implore you by the blessed Christopher to whom God gave the power to heal ulcer or fistula, and I implore you by the blessed Blasium, by the blessed Claudius who has the power to cure this infirmity. By those I implore you that the ulcer or fistula does not have power over him or her. Amen. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.' Say this prayer. 'Let us pray. Omnipotent, everlasting Lord, eternal health is belief in you. Hear me for your servant for your mercy. Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son who lives with you, we implore you to return him to health soon.' Then say the Pater Noster. 'Free your servant from ulcer or fistula and all illness. Be well. Be well. Be well. So be it. So be it. So be it. Amen. So be it through the grace of God.' Say this 3 times and it will be cured quickly. -------- [Page 217] Another for healing an ulcer or scrofula. “ In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. God of Abraham, + God of Isaac, + God of Jacob, + have pity on your servant (name). So be it. So be it. So be it. Amen. Amen. Amen. + Christ conquers, + Christ rules, + Christ orders. + Amen. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. Our Father who is in heaven. + In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. Holy, Holy, Holy. Lord God, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosannah in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosannah in the highest +. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. I implore you, ulcer or scrofula, by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, by the Virgin Mary and by these, by all the holy angels and archangels, by cherubim and seraphim, by the beginning and the power, by the throne and authority, by the patriarchs and prophets and the twelve apostles, by the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, by the twenty-four elders who are before God, by all the saints of God, by the seven sleepers, by the sun and moon, by the heaven and by all who are in heaven, by the paradise of God and all who are there, and by immortal God, by the holy resurrection and holy ascension and by the number given up at birth to the altar of God, by the seventy angels who are before God where there is no better nor higher place, by Saint John the Baptist, by Saint Luke the Evangelist, dry up you cursed creature and wither and lessen as I touch you. Dry up you cursed creature. Lord Jesus Christ, you who told your disciples, 'In my name they will throw out demons, they will speak with a new tongue, they will remove serpents and if they drink something deadly, it will not harm them.' He will place his hand on the illnesses and they will go away completely. I put my hand on that ulcer or scrofula in your name, not with merit for I am not worthy, but for the honor of your name. Lord, as you freed Daniel from the lions' den, the three boys from the burning fire, Sidrach, Misach and Abednego, and Susanna from false charges and opened the eyes of the blind and revived Lazarus four days after death, I entreat you sovreign, most clement Father, so may you think this, your servant (name), worthy to be set free from ulcer or scrofula which he has. Again, I implore you by the 72 names of Christ, by the 318 fathers who determined the laws of the world, to remove this illness, just as you destroyed the one who sinned with his mother and two sisters. Eternal Father, eternal Son, eternal Holy Spirit, God in your name cure your servant (name) of all ills and, in your power, free him. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.” Say this most holy prayer for 3 mornings over the sick place of ulcer or scrofula and carry the written prayer with you. Do not eat things that are not good and avoid all things adverse, especially fruit and pork, and with the aid of God you will soon be cured, because this has been tested many times. To cure quickly the abcess that comes in the finger. Take 3 tips of elder and each tip should have 3 leaves. First say 3 Pater Noster and 3 Ave Maria and say the prayer written below once for each tip. Then put them on the sore place in the form of a cross. Be confident that this sore will be cured in good time because it opens up. It may have indurated and made a head and it may have a long root. Use these leaves until the root has come out. If you want to put a little fat or lard together with the leaves when the root begins to come out, soon it will come out without pain. When the root comes out you will be able to medicate with an unguent and soon you will cure it. This is the prayer, viz. 'God cures you. Twelve are the apostles whom God blessed, four are the evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In the name of God and of the blessed saint and Saint Fabian and of the healing saint, Amen.' A prayer to cure the abcess. When you have such an illness as an abcess in the tip of the finger, say over the sore the Pater Noster and the Ave Maria. Then say, 'The abcess is destroyed by God and by Saint Mark and Saint Matthew and the 12 apostles and the 4 evangelists and those who stand before Christ and by the blessed Fabian and Sebastian and Cosmas and Damian and the blessed healing saint. Amen. + Father, Son and Holy Spirit +, Amen.' -------- [Page 218] For a venomous bite or having eaten something venomous or worms or venomous animals and for body pain. First say 3 Pater Noster and 3 Ave Maria with devotion. Take a pot of clean water in whatever amount you want, that is not important. Say, 'Let us pray. Having been advised in healthful rules and having been prepared in divine instruction, we venture to say the Pater Noster.' Say all of it. 'Lord, hear my prayer and may my cry come to you.' We pray, 'God, who conferred great power on the blessed Patrick, your confessor, miraculously expelling venomous serpents, give this to us who are your faithful servants, as you grant favors to the faithful, so grant this to whomever will have received a bite of a serpent-like poison, whether from a dog, wolf or worm, by this sacred name, Holy, Holy Savior, to the credit of the blessed Patrick, may he be strong to free us. Amen. In the name of the Father + Son + and Holy + Spirit, Amen.' Give some of this blessed water to the person to drink who is sick from the venoms described above and he will be cured rapidly. If the venom is of the kind that can be cured with the aid of God, it will soon be cured by means of this fervent prayer of Saint Patrick and with 3 Pater Noster and 3 Ave Maria. Amen. To cure one who was bitten by a rabid dog. Take 1 handful of lesser centaury, cut finely, and boil it with new wine until it becomes thick as a syrup. Remove it from the fire, strain it carefully and give 3 ounces to drink early in the morning in the form of a syrup and it will cure this quickly if, as is said, it can be cured. Otherwise, write these 4 words on a crust of bread and give it to the patient to eat and also make another and give it to the rabid dog, vz. ' Crona bis, crona si nobis, crona decida ardere. + + + Amen.' With the aid of God, he will soon be cured. *To cure on who was bitten by a rabid dog and has the mania. Viz., take the flower of the wild thistle, dried in the shade, and make powder of it and give ½ spoonful to drink in warm white wine and in 3 times he will be cured. Against the venom of bees, wasps, hornets and scorpions. At once, or as soon as you can, take some purslane, that is portulaca, in whatever amount you can get and grind it between 2 lodestones. When you feel the sting, draw out the sting with the venom and put on the ground purslane. Change it 3 or 4 times in the space of an hour and soon the pain will stop and you will not feel it. But the hard spot that remains also will be resolved in 2 days. If the sting is from a scorpion it is urgent to repeat this several times and this also will be cured. If you are not able to have the above herb, take the juice of a green apple or other sweet apples and do the same thing. This has been tested many times by me, Master Apothecary Andrea. *Another against venomous animals. As soon as you feel the venom, put on the sting some milk from branches of figs. Do this several times and soon you will be cured. Mustard with vinegar will do the same. Prayer against all venoms from rabid dogs, serpents or other venoms. Write these words on a plain wafer and give it to the patient to eat, with 3 Pater Noster and 3 Ave Maria, in reverence to God and to Saint Peter and to Saint Vitus. Do this for 3 mornings in a row and, through the power of God, soon you will cure him. These are the words, viz. '+ Peace + Father + Word + Son +. He is the remedy +. Holy Spirit + through whom all + things are done, + free your servant (name). So be it. Amen. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.' To domesticate an animal so it does what is wanted. Say these word in the ear of the animal that you want to domesticate and it will become quiet and more docile than at first and be the animal you want. First say the Pater Noster with the sign of the cross and say, 'God was taken and he was not offended. I wish the same to you. You do not want to offend me. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.' *Another to domesticate a pair of bullocks. Say this prayer 3 times in the right ear, viz. 'Saint Job was on the Mount of Olives and he was taming young animals. Jesus Christ was passing and Jesus Christ ordered the beast to behave, so he must not paw the earth, nor hit, nor make any trouble as did the friend of the Nestorian priest on the way to the inferno.' So these animals may be tamed at the pleasure of God.... 120 -------- [Page 219] *For pain in the testicles and other illnesses and swellings. Take the white of an egg and incorporate it with barley flour or bean flour and make a poultice. Put it on warm and soon your pain will be relieved. *Another for one who has swelling there. Take fresh celery and fry it in ordinary oil and rub the testicles with this and bind on the herb and soon you will be cured. *Another for the above. Take bean flour, violet juice, rose oil and bran and make a poultice and put it warm on the swollen testicles and soon they will be cured. If only one testicle is swollen, take equal amounts of goat, dog and dove dung and make a poultice of all these and put it warm on the testicle with a little oil of roses and you will cure it rapidly. *Another for the above. Take fenugreek and make powder of it and mallow and cook these and grind them with lard and butter and make a poultice. Put on some of this powder and put the warm poultice on the testicle and the pain from the swelling will soon disappear. Also take some parsnips and make a plaster and put it on warm and it will soon remove the pains. *Another in swelling of the testicles. Take oils of white lilies, of elder and of roses. Then take mashed beans cooked in wine or lye and fry them in a pan very well with the oils and then put this very warm on the sore places. *Another poultice for swollen testicles. Take turpentine, bran, fenugreek flour and powdered cumin, each the same amount, and incorporate them on a slow fire and put this warm on the sore place and you will certainly cure it. *For excoriation of the penis because of coitus or other overheating. Take 1 ½ lb. of cistern water in which is boiled 2 ounces each of wild pomegranate, cypress berries, myrtle leaves and house leek until half of this water is consumed. Then add 6 ounces of rose honey and boil this in the water again to half. Bathe the head of the penis in this water. Also human saliva and plain wine boiled together will have a similar effect. *For one who has a problem with the penis from overheating. Take 4 dinari of hepatic aloe, 1 scruple of zinc oxide and enough rose oil to make an unguent. Then spread this on a linen cloth and put it on the penis. When it is irritated inside add a little burnt rock alum. *Lavage for the penis swollen and excoriated within. Take half a glass of fine white wine and 1 handful each of pomegranate rind, ordinary rosemary and dry roses, a piece of rock alum the size of a nut, ½ handful of camomile, a little less than half a handful of sweet clover and 1 ounce of coarse sugar. Boil everything together. Then wash the outside of the penis. When the sickness is inside the penis, add a little fresh water to this boiled water and with a syringe or pump put it in the penis. *Another lavage. Take 4 ounces of barley water, 1 ounce of roses, 1 ounce of mother's milk or goat's milk and 1 dram of zinc oxide. Mix everything together and push it in the penis. *Bath for washing and strengthening the member. Take 3 drams of myrrh, 7 ounces of malvasia wine and ½ ounce of dried roses and make a lavage without boiling. *Powder for regrowing tissue in the member. Take 1 dram each of myrrh, aloe, incense, wild pomegranate, fine sugar and burnt rock alum. *Decoction for the same. Take 1 handful each of red roses and wild pomegranate, 2 handfuls each of myrtle leaves and olive leaves and 1 dram of verdigris. Grind everything together coarsely and boil it thoroughly in ordinary water. Take ½ ounce of sugar and 2 ounces each of verdigris and zinc carbonate and boil everything in a carafe of good wine until it reduces down the neck of the carafe. Then add 1 dram of verdigris and wash the penis. Then medicate it with the Apostles' unguent. Using a third of the decoction, put it warm on the swelling on the outside, so the member is washed.... 121 *Plaster for the swollen and infected penis. Take 1 handful of marsh mallow and enough ordinary violet oil and camomile and make the plaster with barley flour. First boil the mallow well and strain it well. Grind it and make the plaster of it as above. *Unguent for the ulcerated penis and infected tibias. Take 1 lb. each of lard from a red pig, pine tar, turpentine and Armenian red clay, 6 ounces of clean wax, 2 ounces of dragon's blood gum and 3 ounces of rose oil. First put the tar on the fire and melt it. Then add the wax, turpentine, the ground lard and the oil, then the powders. Incorporate them well on a slow fire for a quarter of an hour and it will be made and it is ready for use. -------- [Page 220] To restrain a snake and make it stay quiet. First make the sign of the holy cross. Then say as follows, ' Os, os, osia. Stop, you most worthless serpent, by the power of these holy names of God, + Tettagramaton , Lord Jesus Christ, and by the milk of his mother, the most blessed Virgin Mary, because you are subdued and constrained by me as the dew is by the sun. As you will go away from fire, so you cannot harm me nor any Christian and your venom is lost, in the name of the Father +, Son + and Holy Spirit and in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, Amen.' Then say this, 'Like the water of the River Jordan, when Saint John the Baptist baptised our Lord, Jesus Christ, so I charm you serpent by the true and living God, by the holy God, by the God who expelled you from paradise. So in this world I believe that you cannot do harm to me nor to any other person, nor to any Christian creature. He will walk on the asp and the basilisk and will trample underfoot the lion and the dragon and put out your venom. I touch you and will touch you and restrain you with my right foot.' Then say 3 Pater Noster and 3 Ave Marie and let the serpent go with confidence that, in the name of God, of the Virgin Mary and of Saint Paul, he will not hurt you in any way. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. *Perfect water to cure every illness of the leg. Take green and fresh pine nuts and cut them in half or in 4 parts and distill water from them in the glass still. Then take cypress berries and cut them similarly and put them to soften in a bottle with olive oil that barely covers them and leave them for four days. Make oil from the nuts by distilling them on a low fire and at the end increase the fire and the material will come out more quickly although it will have the same power. Also distill water from the root of the wild squash, that is bryony. Then take a quantity of each of these three waters and mix them together and distill it one more time. This water will be perfect and good to treat and cure legs rapidly. Save it in a glass bottle for your needs. To use it, wet in the water fine cloths the size of the sore place and no larger. Do not put on any other unguent because this alone will cure every old sore on the legs. [Folio 80 is missing.] -------- [Page 221] For intestinal rupture, a plaster very strong and wonderful to cure it. Take 1 ounce each of mummy, fir tree oil and elm oil, 1 dram each of parchment glue, colofony, cypress nuts, hepatic aloe and rabbit skin, ½ dram each of Armenian red clay, greater comfrey, dragon's blood gum, gum ammoniac, myrrh, galbanum and juniper gum, 2 drams each of mastic, incense, tragacanth, gum arabic and lodestone, 5 drams of naval pitch, 1 ½ drams each of rabbit blood and Solomon's seal, 2 ounces of clean wax and ½ ounce of femoral bone. Melt all the gums in strong vinegar and make all the other things into very fine powder and incorporate everything well on a little fire with great diligence and it will make a plaster in the usual form. Save this for your needs. When you wish to treat, spread it on chamois leather and shave the place and put it on the pubic region on the side where the illness is felt. Wrap it well and tightly with a truss of fustian and when you put it on, extend it around the body. Reassure the sick person to have much patience and not do too much that is fatiguing and not eat too much. He should watch what he eats and not eat things that cause flatulence, nor pork meat and eat food well cooked, not legumes nor sour things. You should know how to care for yourself in everything so that soon with the aid of God you will be cured. Also you will improve even if, by chance, you have had such an infirmity for many years. If this plaster does not help, try these others written below, viz. Another plaster for rupture. Take 1 ½ drams each of black tar and Greek pitch, 3 drams of mummy, 2 drams each of tragacanth, gum arabic, dragon's blood gum, mastic, Armenian red clay, cypress nuts and parchment glue, 1 dram of incense and 1 ounce of clean wax. First melt the wax and then the pitches. Then put in all the other things made into very fine powder and put them in little by little, stirring continuously with the rod until it is cooked according to the usual method. Then remove it from the fire and when it is cold, rub the hands with oil and knead the dough well until you can make it into a medallion. Then smooth it on the chamois to put it on the rupture. Put it on very firmly with a belt of fustian or belt of hemp so it is well closed and firm. Stay in repose as much as you can if you want to be cured quickly. Take care of yourself, do not eat things adverse as they will make you ill. Every morning use some of the powder written below with wine or warm broth. Viz. Take 1 dram each of cypress nuts, mummy, galingale, Indian leaf and myrtle, 2 drams each of cinnamon and dragon's blood gum and make very fine powder of all. The dose is 1 ½ drams early in the morning and repose yourself for ½ hour and soon, with the aid of God, you will be cured. Take care of yourself. Another plaster for rupture. Take 3 drams of colofony, 2 drams each of naval pitch and gum ammoniac and 3 drams of parchment glue. Cut up the gums and soften them in 3 drams of strong vinegar with 2 drams of oil of mastic for one whole day. Then dissolve it on a slow fire with 2 ½ drams of clean wax and strain it while warm and put into the strained liquid the powder written below, viz. Take ½ dram each of mastic, tragacanth, incense, fenugreek flour, Armenian red clay, mummy and dragon's blood gum and incorporate them very well with the spatula on a slow fire. Then remove it from the fire and stir until it is cold and the plaster will be made. Then spread it on chamois and put it on the pubic area that should be shaved. Bind it on firmly with more wrappings with a band, well fastened. Do little that is fatiguing and stay in repose, if you can, so you will be cured more quickly. Preserve yourself from all those things that you know are adverse to you and you will be cured. Take care of yourself. -------- [Page 222] A very strong plaster for intestinal rupture. Take 1 ½ ounces each of Greek pitch and fish glue, 1 ounce each of naval pitch and gum ammoniac, 2 drams each of mastic, tragacanth, incense, fenugreek flour, 1 ½ drams each of Armenian red clay and dragon's blood gum, 1 ½ drams each of cypress nuts, mummy and elemi gum and Indian leaf, 2 ounces each of roots of greater comfrey and myrtle, 3 drams each of cloves and galingale, 2 ½ ounces each of oil of mastic, powder of Turkey oak and of coral, 1 handful each of the herb rusty fern, adder's tongue fern and hepatica, 1 ounce of lodestone and 2 ounces of clean wax. All of the above things should be of high quality. First melt the wax, pitch, fish glue and gum ammoniac and put the tragacanth to soften in 1 ounce of vinegar. Make as fine a powder as you can from all the other things. Cut the herbs as minutely as possible so that they are powdered if you can. Then first put the herbs in the pot together with the wax and the other melted things and put in the tragacanth. Then put in the other powders little by little and continue stirring well, incorporating with your wooden spatula on a slow fire. When it is cooked, remove it from the fire. When it is nearly cold, rub your hands with ordinary oil and knead it between the hands for ½ hour. That helps this mix because it comes to be refined and incorporated and it lasts longer. Then spread it on chamois, as usual, not too thickly. Shave the pubic region when you want to put it on. Then say the Pater Noster and the Ave Maria and touch the place of the rupture that hurts with your finger and make the sign of the cross and say this devotional prayer over it three times in a row and each time say the Pater Noster so that there will be 3 reverences to the Holy Trinity. Say this for three mornings in a row, touching the plaster with the finger. Viz. 'We pray. Blessed be the place and hour that God was born and was baptized in the River Jordan. How much pain this rupture does or will do is at the pleasure of God and the Holy Trinity and the everglorious Virgin Mary. So the sickness can go and disappear and the sick one can be cured and restored to health as before, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.' Then wash the place and put on the prepared plaster and when you put it on, make it stay stretched with the legs straight so that the intestines do not stay in the bag of skin. Then put on it more packing with a belt of hemp or fustian that should be very tight and well tied and firm, both day and night. If a rapid cure is desired, try to stay quiet, do not be fatigued nor go about wrapped up too much. Do not eat unhealthy things, such as pork meat which is too harmful, nor sour things, nor legumes, but all the things that you eat should be well-cooked. Chew food well so that it does not generate gas in the body and is sooner digested and gives nourishment to the body. Refrain from women for this time, that is for at least a month to a month and a half. By observing the rules above, you will be cured even if you have borne it for a long time because others have been cured with this. Another plaster to cure rupture. Take 6 drams each of valerian, snails, madder without the tops and mummy, 3 ounces each of juice of butcher's broom, turpentine and clean wax, 2 ounces each of Armenian red clay, mastic, tile, Solomon's seal, 4 ounces of starfish, 1 ½ ounces each of colofony and resin and 2 drams of diamonds. Make a plaster in the usual way. Bind it very tightly on the rupture and renew it 2 or 3 times in a month or more. Keep yourself from all adverse things, as is described above, and be confident that you will be cured with the aid of God. -------- [Page 223] For intestinal rupture, a useful and approved plaster. Take 1 ½ ounces of Greek pitch, 1 ounce each of naval pitch and gum ammoniac and 2 ounces of fish glue. Put these 4 things to soften in strong vinegar for one whole day that lasts the day and the night. Then strain it and put it in a little pan on a slow fire. Put therein 1 ½ ounces of oil of mastic. Then put in these other things that are written below and make all into very fine powder. That is, 2 ounces each of mastic, tragacanth, incense, fenugreek flour, Armenian red clay, mummy and dragon's blood gum. Each should be select and good. Put them in little by little, stirring continuously with a rod until it is well incorporated and cook it into the form of a firm plaster. Then when it is cold, knead it for ½ hour with greased hands. Then spread it on chamois and put it on the rupture that has been shaved first. It should be warm when it is put on and say over it this prayer, 'Blessed be the place and the hour when God was born and was baptized in the River Jordan. How much pain this puncture or rupture does or will do is at the pleasure of God and of the Holy Trinity and of the glorious Virgin Mary, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.' Say it with the Pater Noster. When you put on the plaster, put on the truss with more padding and tighten it well. Every morning take ½ spoonful of this powder each time in the form of a warm syrup with wine or broth and stay in repose and sleep if you can. Viz., 2 drams each of myrtle leaves, cypress nuts and mummy, ½ dram each of cloves, parsley, ginger and Indian leaf, 1 dram of dragon's blood gum and 1 dram of elemi gum. Make very fine powder of all of the above things, well sifted and incorporated. Continue to take this as described early in the morning and continue for a month or more while you wear the plaster. It will be useful to you to take the usual laxative during this time so that the body stays soft, without hard effort to go from the body. So for the first 3 days stay in bed and stay with the back straight and with the head lowered. Have great courage in these 3 days that it will help you greatly when the relaxed parts of the abdomen are freshly adhered together and more easily one regains health and is cured. During the time that you will stay in this condition, it is to your advantage to keep from all those things that are adverse, not too much activity that is fatiguing, especially to your back. Do not be with your wife while wearing the truss and do not go without it. Observe all the rules listed above and, with the aid of God, you will be cured. Another plaster to cure a rupture. Take equal amounts of consonubili and roots of greater comfrey, and amounts in your judgment of mastic, mistletoe on oak and roots of bramble, with clean wax and powdered myrtle at your discretion. Make a firm plaster of everything in the usual way and spread it on chamois or leather and put it on the rupture in the shaved pubic area. Put thereon a truss of iron made in this way, that is with discs of iron of the size not more than a wafer and inside put a flat stick in the center against the hernia the size of a little finger, well enclosed. This should fit very tightly and closely and do not ever go without it. At this time you will need to drink this powder in the morning, viz., take 3 ounces of ordinary lodestone and mix with ½ ounce of citroniaci . In the evening take half a spoonful with wine or water when you go to sleep. Keep yourself from every adverse thing and you will be cured. -------- [Page 224] For the fresh rupture of the intestine, a plaster that cures it quickly. Take about 10 snails with shells, that is snails collected in the month of September when they begin to make the white lid. Grind them in a mortar with the shells and their lids, everything as they are. When they are well ground, add 1 handful of dittany roots and grind them together so they are well incorporated. Then add 3 ounces of cherry gum, which first should be dried and made into fine powder, and incorporate this with the other things in the mortar until it seems to you that everything is united well together. If it seems to you that they are not well ground or that they cannot be ground, cut them on a slab as is done to beat lard so that they become well ground and incorporated together and the plaster will be made in this way. Then spread it on a smooth cloth or a little smooth sheepskin. Put it on the rupture in the pubic area with several layers and bind with a truss of fustian or smooth cotton cloth so it stays tight and close. Stay in repose as much as you can and do not do much that is fatiguing and do not partake of things that are adverse, such as women, legumes, sour fruit and pork and be careful of all things causing gas. By taking care of yourself, through God's grace, soon it will be cured. This remedy is intended for those who are ruptured recently, in a year or so, and especially it is very appropriate to use with little children. It is said that they are cured, if they have no other sickness, at the end of 2 months or less, according to whether the infirmity is large or small. Change the plaster at least every 10 or 15 or 20 days because the plaster will heat up and turn bad and develop odor because the snails will begin to putrefy. For this reason you should change it a little each time. This plaster will last longer in the winter than in the summer in this respect, because you will need to change it every 8 days in the summer. Follow the rules and you will be cured. Another plaster similar to the above which is no less good. Viz. Take one basket or hamper of the above snails with shells and remove them from their shells and cut out the inside and collect that fat until you have a full glass of it. Then take barley flour and mix them together in a little pot and boil this a while on a low fire, stirring until it hardens. Then put in 1 ounce of good theriac and incorporate well together until it hardens and watch carefully because, when it begins to boil, it seems that it wants to bubble over. It thickens as you stir until it pulls away at the bottom. Then remove it from the fire and will be a perfect plaster. Use it in the way that you have the one above and it will work well. Do not ignore the rules given above and, through God's grace, soon you will be cured. The herb primula to cure a rupture. Take the herb that is called primula and use some of the powdered herb in everything, in bread and in all your foods and broths and stews. Likewise, you can make a poultice and put it on the rupture and bind it well and tightly and soon you will be cured, because the name of this herb, arteticha, in the Greek vocabulary means nothing other than 'shrinking'. That is, it draws up each humor which in Greek is said ' sirta,' which is to say 'drawn up', because it draws up the humors and the intestine that came out and the rupture is cured.... 122 -------- [Page 225] To cure a rupture in the groin when the intestine has slid into the scrotal sac or is in a position to cause pain from hernia. Take 1 handful each of the herb pagan tongue, that is bonifacia , the herb Adder's tongue fern, that is serpentina, the herb long plantain, that is centonervi or lanzola, the herb ground pine, the herb hepatica, the herb myrtle and the root of greater comfrey, 6 ounces each of lard from a male pig and ordinary oil, 4 ounces of new wax, a bowl of beans ground between 2 lodestones and 2 jugs of great and good red wine. Break up the lard very minutely with a cutter and put it in a little pot or pan and put therein the oil and the wine. All the herbs should be clean and cut very finely and put in with the root of comfrey. Boil everything together on a slow fire so it does not burn and let it reduce 1/3. Then extract and strain everything and press the herbs under the press and extract all the substance and put everything together. Then return it to the fire and put in the wax and 2 scruples of saffron and in addition as much powdered cloves. Compound these in the form of an unguent and it will be made and save it for your needs. When you wish to treat, spread it on a red cloth. First, since you want to cure him within a month or more, depending on whether the infirmity is old or new, say and have the patient say a Pater Noster and Ave Maria and touch the sore place with your hand, making over it the sign of the cross. Say this prayer over it 3 times, viz. 'Blessed be the place and the hour when Jesus was born and was baptized in the River Jordan. What this ointment does or will do for the pain of this puncture or rupture is at the pleasure of God and the Virgin Mary and the Holy Trinity and Saint Gosimo and Saint Damiano, so the illness can go and disappear. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. So be it. +' Say this prayer 3 times over the sick one each time that you wish to treat him and you can treat in the morning and evening, as needed. See that the sick person is well bandaged and firmly tied and usually wears the truss, is careful of exertion, of eating and of the other things that are very adverse. By continuing the above rules and regulating activity, know that with the aid of God, soon he will be cured. This has been tested.... 123 Poultice to cure a rupture or fleshy hernia. Take 2 handfuls of roots of greater comfrey and the front hoofs of veal and cook them with plenty of water until they come apart and do not add water. Then take all the other things written below and make very fine powder and incorporate them with the broth, viz., 1 ounce each of mastic, gum arabic, cypress nuts and pine nuts, 2 ounces each of the herb hepatica and myrtle and 3 ounces each of Armenian red clay and dragon's blood gum. Incorporate everything together and make it in the form of a good poultice and divide it in 2 parts, putting it on a cloth or leather belt. Make it very warm and put it on the rupture or fleshy hernia and put several layers on with the truss. Fasten it very closely and have him stay with the body straight. At the end of 2 or 3 days change it and put on the other half that was reserved, again making it warm. So put on now one, now the other, and do this for one month or more until you know there is improvement. During this time, the patient should keep himself from all adverse things and, with the aid of God, he will be cured. This has been tested. -------- [Page 226] To cure the rupture that descends into the scrotal sac. Take some of the herb that is called primrose that blooms in spring and grows in the meadows and along the banks of streams and puts out white flowers. The herb is good to eat in salads. Grind the herb and extract as much juice as you can and put this in a clean pot on the fire. When it begins to boil, remove it from the fire and strain it through bunting and it will be made. Save it in a glass vessel, well covered. Then early in the morning, take 4 ounces of it in the form of a syrup and put in one half spoonful or more of powder of the herb mouse ear and also some of the herb primula with a little powder of rusty fern that is an odorous herb very good for this purpose. Take this for 15, 20 or 30 days, more or less, according to how you feel the pain of the rupture improve, having first observed the good rules. Put this poultice on the rupture, fastened closely. That is, take some of this juice and roots of poison hemlock ground between two lodestones and mix them. It should not be too liquid. Put this on the rupture in the usual way, well wrapped and tight. If this poultice helps you little or not at all in your opinion, leave it and make this other plaster, viz. Take cypress nuts, pine nuts, valania that is little acorn caps, myrtle and incense resin, each at your discretion, everything pulverized finely, ½ ounce of powdered mastic and as much fir tree oil as needed to mix the above powders on a slow fire and make it firm enough to make a poultice. Then spread it on chamois and put it on the rupture on the groin and put on thick layers with a truss, tight and close. Keep from everything fatiguing as much as you can and do not remove it until it has dried up. Then make another and put it on with the same method as at first. Continue this for a month and a half or more. If you desire to be cured quickly, know that repose is its mother. Be careful that you keep from eating things causing gas and chills and in a short time you will recover health and be as you were before because such a remedy has been proved by many persons, especially by one who had it 50 years or more and is in good health, through God's grace, and so will you be if you observe the rules. Oil to cure a rupture made by damage. Take 5 and not fewer lizards, that is Ligurian green lizards, that are fat and alive. Take ½ lb. of the oldest olive oil you can possibly find and put it in a pot on the fire and put in the live lizards and let them die in the oil and cover it so they do not escape. Then put it before the fire on a brick and let it boil until it reduces 1/3 so the lizards are well cooked and all in pieces. Then remove it from the fire and let it cool and cover it and leave it in the sun for 15 days and leave in the animals which do not putrefy but stay clear as water. Save this and hold it dear. This oil helps greatly in ringworm, makes the hair grow long and lustrous, and helps in scrofula and has other virtues. Take 2 ounces each of oil of the herb adder's tongue fern, that is the herb senza costa , oil of the herb mouse ear and ½ ounce of mastic oil, incorporate these together and heat well and rub the place of the rupture.... -------- [Page 227] in the groin. Then have prepared some skin and fur of a rabbit cut and made into very fine powder and incorporated with powder of myrtle. Then so that you will have a very good, warm ointment, put on it some of this powder like a spice and spread the ointment to the thickness of half a finger. Put on warm cloths of wool or linen and on that the truss that should be tight, close and well fastened so the powder does not fall out. Stay in repose if you can for the action of the powder. Observe those things that have many times been said, not too much fatigue, do not eat things causing gas or chills and no women. By observing the rules of the treatment and with the guidance and your faith in God you will be cured because this oil by itself is sufficient to do the work but in a longer time. When all 4 are put together in one with the skin and fur and powder, they have greater force in that part of the illness that is due to relaxation. It makes a thick callous from inside out that is stronger than it was before. By the end of a month, more or less, if the person takes care and is medicated once every 2 or 3 days, you will cure him. The herb mouse ear to cure rupture in the scrotal sac or in the groin. Take the herb called mouse ear that grows in harsh and wild mountainous places. This is the true and real hawkweed which is very suitable for infirmities such as rupture. When the moon is waning, take the amount of the herb that you want, wash it and when it is clean, dry it in the shade. Then make it into very fine powder, passed through a sieve, and save this to give to the sick one who is ruptured into the scrotal sac or where the abdomen has broken into the groin or one who has a gassy, fleshy, irritated, watery or intestinal hernia. Give a spoonful of the powder early in the morning to drink warm with 2 fingers of vinegar in the form of a syrup and he should repose for an hour. In the evening make an infusion of it and continue this for a month or more, one evening yes, the other no. When you wish to start drinking this powder in the morning, the evening before put this plaster on the rupture in the groin, made in this way, viz. Take ½ ounce each of incense and mastic, 2 drams each of mummy and cypress nuts, 1 ½ ounces each of greater comfrey and naval pitch, 1 ounce each of myrtle, mouse ear, dragon's blood gum and clean wax and 1 ounce each of myrtle oil and oil of adder's tongue fern and of mastic. Put the oil on a slow fire and the wax and the ground root of comfrey. Put in the incense, mastic, cypress nuts, myrtle, mouse ear and dragon's blood gum, all made into fine powder. Add the pitch and the mummy, finely ground, and incorporate everything well and continue stirring until it is made firm enough. Then spread it on chamois and put it on the rupture on the side with pain in the groin, first shaving the hair well. Put on the truss well-fitted and tight and when the truss is put on, the patient should be on his back with the body upward so that the humors are drawn back in. You should do little strenuous activity for a month. Stay in repose if you can. Remember to do everything carefully and do not remove the truss either day or night. Continue every morning with the powder and do not miss a dose. Take care of yourself. Do not eat adverse things, nor cold, nor gas-causing, nor pork meat. If you help cure yourself, you will be cured as others have been in 50 days. They did penance and, through God's grace, they have been restored to health and no longer wear the brace because they do not feel the problem any more, through God's grace and they render glory to God omnipotent. -------- [Page 228] Electuary for those who are ruptured below or opening into the groin. Take 6 ounces of the root of greater comfrey, cleaned and mashed, 1 ½ ounces each of cypress nuts and myrtle, ½ ounce each of Greek pitch, gum arabic and tragacanth, 1 ounce each of Armenian red clay and dragon's blood gum, 5 drams of mastic, 2 ounces of mummy and 3 lb. of cleaned honey. Make all of the above things into very fine powder and incorporate them with the honey and put in a little rabbit skin, cut very finely, and boil these and incorporate on a slow fire, stirring continuously with a ladle so it does not stick to the bottom. When it has body enough to be in the form of an electuary, remove it from the fire and save it in a vessel for your needs. When you want to use it for one sick with a rupture, give the amount of a nut in the evening when he goes to sleep and in the morning ½ hour before he arises. Give not less than a nut but rather more, especially in the morning. This will aid you greatly in curing. Do not stop wearing the truss with the plaster on and watch carefully how you live and be careful of all the other things described above, if you wish to be cured soon. Another electuary for this rupture, which is very perfect and good. Take the heart, skin and fur of a rabbit. Dry everything, cut it and make fine powder of it, in all 8 ounces, and 1 lb. of rind of pomegranate or wild pomegranate, ½ lb. of cypress nuts, 3 ounces of myrtle, 4 laurel berries, all in very fine powder, 30 heads of leeks and 10 dry white figs. Cut the leeks and figs finely and grind them well in a mortar with 2 ounces of mastic oil. Take 3 jugs of the best red wine that you can find and put it in a clean pot and put it on the fire. When it begins to boil, put in the above powder, little by little, and continue stirring. Lastly add the oil and let it boil very slowly so it does not start to smoke. Boiling it on the grill is better, until it reduces in half. Remove it from the fire and it will be made. Save it in a vessel for your needs. When you give it to the sick patient who has a rupture, give 2 spoonfuls early in the morning and if he is not able to take it because it is too sour, give it in the form of a pine nut rolled in flour and do not take it any other way. Then take 2 more spoonfuls and heat this well and rub the place of the rupture. Then put on some warm cloths and then wrap with a belt of fustian which should be firm and tight. Do this in the evening when he goes to sleep and in the morning give him some of this electuary to eat. Continue this for a month or more. Keep yourself from all those things that are adverse. Know that with good care and primarily with the grace of God, you will be cured. Make another as you have made this electuary and continue until the rupture is cured. The herb ground pine put on the rupture cures it. Take 1 handful of the herb ground pine and put it in a little sack of linen cloth and put it on the rupture and bind it on tightly with a belt of fustian. This is done so it does not burn the flesh through its warmth. Continue this method for a month and stay in repose as much as you can. Refrain from things that are adverse and that make you sick. Before you make this medicament, first say a mass over the linen sack and over the herb in honor of God and of Saint Antimo whose day is the 20th of May. He is found in the list of martyred saints, which see. Change the herb every morning and you will be cured. *Electuary for rupture. Take 4 lb. of clean honey and put therein to boil 6 ounces of roots of greater and lesser comfrey. Boil them very slowly until they are cooked as shown when a drop on marble stays firm. Then put in all the things written below, made into powder and the roots ground. That is, 4 ounces each of the herb pagan tongue and the roots of dittany with some leaves, 3 ounces of burdock seeds, 3 ½ ounces each of myrtle leaves and hepatica, 1 ounce of mastic, 3 drams of mummy, 1 ½ ounces of cinnamon, ½ ounce of cloves and 6 ounces of fine sugar. First put in the herbs, then the roots, the mastic and the mummy and let it boil a little. Then put in the cinnamon and cloves and remove it from the fire. Put in the sugar and stir until it is cold and it will be made, the perfect electuary. Give a dose in the evening and the morning and you will help the poultice work. With good care you will be cured in 30 days. It has been tested. -------- [Page 229] The herb sea bindweed cures rupture and purges the body and has other virtues. Take some of the herb that is called sea bindweed which grows along the seashore and has leaves almost round. Eat some of this herb for 15 to 20 days in all the ways that you find comfortable, as long as it is cooked. It is said that it purges the body and pulls up the intestine and heals the rupture. Also it is said that he who eats 2 or 3 mouthfuls of it early in the morning with the dew on it is secure from having plague or almost any other infirmity in that year. Many persons say that if you make a powder the herb sea bindweed and drink one spoonful with warm broth early in the morning, you will make the body go as much as you wish and when you do not want to go any more, put the hands in cold water and at once it will stop. If you put some of this powder on a sore or wound or ulcerated leg, it cures carefully and well and without burning pain. Tests have been made of this with good results. The herb verbena helps the intestinal organs. Take 1 handful of the herb verbena, cook it in very good light red wine and eat and drink some of this warm wine early in the morning in the form of a syrup for 8 days in a row or more according to how you see the best results. By using it several times you will stay healthy. If a woman who is nursing has lost her milk, she should eat 3 leaves and at once it will return. This has been tested. Another. Make a little bag of skin with holy thistle, so that it is sturdy, and put it on the groin on the side of the infirmity and leave it on continually, tight and close, day and night, and do not go without it. It is suitable for healing rupture. Avoid eating adverse things and too much exertion and you will be cured. To cure a rupture with a decoction and a fomentation. Take 1 handful each of cypress nuts and its leaves, 1 ½ ounces each of pomegranate rind and wild pomegranate, 2 ounces each of greater comfrey and rock alum and 6 drams of Armenian red clay. Mix and boil with good wine and do the fomentation with a clean sponge, several times. And put on this plaster written below, viz. Tested poultice to go with the decoction to cure a rupture, viz. Take 6 drams each of Greek pitch and naval pitch, 6 drams of mummy, 3 drams each of dragon's blood gum and Armenian red clay, ½ ounce each of rabbit skin and bone from the dead, 3 ounces of root of greater comfrey, 1 ounce each of myrtle, knot grass and wild pomegranate, 1 ½ ounces of new wax, 2 ½ ounces each of oil of myrtle and oil of scorpion and ½ ounce of oil of mastic. On a slow fire, put the oils, the wax, the comfrey, well-bruised, the broken up pitch, the dragon's blood gum and clay in powder, the skin cut finely, the myrtle, wild pomegranate and knot grass cut and ground very finely. Incorporate everything on a slow fire and you will have a well-made poultice. Put it on chamois and put that on the rupture in the usual way. Take care of yourself and you will be cured. It has been tested. -------- [Page 230] To mitigate the pain of rupture. Take the root of the herb sweet clover, cooked in strong vinegar, and powder from a pine nut, grated or ground, and put it in the form of a plaster, as warm as one can bear, on the painful place of the rupture, binding it thereon and wrapping very tightly. Do this for 15 to 20 days and it improves health greatly. It is said that the egg layed on the day of Ascension cures rupture. Take 2 eggs layed on the day of Ascension and on the day of Easter say over them a mass of the Holy Spirit and bless them on that day. Write on them these words, viz. 'Just as it is true and I believe that Jesus Christ ascended into heaven on the day of Ascension, so may this sickness be freed through his power and his most holy merit from suffering.' Say this and touch the egg three times and save it and when it is dry you will be freed. It has been tested. Be sure that these 2 eggs are layed on the correct day and write on them the words above. First say the Pater Noster and the Ave Maria and on the day of the Holy Spirit say a mass and bless them. Mark the rupture or hernia with these 2 eggs and first say the Pater Noster. Then say over them the above words 3 times in a row for 3 mornings and on the third morning, break one of the 2 eggs and drink it raw with a Pater Noster and the sign of the cross. Then urinate in the egg shell and close it up with wax or glue and put it in a hole in the wall and let it stay until it becomes dry. Tie the other egg with a thread and make a hole in the earth, at least as deep as an arm, where the east wind blows or where the sun reflects well. Lower it in the pit and put over it a little bowl so it will not be broken and do nothing more. Then cover it with earth and continue as before. Let it stay and when the egg is completely dry, you will be cured of the rupture. If the egg rots, it is that God has not cured you. This test has been done three times that I know of and two were well cured of the rupture. For the gassy hernia that comes low in the scrotal sac. Take equal amounts of cumin, bishop's weed, honey and salt and cook them with enough rose and violet oils and put this on warm. But first rub the place with oil of lavender and of dill, in equal amounts. Then put on this poultice, viz. Take 1 dram of cumin, 1 dram each of bishop's weed, German parsley, fenugreek seed, sedge, carrot, cistus gum, and cooked oil, 1 lb. of flour of laurel berries and 1 ½ ounces of vinegar. Put the flour and the vinegar with a little wine and boil it slowly and continue stirring with a rod and make it in the form of a poultice. Put in the other things and incorporate them well and it will be made. Then spread it on a cloth and put it on the testicles as warm as can be borne. Do this in the morning and evening, staying in repose a while, and in 15 to 20 days you will be cured. Do not eat bad things and do not do excessive activity and do not do things harmful to you so that soon, with the aid of God, you will be cured. To cure little children of the water that comes in the little scrotal sac or a hernia. Take 3 ounces of mastic oil, 1 ounce of lavender oil and 2 drams of Armenian red clay and 1 dram of dragon's blood gum in powder. Heat the oil and put in the powders and leave it on the grill for a little and it will be made. When you use it, warm it and rub the groin and wrap on a stupe and a warm cloth well. He should be careful of activity and he will be cured. (Folios 86 and 87 are missing from the manuscript). -------- [Page 231] Oil made of rosemary flowers with its tested virtues. Take the oldest olive oil that you can find in whatever amount you have and take as many rosemary flowers as you have and put them in the oil and let them stay for 2 days in a warm place or in the sun in a covered vessel. Then take some pieces of brick or of earthenware jars that are new and have not touched water and heat them very hot. Put them to cool down in the oil with the flowers. Then remove them from the oil and grind them finely in a mortar so that nothing is lost. Put everything together, the powdered brick, the flowers and what is left of the oil. Distill everything on a slow fire into a glass flask, following the usual method, and do this with skill. Save this blessed liquor in glass, well stoppered, and cherish it because we will say below some of its virtues, viz. The virtues of the oil made with rosemary flowers. Here we will deal with some virtues of the oil of rosemary made with flowers as you should have learned to make it above. First it is powerful to remove cold from all the members chilled through some accident to the head, the hands, the feet and the chest, if the place is rubbed with the very warm oil. Another. It is powerful for all the cracks in the feet and hands caused by cold, especially for use in the wintertime when they usually come. Another. It is powerful to heal all the sores of the flesh in every place on the body, even for any animal, by rubbing with very warm oil. Another. It is effective in rewarming every chilled nerve in whichever place on the human body or of other animals, through cold gout or other causes of cold. One of the many powers that it has is that the tremor of the hands or head that occurs through great coldness is diminished by the heat it develops. It is very powerful against cold. Another. It is very powerful for those who have lost hands or feet through cold who have not been helped very well, that is to say for those who have damaged the neck and the nerves of any limb through cutting or bad medication. Another. It is powerful for those who have gout, who are not able to walk because of this infirmity or are not able to support themselves on their feet when this has happened through chilling of the nerves. Another. It is powerful for those who have a stiff neck or sore throat and who, through natural causes, are not able to turn the head well. Another. It is powerful against kidney and bladder stones, By drinking the oil and rubbing it warm on the neighboring parts, it corrodes them and breaks them, turning them into gravel which is purged through the meatus in the usual way. It is powerful for cleaning the bladder inside and out. You should know that when the gravel moves, it stings. . Another. It is powerful when urine flow is suppressed. Drinking a little of it provokes a great quantity of urine in one in whom it is reduced by stricture of the meatus and in one who is able to urinate only with much difficulty. Another. It is powerful for each inflamed and swollen limb or head or forehead, that is for one who has what is called the French sickness or by other names. Another. It is powerful for every distress in hearing, which comes from every kind of great coldness and flux of these bad humors with sharp pains and deafness. Another. It is powerful against worms in the ears that bite or do not bite and against the cracks from these and from every other malady. Another. It is powerful in paralysis and in every joint pain including the joints of the fingers, hands and feet. Another. It is powerful for torsion of the mouth caused by plague when it is used as an ointment and also when it is drunk. Another. It is powerful for every ache in the abdomen which is a sharp pain, because it mitigates and draws up all such pains by warming and heating the interior of the abdomen. -------- [Page 232] Another. It is powerful for pains of the uterus in women. In whatever condition they are, either healthy or sick, they are soon cured. Another. It is powerful in coldness of the uterus because anointing with it and drinking it causes menstruation at its normal time. Another. It is powerful in prolapse of the uterus caused by coldness. If the uterus is rubbed with cotton wool many times it will be retained and cured. Another. It is powerful in kidney pain and backache in any person or animal when the place is rubbed with the oil and when a poultice is made by adding ammonium chloride to the oil and some warming herbs, flowers and roots, such as male wormwood, hyssop, creeping thyme, southernwood, mint, sage, flowers of pennyroyal, laurel, gentian root and basil seed. Another. It is powerful in fistulas or abcesses that do not come to a head, by adding roots of white lily, rue, egg yolk and white onions cooked under the ashes and incorporated as a liquid. It rapidly helps them and may cure. Another. It is powerful in spenetics, that is those who have hardening of the spleen through too much coldness, because it increases humidity and reheats the spleen gently when it is rubbed and the warm oil is drunk. Another. It is powerful in congestion of the head and nose caused by coldness wherever there is impediment and if the eyes are watering and the nares are full of thick matter. The patient should be rubbed and should drink the oil. If the patient eats a great deal of salt without anything else, little by little, and afterwards drinks this oil, soon he will be freed. If the patient sneezes when eating the salt or if he simply eats it, he will be cured. It is better if the salt is drunk with theriac. This is tested and true. Another. It is powerful in coldness of the head. Rubbing the head with the oil wonderfully rewarms the brain and comforts it. Another. It is powerful in amnesia. The lost memory is recovered if the oil is rubbed directly on the parts of the head where the power of memory is located. If you first put a little rose vinegar with this oil, it is said that it is more powerful but it must be rubbed before and after the vinegar is added. Another. It is powerful against toothache in all ways because the pain is given up through its heating when the gums are rubbed with this. Another. It is powerful in congestion of the lungs because it purges the congestion that causes the chest cough. It helps the person who is coughing, whether it is a dry or soft cough, so one should drink this oil and rub the chest with it very warm. Another. It is powerful in the dry or soft cough in what is called stricture of the chest. Therefore it helps wonderfully in such distress because if enough of this oil is drunk tepid, it resolves the congested humors and comforts the interior parts and opens the channels of the lungs very effectively. Another. It is powerful in tearing of the eyes. Rubbing the eyelids with it dries them. It is more powerful in swelling of the eyes and the pain and redness through swelling and excess of blood. Another. It aids the eyesight of every person or other animal, either old or young. Mix this oil with some bastard lovage and fennel seed and drink it repeatedly and soon you will have good eyesight. Another. It is powerful against scrofulas by rubbing it on warm. If they are broken open, press this oil therein. Another. It is powerful against every poisonous bite, that is of scorpions, wasps, bees or spiders. Rub the bite with the warm oil. Another. It is powerful against syncope, that is against the weakness of the heart and stomach, if it is drunk, although in this distress one may want theriac and good wine. Another. It is useful for fishermen who fish in the sea, pond, lake or rivers, if the nets are rubbed with the oil with a little musk because as they smell such a sweet odor many fish will be taken. Another. It is powerful for those who have dysentery with diarrhea. Drink some of it and eat it with knot grass mixed with flour and cooked on the grill or in a pan. It is powerful for those who spit blood and urinate it and for those where the blood is collected in the head because of an abcess or blow. The place should be rubbed well with warm oil. Another. It is powerful for blood which has come in the eye. Put juice of dill with the oil and rub both temples and on the head where through too much coldness the brain has lost the power to see from the eyes and they are tearing heavily. Therefore, who drinks this is known to have a good head that is warm and dry and not humid with excess coldness. Another. It is powerful against cracks and fissures when it is applied frequently to the place. Also it is very powerful as a poultice with juice of dill. Another. It is powerful against the dry itch. Rubbing with warm oil sends it away rapidly. Another. It is powerful against sores or scabs in men or women. By rubbing with the warm oil in the morning and evening you will soon be cured. Be careful what you eat. -------- [Page 233] Another. It is powerful against every fistula wherever it is. This is the way. Take juice from cabbage leaves and mix it with the oil and put it on as a poultice with juice of wormwood and the substance from ground snails. It helps greatly and will cure rapidly. Note that many of the above virtues of this oil are nearly the same as those of balsam and in practice you will know its great power by testing it and becoming an expert. Some make this oil in an easier way but I do not believe it to be of such great virtue. They take old olive oil, the oldest they can find, and as much pure and clean tamarind flowers as can be put in the oil. Put it in a pot and let it stay in the sun, day and night, for 20 to 30 days, well covered. Then put it underground for a month in a warm place where the sun beats on it. Then bring it out and strain the oil carefully through a double thickness of cloth and put it again in the sun for a month to purify and it will be made, very odorous and rich. When you use it for all your needs, make it warm and you may even tell the patient to drink it because its virtue is to warm and comfort human feelings. A wine to open a fistula and cure an ulcer. Take 1 ½ jugs each of strong vinegar and sharp white wine and put in 8 ounces of slaked lime in powder and boil it until it reduces 1/3. Remove it from the fire and let it settle. Strain it so it is very clear. Then put in all these things made into very fine powder, that is, 1 ounce each of rock salt, ammonium chloride and saltpeter and 3 ounces of ash from burnt feathers. Let it stand for one whole day in a well-covered vessel in a warm place so they are well incorporated. Then distill through felt or strain it finely. Then put 1 ½ ounces of iron rust into the wine and it will give the color red to all the wine and it will be made. When you use it, wet some cloths well and put them on and in the sore and treat in the evening and morning. This wine has the strength to remove bad flesh and induce good. It even cures the scab that comes in the rear. If you make some copper become red hot in the fire and extinguish it in this wine, the copper will become white in color and will appear like silver. This has been tested. In this wine you have a cure for the above infirmity.... 124 Another. Garlic and sage cooked with rose oil and ground and rubbed on an ulcer remove the pain. Another powder against fistula and canker. Take 1 lb. of quicklime, 1 ounce of copper sulfate, ½ ounce of sulfur, 4 ounces of powdered orpiment, 6 ounces of barley flour, 8 ounces of white honey and 3 ounces of strong vinegar. Incorporate everything together and make a paste. Make little balls and dry them thoroughly in the warm oven. Then regrind them and make very fine powder and save this for your needs. When you wish to use the powder in the illness of fistula or canker, put a little in the top of the tent that you put on the sore and treat once a day or twice a day. Know that the powder eats, corrodes and consumes all the bad flesh and makes the good grow. Another against fistula. Take branches of green ivy without leaves, cut them minutely and distill them in glass. Wet some cloths and put them on the sore but first it is purged. Then put on some leaves of bramble. Another for the above. Take 3 or 4 live lizards and boil them in a little water. Then dry them and make very fine powder and give it to drink, if the fistula is inside. It will be removed by vomiting. If it is outside, put on some of this powder and it will be cured. Another for the above illness. Take flour of red chick peas and mix it with raw honey in the form of a warm poultice. Put it on several times and it will cure a fistula. If the fistula is open, take roots of the herb toadflax, grind them well with male pork blood and make an unguent. Put it on warm and it will cure fistula and canker. Another. If the powder of orpiment is too caustic, put in a little of this honey and it will decrease its action. -------- [Page 234] The herb bonifacia, that is pagan tongue. Bonifacia is called by many 'pagan tongue' because it has a leaf in the shape of a little pointed tongue placed in the midst of the large leaf. For this it is said that it aids stutterers, those born in great numbers in the mountains of Genoa and in the Duchy of Urbino in the mountains. You should know that this herb is most powerful in sickness of the womb, especially in prolapse. Giving a spoonful of the powder to women to drink in warm broth or wine at the time of the displacement of the womb, rapidly relieves and cures the sickness of the womb. Also it is powerful and wonderful for those who have hernias in the scrotum or in the groin. Make a powder of its roots or of the herb or both mixed, and give a spoonful to the patient to drink in the morning at dawn with warm broth or wine in the form of a syrup and again in the evening. Continue this drinking for a month or more, until at the end you feel cured. It may seem to you that in the first days all the intestines want to come out of the body through that sick part and you are advised to put on a band or truss and wear it continually, day and night, with it thick and well-wrapped and tight. If you are able to stay a while in repose, you will be cured more quickly of the fissure or rupture. Watch what you eat and keep from adverse things and, with the aid of God, you will be cured quickly because this has been tested. For those who do not have fluent speech, holding some of the herb in the mouth and eating it helps greatly. For little children who do not have fluent language, placing these little leaves on the tongue will make the tongue flexible. This is very well tested and true. The herb adder's tongue fern or argentina that is ribless. This herb has different names in different locations, that is, adder's tongue fern or silverweed or ribless fern, because it does not have veins as have other leaves. This herb is well known in Lombardy and especially in the Piedmont. It is found beginning in the month of May and continues until the first half of June. Then it is no more to be seen. This herb is soft and flexible to touch and oily and its leaf is similar to plantain but smaller. It does not make a stalk and grows adventitiously in the meadows and it is very beautiful to see there. But it is more beautiful for its virtues because it has marvelous efficacy in healing wounds and especially new ones and also those made by stabs. You make oil from its leaves in this way. Take ordinary oil, the oldest that you have, and put it in a vessel with the herb. Cover the vessel well and leave it for a month or more in the sun. Then boil it for an hour on a water bath. In this way the herb is cooked and amplifies its power. Leave it in the sun for 8 to 10 days and it will be made. Save it as a treasure. This oil is powerful, when rubbed on warm, for all difficulties of the eyes and is especially powerful in fresh wounds and in all stabs where the wound is narrow. Put it on with a tent and soon it will heal without distress. It removes the pain and removes muscle spasms especially effectively in old wounds. The herb can be made into powder, otherwise the herb itself is eaten with a fresh egg or broth. Continuing it heals hernias marvelously when the rupture is rubbed with very warm oil. It is put on thickly and tied very tightly and carefully and, with care and with the aid of God, the rupture will be cured. Do this with confidence that this has been tested. It has many other virtues.... 125 -------- [Page 235] The herb milzara or dead nettle that has a white spot in the middle of the leaf and grows around hedges. This herb is called milzara because it readily cures the spleen and is also called lataiola because in women who eat it and are nursing it increases the milk as does the herb burdock in those who have lost it through an impediment. In the Greek vocabulary it is called galiopsi which is to say 'milk'. It has been shown many times to cure the spleen. I tell you that you should gather some of this herb in the half moon and dry it in the shade and wind and make very fine powder of it. Take one spoonful in a fresh egg early in the morning and continue for 15 to 20 days. Do not do anything intemperate. You should know that in the section on curing the spleen, I say first purge the spleen and soon, with the aid of God, you will be cured. If you will eat the plant raw, you will be cured sooner. This has been tested.... 126 The herb scabiosa and some of its virtues. Take the herb scabiosa in the waning of the moon when it is nearly mature and dry it in the shade and make very fine powder of it. Put it on a sore or ulcerated leg that first should be washed several times with warm wine. It heals this wonderfully. If you put it on a gall on the back of a horse with powder of a burnt old shoe, very soon it makes a cure so that the skin returns. Likewise, if you grind the herb between two lodestones and put it on warm, it soon cures. It is good in either way, in herb or in powder. Also it is powerful in distress of the stomach and especially in catarrh that is in the lungs or in heavy cough. Eat the herb or drink some of its distilled water. It is of great help in removing any kind of itch. With the powder one makes a good unguent and it has many other properties that I do not write down. The herb rue and some of its tested virtues. Rue of the gardens is warm and dry in the third degree and the wild rue in the fourth degree. Taking some of the cultivated variety removes flatulence and increases the humidity of the body and greatly helps the lower intestine. Drinking a decoction of it takes away the flatulence and the tortion and pain in the body caused by viscous humors. Cooked in oil and made into suppositories, it dissolves the excessive flatulence that accompanies excessive humors that envelop the intestines. It is also powerful in cloudiness in the eyes and in poor vision in any way that you eat it, either as the herb or in powder or cooked. Also bathing the eyes with some of its distilled water alternately with rose water in the morning, clarifies the vision greatly and also has many other virtues. To stop the flow of blood from wounds or veins that are pierced or broken or have burst in the chest. Take the same amount each of sarcocol gum, mummy, Armenian red clay and dragon's blood gum and make them into very fine powder. Mix them and put this on sores where the blood flows from the vein and it will be stopped at once. If it is a wound, say over it this holy prayer that has been tested many times and all have been cured through God's grace. Viz., '+ Cross of Christ aid me. + Blood stay fast in yourself as Christ did in himself. Cross of Christ save me. Blood stay in your vein as Christ did in his pain. Cross of Christ defend me. Blood stay fast and strong as Christ did at his death. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. + + + .' Say it three times over the wound with 3 Pater Noster and 3 Ave Maria and have the patient say them also. Then attach the little prayer around the neck and say it for 3 mornings in a row and, through God's grace, the blood will be stopped. It is tested. -------- [Page 236] Another if the vein may be letting out blood. Take some well-ground rue, incorporate it with rabbit fur and put this on warm. Bind it well and soon the blood will be stopped. Also you can take several grains of wheat and chew them, but do not have eaten garlic, and put a very thick layer on the vein that spurts blood or on the wound and soon the blood will be stopped.... 127 Another. Take an egg white and spider's web and burnt linen cloth and rabbit fur cut finely and mix these together and put this on a stupe on the wound and wherever the cut is, this will soon stop the blood. Another for a cut or broken vein. Grind some long plantain and put it on and soon the blood will be stopped. Another. Take burdock with well-ground pork fat and put it warm on the vein and soon it will clot. Another to stop a vein in the chest. Take fresh egg shells that are clean and grind them and make very fine powder and take equal amounts of rabbit fur and down of holy thistle, cut very finely, and equal amounts of mummy and dragon's blood gum and incorporate everything together. The patient should drink a spoonful with water of long plantain and water of betony, each 2 ounces, warm. Give this to drink in the morning and evening and soon, through God's grace, the vein will stop. The sick one should speak little, stay very warm, eat lightly of well-cooked food, not go too much in the fresh air and stay in repose as much as he can so he will be cured rapidly. This is tested. *Another to stop bleeding. Write these 3 words on parchment and put it in the mouth of the patient. Viz., ' Agios, Otehos, Athanathos .' At once he will be cured. Another to heal breaks or cracks in the vein of the chest that do not spurt blood. Viz. Take fern rootlets and wash them in 9 waters. Then boil them in the best white wine until that is half consumed. Give 3 ounces of this decoction to the patient to drink every morning in the form of a warm syrup and soon the bleeding will be stopped. Have the patient say 3 Pater Noster and 3 Ave Maria. You say these holy words 3 times, touching the chest and making the sign of the cross over it. Say, 'Blood stand + as our Lord, Jesus Christ, stood in his torment. + Blood stay strong as our Lord Jesus Christ stood at his death +. Blood stay as our Lord Jesus Christ stood in his faith. + In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, + Amen. + + + .' Every time you treat it, say this and, through God's grace, soon it will be cured. Powder that stops the blood from every wound and cut vein. Take copper sulfate and heat it well and make fine powder. Do not let it stay open too much to the air because it may draw up too much humidity and lose some of its effectiveness. Take 1 ounce of this and of pulverized dragon's blood gum and 2 drams each of finely-cut rabbit fur and holy thistle down and incorporate these well together. Then put some of this powder on the wounds or cuts where the blood does not want to clot. Put enough on and wrap very tightly so the bleeding will soon stop without fail. Another. This powder is powerful to stop blood from bleeding piles, that is when leeches have been attached around the anus and they have sucked blood from the hemorrhoids and then the blood does not want to stop. Putting on a great amount of powder and binding it tightly makes the blood clot again. This is a good secret, proved many times. If by chance blood is coming from the nose, take an egg white and beat it in a bowl. Then spread it on a cotton wool stupe and put some of this powder on the egg white and put it on the forehead and also on the broken vein and soon it will be stopped. Also inhale some of this powder up the nose and at once it will be stopped. This has been tested. -------- [Page 237] The virtues of human blood converted into water in the still. Take human blood that is freshly drawn from a young, healthy man and put it at once to distill in the glass still. Save all the water that comes from it with great care. Also some take this blood and distill it 7 times and some 3 or 4 times. Some take this blood and put it in a large, well-covered container. Then they put it in warm horse manure and let it stay for 9 days in a row. Then they distill it which, they say, aquires more power by being distilled 7 times on a slow fire. These are the virtues of the water from human blood. Viz. The water has many virtues in medicine, especially in fainting fits. Drink it warm during the morning in the form of a syrup. It is powerful for the memory. It is powerful in poisoning and in pain of the heart. It is powerful in weakness of the chest. It heals every infirmity of the lungs and purges the blood more than any other thing. It is powerful for every flux from the body and in pain of the hips. It opens the veins and strengthens the nerves and all the body. If you put a piece of glass in this water it will become soft as wax. If it is distilled 7 times, as described, it becomes a kind of perfect balsam and has this property that if one who may be near death and has lost speech is given a little of this water, tepid, he will speak at once. Also it may do as much for one who has lost his sight, if the eyes are bathed repeatedly with this water. Made in the designated way it will render very great benefit in all the above infirmities. It has been tested. For retracted nerves that are not able to stretch through damage or other cause. Take 3 ounces of marrow from the shin bone of the ox, 1 ½ ounces of goat fat, 2 ounces each of chicken fat and powdered incense, 1 ounce of clear, white turpentine and a good handful of marigold flowers, cut very finely. Every other thing should be cut minutely and put everything together in a little pot. Boil it enough on a slow fire so that everything is cooked. Then put it in a little pointed sack and strain it into a basin of cold water and press it well so that all the substance is forced out of the little sack. Regather the fat that is on top of the water and save it in a flask for your needs. It should be well covered. When you want to treat the retracted or painful nerves heat it very well and rub always downward. Do this several times and you will cure every debility of the nerves. It is tested. Another to comfort every nerve and to remove pain. Take 1 handful of wormwood and boil it in very good wine. Wash the sore place with this wine and let it dry in place. Then put on some other wormwood bruised on a hot brick and soon it will lift the pain. Another to comfort nerves. Take unwashed wool and put it in a pan to soak with a little honey until it is well warmed. Then put in powdered cumin like a spice and put this warm on the painful nerve and soon it will be cured. Also the leaves of the herb castor bean, cooked in wine and put on warm, will soon remove the pain. Another to lift the pain of any swollen nerve. Take 2 ounces of leaves and flowers of tamarind, 1 ounce of flowers of camomile and a little white bread flour and put it to soak in camomile water with a little ordinary oil and put everything together. Then mix it with white wine and rose water. Then boil it until it becomes fairly thick. Put it warm on the sore place and the afflicted part of the nerve or the swelling. By continuing this you will soon cure the nerve. -------- [Page 238] Liquor to join nerves that are shrunken. Take ½ bowl of earthworms and wash them well with good white wine so that no earth remains. Then empty an egg and put them all in the egg shell and put in the egg white and a little oil of tartar. Cover it well so that nothing can go out and seal it all around with clay and let it dry. Then put it in horse manure for 20 days. Remove it and empty it into a bowl and with a rod mix everything well together, the earthworms, egg white and oil, so that it forms a liquid unguent and it is made. Save it in a bottle, well covered, and when you use it make it hot and rub the painful place in the drawn and swollen nerves and put on very warm unwashed wool. Bind it on and, through God's grace, soon they will be cured. It has been tested. Another for one who has damaged a nerve and it is swollen. Take young leaves of elder and mallow, each the same amount, cut finely, and 6 to 8 leaves of sage, cut similarly, and boil everything together in strong vinegar until they are cooked. Put them on the sore nerve in the form of a plaster and it will soon remove the pain and the damage from the swollen nerve. You will soon cure it. For dislocated, painful or injured bones in the feet or hands or whatever place that at times hurts or swells although the wound has healed. Take wormwood, rue and cumin in equal amounts and a white onion and cook everything together in rose oil or ordinary oil until it reduces 1/3. Then spread it on a cloth in the form of a warm poultice and put it on the sore place. Put on a warm stupe and bandage well and tightly and keep it quiet. Do this in the morning and evening and soon it will be cured. Another for broken bones. Take equal amounts of arum roots and lard from a male pig and grind them together finely. Make this very warm in the form of a very warm poultice. Put it on the fracture in the morning and in the evening, well bandaged and tight, and soon it will be cured. The best and holy remedy for dislocated bones and bones out of place. Take new rose oil and fine powder of myrtle or its seed. Then have prepared 2 or 3 layers of stupe of hemp fibers and a large bundle or two of them. Heat the rose oil very well and the powder if you can. Then with your hands take the limb that is injured and touch it with skill to judge to bind where the bone can be coming out and over this place where the bone comes out, put your two index fingers, one over the other in the form of a cross. Say 3 Pater Noster and 3 Ave Maria to the sick person and as you treat say a prayer of thanks to God. Then say in secret these holy words 3 times with 3 signs of the cross, viz. 'In the name of God, the Virgin Mary, flower and seed, and the Son of God, go back bone. Nerve and flesh return inside as his did for the Virgin. Amen.' Make the sign of the cross 3 times. Do not press too hard with the lower finger in joining the bone that has come out and over this make the sign of the cross. Rub it with this rose oil very warm with a feather. Then put on the warm powder of mrytle and over that put the warm stupes closed very firmly around the injury and over that put a warm double cloth and bandage it closely across so that the bone comes little by little into place by the warmth and the other dressings with the good ligature. Do this for 3 days and not more. The patient should stay in repose so that soon, with the aid of God, he will be cured. This has been proven many times. *For dislocated bones or torn nerves. Say over the injury, viz. 'Our Lord, Jesus Christ, was nailed on the cross. Bone, blood, nerve. He was wounded. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, was raised on the cross. Bone, blood, nerve. He was restored. So may this be restored as our Lord, Jesus Christ, was restored to the arms of his glorious mother, the Virgin Mary. + + + . In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.' -------- [Page 239] To hold a dislocated bone in place in a joint. Take the white of an egg and 1 ounce each of turpentine and rose oil and incorporate the turpentine and the oil together on a little fire. Remove it from the fire and put in the egg white and stir well. Then put it on a warm stupe of carded flax and put that on the sore and swollen injury. Tie it well and tightly with a bandage. Do this for 2 days, morning and evening, and soon you will cure it. But first when you have been made ill or have fallen or received a blow or other injury, at once draw out that limb, arm or leg so that the bone goes in place. If it is a damaged foot, pull it and put the foot on a round board and press it on. Even if it hurts you, use force so the bone goes in its place and soon it will be cured, because as the injury is cooled, the swelling and pain from the humor goes away. Do this above described treatment as soon as you can and soon the pain will lift and you will be cured. I have proved this on one foot. Another for a damaged nerve. Take milk of a red cow and put therein 1 handful of dry roses and let them infuse all night. In the morning remove them from the milk and save them. Then put a scant 1 handful of wheat bran in the milk and boil until it becomes in the form of a poultice. Take out the bran and put the removed roses in the warm bran and mix it well. Put this warm on the painful and damaged nerve. Do this several times and soon you will cure it. Another to cure a broken bone rapidly. When you are in front of the sick one, ask if he wants to be cured. Have him say 3 Pater Noster and 3 Ave Maria and then you take the damaged limb in your hand and touch it where it is sore in that place where the bone is coming out and make over it the sign of the cross and hold your 2 index fingers in the form of a cross over the injury and say these holy words 3 times, viz. 'In the name of God, the Virgin Mary, seed and flower, Jesus Christ died on the cross. So may the bone, flesh, nerve and blood return to its shape just as Jesus Christ returned to his. In the name of the + Father, + Son and Holy Spirit, +. Amen.' Say it for 3 mornings in a row and put on a stupe of carded flax well wet in urine. Heat it on the warm coals and put it on the injury and on it another stupe, fastened well and tightly because in the binding lies the cure. Soon you will cure it. For broken bones, to bring them together and reduce the pain. Take 1 ounce each of Armenian red clay, aloe, clay from Lemnos and dragon's blood gum and make fine powder of all these things. Then incorporate the white of a well-beaten egg. Wet your pads made of finely carded flax in that and put them on the injury, dressing the bones well in the usual way, putting the bones in shape. Bind it well with bandages so the patient keeps the injured limb quiet and soon it will be cured. Unguent made by the Venerable Bede to heal broken bones. Take 2 lb. of human blood or blood from a red pig, 3 ounces of hepatic aloe, 1 lb. of sarcocol gum, and 4 ounces each of juniper gum, gum ammoniac, galbanum, pitch, glue made of scrapings from parchment, fish glue, incense, mastic, turpentine, Armenian red clay, dragon's blood gum, rose oil and new wax. Compound these in the way that other unguents are made, that is all the gums are well melted and incorporated with the blood and the oil. Then put the whole composition on a slow fire and cook it in the usual way and finally put in the wax and remove it from the fire. Stir until it is cold and it will be made. Save it for your needs and when you wish to treat a fractured bone or other joint injury, make it warm and you will quickly see a good result, for it is composed from that which was said by that holy man, the Venerable Bede, and is held as the greatest secret. It is powerful.... 128 -------- [Page 240] For retracted nerves in the finger, a complete and good water. Take 1 ounce of rose water, 3 ounces of brandy distilled 3 times, 2 ounces each of water of cow dung and water made from bread. Mix these waters together and when you want to treat retracted nerves, make it very warm. It should be kept well stoppered. Then wet some pieces of fine linen and put these warm on the injury and put on other warm cloths and fasten them well. Do this in the morning and evening and you will cure it. To remove a wen quickly and heal it with facility. Take the yolk of an egg and some finely-ground salt, enough to make a paste of the yolk, and work it until it becomes like an unguent. Then spread it on cloth or chamois and put it on the wen, well-covered. Change it 2 times a day. Do this for 3 or 4 days in a row and all the wen will be broken down. But be warned that some are harder than others to remove so it may be better to follow the method given above for more days until the patient will feel the wen loosen. Then take old male pork lard and elder leaves and grind them well together and make it in the form of a poultice. Put it very warm on the wen 3 or 4 times in a day and the night and do this for 3 days in a row. When you have done this, take galbanum and spread it on chamois and put it on the wen in the form of a diachylon plaster. Have it cover all the wen and change it 2 times a day until the wen comes out. Then you will be confident of curing rapidly and soon the flesh will be cured. Do not use other medications because the galbanum breaks down the skin that is above the wen and it remains pure white and broken down. If you cannot remove it intact, draw it out in pieces, little by little, and the sick person will not feel it because all is deadened. Then continue with the galbanum as above until the flesh returns to its place without any other treatment and, through God's grace, you will be able to cure. This has been tested. Another to resolve a wen. Take 1 dram each of gum ammoniac, Roman pellitory and eyebright and 1 ½ scruples of saltpeter. Mix them together with wax and and a little strong vinegar to make a plaster and then put it on the wen. Another. Take a green lizard, large and alive, and put it in a flask with olive oil and put it before the fire and boil it until it is cooked and put therein 4 pellets of goat dung. Then remove it from the fire and put it in the sun for 15 to 20 days. Heat this oil well in an egg shell and rub the wen with it warm and put on very warm unwashed wool and other warm cloths and wrap well. By continuing this sequence, the wen will soon be resolved. But be warned that if it is too old it will not go away but when they are young they will go soon. Juice of the herb of Saint John, that is burdock, against a spasm. On the morning of Saint John's day, before the sun rises, gather the soft tips of burdock and fill a pot, pressing them in. Cover it well with parchment and leave it at the threshold of the room for 1 or 2 months and all will be converted to juice from its state without doing anything else. Then strain it and save this juice for these uses, viz. When you have a blow on the legs or they are bruised or on the shoulders or other injury with very great spasm and wounds with great suffering, wet some cloths in this juice and put them thickly on the blow or fracture or cut, especially in the beginning so the pain does not go to the heart. Also doing this for warm gout alleviates the pain. If you bathe the testicles with it, do not make use of women. This has been tested many, many times in all of the above conditions.... 129 -------- [Page 241] Oil for painful nerves. Take 1 handful each of dill, wormwood, rue and sage. Cut them and boil them in 3 lb. of the oldest olive oil that you can find. Boil everything together in a pot on a slow fire, well covered so that nothing can escape, until it has reduced one third. Remove it from the fire and let it cool and save this oil with the herbs in it. Rub the nerve with this very warm in the morning and evening and soon it will be cured. Alternatively, rub the painful nerve with this ointment. Take 2 ounces each of some sheep fat and some marrow of its shin bones or other bones of the same animal and some ox marrow. Cut them minutely and mix everything together on a little fire and in the evening rub the damaged place of the nerve with this ointment, very warm. Do this several times and soon you will cure it. *To heal a wen, viz. Take 2 ounces of lead filings and let them stand in strong vinegar for 4 days, changing the vinegar each day, 2 ounces each of hepatic aloe and sulfur, 3 ounces of clean wax, 1 ounce each of fine sugar and turpentine and 4 eggs. Incorporate everything together and make a plaster. Then take a thin sheet of lead and hollow out an opening over the wen and put on it some of this warm plaster and medicate twice a day. If the unguent does not have a good texture, add a little more turpentine and it will cure. *Another to heal a wen, viz. Take 1 ounce of dried rock alum and make very fine powder of it and ½ ounce each of soap, hepatic aloe and lead filings. Incorporate everything together in a little good strong vinegar and a little egg white and leave this for 4 days. Do this 3 times, that is it will be 12 days in all. When you want to use it, take a little of this paste and wrap it as before and put it on the wen. Cover it with a thin sheet of lead made to the size of the wen and every day change the unguent. As the wen shrinks, reduce the lead cover. Continue this for at least a month and you will cure it. *To remove a wen. Take equal amounts of diachylon , saltpeter and galbanum. Incorporate them and put this on warm. Do this several times and it destroys the wen. -------- [Page 242] To mitigate the pain of gout and other pains. Take 3 ounces of olive oil, the oldest that every you can find because the older it is the better it is, 1 ounce of male incense, 3 drams of flowers of dill, ½ ounce of old lard from a male pig and 1 fresh egg white. The incense and dill should be made into very fine powder and the lard cut finely and everything mixed, barely warm, and hold it about an hour to incorporate and it will be made. Then wet therein some little linen cloths and put them several times on the pain of the gout or on other joint pains as well and soon it will lift a great part of the pain. Also, if you will rub the sore place of the gout with some cut-up cassia it will remove the pain quickly so you will not be aware of it. This has been tested. -------- [Page 243] Remedy most certain to lift the pain of hot gout with one ointment, very well tested and true. Take 3 ounces of olive oil, the oldest and most antique that you can find because the older it is, the better it works. It penetrates better and acts more quickly. Also take 2 ounces each of yellow litharge, dill, incense, mercury and washed white lead, ½ ounce of ordinary salt and one fresh egg white, well beaten. All the other things should be made into very fine powder. Then take a clean little pot and put therein 4 ounces of very, very good white wine and the above oil and put them on the burning coals in a frying pan or put the little pot in a little warming pan with hot ashes. When it starts to boil put in the dill, the incense, the litharge, the lead and the mercury. But first soak the mercury with saliva or with the juice of a sweet apple in a bowl for a half hour. Then put it in and stir continuously with your rod so everything is well incorporated and so it does not burn. Let it boil until the wine is used up and in this way it will take on the form of an unguent. When it has boiled very slowly for an hour or more, remove it from the fire and stir for a piece and if, by chance, the wine was not all used up it will come on top of the unguent and throw this out and keep only the unguent and it will be made. Keep this as something dear and the older it is the better and more penetrating it is and it works more quickly. When the gouts come to visit with the usual pain in the joints, quickly apply this ointment from the grace of God, rubbing the sore place, and soon the pain will depart and go to another place. You will then rub the place to where the pain has gone and at length it will be reduced to the extremities, the hands or the feet, and will no longer hurt but there will be swelling in the extremity without pain. In this way you will remove the pain of gout and this is the most certain result and has been tested many times. If you want to reduce the swelling in the hands or feet, make this comforting bath of wine, roses, camomile, rosemary and bran boiled so it is reduced 1/3. Wash with it and let it dry by itself and soon the swelling will be resolved. By continuing with this ointment in this illness and protecting yourself from everything adverse and living sparely and being restrained and temperate with your wife, you will be cured, with the aid of God, as was Monsignore Albergotto, citizen and rector of the city of Rezzo, who gives good testimony that he is alive and healthy.... 130 To mitigate the pain of gout in several ways. Take some millet flour and make a dough with very good, very warm white wine and put it on a cloth in the form of a plaster and put it very warm on the gouty pain. Renew it as it becomes cold. Continue this and soon it will mitigate the pains. When they move, follow them with the plaster. It has been tested. Another to mitigate the pain of gout rapidly. Take enough leaves of henbane in the month of May to fill a large pot with its cover luted so that nothing can escape. Make a pit in the earth before your door or where enough people pass and let it stand until the August harvest of Saint Maria at the half moon. Then lift the pot and the cover and remove the leaves which are converted into liquid and press them very well on the press and extract as much as you can. Save it in an ampule, well stoppered. With this liquid rub only the inflamed area of the gout which gives you pain and where there is redness and in no other place for a good result. This blessed liquor mitigates and lifts all the pains of the gouts. Wherever they are on the body, it will cure them all. It has been tested. Another to mitigate the pain of the gouts. Take the oldest olive oil that you have, powdered incense, egg white and male pork lard in equal amounts and beat everything together and mix it on a slow fire. Make it into a plaster and put it warm on the sore gouty places. It will soon lift the pain. Do this with rewarming time after time so the pain goes away and you will be cured. -------- [Page 244] Against the pain of the gouts, warm and cold. Take 2 lb. of the herb swallow wort, or celandine, early in the morning when it has the dew on it, during the half moon, and cut it minutely and take 1 lb. of clarified honey and put them together in a vessel and seal it well. Put it under warm horse manure for 20 to 30 days. Then remove it and pour out carefully the little water that is in the vessel and save it. It is good for fistulas and cankers. Wet some cloths and put them on the sores, but first wash the sores and then put on some brutto bon ointment, that is the dark diachylon , and you will cure this sickness. Then take the remainder that is in the vessel and distill it in a glass flask on the bain marie with a slow fire and extract from it limpid and clear water and save this. Wet fine linen cloths in this water and put them on the painful place with the warm or cold gout. By continuing to put on wet cloths the pain is greatly reduced. After this you can give the patient his meal which should be moderate. He should be conservative in everything and not disorderly and, with the aid of God, the pain from gout will soon cease. In this way you will cure gout or fistula or canker. Another to mitigate the pain of gout. Take 1 handful each of elder leaves and leaves of the herb that is called 'Christ's eye' and boil them in good white wine. Put this warm on the painful place of gout in the form of a poultice and keep it as warm as you can, changing it several times and soon you will lift the pain of gout wherever it is. Another. It is said that if you take 3 sprouts of elder and 3 of nettle and the same amount of horsemint and cut them up and make a pancake and give it to drink or eat with very good white wine, you will help greatly in the pain of gout. Another. If you drink a glass of betony juice, in that day you will not feel gouty pain. The best beverage against the pain of gout, especially when the gout is hot in nature. Take 3 pounds of each of the following: water distilled from fumitory, from endive and from bugloss, and 3 ounces of hepatic aloe. Put the waters in a clean pot with its cover well-sealed so that nothing escapes and boil it very slowly until it is reduced in half or more. Then strain it through a fine sieve and save it for your needs. When the pain of gout comes, give 3 ounces of it to drink warm early in the morning in the form of a syrup. Give it each morning as long as the pain of gout lasts and for those other pains that will come later. Do this little by little and, with the aid of God, soon one will be freed so no more pains will come and one will not be crippled. Against the pain of gout, the best and perfect laxative. Take ½ dram of good quality turbith, 1 dram each of colchicum and ginger, 3 drams of dwarf elder and 1 lb. of sugar. Dissolve everything together and reduce it to the form of a confection or electuary. If you want it to be more laxative, add 1 dram of purging bindweed. Take about 3 drams of this in the evening or in the morning. It will make you go easily and without discomfort. Also you know from this that it will help you greatly. Note. To lift the pain of gout take the green wood of willow and put it in the fire and collect with care the water or foam that comes out of the head of the stick. Rub the sore place, that is where it is red, and soon it will lift the pain of gout. This has been tested.... 131 -------- [Page 245] Against the pain of the gouts, perfect electuary and a wonderful secret. Take 1 ounce each of cold diadraganti and juice of quince, 2 drams each of autumn crocus and ginger, ½ ounce each of excellent turbith, excellent manna and rose honey and 1 ½ drams of agaric. Then take 1 lb. of fine sugar and mix everything together and these things should be finely pulverized. Make it into an electuary or into a solid form. The dose is ½ ounce depending on the effect. By continuing it for a time, it will greatly relieve the pain of gout. Take the pills written below at least 4 times a year, that is in spring, summer, autumn and winter. Take more or fewer according to how you feel and when you take them be careful for that day because they debilitate the body greatly. These are the pills, viz. Take 2 scruples of asafoetida, 1 ½ scruples of troches of agaric, 2 ½ scruples of pills of autumn crocus and 2 drams of excellent rhubarb. Mix these with water of ground pine and make a dough from which form the pills as you wish and save them in a wooden container and you will find them wonderful for you. Another, the best confection for gout. Tke ½ dram each of mace, galingale and cardamon, 1 1/2 drams each of cinnamon and nutmeg, 2 ½ drams of ginger and 1 lb. each of white sugar and sea grapes and enough rose water. Incorporate everything together following the rules to make other aromatic confections. Give this confection to the patient when he goes to sleep and early in the morning. Reposing for a while in the evening is very helpful in alleviating gout pains. Also these help him to retain some appetite. He should put off sleeping with his wife and he will find himself much improved. Sometimes he will feel the pains but they will always be diminishing. Against the pain of gout, excellent pills and a most true secret from a judge. Take 1 dram each of high quality myrrh, betony, Armenian red clay, primula and ground pine, 2 drams each of burnet saxifrage, germander and hepatic aloe and ½ dram of crocus. Mix each with sage or ground pine water, rose honey and primula water and compound everything together and make a paste from which one makes three pills the size of a chick pea to take by mouth before eating either in the morning or the evening. This is effective. Another, very worthy pills for gout. Take 1 ounce of hepatic aloe, 1 dram of saffron, ½ ounce each of myrrh and mastic and 2 drams of incense. Compound all these things with fennel water and make a paste and form your pills as usual. In the evening when you go to sleep take a dose of ½ dram and you will see very wonderful relief of the pain of gout especially if it is the warm gout. A wonderful and most effective ointment against the pain of gout. It has been tested. Take a fat, uncastrated cat, kill it and skin it and throw away the head and the insides and nothing else. Then cut it up very minutely with 2 lb. of old lard from a male pig. Grind everything well together and combine with these herbs: take 1 handful each of betony, primula and burnet saxifrage, 1 dram of saffron, 1 dram each of cinnamon, incense, ginger and nutmeg, all cut and incorporated well. Then take a fat goose, plucked and dressed whole and put all the above in the body. Fill it and tie it to a skewer...... -------- [Page 246] or spit and put it on the fire and turn very slowly and do not have the fire too lively, but very slow, until in 4 hours it will be well cooked so that no more is extracted. Collect all the fat that collects below with the greatest care and save it as something dear and valuable. When you want to rub the painful gout, wherever it may be, make it warm and rub the painful place and stay in repose. Do it in the morning and evening and soon your pain will lift for that time and it will not be as serious at other times and, by continuing it, you will be cured through God's grace. Against the pain of gout, a most worthy unguent to rub wherever the pain may be. Take 2 ounces of Venetian turpentine, 1 ounce of ground ordinary salt, 2 lb. each of ground tartaric acid from the wine cask and the oldest olive oil that you can find and 1 handful of dill. Boil all these things together until it is reduced one third. Then strain it through a fine strainer and put into this strained mixture 1 ounce each of strained goose fat and bear fat, 1 ½ ounces of marrow from deer and 2 ounces of clean wax. Incorporate all the above things warm and make an unguent and seal it carefully. Rub the painful gouty place, heating the palm of the hand and rubbing the sore place lightly with this ointment because the oil penetrates more easily through the natural warmth of the hand and it will help greatly in serious pain so you will not feel it. Another, a very perfect ointment to lift the pain of gout. Take a neutered, live bitch that is very fat. Kill it and remove the skin, head, feet and the insides. Boil it in a cauldron of water, large enough so that water does not have to be added, until it is well cooked and falls apart. Remove the cauldron from the fire and let it cool. Then collect all the fat that is on top as something precious and save it. Take 2 ounces of this fat and 1 ounce of fine rose water and reboil the fat and the water together on a slow fire until it forms an unguent. With this ointment rub the place that has gouty pain 3 or 4 times a day and rub with the warm palm of the hand. This makes it penetrate more easily and it helps the patient and the pain is soon gone. Again, the ointment above may be made with a dead fox and boiled in a large cauldron with enough water. Do not remove anything, neither skin, nor head, nor feet, nor the insides. All these things are good and helpful, as is said above. Collect all the fat that forms on the water when it is cold and save it. It keeps for a long time and is firm and very penetrating. Use it as above or put it together with the other which works better to remove the pain and even has some other virtues for other suffering and pain. This has been tested many times. Most excellent oil against the pain of gout and for any requirement. In the springtime take at least 6 large live ramarri , that is green lizards, and put them in a large caraffe with a large neck. Fill it with the oldest olive oil you can find and drown them alive. Then put it before the fire and boil it until these lizards are all broken apart. Remove the caraffe from the fire and put in the things written below, that is, 2 drams each of Roman pellitory, musk, mastic and rock rose gum and they should be finely ground. Distill it in a glass still on a good fire. Preserve the liquor that comes out as a precious thing. Rub the place of painful gout with this warm liquor or oil. Soon, with the aid of God, it will lift the pain and will delay greatly its return and you will be able to cure it in a short time. Also this oil has many other properties which are described in the section on ringworm and in the section on cracks in the skin and on the hair. -------- [Page 247] Electuary for the pain of gout and arthritis. Take 5 drams of scammony, 4 drams of fine turbith, 2 drams of autumn crocus, 3 drams each of rhubarb, cinnamon, cloves, frankincense and spikenard and 1 scruple each of anise, rock salt and lesser centaury. Mix the above with 1 lb of honey and make the electuary. It ought to be taken in the morning in the amount of 1 nut in a glass of tepid water. During the morning the patient must watch himself carefully while this electuary does its work. Say this prayer, viz. “O greatest wisdom, O eternal light, O creator of heaven and earth, O you who saved human nature and were placed on the cross for our sins to save us when you said on the cross, ' Hely, hely, lama zabatani. Hoc est corpus meus.' Agios, agios, agios, ischiros, atanathos, adonay. So you, Lord, were freed from the wound in your side with the most holy cross which you bore to Mount Calvary and so you, Lord, were wrapped in white cloth and this wound did not bleed nor become inflamed nor infected. So this illness will not cause pain if it please God and his Son. May the suffering of Christ remove this pain. May the suffering of Christ free him. In the name of the Father, + Son, + and Holy Spirit, + Amen.” Say this over the pain at your chosen time and then take a bit of a man's shirt and place it in the form of a cross on his pain and at once he will be freed. Against the pain of the gouts, a tested cure with water of guaiac. Take some guaiac wood, carefully turned into shavings, and soak it in 33 lb. of cistern water in a clean pot with a cover that has a hole in the middle and let it soak for 24 hours. Then boil it very slowly until it reduces 1/3 and the cover should be well sealed so that no gases can escape except through the hole in the cover. When it is well cooked, remove it from the fire and let it cool. Strain it finely and save this in a glass flask. Then put other water over the boiled wood and reboil it as above to reduce 1/3 and strain it and save it in a vitreous vessel. Take as much of the first water as the second and mix them and drink these waters at all meals and before meals and do not drink any wine until you are cured of gout or other infirmity. Be careful about other harmful things as is said above and, with the aid of God, soon you will be cured. This is a modern and rare secret among men.... 132 Prayer against the gouts to say every morning and carry it with you. 'This is the name of the great power, my Lord God, El, Eloy, Ely, Sabaoth, Elyon, Ele, Adonay, Iathetagramaton, Saday. + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, + Amen. Holy Trinity, one God, have pity, have pity on us. Agyos oteos, agios yschiros, agyos atanatos, eleyson, imas. God be gracious to me a sinner. God incline your ear to me and hear me. Open your eyes and see my trials, pains and infirmities and save me in your mercy. Help me and aid me in my necessity through the reverence and love of the most holy name of your most holy Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, and by the reverence and love and intercession of the most holy Virgin Mary, his mother, and all your holy saints who live and reign in the world. Amen. Et iot es uau tetagramaton . Lord God save me from the pain of gout and pity me and free me from all my anguish and infirmities, in the name of God the Father, + Son, + and Holy Spirit +, Amen.' Say this in the morning with a Pater Noster. -------- [Page 248] Electuary of buckthorn or the Angelic electuary, a laxative suited to remove the pain of the gouts with fruit that is called buckthorn in the Apothecaries’ shops. Take the berries of buckthorn at the end of the month of September when they are very mature and dark and have had cold, that is a frost, at least one time because they gain more laxative value. Take the amount that you want and put them in a heap, that is, stack them up together in a warm place for 8 to 10 days. Then put them in the press in a sack and press them and extract all the juice. Take 1 lb. of this juice and 1 lb. of cleaned honey and mix them together. Then put everything in a clean pot and when it is very warm strain it through muslin and put it back in the pot and boil it slowly, stirring well so it is incorporated. Let it boil until it takes on body such that when you take a little on the end of a knife and let a drop fall on a card, it stays firm on the card as a hard button. Then it is made. Remove it from the fire and while it is still warm, put in 1 ounce of cinnamon, 2 ounces of ginger and ½ ounce of nutmeg, all made into very fine powder. Mix everything well together and when it is cold, put it in your bottle and keep it for your needs. When you want to use it, before you go to eat take a spoonful of it rolled into the form of pine nuts. Then eat them slowly on your lunch. In that morning that you take them, you should take care that you do not go outdoors. Stay in the room, if you wish, so that it will work well and give aid to the body. Soon it will lift the pain of gout and purge the body and help greatly in other problems with debilitated nerves. There is a story of this electuary that an angel taught it to a holy father and he called it the 'Angelic electuary.' It has been tested. Another laxative of buckthorn, the Angelic electuary. Take 1 ½ lb. of the juice of buckthorn passed through muslin and boil it slowly until it is reduced 1/3. Then put therein 1 lb. of cleaned, strained honey with 4 ounces of fine sugar made into powder and incorporate these well on a slow fire with stirring. Let it boil until it takes on some body and it will be made unless you want to do the test described above. Save this for your needs and take a spoonful in the evening when you go to sleep, more or less according to how you see the need. That greatly helps in podagra and in other warm illnesses. It has been tested. A ring against gouty sciatica to wear continually on a finger. Make a ring of gold or silver and wear it continually on a finger if you have gouty sciatica or if you are very weak and, with the aid of God, soon you will be cured. Engrave these letters on the outside, viz. '+ Christus abiel, + Christus abiel, + Christus abiel + ' and nothing else. On the inside of the ring, engrave these in the way that you see, viz. '+ Dio +Birem +Sabuc + Hexeber +' and nothing else. Say over it a mass to Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian and the first time you put the ring on, say 5 Pater Noster with 5 Ave Maria in honor and glory of the 5 wounds of Jesus Christ. Wear it with faith and devotion and you will no more feel pain from gouty sciatica. This is true and most true. Also I do not know the appropriateness of this for women. I do not remember at this time that I have heard enough said, so it has been kept to this. Another to lift the pain of gout. Take 3 pills of autumn crocus the first time 4 days before the full moon and for 4 days before the 5th day of the waning moon. On these days take one spoonful or a little more of powder of gorse and mix it with broth or warm wine. Use powder of sweet balm on your food. You should do this continually and, with the aid of God, the pain will soon go away. It has been tested.... 133 -------- [Page 249] A poultice against gouty sciatica of the hip, even if it is old. Take 6 ounces of fine quality pine tar, 1 ounce of galbanum and ½ ounce of mastic. First melt the gums. Then put in the finely powdered mastic and compound your poultice and spread it warm on chamois or leather and spread it thinly. First, before you put on the plaster, take a cloth of red or rose-colored wool and warm it well and rub it very well on the thigh with sciatica while lying down. Then put on the plaster. Continue this for 10 mornings and it then stay on. Do the same for the knee, rubbing with warm red cloth and putting on another plaster. Let it stay for 10 days and every morning lift it and do the rubbing as above. Then do so again on the foot with the rubbing and with the plaster for 10 days. At the end of these three 10-day periods, remove the 2 lower plasters and leave only the one on the sciatica. Do not ever remove that from its place until, with the aid of God, you feel yourself cured. Take care of the way you live. Prayer to cure gouty sciatica wherever it may be, and rapidly. Say, and have the patient say, 3 Pater Noster and 3 Ave Maria. Then say, 'In the name of God and the Holy Trinity and the always glorious Virgin Mary, free me of this sickness early in the morning and lead me early to the clear water. There we will go and 3 good deeds will be recorded. God save me from 3 evils, that is from running water, from burning fire and from powerful lords. I swear to God omnipotent and to the Virgin Mary, give me strength for one month and to be patient, not to eat garlic, nor lentils, nor head nor tail of animal, in the name of the Father, + Son + and Holy Spirit, + Amen.' Say this for 3 times each morning with the Pater Noster and continue for 3 mornings and each time that you deliver it, spit in running water if you can. Stay a whole month without eating legumes of any kind, nor sour fruit of any kind, nor head nor tail of fish. Eat bread of plain wheat without any other blend and drink wine and not water and stay away from women. Do this in the morning as early as one can. If the person is completely crippled so he is not able to move from bed, take a bowl of clear water and make him look at it and deliver the prayer and he spits in it and this is thrown away. The first night he will feel very troubled and this is a good sign of rapid cure. At the end of 6 to 8 days, little by little he will attain a cure even if the illness is old and wherever it is on the body, so with the aid of God, soon you will cure. If, by chance, he breaks the vow, the serious illness will return to him anew and he must return to the beginning of the prayer. Five persons have been cured in this time without doing anything else of whom 3 were elderly and were not able to move from bed and the other 2 were carried to a little running water when the prayer was delivered, spitting in the water 3 times in the morning before the sun came up and these were cured without taking any other medicine. You who want to say the prayer, get up in the morning at dawn and make the patient get up if you can. If not, do as is said above and of this be sure that all may be healed of the gouty sciatica which is caused by humidity and may be from coldness. Wherever it be in the body, all will be healed through God's grace by observing completely the things said above and with no other treatments. -------- [Page 250] Against gouty sciatica, lavage and ointment that will cure it rapidly. Take 1 ounce each of sage, tamarind, betony, burdock, valerian, burnet saxifrage, rue, holy thistle, wormwood, wild wormwood, mint, sweet balm, catmint, mountain mint, pennyroyal, artemisia, celery, creeping thyme, hyssop, box tree, fresh anise and laurel berries, all of good quality and collected at the right time. Boil all in 3 flasks of good and potent red wine until it reduces 1/3. Then strain the wine through linen cloth and press the herbs well and save them apart as you still have to use them. Put in the collation the fats written here, viz., 2 ounces each of donkey fat, fox fat, badger fat, old chicken fat and goose fat and 1 lb. of ordinary oil, the oldest you can possibly find, and 1 ounce each of rock rose gum, bdellium and myrrh. All these should be coarsely cut. Put everything together in the boiled liquid and put it again on the fire and boil it for one half hour or more. Then remove it from the fire and let it cool and collect all that fat on the top and save this in a glass bottle as something valuable. Put the herbs that you have boiled again into the wine and let them stay there as long as you wish. When you want to use this lavage with the herbs in it, warm it well and wash the thigh or the leg on the inflamed and painful place of the sciatica, wherever it is. Wash the place well so it becomes very warm. Dry it well with warm cloths. Then anoint it with the warm oil that you have saved. Wet stupes in this lavage, very warm, and put them on the ointment where it is painful. Cover them with warm cloths and wrap well. Do this 2 or 3 times a day, because the more times you do it, the sooner you will be cured. Continue this for at least 15 days. If you want to put some of these warm herbs on the sore place in the form of a poultice, it will help you when you are rewarming the stupes time after time. If you do this repeatedly, you will achieve a cure sooner for this lavage above all is comforting, restorative and drying. By keeping to the rules described above and by means of divine aid and with faith you will soon be cured. Watch what you eat. Do not eat things bad for you such as pork. One man was cured through God's grace who for 5 years had gone on 2 crutches with sciatica in both legs and he kept to the rules and was cured and freed expeditiously and walks joyously. Another, a beverage for sciatica. Take 1 ounce each of flowers of tamarind, of borage, of bugloss and of St. John's wort, picked at the right time and dried in the shade, 2 ounces of the herb St. John's wort, 2 drams each of mastic and turbith and 2 ½ drams of cinnamon. Boil all these things in 5 flasks of good white wine and boil it very slowly until it reduces 1/3. Then strain it carefully and let it stay in the sun for 4 days. In the evening when you go to sleep and in the morning before you get up, drink 3 ounces, warm. This will make you feel very youthful. When you strain it, be sure it is clear and save it in a glass flask, well sealed. Every morning say this prayer, viz. “ '+ Today you will be with me in paradise. My Lord why have you forsaken me? Mother behold your son.' Then you said, 'Disciples here is your mother. I thirst. I commend my spirit, Lord, into your hands. It is finished.' In the name of the Father, + Son + and Holy Spirit +. Amen. He who was freed from all iniquities to him, he is the one who heals all your infirmities. Amen.” -------- [Page 251] Against the cold gouts. Take 1 handful of rue and grind it well. Then mix with a decoction of cumin so it is well cooked and make it in the form of a plaster and, as warm as you can stand, put it on the painful area of gout and soon it will lift the pain and greatly dry this cold humor. Also this other plaster is very good to remove the pain of cold gout, viz. Take 1 handful each of sage, rue and dill and boil them well in good white or red wine until it reduces 1/3 or in half. Then grind it well and put this warm on the gouty pain in the form of a poultice and it soon dries it and lifts the pain. *Perfect and tested oil against all cold infirmities. Viz. Take 1 handful each of 4 kinds of mints, that is, lesser mint, greater mint, horsemint and pennyroyal, picked during the half moon in the month of May. Cut them finely and put them in the oldest olive oil you can find. Let them stand for 4 to 6 days in the sun. Then boil them on the water bath. Then put them back in the sun for 15 days or more and it will be made. Save this oil for all your needs. It is powerful for all the painful cold that comes in the joints. Rub with this oil, well-warmed, and put over it warm unwashed wool and soon it will lift the pain, by rubbing in the morning and evening. The older it is the better. This oil has been tested many times and it has cleared up all the above infirmities from coldness. *The Angelic electuary or buckthorn electuary, very laxative. Viz. Take very mature fruit of buckthorn at the end of September, early in the morning, in whatever amount you want. Put them in a sack and with force press them and extract the substance in the press. Weigh out 3 pounds or more and put it on the fire in a clean vessel without odor and make it boil very slowly with skimming until it reduces one third so that it is nearly cooked. Then put in 1 ½ pounds or more of good cleaned honey, the amount at your discretion, or put in red sugar which makes it more laxative, this amount or more according to whether you want it sweet or not. Reboil it one more time until everything is cooked to its usual thickness, that is, it stays firm on the fingernail or on a card. Then it will be cooked and well made. Remove it from the fire and put it in your bottle for 3 or 4 days in the sun and it will be done and save it for your needs. The dose is 1 ½ spoonfuls, more or less according to the person. Take it after lunch or dinner and at the end of an hour or more, it will make you go 2 or 3 or even 4 or 5 times, according to the hardened material in the body. This electuary always works better the older it is. The Carthusians of Veduta use this electuary often. *For the pain of frozen teeth. Take rootlets of nettle, grind them a little and then boil them with red wine in a clean little pot until it reduces in half. Then take some of this wine in the mouth as warm as you can bear and soon the pain will be cured. -------- [Page 252] [This page in the manuscript is blank.] -------- [Page 253] A beverage and enema very useful against gouty sciatica. Take 1 handful each of lesser centaury, honeysuckle and cat mint. Take 3 jugs of very good white wine, not sweet nor weak, and put the herbs therein to infuse and take a bone of salt pork with a little very old and rancid meat and break it in 2 or 3 places so that the marrow comes forth better and put this in the wine and boil everything together until it reduces 1/3. Then remove it from the fire, strain it and press the herbs well so the substance comes out and save it in a glass flask. Give this wine as a warm syrup to the patient to drink, 4 or 5 ounces in one morning and not in the next, alternately. You can also make it an enema. With the following ointment, very warm, rub the sciatica with very warm unwashed wool. The ointment is made with 1 handful of rue. Bruise it a little between two stones and put it in a little pot and put therein olive oil, the oldest that you can find, and a few earthworms, well washed with white wine. Put everything together and boil it slowly so that it does not burn. Then strain it very carefully until all the substance is out and with this ointment, very warm, rub the inflamed place with very warm unwashed wool and then bandage well. Continue all the above things until you feel yourself much better. With the aid of God soon you will be cured if you continue to live carefully. A chaplain of the Queen of Naples used this remedy in Ferrara and through God's grace he was cured and freed quickly and walked as if he had never had the illness of sciatica. Very useful enema against gouty sciatica. Take 1 handful each of honeysuckle, cat mint and roots of bryony. Then take a flask of good light red wine and put in these herbs to infuse for 1 whole day. Put the little pot on the fire and let it stay on the fire until it wants to boil but do not let it boil. Remove it from the fire and cover it very well until it has cooled. Do this 3 or 4 times. Then put it back on the fire and boil it until it reduces in half and it will be made. Take a bowl of this boiled liquid and 4 ounces of ordinary oil and compound the enema. Give one every 2 days. This lasts for 15 days. Before you use this medication, purge the patient first and then make this ointment and also the enema and you will cure the illness quickly. Beverage for cold sciatica and for every other developing malady. Take 1 handful each of the inner bark of the ash tree, burnet saxifrage, maiden hair fern, spleenwort, rusty fern, liverwort and chicory roots and 2 ounces of raisins. Mix them and make a decoction. Put everything in a clean pot and put therein 4 jugs of good white wine and put on its cover and seal around with dough so nothing escapes except through the center opening. Then put it in a warm oven or in the center of the fireplace until it boils gently and reduces in half or by 2/3. Strain it and press the herbs well so the substance comes out and it will be made. Save it in a glass flask. In the morning take 4 ½ ounces in the form of a warm syrup. Continue to take it more times until you feel much better. Take care of yourself and, with the aid of God, soon you will be cured. -------- [Page 254] For coldness in the joints, that is for cold gout. Take the leaves, stem and fruit of wild cucumber. Grind them and extract the juice with force and put it on the fire until you have skimmed the foam off but do not let it boil. Then strain it through the strainer. Take again as much rose oil and boil them together until this reduces 1/3 or ¼ and it will be made. Save it for your needs, that is when a person may have been in some humid place and have taken up humidity in his joints so he is not able to move, take some of the juice and make it very warm and rub the painful place very well and put on a stupe of hemp or unwashed wool which is better. It should be very warm and well wrapped with a warm cloth and keep it warm. Do this 2 times a day. Do not eat humid things and in 10 or 15 days you will be cured because the ointment draws out all the humidity that was converted into water and soon you will be freed. Another. The root of wild cucumber described above is useful to give a horse to eat that has pains and soon that will cure it. It is tested. Laxative of quinces against the cold gout and hip pains and it comforts the stomach. Take whatever number of quinces that you think fit and peel and clean them, rubbing them gently back and forth well. Boil them in good white wine until they are very well cooked and broken apart. Then take 3 lb. of this paste and 2 lb. of cleaned honey and reboil them together, stirring continuously because it tends to stick. Remove it from the fire and when it is half cooled, put therein the things written below, all made into very fine powder. Viz. Take 2 drams each of cloves, red ginger, mastic, long pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon, ½ ounce of autumn crocus, 1 ½ drams of turbith and 3 drams of purging bindweed. Incorporate these well together while the paste is somewhat warm and it will make a good and perfect electuary. In the morning at dawn take the amount of one nut which will be about half an ounce and go to sleep at least for one hour. If you will continue this you will see a wonderful effect. Unguent that is powerful for sciatica, cold gout, retracted nerves, pain of the womb, kidney pain, quartan fever and pain from the spleen. Take 2 lb. of olive oil, the oldest you can find because the older it is the better it is, 1 handful each of rosemary, sage, rue, wormwood, tips of the sprouts of jebuli , that is wild elder, and put them in the oil and put in 3 ounces of malvasia or good white wine and boil everything together with a slow fire until all the wine is gone. You can test this by putting a drop of the oil on the grill of the fire and if it sizzles, the wine is not all consumed and let it boil a little more until it is all used up. This wine is used because the herbs would be burnt well before they would be cooked to extract their power into the oil. Then remove it from the fire, strain and press the herbs in the press and extract all the substance well. Put in a bowlful of earthworms that have been well washed 3 or 4 times with white wine. Put these in a little pot with good white wine and boil it very, very slowly on a little fire so that they do not burn and when it is well cooked, the wine will be dried up. Then put in 3 ounces of ground active sulfur and let it barely boil. Strain it through loose linen cloth with force so all will come through. Put this together with the oil and put everything again on the fire and incorporate it well. Then add in the things written below, all made into very fine powder. Viz. -------- [Page 255] One-half ounce each of cloves, incense and mastic, 1 dram of saffron, 1 ounce of laurel berries and 3 ounces of clean wax. Cut up the wax and put it in last with everything well incorporated. Stir until it is cold so that the powder does not go all in one place and it will be the best, well-made and perfect unguent. Save it in a bottle for your needs for all of the above infirmities. When you wish to use the above unguent for sciatica, cold gout, nerves, eschars, sickness in pregnancy, kidney pain and all these other pains, use it cold and not hot and you will see a wonderful result. Use the ointment repeatedly. Another. When you want to treat the spleen, make it very warm and put on warm cloths. Do this only in the evening. Be careful to avoid all adverse things and you will be cured. Another. When you want to treat pains, make the unguent very warm and rub the body with very warm cloths. Do this several times and soon the pains will cease. Another. When you want to treat quartan fever, make the unguent very warm and rub only the edge of the kidney. Cover yourself well in bed and do this 3 or 4 times before the fever comes and you will be cured quickly. Eat some rosemary often and eat good meals and you will see an excellent result in all of the above infirmities when the unguent is made as is described above. It has been tested in all the above infirmities and it has cured almost all. Oil of sage flowers for swelling from cold gout of the elbow, hand and knee. Take the oldest olive oil that you can find. Then take a bottle or curet and make it more than half full or full of flowers of sage gathered in the full moon. Fill it with the oil and let it stay in the sun for 8 days, well covered. Then boil it on a bain marie for a half hour and return it to the sun for a month or more and it will be made. With this oil, very warm, rub all the cold pains caused by cold humors and especially in cold gout. Put it on all the joints and put on a very warm stupe of hemp or unwashed wool and on that another cloth and bind it well. Do this 2 times a day and soon the pain from bad coldness will cease. Many persons have tested this remedy and have been cured, by God's grace, through continuing it. To cure arthritic pains or gouty arthritis. Take the herb called a rteticha which has leaves as long as a large palm and straight like the onion but slimmer or like chives and which grows wild in the mountains. When you want to cure gouty arthritis, go before the infirm one and ask if he wants to be cured of the gout. If he says yes, tell him to say 5 Pater Noster with 5 Ave Maria in reverence to the 5 wounds of Jesus Christ. You should collect 9 leaves of the herb arteticha and show them to the sick one. Begin to medicate the first time on a Friday during the waning moon. The sequence is to say the prayer written below 9 times for 9 mornings and the sick one will say one Pater Noster with the Ave Maria each time that you will say the prayer. Then after you have said it, cut the herb up finely and take a fresh egg and incorporate them together and cook them in a frying pan in the form of a pancake without oil and without any other things. Make 9 morsels of it and give it to the sick one to eat and with each morsel he should say a Pater Noster with the Ave Maria. On the second morning do the same with 8 leaves and read the prayer 8 times and he will say 8 Pater Noster with 8 Ave Maria. Do this on the third morning with 7 leaves and say the prayer 7 times and he will say 7 Pater Noster with 7 Ave Maria.... 134 -------- [Page 256] Do this on the fourth morning with 6 leaves and he will say 6 Pater Noster with 6 Ave Maria and make 6 morsels. Do this on the fifth morning with 5 leaves and he will say 5 Pater Noster with 5 Ave Maria and make 5 morsels. Do this on the sixth morning with 4 leaves and he will say 4 Pater Noster with 4 Ave Maria and make 4 morsels. Do this on the seventh morning with 3 leaves and he will say 3 Pater Noster with 3 Ave Maria and make 3 morsels. Do this on the eighth morning with 2 leaves and he will say 2 Pater Noster with 2 Ave Maria and make 2 morsels. Do this on the ninth morning with one leaf and he will say one Pater Noster with one Ave Maria and make one morsel. Do not omit this if you want to cure the arthritis soon with the herb arteticha . When you read this prayer, have a blessed candle lit and with this make the sign of the holy cross over the sick one and also over the herb. This is the holy prayer, viz. “In the name of the Father, + Son, + and Holy Spirit, + Amen. Three angels were on Mount Cedron on Friday and they met Arthritis and they said, 'Where are you going?' He responded, 'I am going to the servant of God (name).' The angels said, 'We conjure you, Arthritis, that you should not stay in the servant of God (name), by his son, Jesus Christ + and by the Holy + Spirit + and by the most blessed Virgin Mary + and by the blessed Archangel Michael + and by the blessed John the Baptist and by the evangelists + and by the blessed Apostle Peter + and by the blessed martyr Blaise + and by all the saints of God which are in heaven and on earth, that you do not have power over the servant of God (name).' Your faith has made you well. Christ conquers +. Christ rules +. Christ orders +. Christ protect you from all ills. + In the name of the Father + , Son +, and Holy Spirit +, Amen.” This prayer is ended and do not forget it and through the grace of God, soon you will be cured. It is tested. Another. Say this other prayer, reading it 3 mornings in a row and 3 times each morning with a blessed candle lighted. First say 3 masses over the prayer, the first of Saint Leonard, then of Saint Christopher and Saint Blaise. At the beginning of the third morning say 3 Pater Noster with 3 Ave Maria. Carry it always with you. When you read it say, and have the patient say, the Pater Noster and Ave Maria and read it with devotion, viz. “In the name of the Father, + Son, + and Holy Spirit, + Amen. Three angels were walking on Mount Sinai and they met the illness of gouty sciatica or arthritis and they said to him, 'Where are you going, Arthritic Pain, where are you going?' 'I am going to the house of your servant (name) to torment the nerves and dry up the marrow of his bones and waste the flesh of (name).' 'We invoke the Father + and the Son + and the Holy Spirit + and, by the living and true God who created all creatures, by the 4 Evangelists, Luke, Mark, Matthew and John, by the holy Virgin Mary, mother of God, by Saint Peter bound and imprisoned, by the prophet Jonah who was in the belly of the whale for 3 days, by the holy Moses who escaped from the hands of the pharaoh and crossed the dry Red Sea, this sickness of arthritis is afraid and with this holy prayer this servant (name) is cured so this sciatica or arthritis does not have power or authority over him to torment the nerves, nor waste the marrow of his bones, nor dry up his flesh, nor his limbs and by the terrible day of judgment which one fears. So from this hour forward arthritis has no mastery over my servant (name), so it does not torment his bones, nor dry his flesh, nor hurt his marrow, by virtue of the the holy, holy, holy, holy Immortal.' In the name of the Father +, Son + and Holy Spirit +, and of his always glorious Virgin Mary, mother of the Son of God, and in reverence to Monsignor Saint Leonard, to Saint Christopher and to Saint Blaise and to all the saints of God who are crowned in heaven and adored in earth and canonized in Rome and by this devoted and holy prayer, free your servant (name) from this evil arthritic infirmity and from all other illnesses, if it is the pleasure of the Father, + Son + and Holy Spirit +, Amen.” .... -------- [Page 257] “Saint Leonard on Mount Sinai met and said to that evil beast, 'Where are you going?' It answered, 'We are going to the house of your servant (name) to torment his limbs and afflict his family.' Saint Leonard said, 'Leave siatica, do not go there, do not stay there.' So I have made a vow to God and to M[onsignore] Saint Leonard to do all in my power for one month not to eat legumes, nor lentils, nor head of buffalo, nor of barzo because you will leave, cursed sciatica, and go to disperse at the bottom of the sea, if it is the pleasure of God and of the Virgin Mary and of Saint Leonard and Saint Christopher and Saint Blaise. In the name of the Father, + Son + and Holy Spirit + Amen.” Another prayer to say against arthritis. Viz. “Christ was walking with the Virgin Mary and on the way they met arthritis and they said, 'Where are you going, pain? Where are you going, you cursed arthritis?' 'I am going to the house of your servant (name) to drink his blood and eat his flesh and afflict his family.' They said, 'You must not go to the house of (name). He is such a good person that you cannot go there but must go to the sea and gnaw rocks and brine that will break you up and remove you before it is tomorrow morning.' In the name of the Father, + Son + and Holy Spirit. + Amen.” Another prayer against painful arthritis. Viz. “Three angels were walking on Mount Sinai and they met the sickness arthritis and asked and said to it, 'Where are you going?' It answered, 'I am going to torment the nerves and dry and diminish the flesh and reduce the medulla of your servant (name).' 'We invoke through the Father and through the Son and through the Holy Spirit, through the living and true God who is the creator of all creatures, by the 4 evangelists, Matthew, Luke, Mark and John, by the holy Mary, mother of God, by Peter held in bonds, by the person who stayed 3 days in the belly of the whale, by Moses who escaped from the hands of the Pharaoh and by the day of judgment that causes so much fear, that from this hour you will have no mastery over my servant (name) neither to torment his bones, nor dry his flesh, nor even reduce his medulla. Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Immortal.' In the name of the Father, + Son, + and Holy Spirit + and of his glorious Virgin Mary, mother of the Son of God, and of Saint Christopher and Saint Cosimo and Saint Damian and M[onsignor] Saint Leonard and of all the saints of God who are crowned in heaven and adored on earth and canonized in Rome, free your servant (name) from arthritis and all other infirmities, if it is your pleasure, Jesus Christ.' In the name of the Father, + Son + and Holy Spirit. + Amen.” Say 3 masses over this prayer, first of Saint Christopher, Saint Cosimo and Saint Damian and of Saint Leonard and read it 3 times each morning for 3 mornings with the blessed candle burning and with it make the sign of the cross + on the sore place and carry it always with you. Take care of your life. Eat well and little and keep warm and soon, with the aid of God and good care, you will be cured. This has been proved. Ointment for cold pain in the joints. Take 1/2 ounce each of oil of St. John's wort made according the the rules and oil of roses and of camomile and of lavender. Then add 1 ounce each of goose and duck fat and turpentine. Cut the fat up finely and incorporate everything with care on a little fire and it will be made. When you want to rub the sore place, make it very warm and put on a stupe of wool or of hemp that is also very warm. Wrap it well and do this several times and soon you will be cured. -------- [Page 258] Unguents for burns from fire or water. Take 4 drams each of turpentine and washed butter, 3 drams of white wax, 8 ounces of oil of roses and 1 ounce of juice of elder. Boil everything together until the elder juice is consumed and remove it from the fire and it is made. When you want to use it on burns from fire or water, spread it on a large enough cloth and put it on the burn. Do this several times and soon you will be cured. Another unguent that heals well burns from fire or water. Take 2 ounces of quicklime, washed in 9 or 10 waters, 1 ounce of Alexandrian zinc, ½ ounce of clean wax and 6 ounces of rose oil. Make the unguent as usual on a slow fire and when you have removed it from the fire, continue stirring and put in 2 fresh egg whites. Stir until it is cold and it will be made. Medicate with this 2 times a day and you will cure rapidly. This heals burns well. Another, very delicate unguent for burns. Take 2 handfuls of climbing ivy, cut it finely and boil it in white wine until it is well cooked and pass it through a very fine sieve. Then take the expressed juice and mix it with 6 ounces of rose or violet oil and 3 ounces of new wax. Incorporate everything together and when it is almost cold put in 2 fresh egg whites, well beaten, and it will be made. To use it rub the burned place with it and do it several times and you will soon cure. Another unguent for burns from fire or water. Take 2 ounces of powdered yellow litharge and boil it with 1 lb. of strong white wine until all the wine is gone. Then go back and make very fine powder. Then take 3 ounces each of butter and oil of roses and wash them in 4 or 5 waters. Take 1 ounce of burnt white lead and the yolk of a fresh egg and 1 ounce of fine sugar and mix everything together with 2 ounces of rose water and it will be made. Wet some linen cloths in the liquor and put them on the burn and soon you will lift the pain and you will cure the burn rapidly. Another unguent for burns. Take ½ bowl of quicklime and slake it with ordinary oil and when it is dry, that is when it has imbibed the oil, mix it with rose or violet oil in the form of an unguent and spread it on the burn or put it on cloths. In 3 or 4 days you will be cured and it will remove the pain and not leave any sign. This has been tested. Another unguent for burns from water. Take an onion cooked in the fire and grind it while warm and, as warm as can be borne, put it on the burn and very soon the pain will stop. Another that is similar and quicker. As soon as the person is burned, wet the burn with ink or put that on some cloth. But if you are able to put the injured part into ink immediately you will lift the pain and greatly cool the burn and it will be cured quickly. Many persons have been tested with this and in has been found perfect and good.... 136 Likewise, as soon as you are burned, touch the spot with your tongue and with your warm breath on it, say over and over, repeating this word, ' Sabaot ', and make the sign of the cross on the spot with your mouth. 'In the name of the Father,+ Son + and Holy Spirit. Amen.' Soon you will be cured. Likewise you can say this 3 times over a burn from fire or water as well as from any other thing. 'When Jesus was born, he was first anointed and then washed as much as was needed, so much this burn will need from God in its cure. In the name of the Father, + Son + and Holy Spirit +, Amen.' Take a glass of fresh water and say over it this holy prayer with a Pater Noster and Ave Maria each time and with 3 signs of the cross, + + + . Then pour all of the water on the sore place but do not rub it. Do this 3 times in a row and for 3 mornings but do not do anything else. It will heal by itself by saying this first over the sore place 3 times every morning and then put on the water. Be confident that very quickly you will be cured. It has been tested. *Another to cure a burn in 8 days from any fire. Do not put on anything else but little cloths wet in the juice from cabbage leaves including the center part. Do it several times and the burn will be cured quickly. This has been tested. -------- [Page 259] Unguent for burns of all kinds. It cures them marvelously and leaves no scar. Take 1 or 2 or more lb. of old lard from a male pig and grind it finely and boil it in a flask of strong white vinegar in a little cauldron for 2 hours. Then remove it from the fire and let it cool. Gather all the fat from the top and save it as something dear for your needs, from which God save you. Press it well with the hands so the vinegar comes out. When someone is hurt by fire, wherever it is, rub it very well with the grease and put over the grease some finely-cut fur of a rabbit like a spice. Do this in the evening and in the morning, rubbing always first. Do not remove the old grease, but always add one grease on the other and always, when you have put on the grease, put over it some of this fur cut very finely and it will make a large crust. Do this for 4 or 5 days and not more. At the end of 8 to 10 days you will see the scab lift up from its place and it will all be cured. And if by chance or accident the scab is removed before it is well matured, return to rubbing a little longer and no mark will be seen and very soon it will be cured. You will feel almost no pain as soon as it is put on the first time. This is a most rare secret and has been well tested many times. Be well. Another. Other unguents against burns made in diverse ways according to the regions where they have been tested. Take 1 ½ lb. of ordinary oil and 1 lb. of great and good white wine and put them in a pot to boil. Put in 1 handful each of house leek and bark of elder, cut finely, and let it boil until the wine is all consumed. Then strain it in a pointed little sac, pressing it well so you extract all the substance of the herbs. Then return it to the fire and put in 1 ½ ounces of powdered white lead and 1 ounce of white wax. As the wax melts, remove it from the fire and it will be made. Save it for your needs for it is always good to rub on burns. Another. Take white vinegar and put in a little ground salt and wet some fine linen cloths and put them on and at once this will lift the pain. Distilled vinegar has the property of stopping pain when some cloths are wet in it. Plain pork lard also has this property. As soon as the person is burned, scrape a little lard with a knife and immediately put it on the burn, I say immediately. It will stop the pain of every kind of burn. These have been tested. Another for burns. Take 3 ounces of juice of rue, ½ ounce each of pine resin, powdered incense and honey, 1 ½ ounces each of rose oil, turpentine and juice of burnet saxifrage and 1 ounce of white wax. First put the oil, the turpentine and the resin on a slow fire and when they are liquified, strain it. Then return it to the fire and put therein all the other things and let it boil a while and remove it from the fire when it is done and stir until it is cold. Use it at your pleasure. It will bring you honor. Another for burns. Take 4 ounces each of strong white vinegar and juice made from elder bark and the white of a fresh egg. Incorporate these together and wet therein some cloths and put them on the injury and the pain is removed. When you want to make a burn heal well, treat with the unguent in the recipe above. Another for burns. Take 1 lb. of rose oil, 1 ½ ounces of clean wax, 2 ounces of red lead and 4 ounces of yellow litharge. Put everything on a moderate fire to cook, stirring continuously until it is somewhat firm. Then spread it on chamois carefully and it will heal the burn well and you will cure the burn quickly. Another, a quick remedy for burns from fire and water. Take house leek and extract the juice and compound it with a fresh egg white. Wet some cloths in it and put them on the burn. Do this several times and soon the pain will lift. This is a delicate remedy and tested. *Another. Say over a burn, 'Blessed be the hour that God was born, was first anointed and was baptized in the River Jordan. As Jesus Christ did not suffer, so this burning does not cause pain to this creature who is burned. Amen. In the name of the Father, + Son + and Holy Spirit +. Amen.' -------- [Page 260] Tested unguent for burns from oil or fire or iron or water or from any other thing. Take 2 ounces of rose oil and 1 ounce each of juice of nightshade, of plantain and of sedum and 2 fresh egg whites and incorporate everything together very well with a rod. Rub the burn with this in the morning and evening and your pain will quickly be relieved and you will be cured. If you are quick before the blister rises, when it is cured you will see no edge or mark. If the burn makes a large sore, add in quicklime slaked with ordinary oil as is said above with powdered incense and white wax, the amounts at your discretion. Compound an unguent on a little fire and treat the sore with this and it will cause no more pains and will be cured quickly. If you have these remedies always in your house, and in this way near to God, you will never be a poor man. Pills of turpentine, powerful in sciatica, in gout and in every bruise or internal distress. Take 1 ounce of good white Venetian turpentine and wash it 6 to 8 times with borage water or sweet balm water, or with good white wine, otherwise with other waters appropriate to this infirmity. When you have washed it well, incorporate 3 ounces of fine, pulverized sugar and 1 ounce of good cinnamon in fine powder and put in as much as it can take so the paste does not stick to the hands and it will be made, paste of turpentine. Save it in a delicate little jar in a cool place and it will last a year or more. When you want to take the pills, in the evening detach some from the mass and roll them in the fashion you prefer, large or small, and take one large or 3 to 5 small, at your preference. You can wet them in water or in wine and then roll them in powdered sugar. In this way the pill can easily be taken without difficulty. You can take it in the morning or at all hours but it is better in the evening because it works better. Take it one evening yes, the next no, and you will see a wonderful result. These are its approved virtues, viz. If a man falls from a height and feels bruised or injured inside, beyond needing an enema and phlebotomy, use these pills as described and soon he will be cured. If a man has pain from gout or other pain in the joints, either old or new, use some of the pills and for a long time he will not feel the pain. If a man has sciatica or is subject to some humidity in the joints, use some of the pills and soon, with the aid of God, he will be restored to health. If a man has any weakness or distress in the stomach, use some of the pills at least 2 times a week and soon the distress will pass away. If a woman will use some of the pills in all her feminine difficulties, this will help her greatly and will remove some of the fumes that rise to the head and soon she will be freed. Even if she has lost her reason through some impediment, it will return quickly.... 137 If a man has a need, these pills are good any time. But a man should use them more in the winter than in the summer. In winter they are always better because by themselves they are very warming. The one who needs them uses them correctly. When using these pills you will find other properties that I am not writing down because the above list has been many, many times tested by me, Master Apothecary Andrea from Farre in Brescia, and by other persons worthy of belief. Be well. -------- [Page 261] Imperial pills with some of their virtues. Take 1 dram each of grains of paradise, anise, mastic, cardamon, ginger and fine rhubarb, and take succotrine aloe in weight to all of these. In winter these are compounded with syrup of eupatorium and in summer with violet syrup. Make a paste and from this make little pills in the form of chick peas. Take 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 a week without fasting or any preparation. Those written here below are the spices that are mixed in. Add 5 cherry plums and 1 scruple each of cinnamon, long pepper, zedoary, mace, senna, nutmeg, cloves, agaric, saffron, jujube, galingale, aloe wood, white turbith gum, fine manna and oak fungus. Grind everything together and mix carefully. These pills were composed by Monsignor Marsillio from Saint Sophia in Padua and are very laxative and have the great virtue that they can be taken at any time by anyone for any kind of condition. It makes no difference if they are taken before or after meals. Here are some of their virtues and properties, viz.: They wonderfully sharpen the intellect, act against every illness and, if they find excess humor in the body, they remove it without effort. Another. They comfort weakened limbs and strengthen them. Another. They slow down graying of the hair. They heal whatever may be broken by a salt or viscous humor. Another. They prepare the stomach and comfort the viscera. They preserve the sight and reduce cataracts and keep away the lumps that arise in the throat. Another. They remove every vapor that has risen to the head from which a headache follows that obscures the intellect. They kill worms and improve tired, weak and sluggish nerves wonderfully. Another. They stop decay in the teeth and stop belching and other annoyances. Another. They strengthen the heart and protect against the plague. They rejuvenate. Another. They give great aid in gouty arthritis and joint pain. Another. They make you sleep well and they remove the bad choler. They make the breath good. Another. They are good for anyone where there is bad air and bad waters and they have many other great virtues. I have tested this when I was worn out from gouty sciatica. I took water of [aloe] wood and it did not help me much. Since I began to use the above pills and I have felt no more pain. If at any time I was hurting from a humid period, I took it and I was restored to health immediately, and for every other trouble I found myself well prepared. Tested pills against dizziness. Take 2 scruples of pills of assaiaret with agaric and 1 scruple of gold. With syrup of French lavender make 5 pills which should be taken at bedtime. One who suffers from dizziness should take these two times a month and, with God's grace, soon he will be cured. To cure dizziness. Take 1 handful each of agrimony and house leek and cut them finely and grind them well. Cook them in rose oil until they make an unguent. In the evening put it over the eyes before you go to sleep. This cures the sickness of dizziness that comes in the head. It has been tested. -------- [Page 262] Pills against many infirmities and especially against plague. Take 3 scruples of myrrh, 1 ounce of saffron and 4 ounces of hepatic aloe and incorporate these, finely powdered, mixed with white wine. Likewise take 1 ounce of hepatic aloe and a quarter ounce of myrrh and ½ ounce of saffron and mix as above and make pills. Another. Pills for the stomach and the head. Take some hepatic aloe, roses, cloves and saffron, the amounts at your discretion, with juice of absinth or of cabbage, mix them and they will be perfect pills. Prayer against the plague. 'God destroy you + and remove you + at last from your place and your root in the world of the living.' Write this and say it every morning and carry it with you and you will be safe. Remedy against the plague. Carry with you in your mouth a little piece of zedoary root and then you will go safely among those sick with plague and have no fear. With the aid of God you will not catch the sickness. You will be even more secure if you will carry some good odorous things with you and continually smell them. Confection to lift up the heart and dispel melancholy. Take 6 drams of dry roses, ½ dram of sedge, 3 drams each of cloves, mastic, lavender and plowman's spikenard, 2 drams each of cinnamon and crocus and 1 dram of lesser cardamon. Make very fine powder of everything and incorporate them. Put 1 lb. of fine sugar on the fire and melt it in rose water into which 3 grains each of musk and ambergris have been chopped. Make a confection as usual and keep this to use 2 or 3 times a week, especially early in the morning and you will see great improvement in your health. It has been tested. Very perfect nitric acid according to Aristotle, with its properties. Take 2 lb. of ground Roman vitriol, 1 lb. of very fine saltpeter, 6 ounces of chopped up cinnabar and 1 lb. of fine strong ash. Incorporate these 4 things together well and distill them in a glass retort luted well around and on a little, slow fire. When you see the cap of the retort becoming yellow, the first water has been made and be quick to remove the receptacle below and put there another collecting flask and seal it well around so the fumes do not leak out. Continue with a slow fire with dry wood and take the second water from its position below and keep it well sealed so it will not give off all its spirit. Do not ever let the fire get too hot and continue until the cap is no longer very yellow and then all will be made. Save this.... 138 These are its approved powers, viz. First, take a little of the water and put therein some cleaned quicksilver. Then put some of this water on a developing malignancy for 3 or 4 days and soon one will be freed from such infirmity.... 139 Another. If you will put some fine silver in this water and then put some of this water onto cleaned mercury, it will soon become firm and hard and it cannot be distinguished from the progenitor. This is a beautiful thing to see. -------- [Page 263] Another. If you wish to adorn any work of iron, first paint your iron with liquid varnish and let it dry by the fire in the usual way. Then mark the design on it with your little iron tips that you have prepared. Then put this water on the design, putting wax from a candle around so that the water does not drip onto any other place. Let it stand for one hour, more or less, according to how you see the work well incised or not. Then wash it with fresh water and this water will not bite in any more. Take some filings of iron with a little cork or soft wood and rub away the varnish and the iron will be bright and clean with the design that you have made. Another. If you put some copper beaten thin into this water it will dissolve. If you should put some of this water on a person it will distroy all the flesh that it touches and it will be difficult to heal. Another. If you put into this water all kinds of metals they will be dissolved in a short time. If by chance you want to break a piece of iron, wet some cloths and put them on the place where you want it to break and in 3 or 4 or more times it can be broken in that place but do not wet other places. Another. If you put some lead in this water and bathe with it where you have some hair, the hair will go away miraculously and quickly and will not return again. Another. If you want to cure warts or bad flesh, break open the wart with the tip of a needle so there is a little pocket that brings out blood. Put thereon a little of this water 3 or 4 times and the wart will go away. Another. If you wish to remove fistulas or any abcesses, wet some cloths in this water and put them on and soon you will be cured. Another. If you wish to cut or break the flesh in any place, that is to cauterize, make a little plaster and cut an opening in the middle the size that you want it on the flesh and put the plaster so it stays on the flesh. Then bathe several times with this water where you have cut the plaster and the flesh will be broken open in exactly that place. Another. If you wish to remove letters that are on parchment, wet it lightly with the water with a brush. Then with your little knife, shave carefully and lightly and it will go away so nothing will be seen. Another. If you wish to make a medium blue color, put calcined tin in this water and as it settles to the bottom, remove the water that is on top and at the bottom it will be azure. Another. If you want to make a bright vermillion color, put burnt copper in this water and it will make a beautiful red. Another. If you mix the first water with the second and put in red coral and it will become soft as wax. Then you can do what you wish with the coral while it is warm and where it was wet with this. Another. If you put some ordinary salt in this water and then put in a grossone of silver, you will be able to remove a scab without a scar.... 140 Another. If you will put fine silver into this water and touch the flesh or any other place with this, at once it will become dark, and especially hair that is white. If all these things are true, they are the most beautiful secrets. I have not tested all of them yet. Water of Queen Isabella, powerful for all the body and to make it healthy. Take 3 parts of brandy distilled four times and 2 parts of whole flowers of rosemary and put them in a well-sealed flask and keep it for several days. Then distill it in the flask and you will have clear water. Drink some of it early in the morning and it will renew life. That is certain. -------- [Page 264] Warming oil to straighten out a limb bent or retracted by cold. Take 1 handful each of agrimony, wormwood, wild nard, mugwort, barba silvana , betony, Aaron's beard, white and dark laurel berries, celandine, ground pine, sedge, white dittany, rusty fern, adder's tongue fern, elecampane with flowers, myrtle flowers, cyclamen flowers, gentian, juniper berries, flowers and seeds of St. John's wort, orris, sea holly, marjoram, horehound, mugwort, mint, horsemint, catmint, cypress berries, large and small nettles, polypoly, cinquefoil, holy thistle root, rue, Arabian lavender, sassifras, sage, tamarind, potentilla, yellow trefoil, maiden hair fern and zedoary. Take more or less of all of these herbs at your discretion. Put them all, coarsely cut and broken up, into a clean kettle or pot and put thereon some malvasia or excellent white wine, pressing them down until they are barely covered. Put in some ordinary oil, as much as you want, and put in these spices, that is cloves, cinnamon, ginger, incense and mastic, the amounts as you wish. Stir and incorporate everything well top to bottom. Cover it well and let it stand in the sun for 4 days. Then boil it on a low fire until it reduces ¼ or 1/3. Distill all this material in a glass flask on a little fire and a liquid will distill in the form of a water which works in the above infirmities. It will bring you honor and give you a reputation in these infirmities and it will make you known over all the world. And it also has many other virtues. Oil to heal a cut quickly. Take 5 ounces of rose oil, 2 ounces of thick pine tar, 1 handful of flowers and seeds of St. John's wort, and boil these together on a low fire until the tar is well melted. Then remove it from the fire and strain it, pressing it well in the press until the seeds give out all of their substance, because the power of this oil resides in these seeds. Put it in the sun for some days and it will be made. Use it warm. It will bring your honor. -------- [Page 265] Oil that draws fresh wounds together. Take the same amounts of ordinary oil and ground myrrh and mix them together. Then take a root of bryony and make an opening in the middle and put therein the above material. Cut a cover from the root that fits well and let it stay in the sunlight for one month continually and it will be made. Save it for your needs. Oil to heal and ease every sore. Take an amount of good turpentine and put in 1 handful of tamarind flowers and as much incense as you wish and let this stay to infuse for 2 whole days. Then distill it in a glass still on a slow fire and you will extract a most precious liquid with which you will treat all the above infirmities. Many persons have used it to rub aound sores and also this oil has been used to put in unguents instead of ordinary oil and it also removes the pain of every sore. Very excellent oil for a cut or a wound. Take 4 lb. of the oldest olive oil you can find and 4 ounces of yellow sulfur packaged in a reed and boil them until the sulfur is well dissolved. Then put in 4 ounces of Venetian turpentine and boil it until it appears to you that the oil has become somewhat reddish. Add these powders, that is 1 ounce each of eyebright, mastic and incense. Reboil it very slowly until all is well incorporated, stirring continuously with your spatula. When you see that it has become somewhat stiff, remove it from the fire and it is done. Save it for your needs and when you wish to treat with it, make it warm. It will bring you wonderful honor. Olio laterino , called oil of the philosophers, and some of its virtues. Take some pieces of brick, that is square tiles or flat roof tiles or cap tiles that are well baked and old. Put them in the fire and make them red hot in a charcoal fire with a little bellows so they do not take up the smoke. When they are red hot, push them into olive oil that is the oldest you can find in a basin of clay that you have prepared. Do this 3 or 4 times. Then let them dry and grind them and make very fine powder. Put the powder in a glass retort and seal it very well and let the seal dry. Then put it in the alchemist's furnace fitted with a cover and a receptacle with the fitting tight so it does not let out gas from any side. Then start the fire, very slowly at the beginning. Increase the fire little by little and notice that 3 kinds of oil will come out. The first will be clear, the second red and the third dark. You should know that almost all the virtue is in the first oil, the virtues of which in part are written below, as you see. -------- [Page 266] The virtues of this oil of the philosophers. First it is useful for all distress from cold or phlegm. Also it is valuable in all problems of the ears and kills worms in children when the wrists are bathed with it. Also it is useful in paralysis by drinking some of it and bathing the limbs of the patient. Also it is useful in cold sciatica by rubbing with it very warm. Also it is powerful for the spleen when prepared gum ammoniac is added. Then rubbing repeatedly with this oil very warm in a short time takes out distress and clears up the spleen quickly. Also it is useful to resolve all hard abcesses. Also it is effective in a seizure, placing some in the mouth or in the nose. Also it helps the memory when the fontanel of the head is rubbed with it. Also it is powerful to draw out a dead baby by putting this oil with wet cloths in the vagina and also on the private parts. It kills the worms inside. And also it has many other virtues that I do not write here through not having more knowledge, and this is enough. Prepared oil of yellow sulfur. Take some pieces of tiles or of flat tiles, paving tiles or curved tiles that have not touched water and make small pieces of them like chestnuts or beans. Bake them hot so they become very red. Then quench them in ordinary oil at least 2 times. Then grind them and make very fine powder. Put it in a retort in a large still and use it in the usual way and distill oil with a slow fire. This oil according to the philosophers is called plain olio laterino . Put this oil in a pan of iron or a frying pan and if the oil is up to one pound, add another pound of powered yellow sulfur and stir well together with a rod of wood until it becomes like honey and put this liquor on a marble slab. Cut it up as finely as the size of beans. Then put it back in the retort and let it putrefy for 3 days. Distill it with the retort of the still on ashes and first keep the fire low. Begin increasing the flames little by little until all has distilled and it will be made. Then distill it on a hot bath and in this way you will have oil of sulfur and at the bottom of the pot it will be ruby red. Distill it in the retort with a very hot fire and you will have oil of sulfur like a ruby in all its perfection. Another way to prepare oil of sulfur. Take 12 lb. of good quality salt and grind it finely and put it in a stone vessel and put thereon some warm water so it is all dissolved. Then pour it through felt until it becomes clear. Then thicken it on a slow fire and use enough fire so it precipitates. Then form it into a rod and grind it anew and make it into very fine powder. Again put it in a stone vessel and dissolve it in water and collect this in a glass vessel. Take powdered yellow sulfur and soak it 7 times in this water, mixing and drying it in the sun 7 times. Put this in a retort and distill it with a slow fire into a large receptacle. The first distillation will come out as clear water and does not have much power. Then the red oil will come out and you should increase the fire until all of this comes out and it will be made. But first put your distillation to age for 6 days and you will have prepared oil of sulfur. -------- [Page 267] Oil of yellow sulfur and some of its virtues. [Drawing on page.] Take yellow sulfur and break it up coarsely. Then put it in a little vessel, as you see in the drawing, and if you have too much sulfur you will need to do this several times because this does not make more than one ounce per pound of sulfur. Put the vessel in the center of a glass bowl, as you see. Put on its glass cap, luted below the thickness of a thumb, or a large funnel that receives all the fumes so that nothing is lost. Then start the fire under the sulfur with a candle. The cap should not touch the bowl by the distance of half a finger and the vessel should not touch the bottom of the bowl so the oil that falls out does not touch it. If it does, it will dry up and you will have nothing. Set it on a little piece of glass and in this way you will be able to collect it. You can lift up the cap when you want to kindle the fire and then lower it and hang it on a nail or tie it with twine. Heat it very slowly and the oil will fall down and you can collect it, little by little. Save it in a large glass bottle. Do it well so that nothing escapes as gas and in this way you will have made oil of sulfur, true, perfect, pure and also simple to make and it meets every comparison. Using it will bring you honor. I put here below for you some of its tested virtues. Viz. First. For one who has epilepsy, give a little of this oil to drink with a decoction of peony and betony. It will help greatly in this illness. Another. For one who has lost his appetite, give it to drink with water of wormwood and it will help him greatly. Another. It cures all fevers, given to drink with wine in which has been boiled wormwood and rosemary. Do this at the onset of the paroxysm. Another. It cures all sores, old and new, by putting some of the oil in wine in which has been boiled powder of querzola , that is ground pine, and powdered burnet saxifrage, greater comfrey root, St. John's wort, leaves of myrtle, centaury and powdered acorns. Wet cloths in the boiled liquid with the oil and put them on old or new sores and soon they will be cured. Another. It kills worms in young children and in any other person, given as a drink with a decoction of agrimony and rye. It causes urination when it is given to drink with wine in which the oil has been cooked. Another. It is powerful against plague when it is given to drink with wine in which radish has been cooked with a little theriac and mithridatum. Rub the place that aches with the warm oil and it will be cured quickly. Another. It cures melancholy when given to drink with wine in which has been cooked rosemary, celandine, sweet flag, basil and saffron. Wash the hands, feet and head 3 times with wine in which rosemary has been cooked and this makes the person cheer up rapidly. Another. It is powerful against the flux of blood. When given to drink with wine in which some bark of rosemary has been cooked it will help greatly. -------- [Page 268] Another. It is powerful in asthma when given to drink with wine where agrimony has been cooked. Another. It gladdens the heart when it is drunk in a glass of 2 fingers of malvasia on an empty stomach, given each time with 6 drops of this oil. It preserves the natural humidity and augments and fortifies it. Another. It is powerful in lepra when given to drink with water of fumitory or of spiced cherry plums. It removes gray hair when given to drink with water of endive and of betony.... 143 Another. It cures every problem of the head and kills lice when used with water of marjoram. The lice will not return. Another. It cures every headache, migraine, dizziness and scolomia with water of bugloss and of sweet balm. It also cleans the swelling, called lethargy, that comes in the head. When given with water of purging lily, it purges the head. Another. It improves memory when given with water of fennel and and enhances the intellect and makes one sleep when given with water of the juice of white poppy. It removes melancholy when given to drink with water of borage or of bugloss. Another. It is powerful in apoplexy when given with brandy, first after the usual purgation. Another. It is powerful against weakness of the sight with water of fennel or bastard lovage. Another. It is powerful against vomiting with water of quince. If there is vomiting of blood, it is given with water of plantain and of shepherd's purse. Another. It is powerful in every venomous bite, given with water of wormwood. Another. It is powerful in piles and in other distress of the rear, with water of mullein or tansy. Another. It is powerful in all abcesses of the liver and in dropsy, with water of endive. It is more powerful for the spleen with water of tamarisk. Another. It is powerful in the illness of the stone and in kidney problems, with water of radish and of caltrop. Dropsy may be cured better when it is given with water of orris root and honey. Also this oil has many more virtues that are not named here. But note well that this oil is very valuable in the above-mentioned infirmities and it cures all kinds of fevers, quartan, continuous and quotidian and even all sores, ulcers and fistulas. It removes scrofulas and one can cut off swellings with this oil without a knife and also every bad growth. Note that when you wish to give this oil for quartan fever, dip a feather from a hen in it and rinse it in a glass of water of bugloss and give that to the sick person to drink before the paroxysm. But with the sores, they need to be bathed with a feather dipped in the oil. Then put on an unguent and it cures every sore rapidly. When you wish to rub for pain of the head, rub where it hurts with the tip of the finger and rub it as much as the patient can stand. Then give a dose of this oil on an empty stomach with good malvasia wine or with a water appropriate for headache. This is enough to have said, imparting some of the virtues of oil of sulfur which have been tested as true by worthy physicians. These are secrets that are not among the common people, so the profit is not removed for one who knows these secrets. However, if they are kept only in one little place, they are not of any value to you. *Another. To make teeth clean and white use one part of this with one part of water of mastic or of myrtle. -------- [Page 269] Precious oil that heals every wound in 24 hours. Take a full bowl of flowers of St. John's wort when they are well matured, 1 lb. of the oldest olive oil that you can find, 1 lb. of strained male pork lard, 4 ounces of clear turpentine and 1 dram of ground saffron. Put everything together in a large kettle and cover it. Then boil it on a water bath for 1 miserere. Then leave it for 4 days in the sun and if you want to make it good and complete, find a place to put it in horse manure, covered at least 2 feet deep where it is safe, and let it stay there for at least a year without touching it. When you remove it you will find a firm oil in the form of a balsam which you will hold dear and near to you and it will work to bring you honor. When you remove it, strain it and press the dregs in a little sac under the press and extract all that substance because that contains the greatest virtue. When you want to use it, make it warm for cuts or wounds or all other cold maladies of the person. Do not use other unguents. You will cure these maladies rapidly. Oil of St. John's wort with valuable additives and its virtues. Take 1 handful each of the leaves, flowers and seeds of St. John's wort in the month of July or August because at this time they are well matured. Then take 6 lb. of the best good wine and put it in a clean pot with the herbs and let it stand for 3 days in the sun, well covered. Put everything in a large glass vessel and add 3 lb. of Venetian turpentine, 6 lb. of the oldest olive oil that you can find and 2 drams of ground saffron. Seal the vessel well with lute of wisdom until all the opening is coated so nothing can leak out. Then let it dry and when it is well dried, put the vessel in the middle of warm ashes for 2 hours. Remove it and boil it on the water bath for 2 ½ hours. First put the vessel on and then put in the water that comes up near to the neck as it boils. Let it cool in this. Then make a pit in the earth in the full sun and put the vessel in there and cover it carefully and let it stay for 3 or 4 days continuously. Remove it and let it stay in the sun for 8 days in the open air. Then strain it and render the herbs in the press and put everything together and throw away the dregs. Let the oil stand for a little while and remove the oil that is in the middle because this is the good, true and perfect oil on which you can rely. Save it in a vessel or bottle. That from the bottom is of little worth. Hold this oil to your heart as a great treasure because below we will speak in part of its virtues, not just in men but in women, not just in wounds but in many other infirmities, bruises and blows from outside as well as within. Here are its virtues. Viz. These are the virtues of the above-described oil of St. John's wort. First I tell you that it acts as a true balsam and shares the virtues. It is good in all infirmities that come from coldness or humidity. It is most perfect against pestilence when it is rubbed warm around the sick places and also on the edge of the kidneys. -------- [Page 270] If you give 1 dram of it to drink, before 6 hours have passed it will help greatly in this pestilence and soon you will cure it. Another. It is powerful for rubbing malignant fistulas. When it is warm it will cure rapidly all sores, old and new, and fractures or damaged bones and also irritated nerves. Another. It is powerful when rubbed warm on all cold swellings. It cures gouty siatica by rubbing it very warm with a stupe or very warm cloths. Another. It is used to rub on the face. It removes all moles and dark spots that are found on the face and also on the body. When a pregnant woman drinks 2 drams a week it will protect the baby in her body from every blemish and also if it is dead in the belly it will be expelled. Another. It is very powerful against quartan fever when a little of it is drunk when the fever begins and also by rubbing the kidneys downward. It also removes clotted blood that is on the body. It also has many other virtues that I do not write here because you will find all these by using it if you keep to the rules above. It is also powerful in the sickness of matrons, that is for stomach pain. When it is used, rub well in the evening with it very warm. By drinking a little warm, it will free you rapidly of stomach pain. A few days ago I made a test of this and at the end of one and a half hours everything was cured. Use it and you will see. Oil of egg yolks with many of its virtues. It is made in this way. Take whatever number of hens' eggs you have that are good and not spoiled and cook them in water so they become very hard and firm. Then remove all the yolk and take nearly one pound. Put them in a frying pan by themselves and brown them slowly. Then put them in your retort that is well sealed and put on its cap and its receptacle underneath. Make the fire very slow and the precious oil will come out. Many alchemists after cooking the eggs put the yolks in a pot or in a flask and put it underground in the full sun or in manure, which is better, for 15 days so all will be converted into yellow oil that looks like liquid gold. Here below we will tell some of its virtues. Viz. It has special power to remove the pearls that develop in the eye so they are like new-born in less than a year. It is powerful to remove freckles from the face. Used repeatedly it kills lice. Another. It is powerful to stop the spasms of the twitching eye when incorporated with oil of turpentine. Another. It is powerful in burns from fire. It helps greatly. Another. It is powerful in piles when they are rubbed warm several times. Another. It is powerful in cicatrices, when they are freshly joined. These written down are some of its virtues. By using it you will find others close to these. This oil is called in medicine, Olium vittellorum . Oil of tartar to whiten the skin. Take 6 lb. of tartar, that is the lees of white wine, and wash it with good white wine. Then dry it in the shade. Then put it in a clean pot, sealed, and put it in the pottery kiln until it is well calcined. Then put it in a pointed little linen sack and put it in a humid place. If you wish to use it to clear up the face, put in at least 8 to 10 fresh egg whites. Preserve this oil and you will have the means to make your skin white. -------- [Page 271] Oil of tartar, that is tasso, with some of its virtues. Take 5 or 6 lb. of tartar, that is lees from white or red wine, more or less according to what you have. Clean it and put it to heat, that is to calcine, in a kiln for pottery. When it is cold, remove it. Then put it in a large glass flask and also in a little sack of cloth pointed at the bottom. Put it in a humid place, fenced or underground, so animals or other bad things or air or wind cannot get to it and it will soon become wet and will yield the oil at the end of 20 to 30 days, sooner or later according to whether it is settled in a suitable place to receive humidity easily. Tie the sack in the air so it does not touch the glass on any side. Strain it into a glass flask and little by little empty it into a bottle. It will be clear and transparent and will look like clear water. Save this as something dear. When it will not give out more oil, take the substance that remains in the sack and reboil it in a a pot of water, that is with 3 lb. of water to 1 lb. of this material, and boil until it reduces 1/3. Wash all the body with this water and it will remove all itching and all dark or red marks or moles and it will make all your flesh white as it used to be. If you will wash the face and chest with it it will make the skin lustrous and clear and stretch out every wrinkle and it will make you appear younger than you are. If you add a little dried rock alum in this water and wash out a spot made by wine or ink, wherever and whatever it is it will soon be removed and will be seen no more. The virtues of the above-described oil of tartar. First, it is useful for removing all marks or the edges of wounds when it is rubbed on warm several times and it even removes all black marks on the body. Another. To remove spots made by ink on any cloth, wet the spots and let it stay a little until the oil has penetrated well. Then wash it with fresh water, rubbing it a little, and if the spot does not go away at first, do it two times and it will disappear, be the spot made from ink, wine or grease. If the spot is on cloth or fabric of silk, apply this oil 2 or 3 times but do not rub it and wash with clear water and it will go away. Another. This oil is powerful to brighten the painted figure, that is by bathing with a fine, clean sponge, otherwise with a soft brush. Put it on the drawing or other painting in the same way as a liquid varnish. You should know that this helps brighten all the colors and all the painting seems to be renewed as soon as it is dry. This has been tested many times. Another. It is powerful to aid all nerves which have been torn or retracted by any infirmity. When it is used very warm it soon helps and cures. I have tested this on my own hand twice, only the ointment was very cold and I am more than half cured. The alchemists use this oil often but they redistill it and make it into a solid. Then they make whitening and other things. This oil has many other virtues that I have not written but by using it you will discover them. Keep it always near you because the older it is, the more power it gains. When you want to calcine it, do nothing but leave it intact because it calcines better and when it is calcined, it is dark and can be made into fine powder. When you do it this way and keep to the above rules, it will work well for you. Do these tests and you will agree. -------- [Page 272] Oil of Roman vitriol, true and perfect, with its virtues.... 144 [Drawing on page.] Take not less than 12 lb. of good, clean Roman vitriol. If you take less you may not recover the expense because it yields not more than one ounce of oil per pound, or about that. Grind it finely because it works better. Then put it in a clean large pot and fill it and push it in as well as you can but do not break the pot. Put on its cover and lute the cover on the pot so nothing can escape and make it so the seal sticks out about the thickness of a finger. Let it dry well in the sun. Then make an oven of bricks walled up with clay in a corner of the fireplace under the flue of the chimney and do it in the way that you see here. Fit your pot in the middle and close up around it with bricks that are vented only by one little hole behind. Make a fire of dry wood underneath and burn it very slowly for one whole day, that is 24 hours and let it cool. Then open the oven and draw out your pot. Be careful, before you break the pot in order to remove the vitriol, to have first prepared a large bronze mortar and a sieve covered as it is for spices and a large curved retort as you see. As before, it must be well sealed with lute of wisdom and the neck of the retort hangs out of the oven through an opening. First break the pot which otherwise you would not be able to empty because all has been made into a hard mass of red that looks like powdered brick. Be quick to grind it and sieve it and put it in the retort. This is done so that it takes up little air because it is affected greatly by air so that it does not render the oil sufficiently and if the powder was coarsely sifted it renders less oil. You are warned about all these things. When you have put all this powder in the retort, place it in the oven as you see, so it lies along the length of the oven. The bricks that are used underneath are unbaked and are one finger apart, one from the other, and all the way around it is walled well with bricks and clay and it has a narrow little opening behind and a small opening in the front. At once put the largest receptacle you can find in respect to the great outburst of vapors that comes suddenly at the end. If it is small it would be broken from this sudden outburst but it works the way I tell you. Make the fire in the middle of the oven and be advised that the fire controls everything. Make the fire very slow and with dry wood. If it is not dry, do not use it and, if possible, it should not be one stick each time but at least 2 if you can put them there. Always stir it up one at a time, continually if you see them touching. Never leave the fire and never let it stop burning and keep it always steady. Be warned about this because it is very important. Never leave the fire to burn by itself and at night one must always watch because it must not lack care for 6 days to make it perfect and good. With all this care it will never show you a sign except on the fifth day the spirits will begin to come forth and to come out into the receptacle with great force...... -------- [Page 273] [Drawing on page.] because having closed the opening of the receptacle securely with luted cloth all around, the gases cannot escape. Also it is better if the receptacle is large. Here is an ingenious secret so that the receptacle may not be broken by the great heat when the gases are entering. Devise a way that cold water is always dropping on the receptacle and in this way it or any other receptacle will never crack. Be advised that if you do this dropping of water, in 4 or 5 days you will have oil more quickly. If you do not do this dropping of water, you must wait to the fifth and sixth day and then all the gases will come at once. It is a frightening thing to see such dark smoke fill up all the receptacle which then condenses below and soon is reduced to oil. This oil is blackish in color or dark tan and take this, with the aid of God and with speed and dexterity, and extract it from the receptacle and put it in a large glass bottle and secure it because this oil is a very fiery and active spirit. Keep it covered with great care with new or white wax and with 2 or 3 layers of parchment doubled and well tied, because in truth all the spirit may be lost quickly in fumes and be gone. At the end I will tell you some of its virtues. But first I want to advise you to make this other oil of ruby-colored vitriol which is red in color, resembling the element of fire. It is made in this way as you will learn. Viz. First take some Roman vitriol in the form that you have made before and when you have ground it, put it in a glass vessel and close it well and put it in warm horse manure in the full sun for 15 to 20 days. Then remove it and do as you have done at first, having prepared the retort sealed with lute. Grind the mass and sieve it finely and put it in the retort. So the air does not hurt it, do this quickly and follow the rules above. Then place it in the oven as you see the retort placed above and with as large a receptacle as can be found. Seal the joint so it does not leak. -------- [Page 274] Make the fire at the beginning very lively and draw off the first water from the top. Be advised that when you see the gases coming, quickly change the receptacle and put under another to receive these gases which are converted into reddish oil. Wrap the joint of the flask so it does not leak, using very good plaster, because in this consists all the importance of your work. Do not let the gases escape, neither by love nor force. Make the fire more temperate and gentle, always continuing it steady with dry wood and you will see these gases coming as was done at first but not as much because they are issuing from water at the top. At first it will be a little less and it will be very reddish red and of the greatest potency, more than all other oils. It is used in medicine and outside of medicine. The philosophers in the works of alchemy call it the 'Green Lion' and it congeals mercury and has the most potent virtues, almost incredible, and in all its actions it is wonderfully potent.... 145 Now we will speak of the virtues of the first oil of copper sulfate, first described above. I say that this oil has so much potency that it consumes everything and it is not burned. Another. If you put iron, copper, tin, lead or wood in this oil in a short time you will see it consumed and converted to vapor, except olive wood and ivory. These two are not consumed and they are made resistant. Another. If you put a drop on a cape or clothing that was in 4 or 6 or even in 10 folds, it consumes all in this way. At first you do not see any sign but if you examine the garment, all the holes are seen where the fabric was consumed completely. Another. If you put a single drop in the middle of your hand it will pass quickly from one side to the other without pain and you will feel nothing. Another. If you put 2 drops in a glass of sweet wine, it will remove the sweetness at once and give it a certain burnt flavor very appetizing to taste. It gives you a very good stomach and will make you look younger and with very good breath. It clears the eyesight and preserves the memory. It removes corns rapidly. This has been tested. Another. It is powerful against plague, given to drink with water of marigold and with water of burdock, if it is given before the humor is polluted and before it arrives at the heart. Another. It is powerful to cure epilepsy when half a dram is given to drink on a empty stomach in half a glass of water of decoction of betony with a little round birthwort and with a little Arabian lavender and a little musk. When it has been taken, then take ½ ounce of a decoction of wormwood to restore the appetite. Another. It is powerful in pain in the hips, given with a little water of broom. Another. It is powerful in sickness of the spleen when a little is given in the morning with water of ash tree. It cures sickness of the liver when it is given with water of endive and of agrimony and of the herb liverwort, each the same amount. Give it in the morning on an empty stomach at an early hour and in a short time the spleen will be healed. Another. It is powerful to cure sickness from worms in any person, young or old, by giving 1 scruple with 1 ½ ounces of water of couch grass. Another. It is useful in curing a bloody flux when given with a wine decoction of rosemary. Another. It is useful to cure all kinds of fever when given before the paroxysm with a decoction of centaury and of rosemary cooked in wine. It cures the quartan fever when it is boiled with myrrh. -------- [Page 275] Another. It is powerful to cure every sickness of pregnancy by giving the mother one scruple to drink with 2 fingers of waters of betony and feverfew. Another. It is powerful to cure irritation in the bladder by giving it with water of honey. It is also powerful for those who are not able to urinate when it is given as a drink with a decoction of garlic. Another. It is powerful in toothache. Put 8 drops with as much garlic juice and put it warm on the tooth that hurts. Another. It is powerful in cough. Give it with a wine decoction of mallow or of hyssop and of nettle seed. Another. It is useful for asthmatics when it is given with water of orris root and honey. It is effective in scrofulas when given to drink with a little water of scrophularia. Another. It is powerful to cure canker when given and mixed with water of the herb cancharina and this oil. If it is given to drink by mouth, it should be tempered until it has a sour taste and then it can be drunk. It cures the plague when 1 dram is given to drink with 3 ounces of water of burdock. Another virtue of this oil. It heals all sores, old and new in this way. Boil in wine all these things, that is, oak leaves, burnet saxifrage, root of greater centaury and of crushed greater comfrey. Sieve this and put in some of this oil and mix these carefully together. Take some fine white linen cloths and wet them in this composition and put them on the sores in the evening and morning and the wounds and sores will be gone quickly. This oil is used for drinking in medicine and in surgery. It is called the 'Green Lion.' When you want to make it, use all your diligence in preparing it. Grind the Roman vitriol finely and place it in the retort and make the fire very temperate and low. Learn to collect the distillate quickly so that you do not lose the gases which are easily exhaled. Learn to save it when you change receptacles and to be quick and keep it well covered. You have in it a cure that will bring you honor in all the above infirmities. It has been tested. Note that the first oil contains part of the elements of water and of fire, but the second which is reddish contains nothing of water because you have removed that first and have left all of the element of fire. The major virtue for all things is not in the first oil and you should be aware of this in treating with it. In hardening the red oil does not have equal and does its work quickly and effectively. This has been shown. Some say that if the fire is strengthened under the first retort, then the element of fire may come out in the first oil that is extracted, but the fire would need to be lively. I have not tested this and I leave it to you to research more about that. I have done all that I have said to you and have given the rules. We were 3 companions and we made this oil together. Oil of talc prepared for a white complexion. Take 6 lb. of talc and 6 ounces each of saltpeter and tartar from white wine made into fine powder. Put everything in a non-vitreous pot, making layer on layer of talc and the powder. Then put on the cover and tie it with iron wire and seal it on very well above and below. When it is dry put it to calcine in the furnace for bricks or the oven for calcining. When it is cold, remove it and grind the talc in a bronze mortar and make fine powder. Then put it on a marble slab and put it in a humid place where animals and wild beasts are not able to go and let it stand until it is converted to water. Then distill this water in a glass retort on a slow fire and the oil will come out. This will make you esteemed because its virtues are not all obvious but a great treasure is found in this oil. Men are rare who have such a secret. In all the beauties of the body and the hardening to which you put it, it will bring you honor.... 146 -------- [Page 276] Oil of talc, made mysteriously. Take not less than 12 lb. of talc stone because no more oil than 1 ounce per pound is extracted. Flake it all finely. I think you know what talc is and if you do not know, I tell you that it is a white stone, shining and lustrous, that appears like silver and is hard and cannot be ground but it cleaves into very fine flakes. Fill a non-vitrious pot with these flakes and tie it with iron wire and seal well around and let it dry in the sun. Then place it in a furnace for bricks or a calcining oven in a secure place where the fire is steady and leave it until the oven is stopped. Then draw it out and you will find your talc is calcined. Grind it in a bronze mortar and powder it finely on marble and let sit on this rock or put it in a large bowl or on a glass plate and put it in a safe humid place where neither animals, nor dust, nor dirt, nor wind can harm it. It should stay hanging over a bowl to collect the oil and it should stay there at least 20 days. Once it begins to yield oil, it will yield all in about one month. If it may not be willing to render the oil, put it in a pointed sack of cloth and assemble it with a glass vessel to collect what comes out. Lower it near the water in a well or at least an arm's length down the well and see that no one removes water there in order not to interfere with the action. Alternatively, make a large hole in the earth in a place where neither air, nor sun, nor moon beats and place this sack so it does not touch any side and cover the opening with some board and let it stay for the space of 20 to 30 days until the oil is given up to you. Know that as it begins to give out the humidity it does not stop until nothing more can come out. With the first that comes out on the marble, you need to do nothing more and you will have oil of talc which will be white and lustrous and appear like silver. Save this to use for your needs because whoever has this oil will not be a poor person. This oil treats all the great lords. The illustrious Duchess of Savoy used no other thing on her body, only this oil, and she was held to have the most beautiful flesh on earth.... 147 I do not tell you about solidifying alone because it solidifies and joins at the same time. Here below we will put some of its approved virtues, viz. First, if you put a drop in purified mercury, at once it hardens and precipitates all at once and it stays solid to fire, to any test and to the hammer. Another. It is powerful to take away all the marks that are on the body, even if the mark is dark or of any color and all marks and scars from wounds. Another. It is powerful to rejuvenate everyone. It takes away all the wrinkles and makes the flesh very white and soft. Another. It has power to purify the eyes and maintain vision and it aids and augments the memory. Another. It is useful for the stomach. Rubbing with this keeps the stomach free from choler and renders the breath good and keeps the teeth always very white. In addition, it is powerful in giving luster to pearls and coral and to other precious stones. It is also powerful for many other things that you will learn as you work with it. This is enough for now. Do not make less than 12 pounds so that you may satisfy the expenditure that you have made and with the honest amount of profit that is customary. -------- [Page 277] Oil of talc made according to the alchemists. Take some talc as described above, clean and not less than 6 lb. Flake it into fine particles and let it stay in olive oil for one whole day. Then touch it to the fire and dry it completely. Grind it in a bronze mortar. Then macerate it on porphyry and make very fine powder. Put it in a glass flask, uncovered, and boil it for 2 hours on a bain marie and then cover it. Distill it in a glass retort, beginning with a slow fire. Augment the fire to lively and it will distill oil. Uusually one puts in some well-washed and clean little stones. In this way you will have oil of talc extracted by distillation. If by chance it does not want to come out, put it in a humid place for some days until it will come out. In this way you will have an oil which does not lack the virtues described above. Use it with great care and hold it dear because I have sold an ampule of a quarter of an ounce of it for one scudo of gold and this was for an unknown illness. If you have enough of it, you will never be poor a man. Synthetic oil of vitriol that solidifies. Take 12 lb. of Roman vitriol and put it in a large pot and cover it well so that gas does not escape and put it in a tub of water so that the water does not enter the pot and with the cover well sealed around so the vitriol does not escape. Boil the tub of water with the pot in it and boil until all the water is reduced in the boiling tub. Then let the pot cool before you touch it. Remove the vitriol from the pot and grind it finely and sift it with a covered sieve so that the air does not affect it and the power is not lost. Be quick to put it in a glass retort, well sealed with strong lute of wisdom and it should be well heated and dried. Put it on good warm ashes and keep it thus for 2 days. Then put it in your oven fitted with its receptacle and with the joint well closed with cloth and luted and well wrapped so the fumes do not escape. Make a moderate fire for 2 days. Do make sure that drops of fresh water continually fall on the receptacle. When the first water comes, it comes with some white fumes and when you have these, you must change the receptacle quickly and seal it well. Then on continuing the fire some other spirits or fumes will soon come out which on going to the bottom are soon converted into oily liquid. You should know that this red oil and this clear water are called permanent because these are permanent things which cure every serious infirmity, as you know from above. Also the oil has in it very great power to stiffen, solidify, precipitate and fix. The true potable gold is made from this material, perfected with purification into the best gold from its ferment of gold. It is made from the water described above. It is true potable gold that cures lepra, ulcer, fistula, epilepsy and prevents an apoplectic stroke. You make it by this simple sequence and the cures are worthy and strong.... 148 Note that on soaking the cinnabar of the philosophers in the fermented oil for 3 days and distilling it, through the power of this oil it takes, precipitates and fixes the mercury and modifies it into the best gold. This secret is rare among men. -------- [Page 278] To convert oil of tartar into a liquor. [Drawing on page.] Take 3 or 4 lb. of tartar from white or red wine and put it in a large pot and cover it with its cover and seal it well around so that gases cannot escape and put it to calcine in a kiln or other furnace. When it is cool, remove it, grind it and triturate it on marble. Then put it in a clean and well-washed bladder and tie it well with strong twine and send it half-way down in the well so that nothing can hurt it and let it stay for at least 15 days or less and all will be converted into oily liquor. It will have properties different from the other in this respect that it does not give off gas and stays more united as a body. Its powers will be more potent. It will give identical effects and has the same virtues as the previous remedy of oil of tartar. Draw it out of the well and let it distill, bringing it forth little by little from the neck of the bladder. You will have a liquor from the oil very perfect for every use. Save it well closed. It can remove all the marks made on iron or glass and especially from silver. It has many other virtues such as are contained in the chapter above on oil of tartar. Best and perfect oil made from virgin wax. Take 2 lb. of good, new wax that has the odor of honey and cut it into very little pieces. Then take a good handful of little rocks as large as beans, neither more nor less, and wash it very well with pure water. When it is dried, put it with the wax and incorporate well together. Then put everything in a retort as you see in the diagram, very well sealed with lute of wisdom, made with trimmings from cloth or other appropriate things, to the thickness of a finger and let it dry well. Then place it on the little tower base with a grid of iron put in between and closed well from above, leaving there only its opening to let out smoke. Put on its receptacle well-closed with a cloth sealed around the opening so that nothing can escape from any side. Then make up the fire from charcoal or from dry wood, continuing it slowly for the space of half a day. The oil and the wax will come forth into the receptacle and in the retort will stay only the little rocks which are of no value. With your ingenuity, separate the oil from the wax in the receptacle because the oil stays below and the wax above. If you cannot extract it then break the receptacle and remove the oil first from its position and then remove the wax. Save this oil by itself in a double ampule, well-closed and it is done, oil of virgin wax in all its perfection. It has many properties and virtues, especially in fistulas. I have not seen a good miracle from it and for now I do not say more about it to you. Note that if you redistill this oil one, 2 or 3 additional times, it is certain that it is reinforced greatly in its power and becomes perfect. This is the way in which oil of turpentine is made with these little stones well washed and with this retort, base and receptacle and with all the same rules which you must not vary and you will make oil of turpentine or oil of honey.... 149 -------- [Page 279] Excellent and healing oil of sulfur. Take 10 lb. of urine and put therein 5 lb. of quicklime and dissolve it in the urine. Then put it on the fire until one third has disappeared. Let it cool and trickle it through felt and save it. Then take 1 lb. of finely-powdered yellow sulfur and put thereon 4 lb. of this urine and incorporate them well. Put it in the retort and place it in the oven with its cover and put the receptacle in place and make a slow fire until you draw off half of the water. Then put it again on the dregs and do this 2 times. The third time make the fire very low until you draw off all the water. Then increase the fire and the oil will come out, but change the receptacle after the water and close the opening very well around so that nothing escapes and the most beautiful yellow oil will come out that appears like streaming gold. It has many virtues, especially against retracted nerves and paralysis and it removes this illness. Another. It heals every fistula from salt humor, both old and recent. If you will put this oil with oil of pears and oil of egg yolk and extracted ox marrow and mix them in the form of a poultice or unguent and with this unguent rub near the fire or in the sun those with itch, sciatica or gout caused by cold, you will see the body purged in a wonderful way. I swear to you by God that there is not on the earth such a secret remedy like this that hardens mercury into perfect gold. I do not wish to declare to you the countless, wonderful effects especially on the human body and likewise on the bodies of metals. To make clear and beautiful oil of laurel berries. Take whatever quantity of laurel berries that you have and crush them and put them in a large boiler with enough water. Boil it very slowly until it reduces more than 2/3. Then remove it from the fire and let it cool. Collect the fat that is on top of the water and this will be the true oil of laurel berries. Save this for your needs for which it has many tested and excellent virtues as here in part you will learn. First this oil is warm in the third, some say in the fourth, but I say in the third degree. It is very powerful in removing the itch both when given alone and with other oils. When the spleen is rubbed repeatedly with this warm oil and with oil of capers, it is cured. Also with oil of lily, of camomile and saffron, this oil is powerful when it is rubbed on the body of a woman for 3 or 4 evenings to cause the period to start. If a man rubs his member and uses it, he will feel an effect out of the ordinary. It is powerful in many cold infirmities and cures marvelously. To make oil of antimony. Take 1 lb. of ground antimony and 2 lb. of mercuric sublimate and rub them together carefully and distill them in a retort on ashes with the mouth of the receptacle sealed. The distillate will be made in 12 hours. It will be just like ice when distilled again in the retort. If it is distilled for the third time it will give out water that is clean and pure. Take 3 ounces of dregs of this antimony and put 1 lb. of this water in the retort. When it boils a little it will distill out water the color of gold. Then increase the fire and you will have oil of antimony. -------- [Page 280] To make the true and perfect oil of antimony. This is a rare secret of the fifth essence. God, the creator of heaven and earth, is my witness that now I wish to reveal to you such a secret that has been revealed to very few men on earth and this is one of the greatest that is on earth. This is the way, viz. First take antimony and powder it as much as is possible and put it in very strong distilled vinegar. Put it in a vitreous vessel and close it well so that no gases can escape and let it stay thus until you see the vinegar becoming red. Put this vinegar in another vessel, also vitreous, and make sure it stays well covered. Then put more distilled vinegar again on the antimony so that it is well covered as before and let it stay until this vinegar becomes red like the first. Then put the two together and keep it covered so that its power does not escape and again put other vinegar onto the previous antimony. Continue in this way until the vinegar takes on all the red color. Keep on in this way and always cover both so that the odor does not go away. When the antimony does not dye more red, do not put on more but let the vessel with the antimony in it stay in a place that is warm all the time so the red color comes out of the base. Then take all this red vinegar that you have nursed from the base of antimony and distill it in a glass still with its cover and its receptacle with a slow fire. First will come forth the vinegar converted into water as it was at first. Then you will see a stupendous miracle that will come miraculously from this blessed antimony. Red drops will fall like blood which you will collect in a suitable glass vessel and seal it well. In this way you will have the Quintessence and know that you will have such a thing that all the treasure of the world is not its equal. I see this as such a special miracle that its sweetness compares with sugar or honey. I tell you most certainly that human intellect is not able to comprehend, nor understand, nor believe the value of the stupendous power of this thing. I tell you especially that Aristotle in his book of secrets called this his lead although he did not mention the name of antimony. Believe me that most certainly never, never did nature make such a secret as great as this. Note well that I tell you every man has been worn out and troubled through wishing to find this Quintessence of antimony. No one in this world has the littlest knowledge to know how to make it in the way I have taught you. I tell you that this secret is above all secrets. I am certain that a thousand, thousand periods of time would not be sufficient to tell half of the secrets which are in this blessed Quintessence that miraculously removes every sore and heals it. Its virtue is incomprehensible and miraculous when it is made in the above way. Note then that when the Quintessence is made you need to put it in an amphora, well closed, and put it in manure underground for 4 days so that it stays warm and is putrefied. Remove it and it will be made and then use it. Never will you find that this is the lead of the philosophers which is said to be the fifth essence. Briefly, know that it may give color to everything except only mercury. Praise God for such a secret. I do not tell you of its virtues but I advise you that if you put in vinegar distilled from white lead and let it boil for 2 hours, the vinegar will be consumed and the white lead remains thick as oil. This is called oil of lead. This is enough for you.... 150 -------- [Page 281] Oil of antimony made in the distilling flask. [Drawing on page.] Take antimony from the mine, not adulterated, as much as you wish and grind it into very minute powder. Put it in a pot that is well sealed and put on it enough distilled vinegar to cover it to a depth of 2 fingers and put on its cover with the receptacle below and bind well around the joint and let it stay on the warm ashes putrefying for at least 2 days in a row. Then build up the fire brightly until all this vinegar that you have put on rises out. It will come out all yellow and fiery. Do this process 3 or 4 times, that is remove the antimony from the pot and make powder again and do as you did the first time, until the vinegar that distills out has no more color but is almost white as when you put it in. Little by little you will see that the vessel becomes dry when it is covered so it does not give off fumes. Then the base of antimony is no good any more. Take the colored vinegar and put it in a large vitreous pot and let it evaporate. What stays at the bottom is the good quality and you should make this imbibe oil of tartar 3 or 4 times. Then put this material on a marble slab and put it in a humid place where it will not be disturbed by anything and let the oil come out and collect this in a receiving bottle, well closed, and so will be made the true oil of antimony.... 151 Another, a similar oil of antimony made by a fantastic method. Videlicet. Take a large crucible that can be closed with a narrow opening and put therein 4 lb. of antimony from the mine, finely ground. Put in enough strong vinegar so that it is covered one or 2 fingers deep and let it stay covered in a warm place to infuse for 24 hours or more, as you wish. Then put on as a cover another crucible like the first directly above in the opening, as you see, and make a round opening in the bottom and put on this crucible a retort that has a hole in the bottom that enters into that of the crucible, as you see, and seal all the crucible and the retort in the way that all is closed as one thing. Place the first crucible with the material in it into a basin made of copper or clay that has an opening at the bottom so the crucible can be placed almost in the center of the basin. Then fill the basin with fine ashes and from below or around the basin, put some bricks fixed together with clay. Make the fire there and have all the joints well closed so they do not leak. First make the fire very low, then increase it little by little until it reaches the melting point and the antimony begins to melt and continue the fire until no more oil distills. Thus is made oil of antimony perfect and valuable because it must distill at a height, as you see, and this is the best. Save it well and carefully for this oil is very beautiful and of great virtue. -------- [Page 282] To distill by downward distillation. [Drawing on page.] Take your retort which should be well sealed and put therein that which you wish to distill downward, such as the wood of juniper or cypress or guaiac wood. You will be able to extract oil from every wood that is gummy and dry in this way by making the fire from above as you see. Put the retort in a cauldron or a pot which has an opening at the bottom so that the neck of the retort can pass through and join with the receptacle below, as you see. When the retort is in the pot with the bottom upward, so it seems to come out of the pot, and join it with the recipient below as you see. Fill the pot with finely sieved ashes. Then place the recipient below, as you see, and put in this a fine straw or pig bristle to give an exit when the vapor begins to come, for it might crack the receptacle. Wrap the joint well so it will not let out gas from any side and make the fire from above, as you see. Then make a hole in the earth and put in first the receptacle, then the pot with the retort fitted in it and make the fire as usual in the earth with dry wood or charcoal, very slowly so the retort does not crack. Seal the receptacle so that it does not break easily. As it begins to distill, remove the straw so that a little gas escapes which helps keep the receptacle from exploding. In this way you can distill everything which may be difficult to distill by other methods. Through this descending distillation, everything will come out for you. With this method you will be able to extract oil from juniper wood and cypress wood and from lignum vitae, that is guaiac wood, to bathe the gummas of syphilis. You will also be able to make all kinds of oil that you want. This distillation is very effective. Oil of juniper made in this way. Take two vitreous clay pots and put one over the other and fill the upper one with finely-divided, unsoftened juniper wood. Put a grid between the pots so the wood does not fall into the lower pot. Both pots should be open so the fumes from them are able to go out. They should be placed within the fire box so the charcoal fire extends around the upper pot in the fire box. Ignite the charcoal and as soon as the wood in the upper pot is heated, oil from the upper pot will come down into the lower one. In this way you will extract all kinds of oils and they will come out for you. It has been proved. -------- [Page 283] Oil to protect against venoms, poisons and worms, proven through the holy memory of our lord, Pope Clement VII.... 152 [Drawing on page.] Take the oldest olive oil that you can find, because it is more effective and penetrating and for each pound of oil you want 100 or more live scorpions. After you catch them, save them in a glass vessel with bran and basil leaves. They should be caught and this oil should be made under the sign of the lion, if possible, because at that time they are in the best condition. When you have caught them do not hold them for more than 5 or 6 days. Put the oil to boil in a glass vessel on the bain marie and when it boils, put in the scorpions, but first stir them up with a little stick to incite them so they will give out their venom. At once throw them in the boiling oil and boil them at least 15 hours or more in the bath. The vessel where they are boiling should be well covered and closed so that nothing escapes. Then strain the oil and press the scorpions in the press and extract all the substance that you can and put it with the oil and throw away the dregs. Then take a large flask not made of thick glass and put them in the strained oil but do not fill the flask so that it cracks from the weight. For each pound of this oil take 1 ounce each of theriac, mithridatum, clay from Lemnos and fine rhubarb, with everything in powder, and ½ ounce each of hepatic aloe, lavender and saffron and add 1 dram of troches from Tyre. If you do not have this and cannot get it, use troches from Madras. All of the above things should be made into fine powder separately, if they can be powdered. Then put them in the flask and cover it well and leave it in the sun for 40 days, day and night. Every day shake it well upside down, carefully. To have this oil of great value very secure, place it in a vessel that holds it, so if it fell and the flask was broken, the oil would not be lost. Then when it is made, put it in a safe place so when the need arises, from which God save us, you will always have it to use for you and for others. This oil is very good and effective against every kind of venom and it is powerful against poisons and envenomed sores. But be very careful that you do not touch the sore or bite with this oil because you will be in danger of causing death. But only rub around the sore as you will learn below where I tell you of some of its powers and how it should be used.... 153 Another. The method of treating with this oil. Firstly, when one may have been poisoned, check to see if it was poison and what sort of poison was taken by mouth. At once take some of this oil and rub around the heart, the stomach, the fontanel of the throat and all the pulses of the head, feet and hands. Continue this for an entire day of 24 hours, doing this 6 times in 6 hours, and then 12 times in 12 hours and do this for one more day. Also you ought to rub one who might go to eat in a suspected place. First the pulses should be rubbed as said above and then he can go without fear. -------- [Page 284] Also one who was bitten by any poisonous animal should be rubbed as described above, especially around the bite or puncture from the animal. Also one who is infected or had any carbuncle or swollen gland opened, at once he should be rubbed as above 6 times in 6 hours, especially around the malady or sore. Do this until the pain has gone. But first blood may be drawn as is the custom for infections. Also for one who may have to be with infected persons. First he is rubbed as above, but it is enough to do it 24 times in 24 hours. Then he will go with certainty without any concern for danger. Also one who may have eaten fungi or poisonous herbs or whatever thing is poisonous should be rubbed as above 6 times in 6 hours. . Also one who suffers from sickness due to worms of any kind should be rubbed with this oil around the heart and also the wrists, the fontanell of the throat, the stomach and the nose. Do this 2 or 3 times and you will cure him soon, with the aid of God. For brevity, I do not add the many other virtues that are contained in this oil but you will learn them by using it. Another, similar oil follows. Oil similar to that above, tested in the time of our lord Pope Paul III on 2 prisoners in the tower of Savella by Monsignor Diomede the Neapolitan who was responsible for not cutting off their heads instead. This is the way to make this oil. Viz.... 154 Take 2 lb. of the oldest olive oil that you can find and put in this oil 1 lb. of live scorpions, more or less according to what you want to make. One lb. of oil takes ½ lb. of live scorpions. Bring this oil to a boil on a bain marie in a vessel that has a long neck, at least 2 or 3 hands in length and seal it and boil it on a slow fire. Put the scorpions in a glass vessel and poke them with a little stick so their poison ejects out. Then put them in the oil and boil them very well until the scorpions are well cooked. Remove it from the fire and let it cool. Remove the scorpions and grind them in a mortar. Return them to the oil in the vessel and again on the bain marie and boil them again for an hour or more. Let it cool and strain the oil through clean muslin, pressing the solids well and extract as much as you can and put it in the oil. Then put it in a glass vessel, close it well and put it in the sun in the clear sky for 40 days in a row and it will be made. Do not alter the rules given above for making it in a month of great heat, because the heat reinforces the power in the oil and gives it the same virtues that the first has. Also when you want to use it, follow the method and rules given above, especially when the person may have been poisoned. The first thing is to rub around the heart that is the principle problem 6 times in 6 hours. Do this on the first day. On the second day do it 12 times in12 hours. In all these things the first oil is good and the second has the same value as long as you know how to use it in the way described above. Do it with every care and solicitude so it will succeed well for you. -------- [Page 285] Special oil against venoms, similar to that above,and also powerful in illness of the hip. Take some of the above oil and strain it through clean muslin and put it in a glass pot and heat it on the bain marie. Then put in the things listed below, that is, 1 dram each of lavender, hepatic aloe, myrrh, gentian, tormentil and white dittany, 2 drams of fine rhubarb and 4 drams of fine theriac. All these things should be pulverized very finely. Then let the pot stay, well stoppered, for 8 hours on the water bath with a very slow fire. Then draw it forth and put it in the sun in the clear air for not less than 40 days and every day mix it upside down so that the material comes to be incorporated well and the substances there are purified. The way you use this oil against poisoning is that you want to rub this oil on the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet and along the spine. In truth, this oil is precious and unique in all of the above infirmities. This oil is also powerful in those who have pain in the hips. The way you use this remedy is to rub with the oil, very warm, where the pain is felt and do this several times. In many persons it has helped greatly and it has freed them from hip pain. This oil was much used by a most Reverend Cardinal in Rome in many serious illnesses. He used it warm and treated many worthy and learned men.... 155 Oil of scorpions which Saint Bernard used against poisons. Take old olive oil as described above, 2 lb. more or less, according to how much you want to make from scorpions taken in the month of August when the moon is in the sign of the scorpion. There should be at least 200 because each ounce of oil requires at least 10 to 12 scorpions. Put them in a large barber's basin and with a little stick annoy them so they eject out their venom. At once put them in a vessel in which the oil is boiling. Cover it well and boil it on a bain marie for at least 24 hours so that the scorpions have fallen apart. Then when it is cold, strain it through muslin, first wet in white wine. Press that material well because that holds the virtue and it will be made, perfect and good. Put it in a well-stoppered glass bottle and let it stay in the sun for at least a month. Then keep it in a secure place for your needs. Here we will speak in part of its straight-forward virtues. First, it is powerful against plague. Rub it on the heart and then around the sores and around the pulses of the head, the sternum and on the stomach. It should be very warm. Another. It is powerful against poisonous drinks when this oil is drunk and rubbed warm around the heart. Another. It is powerful against worms in anyone, by drinking a drop of it and rubbing all the pulses, the nose and around the heart. Another. It is powerful against the bite of serpents, rubbed warm around the heart and the bite, as long as the oil does not touch the puncture or the patient will die. Another. It is powerful against the bite of a rabid dog when it is rubbed as described above. Another. It is powerful against abcesses, rubbing them with very warm oil. Another. It is powerful against ulcers when they are not open and when it is rubbed very warm. Another. It is powerful against the illness of stone. Rub the pubic area and the kidneys with the very warm oil and rub well with the hands so it penetrates. Another. It is powerful against illness of the ribs, rubbing the sore place. It should be very warm. Another. It is powerful against pain in the ears. It should be warm. Rub around the ears and put a little in and soon you will cure the pain. I do not speak of other uses, but study these well. -------- [Page 286] Various medicines for illness of the spleen in several ways.... 156 Take the same amount of roots of cyclamen and dittany, crush them between two lodestones and incorporate this with male pork fat. Put this warm on the spleen in the evening and morning. Do this repeatedly for the pain and soon you will cure the spleen. This has been tested. Another. Take plowman's spikenard and make it into juice and drink this for 9 mornings in a row and you will be cured quickly. Another. Take the bark of the ash tree and cook it with good wine and use this to drink and you will be helped greatly. If there is swelling of the spleen, take nettle root, well-minced, and mix it with white wine. Heat it well and put it on and it will help greatly. If the spleen is not swollen, take hart's tongue, that is spleenwort, cooked with wine and drink this in the form of a syrup for 30 days. It helps a great deal. Another. Take oil of dill and rub this warm across the spleen. Then take the urine of a child and wet some stupes and warm them and fasten them on well. Make powder of the herb catchweed, which blocks up the fish ponds, and drink it in the morning with some broth and you will be cured soon. Also take oil of capers and the same amount of laurel oil and equal amounts of the bark of capers and of tamarisk, made into powder, and a little wax. Make an ointment and rub yourself with this warm, and soon you will be cured. Another. Take flowers and leaves of tamarisk, as much as you wish. Dry it in the shade and make fine powder of it. Give the patient one spoonful in a fresh egg or in wine. Then give a few raisins with a finger of wine on them for 15 to 20 days and soon he will feel much better. Another. Take ½ handful each of rosebuds before they are open, betony, valerian, sage, mint, rue, horehound and flowers and leaves of tamarisk. Dry them and make fine powder and give it to drink with a fresh egg or with wine. Do this several times and it will help greatly. Another to resolve the indurated spleen. Take some ordinary oil, as much as you wish, and put it in a pot and put therein 1 handful of wild cucumbers. Let this boil until they are falling apart. Then put in some others and do this 3 times. Then take this oil and with it, very warm, rub the painful place on the spleen and by continuing this you will cure rapidly. Another. Make ashes of twigs of grape vines and pass them through a sieve and make some lye from most of this. Then take equal amounts of this lye and vinegar and ordinary old oil and urine from a little child of 6 years and put everything together. Put it in a clean vessel and boil it very slowly until it is reduced in half. Then put in the fine ashes that you have reserved, little by little, until it takes on the body of a liquid unguent. Let it boil a little, stirring continuously. Then add 1 ounce of clean wax. Remove it from the fire and stir until it is cold and it will be made. The sick person should go to bed and the hard spleen should be rubbed with the warm ointment. Put on warm stupes and cloths and bind them on well. Do this every evening until you feel yourself improved. Watch what you eat. It is that which hurts you and keeps you sick. Take leaves and roots of ferns and asparagus, each the same amount. Cook them in cistern water and give it to drink warm. By continuing this, the spleen will be dried up. Another for hardness of the spleen. Take 2 ounces of ashes made of grape vine twigs, 6 ounces of droppings of goat or of human and 6 drams each of leaves of hellebore, rue, horehound, tamarisk and rusty fern each made into fine powder, and ammoniac gum dissolved in vinegar for one whole day. Put everything in a little pot on a slow fire that vaporizes away all the vinegar. Then take enough laurel oil to make a poultice and put this warm on the spleen. Continue this several times and you will cure. Add to the plaster 3 ounces of snails with shells, powdered, and 1 ounce each of powder of hepatic aloe and myrrh and with this you will cure. *Another to cure the spleen. Toast a slice of bread on both sides and soak it in warm linseed oil and give it at once to the patient to eat early in the morning. Do this for several mornings and you will cure. *Another. Take the flowers of broom freshly picked during the half moon and fill a pot. Put in 1 lb. of butter, cover it and boil it on a bain marie until it becomes like an unguent. With this, warm from the fire, rub the spleen and soon you will cure. -------- [Page 287] For the illness of an abcessed, swollen spleen, to make it come to a head. Take 1 ounce each of gum ammoniac, juniper gum, bdellium and opopanax gum, 4 drams of lavender oil, 6 ounces of turpentine, ½ ounce each of fenugreek flour and linseed flour and enough lupin flour to thicken. Cut up the gums and soften them in strong vinegar for 4 hours and make them dissolve with the pestle. Put the turpentine on the fire and melt it. Then put in the oil and the gums and thicken with the flours. Incorporate it very well and it will be made. But first wash the place of the afflicted spleen with strong, warm vinegar. Then put on this warm plaster. Take care of yourself and you will be cured. Another, a poultice and prayer. Take 1 ounce each of rue, mint and mountain mint and ½ ounce of gum ammoniac dissolved in very strong vinegar. Make a plaster of these and put it on the spleen. Prayer to wear around the neck for one who suffers from sickness of the spleen. First say 3 Pater Noster with 3 Ave Maria. Then write this prayer and carry it fastened around the neck with thread spun by a virgin girl. These are the words, viz. 'In the name of the Father +, Son +, and Holy Spirit +, Amen. + gc,gc,gc,v,g,d,gc,gc,di,di,gc,gc,gc,ver,v,v,v . There is neither a monument nor glory except through the most holy and great God + + +.' Do this with confidence that you will soon be cured. Here is another similar to the above which cures the spleen when carried with you. Write in the way given above, viz. 'a,c,c,c,di,di, di,j,ver,v,v' and after that write the same words, 'There is neither a monument nor glory except through most holy and great God + + + .' If you wish to test this prayer, attach it to the neck of an animal and leave it for 9 days. Then kill it and you will not find a spleen in the body, so much will it have shriveled up and diminished. But you know that at this time you should be careful how you live.... 157 Another to cure the spleen. When you first see the new moon, take a pointed knife and sign three times with the point over the spleen and let the knife fall to earth. Each time you make the sign say this holy prayer, viz. '+ Holy moon that shines before the highest Father, dry up the spleen that is in my body as you did the herb in the garden of the Pharisee. In the name of the Father +, Son + and Holy Spirit +. Amen.' When you are ready to begin, say 5 Pater Noster with 5 Ave Maria in reverence to God and the 5 wounds of Jesus Christ. Do this at the start of the new moon for 3 lunar months in a row. Be careful when the new moon begins to say the above prayer and touch the swelling with the point of the knife and you will be cured. Make an ointment in the following way. Take the herb rusty fern and the same amount of tamarisk and cut them minutely and cook them in oil of capers and oil of laurel berries, each the same amount. In the evening when you go to sleep, rub the sore place of the spleen with the ointment very warm and put on warm cloths. Do this for 3 lunar months and without doing anything else you will be cured. It has been tested many times. Another to cure pain of the spleen quickly. Take the gall bladder of a goat and put it on the painful spleen and let it stay on for one whole day, that is 24 hours. Then hang the gall bladder in a bowl either in the chimney or in the sun and when the gall bladder is dry, the spleen will then be cured. This has been tested. Another to cure the spleen. Take rue and grind it with honey and with fenugreek flour and put it warm on the spleen. Do this several times and it will be helpful. Likewise, take leaves of willow and grind them with salt and put them warm on the spleen. Do this several times and the illness will be diminished and you will be cured in the name of God. -------- [Page 288] For sickness of the spleen, a wonderful ointment that lifts the pain quickly. Take 2 ounces each of laurel oil and oil of capers. In the evening when you go to sleep, rub the afflicted spleen, standing with the body before the fire and with the oil very warm. Then take a stupe and soak it in urine and make it very warm. Heat it on the fire shovel and put it on the spleen and it will help you greatly. Another ointment for induration of the spleen. Take 6 drams each of mustard powder and rue, 2 ounces each of marsh mallow and laurel oil and 1 ounce of clean wax. Make an unguent on a slow fire. In the evening, facing toward the fire, rub yourself with it very warm and put on a very warm stupe and cloth. Do this several times and you will be cured. Keep your life well regulated and use water as little as you can. Another ointment for the spleen, as above. Take 4 glasses of the oldest ordinary oil that you can find. Otherwise use as much urine from a healthy child. Add 1 handful each of rue and rusty fern. Boil everything together in a pot and reduce it 2/3. Rub yourself with this when you go to sleep. It should be warm and put on a stupe and warm cloths, well wrapped. Use this ointment every evening. By keeping yourself from adverse things, you will be cured. Another ointment to heal the spleen. Take 2 drams of mucilage from fenugreek, 2 ounces of mucilage from linseed, 1 ½ drams of mucilage from marsh mallow, 2 ½ ounces of oil of camomile, of adder's tongue fern or rusty fern, 6 drams of turpentine and 3 ounces each of laurel oil and tercia mortiaton . Boil all these things together on a slow fire and add 3 ounces of clean wax and equal amounts of oil of capers and juice of cyclamen. Rub the patient by the fire so that he is very warm and put on a stupe and warm cloths, fastened tightly, and soon you will cure him. Poultices against hardness and inflammation of the spleen. Take 1 handful each of sweet clover, camomile, rusty fern, rue, fenugreek, cumin, anise and myrtle. Boil everything together in good white wine and when it has reduced 1/4 put therein 1 lb. of very strong vinegar and let it come to a boil. Then make the poultice in this way, take 2 pieces of felt or wool cloth, as large as the hand or 2 flat sponges and soak them in the decoction that is very warm. Press them out with the hand and with this as warm as one can stand, put one on the indurated spleen and let it stay until the greatest heat has gone away. Then put on the other one hot. Do this 4 or 5 times in the evening and in the morning and the malignant illness of the spleen will be dried up. Another poultice for pain of the spleen. Take 1 handful each of bark of capers and of ash tree, that is the inner layer, and the bark of tamarisk, black maiden hair fern, white maiden hair fern, rusty fern and spleenwort. Boil them in the best white wine and very strong vinegar because the stronger it is, the better it works. Then make the poultice in the way described above and the warmer, the better. To cure the pain of the spleen in 24 hours or more. Take the bark of the walnut tree as wide and as long as the painful area. Leave it for 3 days in very strong vinegar and put thereon powder of lesser spurge. Make it warm and put it on the painful spleen, wrapped thickly. If it burns you, tolerate it as much as you can because that is a good sign of a rapid cure. *Another, a syrup for the spleen. Take 1 handful each of bugloss, liverwort, sweet balm, agrimony, spleenwort and tamarisk, ½ ounce of sweet flag, 6 ounces each of raisins and licorice, 1 ounce each of Arabian lavender, borage flowers and bugloss, ½ handful of primula and 2 lb. of sugar and make a syrup. The dose is 3 ounces with water. -------- [Page 289] Poultice for illness of the spleen. Take 1 handful each of the inner bark of the ash tree and hyssop and ½ handful of broken up laurel berries. Boil everything in very strong white vinegar until it is reduced 1/3 or ½. Wet pieces of felt or wool cloth or sponge in the boiled liquid and press them out with the hand. Put it on the indurated spleen of the sick person as warm as one can stand and as soon as the place has cooled a little, put another thereon. Do this for an hour or more in the evening and the morning for at least 4 to 6 days in a row and you will see a very good result. Then make these poultices. Rub the indurated spleen with the above ointment and bind the body well with a stupe and warm cloth. If you want to be cured quickly, know how to take care of your life by not eating those things that one may desire in this sickness because one always desires adverse things. Avoid these things especially: do not eat soups, nor sour fruit, nor spicy food, nor pork meat, but eat all things good, such as well-cooked bread and things twice-baked such as veal meat, light and with little bones, or fresh eggs or a little wine. Do not drink too much water which is very bad. By observing this, with the aid of God, soon you will be cured. A good wine to drink for the indurated spleen and other beverages. Take 1 handful each of fern roots and sticks of willow and ash or elm and scrape off the bark finely and the bark of crab apple, and three oranges. Boil everything in white wine until it is reduced at least 1/3. Then strain it and save it in a glass flask in a cool place. Use this decoction to drink early in the morning in the form of a warm syrup. It will help you greatly in hardness of the spleen. Another wine against the painful spleen. Take some plowman's spikenard and boil it with wine. Then drink this boiled liquid in the morning in the form of a syrup as described above. If you drink some of the juice for 9 mornings in a row, you will soon be cured of pain in the spleen. Another syrup for the spleen that also helps the liver. Take 1 ounce each of simple sorrel syrup and syrup of endive and strained rose syrup and 1 ounce each of water distilled from sorrel, endive and hops. Incorporate them and make the 7 syrups. Take it tepid, early in the morning and rest a little as usual. Lastly take a dose of cassia and you will be cured rapidly. Another syrup for the spleen as described above. Take 1 handful each of caper root, raisins, adder's tongue fern, rusty fern, water germander, tamarisk and spleenwort. Boil everything together and make a decoction and make a syrup and take it in the way described above. Another syrup to take away the thirst in the sick person. Take 1 handful each of agrimony, chicory, betony, wormwood and raisins. Boil them and make a decoction and make the 7 syrups to take in the way described before. You should know that the above syrups are appropriate in all the above illnesses of the spleen and quench the thirst. At the end take the medicine of cassia or some other simple medicine such as muccaro roxato sulutivo and you will be greatly helped.... 158 Another beverage against the illness of the spleen. Take some leaves of mullein, that is the male plant that has a single stalk, and take the more tender leaves and make juice. Drink this one morning yes, the next no, at least for 5 or 6 mornings, in the form of a warm syrup, and you will see a wonderful effect on the spleen. -------- [Page 290] Beverage for illness of the spleen. Take 1 handful each of the inner bark of the ash tree, hound's tongue, celery, tamarisk, horehound, maiden hair fern, spleenwort and sage. Boil this in white wine in an earthenware vessel until it is reduced 1/3. Then strain it and press it in the press and extract all the substance well. Combine it and save it in a flask in a cool place. For an entire month continually drink one glass of it warm early every morning, without fail. Also watch what you eat and you will be cured soon. Another beverage as above. Take 5 ounces of water of dittany, distilled in a glass still, every morning in the form of a warm syrup and continue this for 20 days. Keep yourself from all adverse things and do not drink too much water and you will be cured. This has been tested many times. Another beverage as above. Take some honeysuckle seed that is well-matured and dry it. Then make it into very fine powder. Drink 1 dram of it with white wine in the morning in the form of a warm syrup for 40 mornings. It reduces the spleen and lifts the pain and makes the spleen return to its original condition. Another beverage as above. Take betony and boil it with good white wine and drink 4 ounces warm every morning. It will markedly reduce the spleen. Another beverage as above. Take some seeds of madder, grind them and make fine powder. Drink this with honeyed vinegar on an empty stomach. It will markedly reduce the spleen. Another beverage as above. Take 1 dram of gum ammoniac and dissolve it in white vinegar. Drinking this several times clears up the spleen. Or make a plaster with vinegar and apply it on the outside. It will do a great deal and also it aids the liver. Another beverage for the above illness of the spleen. Take 1 handful each of the inner bark of the ash tree which stays green, leaves of tamarisk and rusty fern. Boil them in good white wine until it reduces nearly in half. Strain this well and save it in a flask and use it to drink as a syrup for 9 mornings in a row and you will be cured. Electuary to reduce and heal the spleen. Take 1 ounce each of fine cinnamon, ginger and cardamon, ½ ounce each of nutmeg and cloves, and 2 ounces of steel filings, finely ground. Make all into very fine powder. Then take 2 lb. of clean honey and incorporate everything together. Cook it in a pot on a slow fire, stirring continuously until it is reduced 1/3. Then remove it from the fire and put in a little honey and some white bread crumbs. Return it to the fire one more time and reboil it some and it will be made. Strain it and put it in a bottle. In the evening when you go to sleep, take an amount the size of a chestnut, and do the same in the morning when you get up and it will help greatly to reduce the spleen. For dropsy caused by the spleen. Take 2 handfuls of the herb dill, 1 handful of rusty fern and ½ handful each of betony and hyssop. Grind them and extract juice and give it to the patient to drink in the form of a syrup for 9 mornings in a row. It will clear up the hardness of the spleen, little by little. Take care of yourself and help yourself by eating correctly. Do not do anything excessively if you wish to be cured rapidly and you will be cured. -------- [Page 291] Poultice for hardness in the swollen spleen. Take the herb of Saint John, called burdock, and crush it very well between 2 lodestones and make a plaster with a beaten egg and a little rye flour and incorporate everything well together. Then make it very warm and put it on the hard, swollen spleen. Make this plaster for several evenings and it will diminish the spleen and greatly alleviate the pain and soon you will cure it. Furthermore, make use of these for the sick one to eat: agrimony and rusty fern as herbs or made into powder and sprinkled on food. These will help greatly. If you boil willow bark and caper bark in wine and give this to drink with all food, it will dry out the swollen spleen wonderfully. In a few days it will be cured. Another to cure the spleen. Take 2 ounces each of celery juice, cyclamen juice, juice of fern root and urine from a dog or young boy of 8 to 10 years, and 4 ounces of ordinary oil. Boil everything together and when it is cooked, add a little clean wax, as much as you want, and make it in the form of an unguent. Rub the hardened spleen with this in the morning and evening. It should be warm and stand by the fire or in the sun and wrap it well. Do this several times and, through God's grace, you will be cured. Another for illness of the spleen. Take some roots of yellow violets, cut them minutely, and cook them in strong white vinegar and make a plaster with cumin and powdered caper bark. Put it warm on the painful spleen and soon it will restore health. Continuing with this plaster lifts the cruel hardness. Many men who are expert in the art of medicine say that all of the above-described things work powerfully, especially taking some nettles and grinding them between two lodestones and then incorporating them with a little clean wax. Make it warm and bind it on the painful spleen. Do this several times. It will help greatly to resolve the hardness. If you know how to take of yourself and regulate your way of living well and with all these other things, I tell you that, with the aid of God, you will be cured. Observe the rules given above and do not deviate from them. Beverage for every incurable infirmity that may be in any member of the body. Take 1 ounce each of betony, agrimony, French lavender, eyebright and raisins, 2 drams of fennel seed, 1 dram of anise, ½ dram of cinnamon and ½ bowl of rosemary flowers. Boil everything in 12 lb. of good white wine and boil it in a pot sealed with dough so that no gas escapes except though a little hole in the middle of the cover. Boil it on a slow fire until it is reduced 1/3. Strain it and save the residue in a glass flask. Then put in more wine on this residue and boil it again in the same way. Use this wine to drink with all meals and before meals. Take 6 ounces of the first boiling in the morning in the form of a syrup. Use these syrups in the morning according to how you feel. The infirmity in which this is good is for one who is impaired by sickness of the spleen or whose eyesight is impaired or who has other pains or aches in the body. You should do things suited to this condition and should not eat things that are not good and you will be cured quickly. -------- [Page 292] Beverage for the French illness, for sciatica and for the cararrhs. Take some guaiac wood, shaved finely, and 9 ounces of guaiac bark, cut finely, 4 ounces of senna from Levant, 1 dram of rhubarb, 3 lb. each of water of betony, of hops and of barley and good white wine, and 1 handful of the holy thistle as the herb. Put everything together in a large, clean pot with a cover that has a little hole in the center. Seal the cover around the pot so that no gases can escape and put everything to infuse in the evening and let it stay that way all night. In the morning boil it on a slow fire and, if it is possible, without smoke so the water may not take on a bad taste. Boil until it reduces 1/3 and put a little stick in the hole in the cover when it has reached this limit and do not fail to do this. When it is cooked, remove it from the fire and let it cool, covered, and when it is cool, strain it carefully very slowly. Save it in a covered glass flask in a cool place and this is the thing to give as a syrup in the morning. Then refill the pot with cistern water or other soft water and cover it as at first and do as you did before and boil it so it reduces 1/3 and then strain it finely. Save this to give to drink at all meals because for many days one should not drink wine. The material that remains in the pot is of no more use. Throw it away. Then take the first decoction and make syrup from 6 ounces of it and give it warm early in the morning. One should repose for one hour and wait for at least 4 hours before eating. Stay in a closed room and do not let in air and for several days only the light of an oil lamp because it is the air in which there are principles that harm greatly. You should know that to save yourself, you should stay in repose as much as you can and keep your body warm. Your diet should be white bread, well-aged and well-cooked. It would be better to have twice baked breads with some ground anise and a little sugar in them. Meat should be roasted and well-cooked and light and tender such as very young chickens or saddle of young goats and soft fresh eggs. Everything should be well cooked and easy to digest. Chew the food well and drink some of the second water with every meal. If by chance this is not possible to do, take a little white wine, light in nature and not sour. Do not eat salty food, nor vegetables, nor fruits, nor sour things, nor soup, nor pork meat, nor young beef, nor fish of any kind except pickerel on the grill if only a little is taken at a time. When the meat is cooked, keep it soft with veal fat and with no other fat. Eat twice a day and no more. Drink wine only in this way, diluted a little with the second water, and it will help you better. When you have finished drinking the first boiling, use the second, the third and the fourth, more or less according to how rapidly it is consumed. Every 10 days is enough for each time, because following this diet cures this infirmity perfectly. It is not effective in less than 40 days or sooner, more or less, because never or seldom is one completely cured because this illness is healed with great effort. Who does it willingly and for a long time, keeping himself well, I say that he will be cured. Be advised in this, that in every 8 to 9 days you will be feeling better. First the pain of the temples stops, then the aches, then you will begin to get out of bed, to walk a little in the room, then to see the outside. Do not worry but have companionship. Think of all cheerful things and stay happy and not melancholy and give thanks to God that soon you will be cured. -------- [Page 293] Treatment for the French sickness. First purge the body in this way. Purgation. First make the sick one take a dose of senna. Then do phlebotomy from the hepatic vein and take the amount of blood following the judgment of the doctor that the strength of the sick one can tolerate. Then give these laxative syrups written below, 5 or 7. Then from the decoction written below, give 2 syrups, in the morning and in the evening for 30 to 40 days, more or less, according to the strength of the patient. These are the laxative syrups. Vz. Take 1 ounce each of polypody fern, senna, endive seed and fumitory, ½ ounce each of thyme, thyme dodder and dodder, 2 drams each of shaved licorice, colchicum, black hellebore and turbith, 1 ounce each of flowers of bugloss and borage, and 10 ounces each of water of dodder, of fumitory, of hops and of betony. Boil all of the above in cistern water until they reduce 1/3 and before you lift it from the fire, put therein the flowers of bugloss and borage so that they will boil a little. Let all this material infuse for 24 hours. Then boil it on a slow fire as before. Remove it from the fire and let it cool and strain it finely through muslin. Save this decoction in a sealed flask and in a cool place. All the roots should be crushed and the other things very clean and washed when you put them to infuse. When you want to give these syrups, take 4 ounces of this infusion and mix them with 1 dram of compound syrup of fumitory, ½ ounce of syrup of lace thyme and 6 grains of scammony. Compound all these things together and make a syrup for one dose. In this way and method make additional ones and take it for 5 to 7 days. If it is too laxative, take it one day yes, the next no, and as a rule do it early in the morning as a tepid dose and afterward repose yourself for an hour. This is the usual rule for taking the syrups. Next, after taking this syrup, make this other beverage and take these second syrups, that is 2 a day, in the morning and the evening, 4 hours before a meal. Drink the second beverage with every meal as you will learn below. This is the beverage to use to cure the pains, the gummas and the sores of the French illness and the rules for making it.... 159 Take 9 ounces each of guaiac wood and bark of this wood, 1 handful of holy thistle, 4 lb. each of white wine that is not sweet, water of hops, water of betony and barley water, 1 dram of rhubarb and 4 ounces of Levant senna. Put the waters and the wine in a clean pot and put therein the holy thistle. Cut the rhubarb and put it to soften in one ounce of this water for one night, then strain it into the pot. Put in the wood which has been turned into fine shavings and the bark cut up and ground finely. Put on the cover with dough well around so that no gases come out except through the opening that is in the center. -------- [Page 294] Then put it on the fire and boil it very slowly until it reduces 1/3. But first let everything soften, that is infuse, for one whole day. When it has boiled, remove it from the fire and uncover it and put in the senna. Return it to cook as at first and reboil for ½ hour. Then remove it from the fire and let it cool covered. Strain it finely and with dexterity and save it in a covered glass flask and keep it in a cool place. Refill the pot with cistern water and cook it covered as before and reboil it until it reduces 1/3. Strain it and save this in a place that stays cool to drink at all meals and before meals. Use the first syrup in this way. Early in the morning give some tepid syrup and the sick one should stay in bed, very warm, at least 5 hours. Give 9 ounces of the syrup on the hour and then in a half hour give it at his lunch and in the evening give the syrup 4 hours before the meal and if the syrup seems bitter, put in a little rose syrup and he will take it more easily and without complaint. Note that when the sick person may feel at the beginning some aches and pains in the body, this is the best sign there can be in the sick person of a cure. Keep to the rules and with compliance for 30 to 40 days, more or less, according to whether the infirmity is little or great, old or recent, because if the sickness is not too great one can allow some little things to advantage. Not to follow the rules is to be without compassion because such an infirmity demands rigor and austerity because otherwise it will not be cured well. This is by the authority of all medical doctors and books where this is found. Gummas. Note that if the sick person has gummas or sores on the body, treat with the first decoction in this way. Wet some pieces of linen cloth and make them very warm and put them on the gummas or sores. Do this in the morning and evening and they will be opened up so they will be healed, with the aid of God. About care. Note that it is beneficial for your life to live moderately for all this time. That is, eat white bread, well cooked and well risen, or biscuits with sugar and anise or well-ground fennel and eat these. Drink the above-described water at least with meals at the beginning until you are much better. Then you will be able to drink a little white wine, young and not sour and diluted a little with the above water. Eat veal meat, pullets, kid and other tender meat, roasted and rubbed with veal fat or a drop of oil, and fresh eggs. Do not eat soup of any kind, nor sour fruit, nor vegetables, nor vinegar, nor sour things, nor sauces. Do not eat rooster meat. Do not use your woman. Observe the above rules, methods and prescriptions. Although they may seem strange, I tell you that with divine aid you will be cured. I tell you clearly that you should follow the provisions above and do not let the disease mature on you so that it can never be cured. Note that the old French sickness either never or rarely is cured. I have said rarely, because I have seen some that have the oldest illness and the most acute pain and they have been freed and remain healthy. Anyone who has been cured of the French sickness, if by chance he has another illness, will be always worse than he would have been if he had not had the French sickness. If a man is wounded who was freed of the French sickness and recently was cured, yet if a finger is cut by cutting bread that usually would be cured in 24 hours, it is not cured in 40 days. You understand how harmful is the effect of the disease. -------- [Page 295] Lotion with a gargle for those who have the French sickness, with 3 syrups given before the medicine. Take ½ ounce each of syrup of juice of fumitory, hops and endive and 1 ounce each of water of endive, hops and fumitory. Mix these 3 kinds of syrups with the 3 kinds of waters and this makes one syrup. Take 3 of these in a row and afterward take the medicine written below. Viz. The medicine. Take 1 ounce of fresh extract of cassia, 1 ounce each of juice of violet and rose, 1 ounce each of diacatolicon, electuary of rose juice and confection of ameche and enough water of hops and your medicine is made. Give it warm at dawn and by reposing at least an hour until it begins to work, it will have a good action. On the advice of the doctor, draw blood where it seems to him that it will have a good and useful effect on the sick person and it can only benefit him to do this before giving the medicine. These are the syrups that the sick person in given to use after he has taken the first medicine. They are wanted for those who have the French sickness that is not recent and who are liverish, yellow and dropsical and with other problems that the person may have inside. Use all these items for your cure. Viz. Take 1 ounce each of colocynth and round birthwort, 2 ounces each of cloves, nutmeg, long pepper, ginger and grains of paradise, 2 scruples each of musk and amber, 6 ounces of fine sugar and 3 lb. of malvasia or good wine. Break up all these things coarsely and put them in a little linen sack that is clean and pure. Take a clean little pot or other suitable vessel and put in the malvasia and 2 or 3 lb. of cistern water. Then put in the sack which should be suspended in the middle so that it does not touch the bottom or even the sides of the pot. Make it boil very slowly with a low fire until it reduces 1/3. Then put in the sugar and after it has reached 2 or 3 boilings, remove it from the fire and it will be made, the beverage which is worthy and high class. When it is cool, strain it carefully. Save it in a glass flask, pressing the sack well and save it in a secure place that is cool because the longer it has been made, the better it is and it does not spoil. See that the patient takes it every morning as the usual syrup, at least 6 ounces, if he has the kind of sickness that requires following the rule of what ought to be taken. Then he should wait at least 4 or 5 hours before eating and he should eat only good food, delicate and light, and this without exception. He should not eat things that are harmful, nor things sour, nor salty and in all things he should be temperate. -------- [Page 296] If the sick person finds that he feels better, he should continue to take this syrup at least for 20 to 30 days in a row. When you have taken a dose you should stay in bed, warm, at least nearly until lunch. Then after eating, according to the infirmity that you have, you can go out of the house to do something easy and keep well covered, especially the head, and do not stay a long time in the air because this syrup is not a cure for everything. That is, you should be careful except in the morning and act according to how you feel. You should be governed by the seriousness of the sickness that you have and if the legs can hold up to walk. Note that if the patient has the serious French sickness with great pain and may have taken 4 or 6 or 10 doses of the above syrup, one may want to anoint from the waist downward to under the soles of the feet for the space of 3 mornings and not more, that is one after the other. He should stand before a good fire and then be rubbed with the ointment very warm and then be put in a good bed, covered with a blanket. But note that if the sickness comes suddenly into the mouth, that is in the throat, you should treat him at once with this gargle, giving it repeatedly for gargling. In this way he will be helped quickly to remove the trouble in the throat. This is the lotion with which the patient is rubbed. First take these things. Viz. Take 2 ounces each of oil of camomile, rose oil and turpentine, ½ ounce of yellow litharge, 2 drams of mastic, 1 ounce each of white lead and clean wax, quicksilver mortified with a grain of salt and 1 ounce of vinegar, 1 scruple of rancid butter and 2 egg yolks. Put all these things in a pot and put in first the oil, the wax, the turpentine and the butter. Put the pot on a slow fire to melt and incorporate these things, mixing it with a rod. Then remove the pot from the fire and put therein the other things that have been pulverized finely. When it is nearly cold, put in the quicksilver, first mortified well with the vinegar and salt in a reed tube in a bowl. Also put in the egg yolks. Stir well with your rod for a little bit so everything is incorporated together and all is well cooled because the mercury has difficulty being incorporated. It tends to separate out, so do not lack being careful. Also the lotion becomes more fine and perfect and has greater power. You should rub the patient with the French sickness with this oil or unguent as described above, before a good fire. Begin from the waist and always go downward nearly to the soles of the feet. Do this for 3 mornings in a row as is said before, and then the patient should stay in bed very warm. Because the sickness may move immediately to the throat, first prepare the gargle. For a half hour before you do the rubbing, the patient should take in the mouth a little rock alum the size of half a chestnut and always roll it around in the mouth and then spit it out and begin to gargle freely. When you wish to begin to rub, light a good fire and remove the clothing and rub gently downward. As the sickness is felt to come in the throat, at once remove the alum that was in the mouth and begin the gargle with the decoction written below. Viz.... 160 -------- [Page 297] This is of such power and value that it does not allow the sickness in the throat to increase or swell but makes it more fluid and increases sputum in order to spit out freely. This will continue for a day and a half. Keep on with gargling. It will not prevent the illness that comes in the mouth but enables one to spit it out. At the end of the three days in which you do the anointing, the patient stays thus for 2 or 3 days without using anything else, neither syrup nor beverage, but keep him resting with delicate food for sustenance according to its availability. Then begin to use the above-described syrups. As much is taken until the sickness is much improved and the patient's great suffering has lightened. At this time the patient cannot know if he has recovered. It is good if he feels somewhat improved from the gravity of the sickness, but if not at present, then it may be 'yes' in a few days. Now the medicine causes a sign of great benefit to the patient. The lost appetite returns and he eats with eagerness and great appetite. So nature is nourished and the patient becomes better although not as before. He should not risk acting in a disorderly way in eating and in other things and should keep to the orders and rules given above and, with the aid of God, soon he will be cured because this is the best treatment that is in the world. Note that these remedies are useful in every serious infirmity. This beverage is used for gargling more or less according to its effectiveness and how the patient feels. Also he can take a syrup every other day according too how it seems to the master apothecary who is treating him. This cannot well be put in writing because the master apothecary is the one who knows how serious the sickness is. You should know that it is certain that the gargle will bring you honor above all other things. Every time it is used, always mix the container well so that the patient receives some of the substance that stays at the bottom. Use it when there is any illness in the throat. It is very appropriate for all sicknesses of the throat. This is the water for gargling that is taken by mouth when one is being rubbed for the French sickness and also is good in other illnesses of the throat. Take 4 ounces each of rose honey, water of endive, plantain, fumitory and rose water. These are the waters for making the gargle. Put them together in a container for using when needed as described above, from which God keep us. Note, Master Apothecary, how you want to effect a cure. First, get the advice of the physician as to whether to take blood or not. Then follow your rules for giving the first 3 syrups and the medicine described above. Then give the usual syrups as above and when you have given 4 or 5 you will be able to begin to do the rubbing, slowly by the fire as described, and with that the alum in the mouth and as soon as the burning is felt, the patient should spit it out and begin to gargle with the above water. Be careful about everything and do not doubt that you will cure him through the aid of God. The patient should watch how he lives, as is said above, and keep from everything adverse and he will be cured. This is a worthy remedy for you. Be well. *Unguent to medicate the sores of the French sickness. It has been tested. Take 1 ½ ounces each of mastic, frankincense, colofony, white lead and rose oil with quicksilver and 1 lb. of pork fat. Take the juice of 3 oranges to mortify the mercury and melt the fat in it. Compound the other things, little by little, and incorporate them well and make an unguent of it. *Pills for pain in the joints. Take 6 ounces of hepatic aloe, 1 ounce of colchicum, 1 ½ ounces of scammony and 1 ounce of red roses with fumitory juice. Grind everything finely and take 2 parts of this paste and mix it and make pills. These are good in the above sickness with pain in the joints and also is useful in gout. It has been tested. -------- [Page 298] Best remedy tested for the French sickness. Take 6 ounces of the bark and wood of guaiac, that is the holy wood, and it should be reduced to very fine powder. Put it in a pot that holds six or more jugs and fill it with good white wine. Sharp wine is better if you can find it. Make it boil very slowly until it reduces 1/3 and stir it a few times and cover it. Then put in these things made into fine powder, viz., ½ ounce of mastic, 6 ounces of cyclamen, 2 ounces of root of elecampane, ½ dram of agaric and 1 ½ drams of holy thistle. Put everything in the pot with its cover well-sealed around with dough and let it boil this way for a half hour. Then remove it from the fire and let it cool. Strain it carefully and save it in a clean glass flask, well-covered. Give the patient a glass of this decoction in the morning at dawn. Give another glass in the evening 2 hours before dinner as you did in the morning. Then the patient should drink it also at all meals. In the same way that you provided the first beverage, you should make it again and do this several times so you will have enough for 40 days and, at the end of the 40 days with the aid of God, you will have cured him. The patient should be careful of all adverse things and follow the rules of living that are written below. Viz.... 161 Eat dry foods as much as you can and do not eat humid things. Eat mutton, kid, capon, hens pullets, fresh eggs, almonds, pine nuts and raisins with bread well-baked or double-baked. Do not doubt that if you do not develop any other disorder, you will be cured with the aid of God and of men during the prescribed time. Pills for the French sickness. Take wild cucumber, well-ground, and extract juice through a sieve with pressure and put it in a clay basin or other vessel. Cover it and put it in the sun and the useful part will form at the bottom, the good part, and little by little you can throw away that which is more clear on the top. Let the bottom part dry well so that it will be like clay. Then gather it up and save it as powder. Take an amount of this powder the size of a little bean and mix it with as much rose honey until you can make a little pill like a bean, more or less according to the constitution of the patient, and give it with a little wine in the morning, not more than one at a time. Give this pill at the beginning of treatment and give another in 15 days and you will help purge the body well. Note that the places where there are pains can be bathed with this boiled liquid and it will help considerably. Another gargle. Take 3 ounces of diamoron , 2 ounces of rose honey, ½ ounce of rock alum, one handful each of sage and tamarind and one jug of good white wine. Boil everything in a pot until it reduces 1/3 and have the patient hold it in his mouth as warm as he can. Do this several times and you will see a good result. This has been tested. Syrup active against the French sickness used by a doctor of the King of England. Take 1 lb. of guaiac wood and 8 ounces of its bark, cut and ground very finely, and 2 lb. of Levant senna, ½ ounce of rhubarb and 4 lb. each of water of betony, of hops, of holy thistle, barley water and the best white wine that you have that is not sweet, and also one handful of the holy thistle as the herb. Put everything in a clean pot with a cover sealed around with dough so no gases can escape except through a little opening in the center of the cover where you can stir it with a little stick. Let it stay this way for one night to infuse. Then put it on the fire to boil... -------- [Page 299] slowly with a clear fire until it reduces 1/3. Remove it from the fire and let it cool with its cover. Then strain it carefully and save this in glass, well-covered, and the syrup will be made. Give a glass of it to the patient every morning at dawn. He should stay in bed one hour and not more and should not sleep but should be sweating. Then he should walk if he can but not with too much air. Continue this every morning for 40 days. If the bowels move too much, he should take it one day yes, the next no. With this syrup you can also do the following. If the patient has skin infections, wash the sores with this decoction, warm. Then put on some threads from a man's shirt wet in this syrup and over that fasten well a piece of linen. If the sores are gummy, wet a little stupe of hemp and put it on warm and fasten it. Shortly you will see a perfect cure. This has been tested. Keep to the orders and rules of life described above and do not fear if you wish to be cured rapidly. By observing the rules you will be healed as others have been. Another syrup against this kind of skin eruption occurring in the French disease. Take 6 ounces each of juice of borage and juice of red roses, 5 drams each of cherry plums, quinces and Indian elder. Soak everything in these juices for a day and boil it slowly. Then strain it. Take 6 ounces of oak fern, ½ ounce of sweet flag root and 1 dram of fennel seed. Make a decoction in the usual way with spring water. Make a syrup of that strained liquid and the previous infusion with enough sugar. Then give this medicine: take ½ ounce each of diacatholicon and diaseno and 6 drams of ameche confection. Mix these with sugar and make a bolus that is taken at dawn and soon the patient will be well. Another syrup and medicine to cure one who has the French sickness and the skin eruption. Take 4 ounces of an infusion of senna and one ounce each of laxative rose syrup and syrup of endive. Mix these and take it as usual. If it moves the bowels too much, give it one day yes, the next no. Then give this medicine, viz. Take 3 ounces of laxative rose syrup and 2 drams of the electuary of rose juice and 2 ounces of senna infusion. Mix and take as usual. If the infusion of senna is drunk, it quite often removes melancholy. Usually it is suitable to use senna in every French sickness because in this sickness it acts naturally and appropriately. If in spite of the syrups the sickness continues, give the patient the boiled liquid from the wood as written above and he will be cured. Another laxative and supportive syrup. Take 4 ounces of senna, 6 ounces of raisins, 3 ½ ounces of polypody fern and 5 ounces of damson plums. Boil everything together until it reduces 1/3. Strain it and save it and give 5 ounces every morning at dawn. Give it warm, as usual, and give it 7 times and after it give a dose of medicine and you will help those greatly who have skin eruptions.... 162 Pills for the French sickness. Take pills only of fumitory and chuochia , one scruple each. Form 3 pills with water of betony and take these once a week. Oil against the French sickness. This oil is made of guaiac wood, that is the holy wood. Take some of the wood cut into minute pieces and put them in a pot with the opening fastened downward with the fire above and collect the oil below, in the way that is called distilling in reverse. Look in the section on making oil of juniper and you will see the rules that are used. Use the wood that is oily and odoriferous and heavy and extract the oil. These are its virtues, viz:... 163 -------- [Page 300] The virtues of the oil made from guaiac wood. It is powerful to get rid of the hard sores from the French sickness. It removes the scabs and reduces the pain when the infected part is rubbed with the warm oil. Also it is miraculous in those who have the French sickness in the mouth and in the uterus. Also it useful for anyone who has cold and humid sicknesses. By continuing to rub with it 2 times a day it will cure. Also one can extract oil from this wood as the alchemists do with the distilling flask. First they extract the water. Then by increasing the fire you will extract oil. Also one can extract it as the oil of yellow sulfur is extracted. Another. If you make powder, that is ashes, of this wood before you extract any substance, you should know that this ash powerfully dries and strengthens and also is more potent than that of oak and is more aromatic. It is extremely powerful in alopecia and works many miracles because it heals quickly. When it is used to treat the above conditions, they are cured through God's grace. For those who have the French sickness in their hands, that is for one who has those cracks that are healed and then redevelop. Make this bath and you will cure them quickly. Take running water or water from the forge or white wine and boil in these three things, that is 2 ounces each of brazil wood and barley and 1 handful of myrtle. Boil until it reduces 2/3. Soak the palms of the hands in this warm liquid and you will cure them soon. Then rub yourself with this cream. Take fat of male goat and marrow of the shin bone of the ox and mix them together. Rub several times with this grease and soon you will be cured. This has been tested. Another, a mouth wash for the French sickness. Take 1 lb. of white honey and a mezeta of good white wine and 3 quatrini of rock alum. Put everything together and boil it until it is foaming. Then strain it finely. Hold it in the mouth as warm as you can stand and rinse yourself well with it. Then spit it out. Also wash the sores, that is the scabs. It will help greatly to dry them up quickly.... 164 Another oil to remove the above-described pains. Take 2 lb. of good turpentine, 2 ounces each of gum from climbing ivy and myrrh, 1 ounce each of liquid storax and incense, 1 handful of sweet flag roots and ½ ounce of cinnabar. Everything should be cut up and ground finely. Incorporate everything together and distill it in a glass retort. First make the fire low and out will come clear water. Then increase the fire and out will come oil. Save this as something dear. When you want to rub the painful spots, heat it and put it on a stupe of warm hemp and put the patient in bed where he is warm for at least 4 hours. This ointment makes a very good enema and it will help considerably. Another to cure the gummas of the French sickness. Take Armenian red clay, rose oil and strong vinegar and rub around the gumma at a distance of 2 or 3 fingers. Then take ½ ounce of oil of euphorbia and 2 drams of oil of violets and rub the gumma. First wash with warm red wine and put on a cloth smeared with butter and leave it for 4 hours and it will be blistered. Break the blister open. Then treat with a healing unguent and it will soon be cured. Another for the above-described gummas. Wash first with wine to soothe them. Take 3 drams of gold unguent and 3 drams of powdered sublimate and incorporate them as a plaster and treat the gumma. You will find the lesion removed in one day and the flesh covered over. After doing it the first time and 2 or perhaps 3 times, it becomes old and hard. When the scab goes away, put thereon some butter washed with wine on a cloth and soon it will be healed. This unguent with sublimate draws out all the edema and all the bad humors that are around in that kind of sickness. It purges this bad condition so it does not give more trouble and you may find it perfectly cured. It is good for you.... 165 *For the calluses of the hands from the French sickness. Take 1 handful each of mallow, viola, cabbage and bran and 1 lb. of mutton fat. Boil everything with mild lye. Then receive the fumes of this on the hand. Do this 2 times a day for 8 days and they will go away and not return. Then rub the hands with this ointment, viz. Take goat fat, chicken fat and lard and mix them together and use this to rub until you have made a cure. But you need to wear gloves. -------- [Page 301] To make the best and true rose honey. [Drawing on page.] Take 50 lb. of water from the spring, well or cistern and 5 or 6 lb. of clean roses without leaves, more or less according to whether you want to make the best or not. You will need a tub or a vat, either large or small, to be able to hold half of the defoliated roses, more or less according to your opinion and depending on the amount that you wish to make. Take the clean water and put it on the fire and when it wants to start boiling, do not let it boil but pour it boiling on the roses and you will have a mixture formed into a slab. Turn the roses upside down for a bit until they all become blanched white. Then cover the tub or vat or conch that should be in an appropriate cauldron wrapped with wool or linen to keep it warm so that the warmth keeps all the virtue or effectiveness in the water. Do this again for the second and third morning and this is enough. If you want to do it the fourth time, you can do it without adding more roses and it will be more odoriferous and more powerful. Draw out the roses that are soft and press them as firmly as you can with your hands and save these to make odorous water. Reheat this soft mixture little by little, that is the infusion, and do not add any more water than the first. You should put in all 3 infusions because it increases the strength. Always reheat well as you did at first and throw on fresh and clean roses. In this way you will have made the infusion to use to make rose honey. Then take 60 lb. of the clear infusion without the roses and 20 or 25 lb. of honey. The correct measure always is 1/3 part of honey and in this way you will make it perfect and effective. It is true that if you put in more honey, up to 30 or 35 lb. it makes a bigger amount and it will be more to your profit but it will not have then all the medicinal properties. To be perfect it needs to have that much of the rose infusion. When you have mixed in the honey, put the cauldron on the fire and heat it very well and stir with your ladle so it incorporates well together. When it is very warm, skim it well. Then you should have prepared your pointed bags, at least 3 or 4 or 6 or more, partly of linen and partly of wool and they should be fastened as you see above. Put therein some of this prepared broth and strain it very slowly until it comes out clear. Put it in again several times so it comes out in clear drops, beautiful and clean and looks like a ruby. If it will not come out when it cools, reheat it again and more if needed until it distills in very clear drops.... -------- [Page 302] because this filtrate contains all the important material for beauty and also for effectiveness. By putting it repeatedly through the sacks, the drops will come out clear and beautiful. Save the foam that you remove when it is on the fire. Do not throw it away because in the bottom resides much that is also good. Do not let it boil because it would thicken and not strain easily. If it is difficult to strain because of its thickness, reheat it again. It needs to be warm to filter easily. Be warned that bees and wasps will be after it actively. Watch that you keep it in a safe place. Then put it again in your clean cauldron and make the fire underneath so that it boils very slowly. Stir well with your ladle so that none sticks to the bottom and takes on the odor of smoke that would not be good. It will develop much foam and lift that away very carefully and put it in a sack and so it strains by itself. Let it boil until it is well cooked but not burned and let it boil slowly. Do this test on a card. Let 2 or 3 drops fall and if they stay well joined together and firm and do not slide when the card is tilted, then it is cooked. At once remove it from the fire and save it warm in a vitreous pottery vessel so that it does not take on the odor of copper. In this way you will have made your rose honey, good and perfect in every way for beauty and quality. Note that if you were to make a furnace so you could wall in the cauldron with clay so the flames were not able to get in, you would be more certain that you would not take in the smoke or other bad odors. When it has been well filtered, you should know that when it is cooked it will not form a sediment at the bottom of the vessel as happens with those that are badly filtered. Be warned of this. The effectiveness as a laxative is related to the amount of roses you put in. Of all of its properties, I want to say that for cleaning out the stomach, this is the most suitable in any way that you will take it. Note that if you want to make rose honey quickly because of necessity, put the roses to soften for at least 9 hours, although usually it should not be less than 24 hours. In this method you may be able to make a little of it for a need. Filter it so it is clear and this is its beauty. Muccharo and rose laxative, effective and perfect.... 166 Take some dew, the dew that falls in the night, and collect it with a sponge or clean cloth. Collect it from good herbs, that is from burnet saxifrage, tarragon, endive, fennel and cabbage. Collect it in the good period which is April or May. That collected from cabbage works wonderfully to make the body go. Do not take it from those growing wild in the fields. They are not good. Then take 10 flasks of the dew and put it in a cauldron and heat well until it wants to boil but it should not boil. Have 9 lb. of clean and fresh roses collected in the morning with the dew on them, because this dew contains much laxative power. If you are not able to collect them each morning as described, put the roses out in the air in the evening on a blanket so the dew will fall down on them. It will also have a good effect but it is better to gather the roses with the dew on them. Continue in this way for 9 mornings and in the morning remove those that have been softened in the night and press them very well.... -------- [Page 303] in the press and add this substance to the infusion. Then reheat this infusion and put therein the 9 lb. of roses described above and cover the tub or vat wherein you put them and put it in a place that stays very warm. Do this for 9 days in a row and if you do it more times it will be better. Note that this is called the laxative infusion. Rose syrup is made from this infusion. You will be able to preserve it for a whole year in a vitreous vessel with a little olive oil on top so it stays covered and the air does not contaminate it and make it putrefy. Then strain this infusion with the sack in which you strained the rose honey and strain it finely so that it comes out clear and lustrous. Then put in some sugar from Saint Thomas or Madeira that is red. The redder it is the more laxative it is and it works better. First clean it in this way. Each 2 lb. of red sugar needs one egg white, well beaten, that is is made all into foam. Put in 2 lb of well water, or some of this infusion is better, and put it on a low fire. When you see that it has puffed up at the top and wants to begin to boil, do not let it boil but at once strain it very slowly through the strainer. Do not put in the foam but leave it at the bottom of the pot. In this way you will have cleaned the sugar.... 167 Note that this is the correct measure. Take 30 lb. of the infusion and 20 lb. of the red sugar clarified with egg white as described above. Put everything together in the clean cauldron. Put it on the fire and heat it well until it wants to boil but do not let it boil. Then strain it in the sack described above and make it strain very slowly. Strain it several times until at last the filtrate comes out clear, lustrous, beautiful and ruby-colored. If it is too cold to come out, you can reheat it. When it is warm it strains easily because it does not have so much viscosity. Do not touch the sack or it may come out turbid. In this way you will make the filtrate clear and beautiful. Then put it in a clean cauldron to cook on the fire. Using dry wood, make it boil slowly and stir repeatedly for good results. Let it boil until it reduces 1/3 or more. Test it by putting 2 or 3 drops on a card and if this stays firm and does not spread out on the card, it is made or you can put a little of the old paragon with the new. If it is not now as lustrous and ruby-colored, that is not important while it is cooking because as it becomes cold, it will take on color again. Note that if one wants to make a good laxative, put in 2 drams of purging bindweed and tie it in a cloth and make a little button and tie it with a thread of yarn. Boil it in and when it is cooked, pull it out and throw it away. It is not useful any more. Likewise, you can boil in the preparation 1 handful of the herb hedge hyssop which grows in swampy meadows and has a leaf like hyssop and some call it our senna. Boil it in a little sack and when it is cooked, remove it and throw it away as it is of no more good. In this you will have made a red sugar laxative, the best and perfect. Remove it at once when it is cooked and put it in a good vitreous, clay vessel.... -------- [Page 304] and keep it in a cool place, well covered. When you need to make the body go, this has no equal. The dose is 3 ½ ounces up to 4, but first experiment to see if 3 works or not with that made all of dew. Then boil in the scammony or the herb hedge hyssop and these 3 things make it very laxative. Dilute it with 2 ounces of mallow water and give it in the morning at dawn somewhat tepid and afterward one should repose for ½ hour although this is not a medicine for which repose is necessary. Everyone can take it with confidence. Note that this laxative is useful in purging every choler and also in any tertian fever and joint pain caused by warm matter. It removes all the bad warm and feverish humors from which comes its benefit in the feverish and malign erysipelas. In the burning black fever, Persian anthrax, it is given together with diacatholicon and it clears out the remnants of the humors. Then the patients begin to be better and they trust in the medicine. They will not use it if they do not think it is helping. When you have given this medicine, in one hour give a bowl of chicken or mutton broth to drink with one ounce of red sugar.... 168 Another. Some make it in this way. They take 9 lb. of cistern water and 9 lb. of roses, as above, and they make it in the way described above in 9 or 10 mornings. Then they do not put in the dew, but put in the scammony or the herb hedge hyssop. It is true that it works, but not as well as the dew does. It has been shown many times that the dew is more gentle and works very wonderfully. Keep to the rule given above and you will never fail and you will always get honor for it. Note that when you want to refresh the laxative syrup, take 2 flasks of dew, one collected on burnet saxifrage, the other collected on cabbage. With the whites of 3 eggs purify the red sugar in the way that has been described above. If you will do this, you will receive honor in every way. To make the best, effective and perfect julep.... 169 Take the whites of 2 eggs and beat them well with a whisk in a pan until all is converted to foam. Then put in 4 or 5 lb. of well water and not less. Then put in 4 lb. of red sugar or less. With red sugar the julep becomes more clear and beautiful. Break it up with the hand so that it dissolves in the pot. Then put the pot on the fire and heat it slowly, I say very slowly. When it begins to swell, do not ever touch the foam but leave it alone. Do not break it or it may become turbid. To help it clear up while it is swelling, put in a little honey or 2 ounces of water from distilled white vinegar or sprinkle on the juice of one lemon or bitter orange or 4 seeds of sour grapes or as much burnt rock alum as a fava bean or less. Let the foam rise little by little and when you see that it is all swollen and about to begin to boil, do not for anything let it boil but at once remove it from the fire and pour it into 2 pointed sacks, made of wool and of felt, one in the other. Pour it very slowly so the foam does not go in but all remains in the pot. Let it filter so it comes out clear and beautiful. If it does not seem clear and lustrous to you, put it very slowly through another sack that is thicker and it will filter out more clear.... -------- [Page 305] and lustrous. If by bad luck, it does not want to come out, do one more clarification only, but do not put in any sour things as you have done before because you may make it come out cloudy and then it could be cleared only with great effort and trouble. So you will have the filtrate clear and lustrous. Clean the pot well so it shines and put it again in the pot and reboil very slowly with a low, clear fire, because with boiling too furiously it wll become turbid. When it has boiled a half hour do the test on the card or on your fingernail to see if the drop is firm or not. If the drop is firm, it is cooked. Then pour in 2 or 3 ounces of good rose water or otherwise water of violet flowers. This is known as rose julep or violet julep. Then remove it from the fire and pour it into a clay basin, clean and polished and without odor, until it is cold. Then put it in your glass ampules, covered, and keep it in a cool place so it does not spoil. When it begins to ferment it is then neither so delicate nor good. It will last in the summertime for a month if it is well cooked. When the julep is made do not let it cook too long and then this julep is a clear yellow color, beautiful to see. Note that if you make the julep of white sugar, you should do the clearing described above and not put in anything except that sugar and pure water. When it is finally cooked, put in your rose water or water of fresh violets. In this way you can make a good and effective julep from all the different sugars. This julep is very powerful in cooling and alleviating the great distress of burning heat and fever if you drink it with boiled water or barley water or with fresh water. It alleviates the fierce heat of the liver and is good in many other conditions in medicine in addition to this. Rose sugar, effective and beautiful, with some of its uses. Take the buds of red roses before they are completely open and cut away all that white underneath with a scissors so they are clean. Use 4 ounces of these to 1 lb. of sugar. Cut them finely and grind very minutely. Then take this pound of white sugar and purify it as you have done for the julep with an egg white and one pound or more of well water and convert the white all into foam. Then put in the water and break up the sugar with your hand and put it on the fire. When it starts to swell, do not put in anything. Let it rise well and as you see that it wants to begin to boil, remove it at once from the fire. Filter it in 2 pointed sacks and filter it well so it comes out clean. Then put it again in the pot that has been well-washed and clean and put it on the fire to cook. You will know when it is well cooked by seeing the sign. Then put in your roses that are well ground and make it boil for a good piece, always stirring with your ladle, around and up and down, so that everything is well incorporated. Remove it from the fire as it has been made and put it warm in your bottles and cover it until it is cold and put it ... -------- [Page 306] in the sun for 10 to 15 days. When it is very cold, stir very well so that it is mixed together and you will have a rose sugar, good, excellent and perfect, odorous and very pleasing. If you wish to make it a beautiful red, take a little red sandalwood and soak it in water until that is very red. When you have filtered the sugar, tint it with this water to the color that you want. Then it is time to put in your roses and when it is cooked it will be a beautiful red, odoriferous as the paragon, the Neopolitan red sugar that is made red in this way. Note that if you want to make rose sugar from pink roses, it is not so beautiful to see but is as good and has the same virtues as this above and also keeps the laxative effect if you will make it in this way. Take some pink roses gathered with the dew or condensation on them. Defoliate them and do not cut away anything and be sure they are clean. Then cut them finely and grind very small. Take some red sugar, a little more than usual, and purify it with egg white as you have done above. Put therein a pound of roses with 3 ½ pounds of sugar, close to 4, and when the sugar is well cooked, put in the ground roses and boil it for a half hour or more. Remove the pot from the fire and while it is still warm, put it in a bottle and put it in the sun for 8 to 10 days. Stir up the bottle each day until it will not bubble up any more and it will keep well. It has the same properties and virtues as the rose sugar but it is more laxative. If you take a half ounce in the evening when you go to sleep and afterward drink 3 ounces of endive water, in the morning you will go from the body at least 2 or 3 times without any trouble. It has been tested. Another. If you wish to make fresh rose sugar without cooking, do it in this way. Take the rose and if it is red, cut away the white completely because this is constipating and bitter. If you use the pink, take them entire but clean of every other thing. Cut them well and grind them finely, I say well ground because if they are not well ground, it remains between the teeth or under them. This rose grinds badly and that makes it feel bad, but grind them well and the result is refined. Then put in the sugar, weighed and measured as above. Grind everything together so that it is well mixed. Then when you have incorporated and ground it well, strain it and put it in your clean bottles or pots, covered with parchment, and make several openings with the point of a knife and put it in the warm sun for at least 20 to 30 days and mix it top to bottom with the ladle or stirring rod so that it will not boil or swell and go out of the bottle. This is the way to make it uncooked, good and perfect like that above except that it holds more of the odor of the rose and comforts the mind more through its strong odor which is much more pleasing because it is not cooked. This has been tested many, many times. -------- [Page 307] Note that if you want to make the conserve of borage, that is a confection or electuary of flowers of borage or bugloss or flowers of tamarind or water lilies and violets or French lavender, first take these flowers, only the flowers pure and clean of every pedicle, and cut them as minutely as you can and grind them as well as you can, because its delicacy consists of being well ground. Take 4 ounces of it and 1 lb. of sugar, always 1 part to 3 parts, and grind them well together. This is intended for crushed white sugar but if you put in red sugar, always put in a little more which is better in every way and it keeps the electuaries always soft and rich. Then put it in your bottle, covered with parchment, and make several openings with the point of a knife and put it in the sun for several days. Each day stir it with your stirring rod. Especially in the water lily electuary, do not fill up the bottle because it swells terribly and stir it often so that it does not overflow the bottle. If you wish to cook it, hold to the rules given above to purify the sugar with egg white. Strain it and give it the usual cooking and then put in your flowers which have been well ground and in this way you will make it good and perfect. Note in part some of the virtues of these electuaries and first of the red sugar. Taken in the morning, it comforts the stomach and the heart and strengthens debilitated intestines. Drinking it in the summer with water will cool all the body and improve nourishment and also it is a tested remedy for phthisis. Another. The electuaries of borage and bugloss have nearly the same effectiveness. They correct much of the impairment of the stomach, the heart and the liver because they remove syncope, reduce tremor and get rid of every excess heat and help greatly in melancholy. Another. The electuary of violets strikes against the heat of cholera, wards off thirst, gets rid of the heat of fever, relieves the chest and abdomen, helps one who suffers from a cough and may be given usefully at the beginning of pleurisy. Another. The electuary of adiantos , that is of flowers of tamarind, has the same comforting effect and therefore is useful in treating all distresses of the heart. Another. The electuary of flowers of water lily is very effective in removing the heat of venereal disease. Many other virtues are contained in this electuary that you will learn by working with it. Simple oxymel, effective and good.... 170 Take 2 lb. of honey and 2 egg whites, well beaten in the pot and made all into foam. Then put in the honey with 3 lb. of well water and put it on a slow fire until it has all foamed up. Do not touch it and when it begins to boil, remove it from the fire and strain it though 2 sacks, enough times so that it comes out very clear. Do not use those sacks to make the julep because it will be turbid. Wash the pot well and put the filtrate in it again and reboil very slowly until it reaches perfection in cooking and do the test on a card. Boil it until it reduces almost all the water and when it is close to being cooked, put in 6 ounces of very strong white vinegar and let it boil some. It will be made.... -------- [Page 308] when it begins to thicken enough so that it has and holds the odor of the vinegar that it needs to be effective and good. This lasts longer than a julep. Keep it in a clean bottle. Note some of the virtues of the simple oxymel. Primarily, it breaks up bad humors of various kinds and weakens them, especially humors in which phlegm predominates. It also breaks up humors in the stomach, the joints and the liver. In addition, mixed with fennel water, it is very active against prolonged fevers caused by excessive phlegm. It also has other virtues. Test it and you will see. The way simple syrups are made, with some of their virtues. Take the kinds of herbs from which you wish to make syrups, such as endive, chicory, sorrel, fumitory, mint, lavender, violet, rose and the 2 roots. When you make the juice of all these herbs, be sure they are fresh, clean and well washed and dry and that they do not have dew on them. First cut each one by itself into fine pieces. Then grind them well and put them in a canvas sack and press them well under the press to extract the juice. Then put it in a pot or in a little cauldron that is clean and polished. Do this work quickly because the juice cannot sit once made and spoils very quickly. Therefore put it at once on the fire to cleanse it. Make the fire low until the foam comes to a head and let it boil very slowly for half an hour. Then strain it finely. In this way make the juices of all the above herbs. Also all others are made in this way except for some flowers and those herbs that do not have juice but are dry. You can save these juices separately and put them in flasks or carafes. Fill them and put on a little olive oil and that preserves them by keeping out the air which makes them spoil so they are not good. Keep them in a cool place, covered so they are not spoiled. First we speak of the rose syrup that you have made. Take some of the infusion that you have made for the sugar laxative which is good and advantageous to use to make rose syrup. Violet syrup is made in this way. Take 4 or 5 lb. of cistern water and one pound of clean violets without pedicels. I recommend the ones the color of peacock blue. Heat the water so that it is ready to boil but does not boil and put therein the violets and stir them well up and down and cover the vessel well and leave it in a warm place for 24 hours. The next morning, remove the violets and press them well in the press. Then reheat the infusion as you did at first and put in more fresh flowers as you did before. Do it in this way 4 or 5 times, cleansing them on the fire and filtering it and the violet syrup will be made. Syrup of lavender. Take the pure flowers, cut them and grind them well and cover them with water because otherwise you will not extract juice. Cleanse them in the fire and then extract from them and it will be made. Preserve it like the others. Syrup of 2 roots is not preserved because it does not last more than a month. Take roots of fennel and the roots of parsley. Cut them and boil them with water until it is reduced a third. Strain this and press it well and it will be made, syrup of 2 roots. Syrup of mint, fumitory, endive, chicory and sorrel. All are made of the appropriate juice and preserved in the way described above. -------- [Page 309] How to cook the syrups. Take 2 egg whites and put them in the pot where you wish to cook the syrup and beat them very well so it is all converted to foam and the white does not run. Put therein 3 pounds of the juice of which you want to make the syrup and put in 1 ½ lb. of red sugar in little pieces and break it up with a spoon. Then put it on a low fire until the foam rises to a head and when it begins to want to boil, remove it from the fire and strain it in the pointed sacks described above. When it is all strained, put it again on the fire in the pot that has been cleaned. When it wants to boil, remove it from the fire and strain it one more time so it will be very clear and lustrous like its essence. Then put it again in the pot which should be well scrubbed and clean. Put it on the fire and boil it very slowly and remove the foam with the bottom of the spoon. Let this boil until it reduces at least 2/3 of the juice or make the test with the card to see if the drop is firm or not. Let it cook well because if it does not simmer and you keep it for a long time, with aging the sugar becomes candied which is not effective and good. Then when the syrup is cooked, put it in vitreous bottles to keep. You should know that to make the syrup, each pound of juice of the infusion needs a half pound of sugar and not less. Follow the rules in the way described above and all will come out well for you. These are some of the virtues. First of the violet syrup. It acts well to cool the sharp and choleric humor, by extinguishing the fever of the choler, cooling and removing the thirst and soothing the chest wonderfully. Also it acts against dry cough and tightness in the chest. Syrup of endive has the power to cool the sharp and biting choler, cools the burning, soothes and removes its sharpness, opens the obstruction of the liver, rectifying the illness. Syrup of fumitory is a very universal remedy for every thick mucus or dry and salt adust and is suitable where there is scabies, serious illness, ringworm, impetigo, salt phlegm, lepra, canker or eczema and is a great medicine for the French sickness.... 171 Syrup of lavender is very useful for persons with sickness of the nerves, especially from cold, and it is powerful against paralysis, spasm, epilepsy and debilitation of the nerves. It is not recommended for the elderly who are suffering from catarrh. Syrup of mint is moderately warming. It warms a little, hence it improves digestion of the stomach and with its natural warmth, restores the debilitated and inactive stomach. It is said, 'Mint is never slow in the stomach.' Syrup of sorrel juice is powerful against the fever of plague and cures the true plague and mitigates the heat and the thirst, keeps humors from putrefaction, quiets the fever of choler, improves the blood, reduces the excessive humors, strengthens the heart and removes syncope. To extract the juice of wormwood and many other herbs. Gather the absinthe before sunrise when it is tender. Grind it and put it in the press and extract juice. Then put it in the sun until it is almost solidified and make troches and save them. Some cook it until it has coagulated. The juice of fumitory and agrimony and many other herbs is made in this way to use in medicine where it is needed. -------- [Page 310] Syrup or beverage of great virtue which maintains health. Take 1 handful each of borage, parsley, beet, endive and celery, ½ handful each of chopped licorice, fresh anise, barley and currants, 1/3 of a bowl of red chick peas and 10 dry figs. Everything should be very clean. Put them together to boil in a clean pot with its cover very tight with 3 flasks of cistern water. Let it boil very slowly until it is reduced 2/3. Then strain it and press the herbs and everything under the press and extract all the substance. Then put it again on the fire and put therein 6 ounces of honey and 3 ounces of sugar from Saint Thomas and reboil a while until the foam has cleared. Remove it from the fire and when it is cool, place it in a glass bottle and it will be made, a very elegant beverage. In the month of March or April, take 5 doses of this syrup in this way. That is, in the evening when you go to sleep, take 4 ounces warm, but in the evening eat very little and drink less. If you do not eat, it will be better for you. In the morning at daybreak take another dose of 6 ounces, warm in the form of a syrup. Continue this for 5 mornings. On the last morning first take a cassia of 2 ½ ounces as a laxative diluted with boiled water or with milk whey about one hour before you eat a bowl of thin broth with 1 ounce of red sugar. Then dine and first eat two fresh eggs to put your stomach in order. Then eat well-cooked chicken or veal and for these 5 days keep yourself well governed. Do this once a year and you will keep yourself healthy, sound and lively and of good cheer. This has been tested repeatedly.... 172 For the man to remain healthy all year. Take 3 stalks of rue and 3 stalks of betony. Grind them and put them to soften in the evening in very good white wine. Drink 2 fingers of this every morning. Do this for all the month of May to the middle of June. Likewise this can be done with the juice of fumitory. Otherwise early in the morning you can eat 3 bits of the stalk of wormwood or of rue or of holy thistle or of horehound and you will stay healthy all the year. This has been tested. Against the swelling of the veins that follows the drawing of blood. Take equal amounts of rue, absinthe and barley and heat them well and fry them in a pan. Then reduce them to a poultice and bind it on the swollen area of the vein. Do this several times and you will be cured of the swelling. This is a useful secret. Another if the vein may have been ulcerated by bleeding. Take the earthworms that live underground and clean them well with white wine. Fry them in oil and, as warm as you can stand, put them on and it will help you greatly. Also this may be of value in swelling of the nerves. -------- [Page 311] Nature shows by signs from outside the distress within. It appears to me that nature, that is man, fails in three ways. The first way is through odors, that is when the odor of something malignant immediately occupies the principal members, that is the heart, the brain and the liver. These are the signs of pestilence, that is swelling of the glands in the emuntories of the principal members. When the heart is harmed the sign appears in the armpit. When the brain is harmed, the sign appears in the ears. When the liver is harmed, it appears in the right rib. When the spleen is harmed, it is in the left inguinal region. In addition some carbuncles come in other parts of the body and these occur when there is greater putrefaction and scorching of the humors in the body. When nature is strained too much to draw them out, carbuncles appear in the principal members. The chest shows the worst effect and this is because it is a sign that the humors are burnt up and putrefied around the region of the heart.... 173 The second way is by suffocation of the natural warmth, caused by humidity and watery putrefaction. Certainly we see such humidity gathered in our body and especially in the head through which swellings are generated in the throat. This illness is called quinsy from which some die. Sometimes heavy catarrh accumulates from which humans may quickly suffocate. Sometimes humidity causes deafness and damage in the head with accumulation of fluid in the eyes and great dullness, paralysis and epilepsy. The third cause is because worms are generated from bad humors through putrefaction. They may come to the upper parts of the body and make painful lesions until they make the body come into syncope from which it may not recover. If the condition is not helped, the person may soon die from the pain and also from the toxic fumes arising from the bad humors that break up and destroy the vital spirits. *Oil of tartar from wine casks, made by me, Friar Antonio of Spain. Take tartar from white wine and put it in a frying pan or dish two fingers deep and make it calcine in the pottery oven. Then put it in a vitreous pot with cistern water and if the pot is half full, fill it with water and put it on the fire until it begins to boil. At once remove it and empty it into a basin of vitreous pottery and make it pass, that is drip, through a piece of felt that is well stretched and cleaned. Put it in the pot on a trivet and boil it until the material stays congealed at the bottom. Then remove it from the fire and keep it until the next day to collect as much as you can. Remove it and grind it a little at a time in the mortar and put it in a bladder so that is half full or a little more, and if needed it can be put in 2 or 3 bladders. Tie them well so it cannot be spilled and put it to soften over water. At the end of 2 days it will be made. Then put it in an ampule and save it for your needs. It has many virtues which can be read in folio 106. This is the better and more pleasant way to make it and it makes more oil. It has been tested. -------- [Page 312] The man who loses blood by blood-letting in order to gain health. These things are agreeable for health. First, good bread of grain, well raised with yeast and well cooked, a little light wine to drink that does not fill up the stomach, eggs, fish that come from rocky places and meat of young pig or mutton or other young animals, of kid and pullet, and the little apples that are found at this time. But do not eat cabbages of any sort because they generate poisons in the stomach, nor cheese nor anything cooked with it. So say Galen and Hippocrates in 64 aphorisms in the fifth particular. It is a very bad thing to give milk to the feverish or to those who are suffering pain. On the day that blood is drawn, one must not sleep because through sleep a kind of little fever arises that makes the person develop syncope, that is depression of the heart or dimness of vision in such a way that in some it causes distress, that is swooning. This is the value of phlebotomy, that is of withdrawing blood. You should know that this reduction of blood has all these uses. First, it makes the mind pure and strong with a good memory, sharpens the senses, clears up the voice, sharpens the vision for one who has runny eyes, sets the hearing and the brain in order, improves the digestion, cleans out the bladder, calms stomach ulcers, drives out bad blood and saves the good, calms the sexual character, warms the marrow, removes bad humors, takes away sleep and administers to a healthy life for a long time, whence Avicenna said, in the fourth of the first 80 principles, phlebotomy is the universal evacuation of all the humors. He who is sick with fever through too much blood or putrefied blood, the blood should be reduced at once at any time, ordinarily during the half moon under the sign of Gemini. When there is transient fever from bad blood, the blood is removed from the middle vein and from the vein of the heart in the right arm in the summertime but in the winter from the left. Another. Transient fever is one that lasts for the period of one day, more or less. Whoever has transient fever caused by heat or too much fasting, withdraw from the cephalic vein of either arm. Whoever is sick from a transient fever through fasting or coldness, watch when one withdraws his blood for he may become frantic. Withdraw from the vein of the head or the vein in the middle of the forehead. Whoever has a transient fever through debility, withdraw blood from the nose with a pig bristle. Whoever is sick with a transient fever through worms, withdraw blood from the vein that is between the ring finger and the little finger. In the man who is sick with quinsy, withdraw it from the cephalic vein of either arm. The man who is sick with transient fever as a result of an abcess, withdraw blood from the vein that comes from the little finger. Whoever is sick with transient fever from pleurisy, withdraw it from the vein of the heart in the direct way. That is, if the pleurisy is on the left side, it is withdrawn from the left and if it is on the right, it is withdrawn where the pain is, that is the right arm. -------- [Page 313] In the sick person with intermittent quotidian fever, that is which ceases for some space of time, blood is withdrawn from the middle vein. In the person sick with quotidian through one or the other phlegm, it is withdrawn from the vein in the right arm in the summertime and in the winter from the left. In the person sick from the salt phlegm with pruritis, it is taken out with cuppings on the legs and then cut. In the person sick with tertian fever, it is withdrawn from the basilic vein, that is from the vein of the liver in the right arm in the summertime and in the winter from the left. In the one sick with quartan fever, it is withdrawn from the salvatella vein of the left hand between the ring finger and the little finger. In the person sick with any other acute fever, it is withdrawn from the middle vein, that is the vein from the heart. In the one sick with any dropsy, it is withdrawn from the vein of the liver in the right arm in the summer and in the winter from the left. In the one sick with icterus, it is withdrawn from the basilic vein from either arm, either in summer or winter. In the one feverish from melancholy, insomnia and frenzy, it is withdrawn from the vein that is in the middle of the forehead. In the one sick through overheating of the liver, it is withdrawn from the basilic vein in the right arm. In the one sick through defect or impairment of the spleen, it is withdrawn from the salvatella vein of the left hand. In one sick through defect of the kidney or womb or bladder, it is withdrawn from the vein called the saphenous, that is the vein that is below the heel on the inside of either foot. In one sick through flatulence or bloat, it is withdrawn from the vein that is directed to the large toe of either foot. In the person sick in the lower parts, it is withdrawn from the saphenous vein on the inside of either foot. In one sick with sciatica, it is withdrawn from the saphenous vein above the foot in the ankle. In the one sick with gout, it is withdrawn from the saphenous and the basilic veins inside and above either foot. The remedy against swelling of the vein after withdrawing blood. Take equal amounts of rue, absinthe and barley beaten together in a warm pan, and make a poultice and put it on the vein and soon you will cure it, through God's grace. Another. Delirium comes from the abcess that grows on the membrane of the brain from agitation of blood or through heat or by one or the other. The tympanum is a membrane surrounding the brain and in the ear. If it should break, the ear will become permanently deaf. The remedy for this is to open the vein in the middle of the forehead and it will be cured. Opening the vein in the middle of the forehead is powerful against abcess of the eyes and against migraine, against very grave headache, against insanity, against delirium and against recent lepra. The four kinds of nature, sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric and melancholic.... 174 The properties of the sanguine nature. In his nature he is rich and jesting, He is always delighted to hear a new rumor. His every concern is in luxury. He willingly laughs and keeps himself cheerful, He speaks neither gently nor in anger or fury. His heart is easily distracted by anything, Whatever stirs his sanguine humor. He is suited to study every mysterious thing. He delights in tasting various foods. He loves freely and is kind, With a very quick and bold manner. A red color may spread over all his body. With songs and speech he never has enough. His limbs are heavily dressed with flesh. -------- [Page 314] Properties of the phlegmatic nature. Phlegm is moist and cold like the element water. He resembles it, being large and stout. Whatever such a nature does by chance, It is with little force, lazy and slow. He hates to wake up. Idleness is his great talent. He is not astute. His desires are crude Because no one taught him better. Much of his cleverness is to ignore things. His glory, his desire, his repose, These are found in sleep. Every motion of his body is slow, Except when he sleeps or dozes. His stomach cannot speak, but if it spoke For his body, it would not be lying. Properties of the choleric nature. If choler is kindled in someone It makes him impetuous by nature. Whatever he wants to undertake, Whatever he desires, quickly Grows to great importance to him. He has a strong and vigorous spirit For everything. He can be generous But only if it is not important. Immense astuteness in cheating others Rules such a nature. He gains his strength By helping himself and spending. Boldness and irritability mark him. He has little flesh and his limbs are slim. His complexion is yellow as saffron. Properties of the melancholy nature. The melancholy humor is sadder than any other. It makes a man's nature depressed and low But very eager to acquire things. He is devoted to study and equipped for it. Sleep in such a humor strengthens his step And in the evening he may wake up. He speaks always of things profound That he wants to put into effect And considers everything is a problem. More timid than a deer, and devious, He has plenty of avarice in his breast, And envy grows within him. His complexion is the color of earth. Nature has 4 components: cold, dry, warm and humid. The 4 elements from which the world is maintained have these components. Fire is warm and dry, air is warm and humid, water is cold and humid and earth is cold and dry. So are the bodies of persons and of animals that are on earth, and from these proceed the 4 humors. That is, choler is warm and dry, phlegm is cold and humid, blood is warm and humid, melancholia is cold and dry. Also the year is divided in 4 parts, that is, spring, summer, autumn and winter. Spring is [warm] and humid like the blood, summer is warm and dry like choler, autumn is cold and dry like melancholia, winter is cold and humid like phlegm.... 175 According to philosophy, spring begins on February 22 and ends on March 24. Summer begins on March 25 and ends on August 23. Autumn begins on August 24 and ends on November 24. Winter begins on November 25 and ends on February 21. Spring has 92 days, summer 91 days, autumn 92 days and winter 90 days. You should know that fire, summer and choler are of one and the same consitution. Water, phlegm and winter are of one constitution. Air, blood and spring are of one and the same constitution. Autumn, earth and melancholia are of the same constitution. Each of these observations, in truth, confirms the other, for the flesh and bone resemble the earth, the blood resembles water, the respiration the air, and heat the fire. -------- [Page 315] The 4 digestions of nature. Note that these are the 4 digestions of nature that turn our food into the human body. Viz. 1. The first digestion is made in the stomach and there the food is cooked in the stomach and the substance of the food is sent to the liver through certain veins that transfer the nourishment. 2.The second digestion is made in the liver and the substance that the stomach has sent to the liver is converted into blood that the liver sends by the veins. 3.The third digestion is carried out in the veins which are nourishing the limbs. 4.The fourth digestion is made in the limbs by the capillary veins.... 176 1. The excess of the first digestion is the feces which nature sends to the bowels. 2. The excess of the second digestion is the urine which the liver sends to the kidneys. Then the kidneys distill it to the bladder through 2 pores, called the ureters, that are hung in the flesh. 3. The third excess of the digestion, which is made by the veins, is the sweat. 4. The excess of the fourth part of the digestion is the nails and the hair. This is enough for you to know about the secrets of digestion.. Part of knowledge about the urine. How to know the urine. First, know that the 2 things that give color to the urine are the natural warmth of the body and the coldness and the 2 things that give texture to the urine are the humidity of the body and the dryness or the heat. The heat gives it the white color and the humidity gives it thickness, that is the turbidity. The dryness gives it clarity and makes it clear. One should examine the urine well outside and in the urinal. First, you should know well that if the urine is red and very vermillion and thick and not clear, this signifies that the blood is too abundant. If it is vermillion and clear or yellow, it signifies that there is too much heat. If it is white and thick and dark in color and more thick than very clear, it signifies that there is too much phlegm. If it is white and clear and transparent, that signifies that there is too much melancholia. If it is brown and clear, that is transparent, that signifies that the blood is overheated through too much heat and there is great debility. If it is green and transparent, that signifies that there is very great debility of spirit so the blood appears polluted. Another way to know if any infirmity might be cured or not. Take the urine of the sick person and put on it a little milk from a woman. Add it very gently and if the milk goes to the bottom, the sick one will die. If the milk stays on top, he will be cured. This is a useful secret. Another. Rub the soles of the feet with a little lard and then give the lard to a dog or a mastiff to eat. If he eats it willingly, soon the sick person will be cured. If the dog does not eat it at once, consider the person's cure doubtful. Try this and you will see the proof of it. -------- [Page 316] To cure a head quickly that has been broken through a fall or other blow, provided that it is not fatal. When a person has fallen or has received a blow on the head and the head may be broken but the blow is not fatal, do this. First make a bandage with egg white and salt and soak a stupe in it and put it on the wound. If the blood continues to flow from the wound, put on another bandage after adding a little finely-ground soot. Wrap it well and let it stay on not less than 24 hours. If the damage is where there is hair, clip that first under the bandage. When you remove it, medicate only with rose oil and threads with a little cloth. Vz.... 177 Note. Take warm rose oil and make the tents of fine threads and spot them with rose oil and put this tepid on the wound so it is well covered with the tent. Rub around the wound with a double layer of cloth and put it over the tent and then put on another dry cloth and bind it with a bandage and let it stay that way. Treat once or twice a day, according to how serious you think the wound is, because this rose oil rapidly removes the pain and soothes the sore and also cleans it. Do this for 3 or 4 days and not more. Then take some gold unguent and medicate with this, first making the tents only of thread and putting this unguent on the wound. Then put on a bandage with this unguent on it and rub around the wound with warm rose oil. Continue in this way until it is cured because this unguent makes the flesh grow and when the flesh is ready, do not put on another tent, but you can put on a cerate of red lead or other primary plaster, according to how it seems to you, and the wound or break on the head will be cured. The patient should take care of himself for 8 to 10 days and not drink wine and stay on a diet of bread and boiled water and, with the aid of God, soon he will be cured. It has been tested.... 178 *Celestial water, very wonderful for preserving health for a long time. Take 1 ounce each of nutmeg, cloves, galingale, cardamon, grains of paradise, cubebs, mace, cinnamon and ginger. Everything should be ground together finely in a mortar. Then take one siala of good brandy and with the above put it in the glass still and distill it with a slow fire. The water that distills is used for its power in place of balsams. It is powerful in all illnesses from humidity and repairs coldness and clears up vision because it draws into itself all the virtues of the herbs. It opens up all abcesses, internal and external, if it is put on the painful place. It makes the tongue eloquent, if seven drops are drunk with a cyathus of good white wine when going to sleep. It hardens and draws together mercury, giving up the incorporeal spirits. If you put oil in this water, it goes at once to the bottom. Also it cooks eggs and keeps meat and fish from putrefaction. It restores and clarifies turbid wine. It takes away cataracts in the eye and any red color. It removes marks from an alb. It sharpens the intellect and makes the memory good. When it is used to rub four times in 7 days for six months, it retains and preserves health. It removes pimples, boils and all spots on the body. It removes pain from the teeth and bad odor in the nostrils, gums and jaws. It restricts cold and humidity so it makes the speech fluent. Before this water is drunk it is necessary to prepare the pills written below in two months, that is in September and October. Take them on one day yes, the next no. Use equal amounts of fine rhubarb, hepatic aloe and agaric. Make the pills with water of marjoram and you will see a great miracle.... 179 -------- [Page 317] Very aromatic elixir of life to preserve health and youth and to eliminate bad humors. Take 1 ounce each of preparations of galingale, of ambergris, of marjoram, of roses from Abatos, of cinnamon, of orris root, of dill, of barley sugar, of cumin, of anise, Galen's tonic, manus christi, ½ ounce each of preparations of amber, of sweet musk and of diapliris with musk, 4 ounces of syrup of French lavender, 2 ounces of syrup of licorice, 1 ounce of theriac of Andromachus and 8 ounces of fine sugar. The confection must be made of all these things and do not exclude any of them. Everything should be well mixed and incorporated in a mortar. Then put it in a glass bottle that has a narrow mouth so it can be tightly closed. Then put in 5 lb. of the best brandy made from the best wine in a glass still so well that it is without any water. Then cover the mouth of the bottle well with lute of wisdom so that gases cannot come out. Put the bottle in the sun or in a warm place, agitating and moving the glass with the material inside 2 or 3 times every day. Continue this for a month and at the end of this time let it sit for 8 days so the matter remains at the bottom of the bottle because the water will have taken all the substance of these things and will be the color of gold. Empty out the clear water by tilting. In this clear portion put musk and ambergris, about 1 dram each, and 2 drams of rhubarb. These three things should be ground together and wrapped up in fine silk and suspended in this clear quintessence to aromatize it and so you will have a very perfect water and a very noble elixir of life to use for the defects of human nature caused by phlegm in both men and women. It greatly soothes old age and preserves youth.... 180 Note that the use of this water or elixir does not need to be frequent. One who is past 30 years of age needs only to take a dose of 2 drams once a week with water of rosemary. One who is younger should take 1 dram at a time once a month with rose water and endive water. Also it has within it many other virtues as you will see for the other one which is written below. These both have been tested in the clinic in Bologna and in Lucca. -------- [Page 318] [Drawing on page.]" Elixir of life to preserve human nature following the method of the clinic in Bologna. Take 1 ounce each of ginger, cloves, mace, nutmeg, zedoary, galingale, long and round pepper, juniper berries, laurel berries, citron rind and melon rind, flowers and herb of sage, rosemary, fine marjoram, basil, round mint, pennyroyal, melissa, gentian, mountain mint, bishop's weed, aloe wood, lavender, elder flowers, white and vermilion roses, wild and cultivated cubebs, French lavender, cinnamon, cardamom, ground pine, germander, mastic, sweet flag, frankincense, grains of paradise, male incense, hepatic aloe, pine nuts, theriac, sweet almonds, pitted dates, dried sea grapes, dried ripe figs, seeds and flowers of dill, seeds of wormwood, mithridatum and rhubarb and 6 ounces of cleaned white honey. Then put therein fine sugar, twice as much or more than the above things. Be advised that all the herbs should be cut very finely and not ground and also all the roots, the bark, the dates and figs all should be cut and not ground. The raisins go in whole. All the spices should not be ground too finely and also the berries of juniper and laurel. All these things should be as fresh as possible and do not let them be gathered too long past the month of May. Put all these components together and incorporate all in 3 times as much brandy as the above things. The brandy should be distilled 5 times into a glass flask and made on a slow fire. Then put everything together in a large glass flask and the flask should first be well sealed with lute of wisdom. Put it in the brick oven walled up with clay and with some ashes sifted within. Put on the condensing cap and a large receptacle below with all the joints sealed with pieces of dough and bound so that nothing can leak out of any crack because that would give forth all its virtue. Then make a fire below with burning charcoal. First make sure that the oven is well closed at the top of the oven. Heat the oven and the ash very slowly and maintain the fire always so it stays barely warm. The components that are in the flask will be distilled very slowly and a very clear and beautiful water will distill out. Be careful as you see the liquid begin to change color to another liquid that looks like rain water, that is not as beautiful, clear and lustrous as the first. As soon as this change appears, change to another receptacle and collect this..... -------- [Page 319] [Drawing on page.] second distillation. Save the first one in a glass vessel and keep it well covered. The second liquid that comes out is not as perfect as the first and does not have as much virtue, except it makes the ladies beautiful. The second has the virtue that it removes all freckles and signs of other kinds and makes the skin very white and sweet-smelling. Accordingly this liquid is used by some great ladies and nobility such as princesses and queens. This is proof that it is better for this than all other things. Take the first distillation and weigh it and take again as much brandy in weight as this and this is called the mother balsam. Then let the oven cool and remove the flask and empty out the contents and with great dexterity put it in a similar flask. If you are able to remove the dregs at the bottom without breaking it, this will be very good and useful. Then take the two liquids together and cover them well and it stay thus to decompose with the dregs for 2 whole days. Then put it on a bain marie in the way that you see in the drawing, with its cap and receptacle. Close the joints well so that nothing escapes, as is described above. Put two large straps under the bottom of the flask so it does not touch the bottom of the water bath and do this with great care. Make a fire of dry wood, very little at a time, so that it slowly comes to distill and the liquid will be truly more perfect because in distilling it with a little fire your work becomes more perfect. At first the liquid comes out most clear and lustrous with a delicate and comforting odor. Be warned that as you see the liquid come out with a change in color to rainwater, that is of a more gray color, at once remove the receptacle with its liquid and at once put under another to receive the second liquid and seal the joints well as before so that no gases escape. Hold this first water very dear. It is more valuable than so much gold and you will be told below of its virtues. Keep the second water in its place, well covered, because it matters if it evaporates. When you see the cap change to a color that resembles blood, change the receptacle one more time but be quick to go from one to the other and seal everything well as said above. The first and the second waters have few differences in their virtues. The third truly is the color of blood and also place it in a large glass bottle to preserve this..... -------- [Page 320] treasure because no finer secrets of greater worth and value can be found in this world. We will tell some of the virtues of the first, second and third waters. Viz. 1. Note that the first and the second waters have almost the same virtues but the first is more potent and of that we will tell first. 2. If you put a little on a fresh wound, it will not need any other medication but it will be healed in 24 hours, as long as the wound is not fatal. 3. Another. If one has some old sore, wherever it is, or if it is a canker or abcess or lupus or on a retracted nerve or on a bone or in an old sore or lepra or noli me tangere , it should be washed thoroughly with these 2 waters, 2 times a day and in 15 days it will be cured.... 181 4. Another. If you will let a drop or a few drops fall on a carbuncle, in 3 hours or more the carbuncle will be destroyed and all poison will be gone. 5. Another. If anyone has sickness in the eyes, of whatever kind, by bathing the eyelids the tears will be dried as long as the eye is not destroyed. If a drop is put in the eye for 3 days, at the end of 3 to 9 days it will be cured and if it hurts a little that will not harm you. 6. Another. If a man has a stone in the bladder or in the kidneys or in the penis, he should drink one tablespoon of the water with half a glass of white wine or broth of red chick peas, but the water above is better alone, and in 2 hours or more the stone will be shattered, broken and splintered. Then you will urinate this in several little pieces and without any pain. 7. Another. If someone has hemorrhoids, bathe them 2 or 3 times a day and in 3 days or more you will cure it. 8. Another. Similarly, in sickness of the womb, the woman should drink 1 dram with a little chicken broth or good wine and she will be freed quickly. 9. Another. If someone is feeling pain of any kind or has fallen, bathe the painful place repeatedly and in 3 hours it will be relieved. Also it cures scabies and ringworm. 10. Another. If a nerve has been drawn or indurated or twisted, it should be bathed 3 or 4 times with the water and at once it will be relaxed even if it was harder than a rope. 11. Another. It is powerful in a discharge from the genitals in a man or a woman when it is drunk with water of betony or of plantain. 12. Another. It removes every venom from toads, spiders and scorpions. When several drops of the warm water are put on the puncture, it will soon be cured. 13. Another. If someone has eaten poison of any kind, he should drink as much of this water as he can and soon he will be cured, if the sick person can drink a large quantity and is not disturbed until the poison is quenched and destroyed. This has been tested. 14. Another. It cures scrofulas. By drinking it and bathing the openings of the sores with it, it soon cures them. This has been tested. 15. Another. For broken bones, bathing the injured place with it removes the bones from the flesh without injury or pain and strengthens the flesh. 16. Another. It removes any deafness and distress of the ears, by wetting a little cotton wool and putting it in the ears. It may be better to use a feather to drop this water in the ear. If you want to mitigate its strength, combine it with oil of bitter almonds or with oil of camomile and at once it will help you hear. 17. Another. It is powerful in arthritic pain, that is in arthritic gout that comes from cold. Wet a cloth and put it on the sore place. Do this several times and soon you will cure it. -------- [Page 321] 18. Another. It is powerful in stomach pain and restores the normal digestion when the top of the seriously dispeptic and upset stomach is bathed. 19. Another. It is powerful in every dysentery and diarrhea of the belly. By rubbing the stomach and the belly several times you will cure it. 20. Another. It is powerful against worms. They are killed when the stomach and the nostrils are rubbed with this water and a little is drunk. 21. Another. It is powerful in all fevers and cures them in a short time and in all infirmities that can happen to humans. But is to be noted that in cold fevers it should be tempered by warm things and in warm fevers by cold things, as will be said below. 22. Another. It is powerful in pthysim , that is syncope, and in epilepsy, gouty arthritis, strangury, paralysis and tremor of the limbs. If sore eyes are bathed with this repeatedly and a spoonful is drunk every day of this alone or with good wine for 3 months or more, you will be cured.... 182 23. Another. One who uses this blessed water will be free of every infirmity because it strengthens debilitated limbs, especially in the elderly, strengthens the brain and memory, augments the intellect, comforts the heart, purifies the blood, strengthens the lungs and clears them and bad breath and preserves the spleen from every injury. 24. Another. Using it cures apoplexy, that is a falling, if it should come. It quickly heals all polluted and cold humors and melancholy. 25. Another. It soothes the stomach and cleans it and even makes digestion good without harm. 26. Another. Using this water frees the person from tertian and quartan fevers and preserves the bowels in good condition. 27. Another. It has many and infinite other virtues which at present it is not possible to describe fully. Briefly speaking, for all the infirmities that can come, it restores the human body to health in a very short time. Note in using this water. It appears that it is better and lasts longer in the winter than in the summer. It is good any time. Leave it in the bottle from which you want to use it and take it alone or with something else that is also powerful. Although it may seem warm in potency to you, it is only working on the nature of humans. It soon proceeds to consume the bad humors and it quickly removes the bad and enhances the good. Note well that it is true that this water is so powerful that for the old, youth returns, and for the dead, living, by using it as is here below plainly said. By continuing to drink it each time as much as a grain in weight with a spoonful of water made from borage flowers, in a month the blood is renewed and the flesh, the skin, the hair and the marrow. If you are at the age of 80 years, it reduces you to the age of 40 in appearance. This has been proved by many persons in our time. Because I told you that the dead becomes living, I tell you when a man is in extremis of death, give him a spoonful of this water in the mouth alone or with broth or wine. Bathe the forehead and wrists with this and soon he will return to life and will be able to confess and to make his testament and also will be able to live according to his age and the vigor of his natural constitution, because many have taken it and with these good effects they have continued to live for many years and many now are dead. When you see this good sign, do not give anything to eat for the space of an hour or 2 and then give some food of great substance, a little each time and repeatedly. So it aids and strengthens little by little and, with the aid of God, he will go from good to better by continuing to use this water as described above. -------- [Page 322] The third water is blood-colored. You should know that it is a most precious water because if a person uses it in the amount of half a spoonful for 15 days, in a short time he will be freed from every serious illness: lepra, phthisis, paralysis, dropsy, gout and similar problems. It can make one free without fail by the end of 2 months. We saw it work, we tested it and we proved through experience that all infirmities are healed quickly by this great water. Note well all the times and the requirements when you or others will be ready to make the above-described elixir of life. You will need a good hour to prepare the above items, especially the spices and all the other things, little by little, following the specifications for the dry things from the apothecary's shop. Arrange with the people who bring the roots, herbs, flowers and seeds, that all be brought at one time. Do as is described above that the spices should not be ground too finely and the herbs and roots should be cut minutely and not ground. Put the raisins in intact and cut the dates and figs. Everything should be well organized, that is laid out and put on a table and each one should be known by its place, as when electuaries ar made. Then stir everything together and put everything in the flask. If all the things are fresh you will extract more virtue and substance than if they are dry. Therefore I give you this good advice as a small gift. Also I remind you that first you prepare all the pieces of equipment that are needed, such as the main brick oven with clay and the finely-sieved ashes to hold the flask and the flask sealed and dry and the glass free of gravel or little stones because that would make it easily broken, and the charcoal to make the fire. To do the cooking, prepare the water bath and the receptacle with 2 straps to suspend the flask so it does not touch the bottom. This is an ingenious way to hold the flask in the water so the flask is not rocked about. It needs to be steady and firm like other instruments of glass that are broken by moving. Prepare the cap and the receptacle and the other ampules made of heavy glass with cloths to tie around the joints of the cap and the receptacle. Have the wood dry and soft and make the fire low and moderate. Patience must govern you and it is your teacher. With the aid of God, all things will go well and they always go from well to better. This has been set up and prepared in the clinic at Bologna and has been made many times. -------- [Page 323] The virtues of celandine that in itself contains an elixir for mankind. Take half a handful each of wormwood, anise, betony, basil, butcher's broom, mountain mint, sedge, cedar, sweet flag, flowers of camomile, gentian, galingale, St. John's wort, sea holly, lavender, mint, marjoram, Roman pellitory, pennyroyal, burnet saxifrage, pellitory of-the-wall, sage, bran dust, camel's hay, French lavender, escarole, savory, asparagus, spike lavender, bee orchid, tamarind, thyme, valerian and zedoary. Spices: 1 ounce each of white incense, mastic, cloves, cubebs, long pepper, tragacanth, cinnamon, cardamon and zinc carbonate, and 3 lb. each of fragrant white wine and white honey. First take the herb celandine with the root, stem, leaf, flower and seed in whatever quantity is needed to extract about 10 lb. with a flask and a half of water. Cut it minutely. It should be gathered it early in the morning during the half moon. Put it in a flask and put it under manure and let it stay warm for 20 days. Then remove it and distill the flask with its cover and its receptacle that has the joints well wrapped so that nothing escapes. Make the fire very low and it will distill for you a very clear and lustrous water. Then put this water in a flask and put therein the above spices, all made into powder, and the honey, wine and anise. Stopper it and put it in the sun for 10 days. Then put in all of the above herbs, flowers and roots, sliced and cut finely and let them stay thus with everything together fermenting for 2 whole days in the sun or on warm ashes. Then distill it with a very slow fire in a water bath with the cap and the receptacle and the joints closed with cloths and dough and set it up with bands so the flask stays steady in the water and does not move. When a third of this water has been distilled, watch it well and you will see the water change color. At once put a new receptacle to collect the second water and when you see that no more comes out by continuing the low fire, then put on another receptacle and increase the fire to lively. Oil colored red will come out. Put everything in its place in glass ampules that stay well sealed and save these for your needs. Below we will tell some of their virtues and some have been tested. Viz. The first water is clear and lustrous and has the property that it is powerful in all infirmities of the human body, both warm and cold, which is in itself a secret of nature. Another. One who drinks this water and washes all the body carefully will at once get rid of scabies and lepra, quickly and without doing anything else. Another. It will soon cure one who has sickness within, that is distress of the heart and fainting. Another. Drinking a little of it will cure one who has defect of the lungs or difficulty breathing. Another. Washing a swollen face with it several times, firms up the face. Another. It modifies the blood and gives great hope that soon one will be cured if one who is sick drinks this water for 3 mornings in the form of a warm syrup. -------- [Page 324] Another. If a man or woman will have washed the face and hands in the second celandine elixir and dried them and will drink ½ ounce in the morning in 2 fingers of malvasia or other very good wine, this will renew youth. If they are 60 or 70 years old, it will make them appear like 30 years. It augments the spirits, strengthens the nerves and increases the sperm. Another. It is powerful in every problem with a nerve that may have been bruised or cut. Bathing the location several times heals rapidly all the defects of nerves. Another. If someone has a cut in the eye or it is damaged from any problem and that causes any kind of illness, bathe it every morning and evening and soon it will be cured. Another. Using the third distillation in every way saves one from all bad humors and especially from phlegm. Another. It is powerful in the spasm of death when half a spoonful is given to drink and with bathing the wrists. It revives the person as soon as it is swallowed because it soothes the heart at once and rewarms it. If the elderly use this in a small amount, it removes the infirmity of old age. Bathing with this water several times will make you young and lengthen your life. Another. It is powerful to heal old and recent sores and cankers, fistules and abcesses if they are internal. Drinking it breaks them open and heals them quickly. Another. If a woman drinks it when she has difficulty in pregnancy or other internal or external distress and bathes the sore place she will soon be cured through God's grace. Many other virtues are found in this that you will find yourself by experimenting. Keep to the rules described above in compounding all these things and their sequence and you will succeed well. The herb holy thistle, that is the Turkish herb, and its virtues. To begin with, eating the fresh herb cures the action of a recent poison. Another. Eating this herb cures headache and migraine. It restores the hearing of one who has lost it through sickness. It restores the memory and cures dizziness. It cures weak and paralyzed limbs. Eating it repeatedly cures the spleen. It breaks the stone. It cures bad breath caused by stomach problems. It heals catarrh. It helps in all distress of the stomach and headache. Cooking this herb with water and drinking this, heals all bad humors and removes them quickly. Another. If the herb is dried in the shade and made into fine powder and put in fresh water and the eyes are washed with this, it cleanses them and restores them and cures cataracts and other impediments. Drinking this powder with broth in the morning on an empty stomach clears the throat and removes all the phlegm, stimulates the appetite, opens up the chest, destroys bad blood and keeps the good and removes every pain of the body. Drinking this powder boiled with wine makes you sweat and extracts every sickness. Take it before a fever comes and you will be cured. If one has become infected, put some of the powder on the infection and it will cure it. If you put it on a wound where there may be broken bone, it will draw it out without discomfort. The root removes pain in the teeth when it is held in the mouth. It is for women in parturition. Another. Cook this herb in the urine of children and make suppositories of it. It cures every fall, plague, epilepsy and hip pains. The cotton fluff that is in the flower rapidly cures wounds without pain when it is put on them. Fill a little sack and put it on a cut and let it stay and it will cure it. The cotton fluff with the juice stops bleeding from the nose. Note that this is a holy herb and brings health in many infirmities. The King of India sent seeds to the most holy Pope Martin as a most unusual gift. We have tested the herb and have found 72 virtues in it.... 183 -------- [Page 325] To distill herbs and flowers or whatever you wish in a bain marie with several decanters and with the philosopher's tower. [Drawing on page.] In the first place you need to make an oven, that is the philosopher's tower, with its cover as you see in the figure. First in the design is the height, at least 2 arms high, more or less according to how it seems to you, made of bricks on edge or of paving tiles and mortar made of strong lime with powder of mastic, egg white and linseed oil. Incorporate everything well and make a good and strong plaster that has resistance to fire. Put the bricks on edge and join them well together, one with the other and tight. Make good plasterwork around the outside, well pressed and glazed so the water is not able to pass through. Also make good plasterwork inside. Inside the tower at the height of a palm from the bottom, put a graticule such as you see. It holds the charcoal that is put in the tower and it should be made finely of iron. Fill up the little tower with charcoal and put on its cover. Through the opening below begin the fire in the charcoal and this will go on burning little by little and the ashes will drop down through the graticule. Then around the little tower, make a wall of a belt of bricks on end with the best plaster. On the inside around the tower there should be an opening at least half an arm's length and the tower should rise at least as much as a palm's width, more or less, above the container, according to how it seems to you. Plaster the container well.... -------- [Page 326] [Drawing on page.] both inside and out so that water standing in it cannot pass through, either out or in. The container must not slip past the ring under the little tower which is made with art and ingenuity and with very good plaster that holds in the fire that sits in the warm water, as you see. Keep in mind when you are making the container around the philosopher's tower that you will have it full of water and that it may also have 2 or 3 or more tubes, according to what you want because it can take as many as 4, as long as they can be accomodated around it. Fill the tower with charcoal from above so that there will not be too much air or the charcoal will burn too fast because there is too much venting below. Make the fire below with an oil lamp or with a little wood and soon it will be ignited and the ashes will fall down, little by little, dropping through the graticule and also the hot charcoal, bit by bit. This fire maintains the water always very hot. It will keep it always hot for all the tubs in which the flasks are placed, conducted through to them by tubes, as you see. The tubes stay continually in the water and because of the circulation they always stay very warm. By this conduction the water in the tubs is maintained very warm and by that steady warmth the flasks distill all that you put in. You will not do better in construction than what is told to you here and in the way that you see here in the drawing. -------- [Page 327] Also you can add other tubs, as many as can go around with the flasks inside and they will all distill with one fire if the tubes continue to carry warm water to the tubs and it distills. Put in the bottom of the tub one of those tripods, as you see, with those holes covered around with cloth or tow so that the bottom of the pot or flask sits on it securely without fear of breaking. Do it in a way that the flask is firm in the water without moving. When you see the distillate change, remove the receptace first, then its cover. Then remove your flask or pot and with dexterity remove the dregs and put in another that you want. Then return it as it was at first with its cover on and well closed with the receptacle below. With this fire you will be able to make the change 2 times a day and you will draw off a great amount of water. This water carries with it the odor and the flavor of the herbs or flowers. Whatever kinds of flowers or herbs are used, you will know by the taste of the water which kind of herb or flower it is. This kind of water distilled in this way in the bain marie is much praised over all the other distillations of waters as being very suited to our nature. It is praised by doctors and expert physicians because, made in this way, it does not take on bad odors of any kind because the heat is continually temperate and never fails from the charcoal in the tower. As described above, the heat is always obtained when it is needed so that in the night it continues to distill and there is no danger that the water will not come out clear and beautiful. Note that these are distilled in this way: roses, violets, carnations, jasmine or other flowers, or herbs like basil, tamarind or sage or whatever herbs are desired. You should know that the water carries with it essence from the things that you have put there. If you will do this distillation you will please the laity and especially the excellent and expert physicians who will not carry out so much boiling and decocting. It has been found that this will be more pleasing by being more delicate, clear and beautiful. Be careful that the container that is around the tower must be covered so that the heat does not escape or go away and it should always be kept warm so it will distill more rapidly. The water should always stay full and equal to the opening of the tubes so the heat can always get out into the container of hot water and it distills readily as you have intended. This method of distilling is much used in places that have large and frequent use. To distill various kinds of odorous waters in the bain marie. First take some tender leaves of laurel and leaves of cedar, of lemon, of oranges, of myrtle and of greater trefoil and distill each by itself in the bain marie, as you see in the figure below. Otherwise distill as in that above where many are distilled in the bain marie. I draw this other for you in the other way so that you can take that which suits you better. Then after they are distilled, put each one by itself in the sun for 15 to 20 days, well covered, because the sun decomposes them and gives each one a certain blend composed of its special odor that when it is smelled, comforts the feelings and its odor is more gentle. This is the way to mix these waters to make an odoriferous, elegant and most invigorating water. -------- [Page 328] [Drawing on page.] Take the following kinds of waters distilled on the bain marie. These are odorous waters such as rose water or water of orange flowers, of myrtle, trefoil, marjoram, basil, sweet balm or jasmine or other odorous waters such as are made of cakes of rose, cedar, lemon, honeysuckle or squash flowers. Of these kinds of waters you can make a mixture of 3 or 4 or 5 kinds put together, as will be described. Take 5 lb. of rose water, 1 lb. each of trefoil, lavender and basil waters, 2 lb. of water from tender laurel leaves, 2 ½ lb. of water from cedar, 1 ½ lb. of lemon water and 3 lb. each of waters of orange flowers and of myrtle. Put all these waters together in a vitreous or tin-plated vessel. Cover it well and leave it in the sun for 3 or 4 days. Then if you wish to make it perfect and good so that your reputation is spread around, add in these things written below, that is, 3 ounces of solid storax, 4 ounces of yellow sandalwood, 1 ounce of aloe wood, 5 ounces of benzoin gum, 2 ½ ounces of cinnamon sticks, 2 ounces of cardamon or grains of paradise and 3 nutmegs. Everything should be cut up and not well-ground and the cinnamon sticks should be entire. Put all these components in the water. Stopper it well and let it stay in the hot sun for at least a month or more until it is well compounded together. Otherwise you can boil it on a slow fire, well covered, for a half hour. Then you can scent the water with musk in this way. Have a flask for 6 or 7 lb. and put therein 4 to 6 grains of musk finely ground with 2 or 3 drops of good oil or with 3 drops of brandy and with fine sugar. With this you can make 3 or 4 kinds of perfumes with ambergris, with civet and with camphor or with other odors as you or anyone wishes. When you have composed it, let it stay in the sun for 15 to 20 days, well covered, and you will have a very odorous and elegant essence to give to any noble, high-class, elegant person. -------- [Page 329] The most alluring perfumed water, very aristocratic and perfect. Take 1 handful each of lavender flowers, roses and musk roses and put all these flowers in a glass bell jar and put these powders on them, viz. ½ ounce each of grains of paradise, nutmeg, fine cinnamon and powdered cloves, ½ dram of camphor, 3 drams of scraped or ground aloe wood, 4 grains of ambergris and 1 ounce of powdered sedge. Also you can put in other flowers and mix well and put on the cover and distill it on the bain marie or on a slow fire. You will have a water never equalled in fragrance that greatly invigorates the brain and aids in retaining memory. This is the water for princes, dukes and kings. Another fragrant water to make with little expense. Take one carafe, about one pound more or less at your discretion, of rose water or other fragrant water and put in 3 or 4 drops of odorous oil. Shake it and stir well up and down so the oil is well incorporated. Cover it and let it stay in the sun for one day and it will take on the odor of the oil. You will be able to sell or give it at your pleasure to any great lord and lady and it will bring you honor. Another. To make Water of the Angels, very grand and elegant for every use. Viz. Take 3 flasks each of rose water and orange flower water, 1 flask each of water of the tops of sour oranges, of Canary balm, of clover and of basil, 1 lb. of benzoin gum, 1 ounce of spikenard, 8 ounces of solid storax, 1 dram each of musk, civet and amber and 1 ½ ounces of cistus gum. Make a fine powder of the above spices and put them together with the waters in a vitreous receptacle. Incorporate everything well together, shaking it upside down. Cover it well and let it stay thus for one day in the sun undisturbed so that all is well incorporated. Then take this composition and distill it in a glass still with a low fire or on a bain marie and you will have a water never more odorous and sweet that you can put before any great prince. Another and similar Water of the Angels. Take 3 lb. each of rose water and orange flower water, 1 lb. each of water of basil and of clover. Then put in 8 ounces of benzoin gum, 3 ounces of solid storax, ½ ounce each of aloe wood and powdered sedge, ½ dram of musk, 3 grains of civet and as much fine sugar as half a chestnut. Grind the musk finely with ½ ounce of good oil and also grind the civet with the sugar. The other things should be in powder. Incorporate everything and boil in a carafe or other suitable vessel, well covered, for an hour on the bain marie. Then leave it in the sun for 10 to 15 days and it will be made, perfect, elegant and good. It can be placed before any great prince. Another like the above. Viz. Take 3 lb. each of water distilled in the glass still from leaves of laurel, from cedar, from myrtle, from lemon and from oranges. All these should be from young leaves. Make it in the way described above. Another water like the first. Take 3 lb. of water of grains of paradise and 1 lb. of water of musk roses and distill in the way described above with 2 grains of musk and 6 grains of civet, ground in the usual way with sugar. Put this in a flask and put it in the sun, well closed, for at least 15 to 20 days and it will be made, perfect, odorous and elegant. Waters like these are made especially for gentlemen and for people who have the means to spend. -------- [Page 330] *The major cold seeds are four, viz. The four major cold seeds are those of melon, cucumber, cucurbit and citron. The four lesser cold seeds those of endive, lettuce, escarole and portulaca. Four grains are also seeds, that is endive, lettuce, plantain and portulaca and these are designated as the four common cold seeds. There are 5 common roots. They are fennel, celery, parsley, butcher's broom and asparagus. The common major warm seeds are these four: anise, fennel, caraway and bishop's weed. The four lesser warm seeds are parsley, cumin, watercress and celery. The crushed precious stones are these 5, sapphires, jacinths, rubies, emeralds and garnets.... 184 The dram is figured thus, , and weighs 6 little dinarii or 60 grains. The half dram is written, s or ½. Where you find a weight called an aureo , it weighs ½ dram.... 185 The scruple is figured thus, and weighs 20 grains of wheat. The dram is an eighth part of an ounce. The ounce is written thus, , or thus, oc or . The maniple [or handful] is written thus, m or M or a . The sazo weighs 30 grains, ½ dram. The ounce weighs 8 drams or 24 scruples. The pugil [or fistful] is a measure of 3 ounces. The aureus is 1 ½ drams or 1 dram in strong medicines. *Many remedies to cure the spleen in diverse ways. Take the juices of cyclamen and watercress, old olive oil and fresh butter, as much of one as the other and rub. *Another. Make it with 1/3 lavender oil. That is, if each of the above-described things is half a pound, the lavender oil is two ounces. *Another. Use as much clean wax as suffices to put all the above things together and boil them together on a slow fire until it reduces ¼. Rub the side of the spleen with this warm and put on a smooth warm cloth. Note that if you want to cure the pain of the spleen, one should watch out for the things written below. That is, every legume, vinegar, pork meat, new wine and raisins. *Another. Tamarisk leaves cooked in water and drunk. This water reduces the spleen. When the bark of tamarisk is cooked with wine, it relieves the hard spleen. A wine decoction of the ash tree, drunk on an empty stomach cures the spleen. This has been tested. *An ointment for the spleen. Rub the spleen with mallow and fresh butter with the patient in the sun or by the fire. The patient should be fasting. In another way, take wheat flour, barley flour, flax seed, fenugreek, dry figs and raisins soaked in vinegar, then boiled, rinsed and strained, with added wax and oil to make an unguent with which to rub the spleen. *Another. To soften the spleen, give this water to drink with wine or by itself. The best water is cooked from water of roots of fenugreek, celery, Roman pellitory, asparagus and butcher's broom, liverwort, maiden hair fern, wall rue fern, black maiden hair fern, rusty fern, spleenwort, dropwort and bark or tips of tamarisk. Give this by itself or with wine. If it is detestable to the patient, make a syrup with sugar. After purging, rub the spleen with honey with powdered mustard sprinkled over it. Then after 3 or 4 hours the large suction cup should be put on. This has been tested. *For blockage of the spleen and liver that comes from indigestion. Take dry cow dung, nettle juice, 3 eggs, old ordinary oil and sulfur and incorporate everything together and make a plaster and put it on the sore place. For sickness of the spleen and the liver and dropsy, hold to it as beyond understanding. It is a gift given by God. *For sickness of the spleen . Take the spleen of an ox and put it in a pot with 2 pails of water and cook it until almost all of the water is consumed. Then take the spleen as warm as one can stand and wrap it in a linen cloth and put it on the sick spleen. When it becomes cold, reheat it on the grill and put it on again. Do this 3 times and do it in the morning on an empty stomach and stay covered up in bed at once. Then take oil of capers and of laurel and rub them warm over the location of the sick spleen and put on warm cloths and in a few days it will be resolved. Give this beverage to drink. Take one handful each of fern, horehound, savin and tamarisk and boil them with good white wine. Make 9 glasses of this and take one glass every morning on an empty stomach and soon, with God's grace, you will be cured. This has been tested. -------- [Page 331] [This page is blank.] -------- [Page 332] [This page is blank.] -------- [Page 333] To distill diverse compositions of flowers, herbs and roots to make fragrant waters. Take some of the cakes of distilled roses that are somewhat soft and put them in a tub or other vessel in whatever amount you want. Put in some leaves of laurel, orange, lemon or cedar and some leaves of spike lavender or lavender and other odorous herbs and roots in whatever quantity you want as long as they are tender. Then put on some very warm water that covers them at least four fingers deep. Cover the vessel well and put it in a place that will stay warm, if you can, and let it stay thus for at least 6 to 8 days until it is heated together. Stir it every day with a rod or with the hands, bottom to top, so that everything incorporates well. Then distill the mixture in the still of your choice. If you distill it in a lead still it is truly good and odorous. But if you distill it in glass in the way described above, it will come out better for you, clearer and more fragrant. One who wants it clear and beautiful needs to keep the fire slow. There is a real risk that it may take on a bad odor, smoky or burnt, and the water will come out another color than white. If, by chance, the water comes out red when distilled and you want it to be white, distill it one more time and it will come out white, clear, beautiful and fragrant. Although it it true that it loses some of its odor, you will improve its composition. This water picks up odors and you can make different kinds of odors compounded with spices and with aromatic herbs and it will turn out very well for you. Another. If you wish to make other kinds of fragrant waters, distill these leaves, roots and powders. That is, take leaves and tender cuttings of cedar, lemon and orange and first do each separately in the still. Then do another separately of white lilies. Then put in 3 ounces of powdered cloves and 2 ounces of powdered orris root and distill it on a slow fire. If you distill it on the bain marie you will never smell a more soft and delicate odor. These soft odors greatly sustain the memory. When this water is distilled, let it stay in the sun at least 15 to 20 days so that the sun purifies it and augments the odor and it becomes more perfect. Do the experiment and you will find it is true because I made it and it