Hippocras Bag, Oil of Exeter and Manus Christi: Recipes in BL Harley 1706

Abstract

On four leaves bound together with BL Harley 1706 (fols. 1 v –2 v and 215 r –216 r ) we find fifteen recipes of varying content, thirteen of which are edited here for the first time. Although some of them are incomplete, and two severely damaged and therefore beyond reconstruction, these recipes uncover medical and/or culinary interests of a late fifteenth/early sixteenth-century noble lady and members of her household. Linguistically, the Harley recipes offer interesting examples of this text type, and some instruments or ingredients mentioned in them ( Electuary de gemmis, manus Christi, smythe water, sympyre , and hippocras bag ) reveal the mixed nature, lay and learned, of such products of vernacularisation processes. Moreover, this collection also includes a recipe for Oil of Exeter, linking the Harley recipes with other collections circulating in like-natured discourse communities.

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