Giordano Ruffo, De Medicina Equorum, treatise on the health of horses, in Latin, manuscript on vellum

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 GBP

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Description

61 leaves, 196mm. by 140mm., lacking leaves before and after fol.1 and at end, else complete, collation: i^{1 [of unknown number, lacking all but one], ii-vii^{10, with horizontal catchwords, 20 lines, written-space 130mm. by 78mm., written in brown ink in a semi-gothic bookhand, headings in red, 2-line chapter initials throughout in red or blue with some flourishes, two large decorated initials (fols.4v and 47r), 3 lines high in divided red or blue with penwork in purple or red, some wear, many pages (especially towards the beginning) rather rubbed and pale, a few stains,}} contemporary Italian decorated binding of thin wooden boards sewn onto 3 thongs, covered with tanned leather (presumably goatskin), panelled and stamped with repeated impressions of ropework tools possibly originally gilt (but, if so, now completely worn away), 2 (of 10) star-shaped metal bosses, stubs (only) of 2 clasps once on edge of upper cover, corresponding metal catches on lower cover, binding very worn and defective, rebacked and repaired

Catalogue Note

This is the principal medieval practical text on the health of horses, almost the only form of veterinary medicine practised in the Middle Ages and the foundation text of veterinary science. Giordano Ruffo was the son or nephew of the viceroy of Sicily and became imperial farrier to Frederic II, emperor 1215-50. He fell foul of the political rivalry which followed Frederic’s death and he was imprisoned and blinded, c.1256, and probably died in prison. His celebrated book on the health and upkeep of horses is “essentially the product of Ruffo’s personal experience and acute observation (certain passages, for example, suggest that he performed autopsies). Although he was of course ignorant of the circulation of blood, he distinguished between the veins and the arteries, and he offered a method of differential diagnosis for cases of lameness. It is notable that there is no astrology in the book” (Dictionary of Scientific Biography, XI, 1875, p.601). The text was first printed in 1493 and remained in print as a practical text until 1563. Seventeen manuscripts of the original Latin version, as here, were listed by L. Moulé, Histoire de la médicine vétérinaire, 1891, increased to 21 in G. Beaujouan et al., Médicine humaine et vétérinaire à la fin du moyen âge, 1966, pp.17-8, all in public collections. A thirteenth-century copy emerged in the sale in these rooms, 22 June 1999, lot 77, and is now in the Wellcome Library. Fifteenth-century Italian translations are described in H.P. Kraus, cat.153 (1979), no.66, and lot 35 in the sale in these rooms, 7 December 1999.

The present manuscript includes the end of Book I, chapters 23-24; Book II (fol.4v), complete in 56 chapters, on diseases of horses’ eyes, mouths, tongues, chests, testicles, feet, backs, breathing, coughing, foaming, cancer, fistulas, etc.; and Book III (fol.47r), on wounds, bleeding, worms, inflammation, etc., breaking off in chapter 22, “… et tedium male consuetudinis”.