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‘TAKE SAGE OF VIRTUE’ SEÁN MCMAHON DESCRIPTION
MAKER / ARTIST
REFERENCE
Page from Booke of Soveraigne Medecines Against the Most Common and Known Deseases of Man and Women, copied 1665–75
John Feckenham (c. 1515–1584)
Donated by Royal Australasian College of Physicians History of Medicine Library, 1956 (MSX-3346-front-inside-cover; MSX-3346-001)
Global pandemics are not new. They have occurred sporadically around the world for centuries, with appalling death tolls and desperate searches for cures. Bubonic plague is a case in point — the Turnbull Library holds a rare manuscript detailing a sixteenth-century herbal remedy for the Black Death. Bubonic plague killed as many as 200 million people in Europe between 1347 and 1351, and it took more than 200 years for the population to return to pre-plague levels. The Black Death, as it was known, remained at the forefront of many minds, including that of John Feckenham (c. 1515–1584), an English monk and Doctor of Divinity, who became the last Abbot of Westminster. Known as an articulate, clear thinker, he served as confessor to Queen Mary I. As the religious tensions of the Tudor era played out, the abbot was sent to the Tower of London in 1560 and spent much of the remainder of his life imprisoned. During this time, he compiled a book of medical remedies, accumulated from various sources, including other manuscript texts. Nearly a century after Feckenham’s death in prison, his book was copied by hand. The different handwriting
MUP004 History 101 200x250 272pp f_a.indd 246
throughout the volume indicates that it was written by different scribes at varying times. The period of writing is early modern English, with some examples of medieval English. The volume also includes an index. This copy is one of only five known to exist, and was placed into the Turnbull’s care by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians History of Medicine Library in 1956.
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