Annotation Plans

Table of Contents

Annotation Plans
2. Annotation
3. Recipes
4. Research Plan
5. Materials, Tools, Techniques
6. Reconstruction
1. Name: Joslyn DeVinney

2. Annotation


NOTE 12/12/2016: This annotation has changed since my original plan and will focus more specifically on fol. 77r "Medicine of the orientals against all diseases." It will also include a reconstruction.


In general, this annotation will explore the relationship between certain materials in BnF Ms Fr 640 medicinal recipes and Eurasian networks of material and knowledge exchange.

Specifically, it will look at how non-European medicinal ingredients are used in the manuscript (cloves, cinnamon, Armenian bole--maybe, see #5 below) and the usage of these materials in other contexts (other contemporary medical sources, other types of practice). This research will also seek to contribute to the understanding of the manuscript's "oriental" medical recipe (77r).

Further questions to consider:
-What does the use of these materials say about social and cultural histories of medical practices/materials? (including religious and symbolic connotations)
-Is the author-practitioner's use of medicinal materials similar/different to other available contemporary recipe collections?
-What techniques/processes/practices are associated with these materials? Do the uses of these materials illuminate relationships between domestic, workshop, and/or medical spaces?
-How was "orientaulx" used in the sixteenth century? What regions and identities were associated with this term?
-What is the significance of rosemary (the main ingredient in recipe 77r) to "orientaulx" medicine, since it was also grown in Europe and not traded in the same manner as spices (cloves, cinnamon)?

3. Recipes


<id>p077r_1</id>
<head><m>Medecine</m> des <pl>Orientaulx</pl> contre<lb/>
toutes maladies</head>

<figure>
<id>fig_p077r_1</id>
<link>https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9-oNrvWdlO5ckxxXzJIeWhnMDg</link>
</figure>

<ab>Fais secher du <m>rosmarin</m> au moys de may. Puys emplis ce godet<lb/>
de <m>pouldre</m> diceluy, et mects un <m>charbon</m> allumé dessus. Et<lb/>
reçois la <m>fumée</m> par la bouche bien serrée, et une partye<lb/>
te sortira par le nes. Mays si tu veulx purger la teste, sarre<lb/>
aussy le nes contre morfondiments, rheumes, &amp; aultres malladies.</ab>

<id>p077r_1</id>
<head>Oriental <m>medicine</m> against all disease</head>
<ab>Dry some <m>rosemary</m> in the month of May, then fill a jug with <m>powder</m> made of it [the dried <m>rosemary</m>], and place a burning piece of <m>charcoal</m> on top. And, having closed your mouth quite tightly, breathe in the <m>smoke</m> through the mouth, and part of it will come out through your nose. But if you want to clear the head of a catarrhs, colds, and other illnesses, close your nose as well.</ab>

For cloves and cinnamon:

<id>p001v_1</id>
<head>Pour lascher le ventre</head>

<ab>Les <m><pa>pruneaux</pa> de <pl>S{ainc}t Antonin</pl></m>, &amp; si tu veulx parmy tu pourras<lb/>
mectre des <m>foeilles de mauves</m> &amp; <m><pa>de viole</pa></m>, y adjoustant du <m>sucre</m><lb/>
&amp;, si on veult, un peu de <m><pa>canelle</pa></m> pour l'estomac.</ab>

<id>p001v_1</id>
<head>For easing the belly</head>

<ab><m><pa>Prunes</pa> of <pl>Saint Antonin</pl></m>, and if you like you can put leaves of <m><pa>malva</pa></m> and <m><pa>viola</pa></m>, adding some <m>sugar</m> and, if you like, some <m><pa>cinnamon</pa></m> for the stomach.</ab>

<id>p047r_1</id>
<head>Pour les dents</head>

<ab><m>Sel armoniac</m> i <figure>℥</figure>, <m>sel gemme</m> 1 <figure>℥</figure>, <m>alum</m> demy <figure>℥</figure>. Fais<lb/>
<m>eau</m> par la cornue, et de si peu que tu en toucheras la dent,<lb/>
le <m>tartre</m> &amp; noirceur s'en ira. Il est vray qu'il est de mauvaise<lb/>
odeur, mays tu le peulx mesler avecq <m>miel rosat</m> &amp; un peu<lb/>
d'<m>huile de girofle</m> ou <m>canelle</m>.
</ab>

<id>p047r_1</id>
<head>For teeth</head>

<ab><m>Sal ammoniac</m> i <figure>℥</figure>, <m>rock salt</m> 1 <figure>℥</figure>, <m>alum</m> half <figure>℥</figure>. Make <m>water</m> with the cornue, and no matter how little of it you touch the tooth with, the tartar and blackness will go away. It is true that it has a bad odor, but you can mix it with <m>rose honey</m> and a little <m>clove oil</m> or <m>cinnamon<sup> oil</sup></m>.
</ab>

For Armenian bole (medicinal use):

<id>p007v_a4</id>
<head>Contre gonhorrea</head>

<ab><la><m>Aquae fabrorum antiquae</m> lb. i, <m>boli <pl>Armeniae</pl></m> in <del>tel</del> tenuissimum<lb/>
pollinem redactae ℥ i, <m>mellis co{mmun}is</m> ʒ iii, coquantur ad <m>mellis</m><lb/>
despumationem. Tum refrigerata colentur cum forti expressione<lb/>
&amp; de colatura utatur per iniectionem</la>.</ab>

<id>p007v_a4</id>
<head>Against gonorrhea</head>

<ab>Cook .i. lb. of <m>old smiths' water</m>, .i. ℥ of <m><pl>Armenian</pl> bole</m> reduced in the finest powder, and .iii. ʒ of <m>common honey</m>, until the <m>honey</m> stops foaming. Once cooled, strain with great pressure and use the results of filtration by injection.</ab>

4. Research Plan




Medicinal Recipes in BNF Ms Fr 640:
List on Google Drive
English translations of recipes:
Medicinal Recipes.docx

Word cloud from worldclouds.com using Medicinal Recipes document above:

Screen Shot 2016-11-10 at 6.40.07 PM.png

5. Materials, Tools, Techniques



6. Reconstruction


Participants: Joslyn DeVinney (with photo and charcoal-lighting help from Jose Bahamonde (boyfriend)
Date and Time:
2016.10.15, 6:00pm-7:00pm
Location: Apartment 120th/Amsterdam, 4th Floor
Subject: "Medicine of the Orientals against all maladies" reconstruction for Annotation:
AnnotationFall2016_DeVinney_77r


Recipe Translation (updated 12.11.2016):
<id>p077r_2</id>
<head> Medicine of the Orientals against all maladies</head>
<ab>Dry some <m>rosemary</m> in the month of May, then fill this bowl with <m>powder</m> made of it, and place a lit <m>charcoal</m> on top. And receive the smoke by a quite tightened mouth and a part will come out by your nose. But if you want to purge the head, also pinch the nose. Against colds, rheums, and other maladies.</ab>

Purpose:

The purpose of this reconstruction is to gain a sensory experience of the recipe "Medicine of the Orientals against all maladies" on fol. 77r. Since smoking in a clay pipe was a new activity in the sixteenth century, I want to try the author-practitioner's directions for using a pipe with dried rosemary, to assess his knowledge of this practice.

Materials/Tools:
1. 4 inch clay pipe
(18th century clay pipe replica, purchased from: Penn Valley Pipe Shoppe, Apalachin, New York)
The recipe does not specify a clay pipe; it reads "godet" which is translated by Cotgrave as an earthen bowl or jug. Given the illustration of the pipe, I have taken this use of "godet" to mean the bowl of the pipe. The earliest sixteenth century pipes in Europe were clay. See AnnotationFall2016_DeVinney_77r.
2. dried rosemary
(purchased from Flower Power Herbs and Roots, Inc. New York, NY)
The recipe states to "dry rosemary in the month of May." Since this was not possible given the timing of this reconstruction (December), I purchased already dried rosemary from an herb shop.
3. mortar and pestle
My wooden one did not work very well so I ground up the rosemary in my coffee grinder--a compromise; ideally would have used a stone/marble one. (On why it's not good to use wood, see: http://www.herbmuseum.ca/content/mortar-and-pestle).
4. vine charcoal from the Making and Knowing lab
I used a charcoal from the lab, labeled "vine charcoal."
5. ceramic plate
I set my materials on a ceramic plate.
6. fire source
lighter and gas stove was more efficient
7. pliers to hold charcoal
Pliers were a workshop tool in the sixteenth century. See Smith, Fig.2, Delaune, Workshop 2.jpg. Also, pliers are mentioned by the author-practitioner (e.g. fol. 128r). The pliers I used are different than sixteenth-century pliers, but serve the same function.

Procedure:

1. Make dried rosemary into powder in mortar and pestle
The rosemary was difficult to make into a powder. I did not use the ideal mortar and pestle (see above) and my coffee grinder mostly blew the leaves around. Dr. Joel Klein, who has experience with pipe smoking, said that powder alone (without some bits of leaf/stem) would be difficult to keep burning. Therefore, I did not worry too much about having some stems left in my rosemary powder.

2. "fill this bowl with powder made of it" (Photo 4)
The recipe does not specify how much powder, so I started with a half-filled bowl. Given the difficulty in lighting this powder, I ended up taking out most of it and leaving the bowl about 1/5 full. I used this website for tips on packing and lighting a pipe.

3. "place a lit charcoal on top"
The charcoal took a long time to light I did not have long matches (which modern pipe smokers use). I first used a lighter (Photos 6-7) until I realized my gas stove was more efficient (Photo 9). The author-practitioner would probably have taken a lit piece of charcoal from the fire in his home/workshop.
After three attempts to light the charcoal, it was well lit (Photo 10). I placed this lit charcoal on top of the powder in the pipe bowl (Photo 11).
The smell wafting from the lit powder was very aromatic and pleasant.

4. "receive the smoke by a quite tightened mouth and part of it will come out your nose"
I sucked the smoke in through the pipe mouthpiece (Photo 12) and did not inhale it into my lungs. The first time I tried to "receive the smoke" I sucked up bits of rosemary.
I did not get much smoke from the lit powder, so none really came out my nose. I would have needed to keep lighting the charcoal to more smoke from the powder since it was the first time the pipe was used (see this website for information on lighting a pipe for the first time).


1. pipe
IMG_1349.jpg

2. charcoal and dried rosemary (before powder stage)
IMG_1351.jpg

3. wooden mortar and pestle
IMG_1367.jpg

4. twenty-first century coffee grinder
IMG_1368.jpg

5. pipe with powdered rosemary in the bowl
IMG_1352.jpg

6. first attempt to light charcoal, realized I would need pliers
IMG_1354.jpg

7. second attempt to light charcoal with help of pliers
IMG_1358.jpg

8. after second lighting attempt, placing lit charcoal into pipe bowl
IMG_1355.jpg

9. third attempt to light charcoal, using gas burner, much more effective
IMG_1360.jpg


10. placing lit charcoal in pipe bowl
IMG_1361.jpg

11. close-up of lit charcoal in pipe bowl
IMG_1359.jpg

12. receiving the smoke of the powder lit by charcoal into the mouth
IMG_1365.jpg

Conclusions:

-rosemary is very aromatic
-getting all-natural charcoal (just burnt wood with no additives) to stay lit is difficult and takes time. If the author-practitioner used an already lit charcoal from his home/workshop, it was probably much hotter and stayed lit more easily.
-rosemary powder does not light as quickly as the stems (tried this by lighting a stem on the ceramic plate before making into the herb into a powder)
-smoke from rosemary tastes like rosemary and is not unpleasant to hold in the mouth
-rosemary smoke burns the top of the throat if it reaches the back of the mouth
-packing and lighting a pipe well would take some practice (with no experience, it was difficult for me to know exactly how much powder and charcoal to use and when the powder was ready to be smoked)
-I had a cold when I performed this reconstruction but I was not able to tell if the procedure relieved any of my congestion (I was wary to take in too much smoke in case it made me feel worse)

The author-practitioner does not indicate how much powder to use and does not give directions for packing the powder into the pipe. Through my reconstruction I learned that this is not necessarily an easy thing to do. The mention that some smoke will come out your nose seems to indicate that he has experience either practicing or witnessing this recipe. He does not mention the smell or taste of rosemary or warn against the burning experienced if the smoke is swallowed accidently. To me this does not mean he did not try it. The presence of the drawing of the pipe shows he either saw a pipe in person or saw a drawing of one. Overall, it is unclear from the recipe and reconstruction whether the author-practitioner had personal experience using smoke from a pipe as a medicine or whether he learned about this practice from other sources.