Bald's Leechbook

A facsimile page of Bald's Leechbook

Bald's Leechbook (also known as Medicinale Anglicum) is a medical text in Old English and Medieval Latin probably compiled in the mid-tenth century,[1] possibly under the influence of Alfred the Great's educational reforms.[2]

The term Leechbook is not related to leeches as such, although they were used in ancient medicine, but a modernisation of the Old English word lǣċe-bōc ('book of medical prescriptions', literally Old English lǣċe 'physician' + bōc 'book').[3]

The Leechbook's name comes from its owner; a Latin verse colophon at the end of the second book begins Bald habet hunc librum Cild quem conscribere iussit, meaning "Bald owns this book which he ordered Cild to compile."[2]

The text survives in only one manuscript, which is in the British Library in London, England, and can be viewed in digitised form online.[1][4] The manuscript contains a further medical text, called Leechbook III, which is also covered in this article.

  1. ^ a b "Royal MS 12 D XVII:Bald's Leechbook". The British Library - Digitised Manuscripts. c. 950. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
  2. ^ a b Nokes, Richard Scott. "The several compilers of Bald's Leechbook" in Anglo-Saxon England. 33 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 51–76
  3. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1969). A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. 4th rev. edn by Herbet D. Meritt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. s.vv.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference ker was invoked but never defined (see the help page).