Carrick's Medicinal Cordial
From EastKingdomWiki
| Full Recipe Name | ||||||
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| Medieval Medicinal Cordials | ||||||
| Recipe Source | ||||||
| Bald’s Leechbook and Dodoen's Niewe herball, or historie of plantes | ||||||
| Brewer | ||||||
| Carrick MacSeain | ||||||
| Panel Information | ||||||
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| Beverage Information | ||||||
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Introduction
“Herbs, flowers, and perfumes formed a large part of everyday life in the Middle Ages and were inextricably linked with magic and medicine. Medicinal plants and herbs were an important and major part in the pharmacopeia. Medicines were made from herbs, spices, and resins. … Some plants were used for specific disorders, while others were credited with curing multiple diseases. In many cases, preparations were made of many different herbs.” (Hajar)
This project attempts to recreate a number of these remedies.
The Sources
Recipes in this project were taken primarily from two sources: Bald’s Leechbook, and Dodoens’ Niewe Herball.
Bald’s Leechbook
"The Leechbook of Bald is an Old English medical text probably compiled in the ninth-century, possibly under the influence of Alfred the Great'seducational reforms. It takes its name from a Latin verse colophon at the end of the second book which begins Bald habet hunc librum Cild quem conscribere iussit, meaning 'Bald owns this book which he ordered Cild to compile.' The text survives in only one manuscript: London, British Library, Royal MS 12, D xvii.” (Norman)
Niewe herball, or historie of plantes
The full title: “A new herball, or, Historie of plants : wherein is contained the whole discourse and perfect description of all sorts of herbes and plants : their diuers and sundrie kindes : their names, natures, operations, & vertues : and that not onely of those which are heere growing in this our countrie of England, but of all others also of forraine realms commonly used in physicke, First set foorth in the Douch or Almaigne toong / by that learned D. Rembert Dodoens ... and now first translated out of French into English, by Henrie Lyte, Esquier.” Dodoens, Rembert, 1517-1585 Lyte, Henry, 1529?-1607 , translator
This translation first published in 1578.
Lyte's English translation was based on l'Ecluse's French translation of Dodoens Cruydeboeck rather than the original. A New Herball, or Historie of Plants was published in multiple editions and various translations and it remained a widely used botanical guide for more than 200 years. Rather than emulating Leonhard Fuch’s work which organised plants alphabetically, Dodoens arranged his into the categories species, form, name, virtue, and temperament.
The remedies
Plantain Decoction
Fever Remedy Niewe herball, Dodoens, Rembert, 1517-1585, pg 93 Plantain.Plantain's medicinal properties come from the phytochemicals it contains, including allantoin, aucubin, ursolic acid, flavonoids, and asperuloside.
A decoction of wine/mead and dried plantain roots was used to cure fever:
“Some have written, that three rootes of Plantayne, taken with wine and water doth cure fever tertian: and foure roots so taken do cure the fever quartayne.”
We went all out and used four roots.
Mugwort Decoction
For pain in bowels Gold and Sweet, Ensnaring: Mead in Great Britain Prehistory to Elizabeth I, Angotti, pg 186
Mugwort
“Medicines mixed into alcoholic drinks post fermentation are much more common than medicinals fermented into mead.” (Angotti) Angotti shows that the Harley Manuscript number 5394 details a mugwort decoction was used to treat “pain in the bowels”. Unfortunately, the Harley Collection is housed at the British Library, which suffered a cyber attack in October 2023. The manuscripts remain unavailable online.
Wild mugwort was foraged, cleaned, dried, and decocted using home crafted mead. The decoction was done using a coffee siphon, to replicate the use of a medieval pelican.
Sage Decoction
Headache Remedy Niewe herball, Dodoens, Rembert, 1517-1585, pg 252
Sage Sage boyled in wine and dronken provoketh brine, breaketh the stone, comforeth the Harte, and swageth head ache
For this remedy, sage was decocted with mead and set aside to cool before drinking.
Mint Decoction
For perilous childbearing
Niewe herball, Dodoens, Rembert, 1517-1585, pg 246
Mint. Mint was a popular herbal remedy in medieval Europe, used to treat a variety of ailments
"Mynte boyled in wine and dronken, easeth women which are tomuch grieved with harde and perillous travell in childbearing."
Bibliography
Related category: Exploration
The Leechbook of Bald,
One of the Oldest Medical or Scientific Treatises Written in English Circa 900CE, Jeremy Norman’s HistoryofInformation.com
Wikipedia contributors. (2023, December 27). Alembic. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15:38, August 22, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alembic&oldid=1192014125
The Air of History (Part II) Medicine in the Middle Ages Rachel Hajar, M.D. Department of Cardiology, Heart Hospital, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar British Library Medieval Manuscripts Blog, Bald's Leechbook Now Online 05 January 2016
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2016/01/balds-leechbook-now-online.html
A full translation of Bald's Leechbook is contained in *Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England*, ed. by O. Cockayne, Rolls Series, 3 vols (London: Longmans, 1864-66), vol II (1864) https://archive.org/details/leechdomswortcun02cock
Niewe herball, Dodoens, Rembert, 1517-1585 http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/2232003R
A Collection of Remedies Date: Mid 15th century Reference: The Wellcome Collection , 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE UK https://wellcomecollection.org MS.MSL.136 https://wellcomecollection.org/works/md9rpgmh
Laura Angotti, 15th Century English Mead: Initial Review of Hydromel, Metheglin, and Melomel Recipes in Wellcome MS.MSL.136, 2021, https://www.academia.edu/50678535/15_th_Century_English_Mead_Initial_Review_of_Hydromel_Metheglin_and_Melomel_Recipes_in_Wellcome_MS_MSL_136
Laura Angotti, Gold and Sweet, Ensnaring: Mead in Great Britain Prehistory to Elizabeth I, ISBN 10: 1732464626 / ISBN 13: 9781732464629 Published by Mt. Gilboa Miscellany, 2024
Original recipe: The University of Alabama at Binghamton Reynolds-Finley Historical Library https://library.uab.edu/locations/reynolds/collections/medieval-renaissance-manuscripts/tractatus/folio-20r