Stockholm, Royal Library, manuscript X. 90 (also known as Kungliga Bibliotek, handskrift X. 90 or 10. 90) is an early fifteenth-century manuscript noted for the Middle English medical texts that it contains.
Origins and provenance The quarto manuscript is made almost entirely of 'greyish and thick' paper, but pages 7–10 are made of two folios of vellum, while pages 94–104 are dyed red. The codex seems to have been composed in the first quarter of the fifteenth century, and exhibits four hands (of which the first and fourth contributed most of the material). Mention of Frawsham Halle on p. 49 associates the production of the manuscript with Fransham in Norfolk.Sudhoff, Karl 1909. 'Die gedruckten mittelalterlichen medizinischen Texte in germanischen Sprachen', Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin, 111 (1909), 273–303.George Stephens, Förteckning öfver de förnämsta brittiska och fransyska handskrifternauti Kongl. bibliotheket i Stockholm (Stockholm: Norstedt, 1847), pp. 40–43. Dialectal analysis using the Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English supports the idea that the manuscript was a Norfolk production, though the texts it contains at least sometimes originated elsewhere. The final leaves of the manuscript have been lost.
The manuscript is thought to have been donated to Stockholm's royal library by Christianus Ravius, who spent time in Oxford, and served as Sweden's Royal Librarian 1655–59;Martti Mäkinen, 'Henry Daniel's Rosemary in MS X.90 of the Royal Library, Stockholm', Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 103 (2002), 305–27. the volume was accessioned in 1706.Irma Taavitsainen, Manuscripts in Scandinavian Collections, Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist 10 (Cambridge: Brewer, 1994), .
Contents and editions Irma Taavitsainen summarised the English contents of the manuscript in the Index of Middle English Prose as follows(with additional information added from other sources): +Item noContentsMS pagesMain editionsNotes1Medical recipes1–18G. Müller, Aus mittelenglischen Medizintexten: Die Prosarezepte des Stockholmer Miszellan Kodex X.90, Kölner anglistische Arbeiten, 10 (Cologne: Kölner anglistische
Arbeiten, 1929).70 recipes in English followed by four in Latin2Medicinal plants and their virtues18–32 (excerpt)3Medical recipes32–3523 medical recipes in English ending with a Latin notenonePoem on health35–47'Medicinische gedichte aus einer Stockholmer handschrift', ed. by F. Holthausen, Anglia, 18 (1896), 293–331, .a 460-line poem of medical advice4Medical recipes and charms47–488 textsnonePoem on plants49–78A 1025-line poem on plants and their properties5Henry Daniel's translation of the treatise on rosemary80–866Medical recipes86–9114 medical recipes7Medical recipes91–937 medical recipes8Medical recipes93A recipe 'for the mygrym'9Medical recipes and charms95–10460 medical recipes and charms10Medical recipes and charms105–23115 medical recipes and charms11Urinology123–2612Medical rules126–27Four rules for interpreting pregnancy13Medical recipes and charms127–5073 medical recipes and charms in English, with some in Latin in the middle14Phlebotomy150–52The treatise lists the veins and gives guidance on bloodletting15Medical recipes152–5516Agnus Castus156–216Angus Castus. A Middle English Herbal, ed. by Gösta Brodin, Essays and Studies on English Language and Literature, 6 (Uppsala: A.-B. Lundequistska Bokhandeln; Copenhagen: Munksgaard; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1950).
The distribution of scribal activity in the manuscript is as follows: +pageshand1–91191–93293395–1044104–2161
A selection of the prose texts from the manuscript was published by Ferdinand Holthausen in 1897.'Rezepte, segen und Zauberspruche aus zwei Stockholmer handschriften', ed. by F. Holthausen, Anglia: Zeitschrift für Englische Philologie, 19 (1897), 75–88 (pp. 75–86); . Though superseded by other editions, Holthausen's selection remains in use as a convenient sample of Middle English medical recipes; he printed samples from pages 14, 26, 31, 33, 34, 35, 47, 85, 103, 104, 110, 117, 120, 121, 129, 136–37, 145, and 155.
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