Wellcome Library - Item of the Month - February 2010

"It is rare to find a manuscript from the early 15th century that combines folk remedies with religious iconography and a royal heritage to boot - even more rare is to find one that has been heavily defaced. Such a manuscript exists in the Archives and Manuscripts collection at the Wellcome Library - MS.5262. Lara Artemis, former conservator at the library, uncovered the manuscript as part of her MA in Medieval History. In the process, she unpeeled the layers of what turned out to be a fascinating and possibly unique insight, not only into medieval medicine, but of religious symbolism at a time of particular spiritual turmoil - the reformation"