A medicine for the vanity in the head

Abstract

Medieval remedy books seem to have a recipe for everything, even for healing vanity. The present study is inspired by one of the medical texts which are preserved in Manuscript Ferguson 147 housed at Glasgow University Library. Among other items, the manuscript contains a wide hitherto unexplored collection of medical recipes. One of the recipes is entitled Medicyn for þe vanyte in þe hede. The same recipe has been documented in other medieval compendia, as it is shown in the samples provided. The etymology of the word vanity in this medical sense is explored in different languages in an attempt to trace back the meaning it has in the recipe to find out how such sense might have originated, as well as the further development of such meaning in English, as attested in the various sources.

Keywords: medical recipes; medieval medicine; vanity; Ms Ferguson 147