Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 260.5

NICOLE PRÉVOST (fl. 15th c) Dispensarium magistri Nicolai Prepositi ad aromatarios Venundantur ab Jacobo HUGUetan. Et Parrhisiis in vico Sancti Jacobi sub Diva Virgine 105 cv leaves 27 cm

A late 15th-century pharmacological armamentarium, combining Wester, Arabic and local traditions and techniques. The Tours native “left a great deal of information on the profession of the apothecaries in Touraine,on the simples which were to be found in the dispensaries of this town, and on the pharmaceutical preparations which were customary there” (Weil). There is, of course, much on wine and perfume. The book is in three parts. The first treats over a thousand simples – which, when, and how collected, how dried and stored, and potency duration. The second section (60ff.) is on compound remedies, their retail formats (pill, plaster, unguents, weights and measures…) and their recipes. Here the soporific sponge (sponge saporifera) stands out. It was thoroughly impregnated with the juices of narcotic plants (opium, henbane, mandrake, lactuca, cicuta, etc.), dried and reserved for surgery. Then the sponge would be saturated in hot water or steamed and applied over the patient’s nostrils until the fumes induced sleep. Listing foreign or imported ingredients, the third part completes the apothecary’s inventory. This unusual Paris/Lyons partnership is the first dated edition of a classic in pharmacology.

Cited references: NLM Incunabula and 16th 211; NLM 16th 3761

John Martin M.D. Endowment