Abstract
The college’s library regularly receives donations of books and objects, both old and new. A recent gift is particularly remarkable – it is a 1650 edition of English physician Nicholas Culpeper’s ‘A Physical Directory’ – a compendium of medical treatments. What makes the volume unusual is that it has been passed down from father to son by a family of apothecaries. We can trace the owners back to 1743 and each new owner has annotated the text.
This book clearly operated as a working manual. The margins and flyleaves are filled with corrections, annotations and entire handwritten prescriptions including those for ‘a disease of the lungs’ and ‘a decoction against melancholy’. This volume is now catalogued and added to the College’s permanent collection, available to researchers and visitors.
