This single paper quire of twelve leaves is a typical example of an eclectic selection of texts put together to offer medical knowledge at the end of the Middle Ages. Following a list of medical terms is the Liber medicinalis, a medical treatise of about 1200 dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Quintus Serenus Sammonicus. It contains sixty-four therapeutic recipes, divided into two sections: recipes for illnesses affecting individual organs listed from head to toe; and recipes for general ailments such as injuries, fevers, fractures and dislocations, insomnia, toothache, and poisoning. The Liber medicinalis contains a detailed description of how to make a fever amulet. Serenus prescribes that the magic word “Abracadabra” be written on a papyrus, then repeated again and again, dropping the last letter of the word for each repetition until a single letter is left, so that by making these letters disappear, the illness will also vanish.
Abracadabra
Abracadabr
Abracadab
…
A