鈥淭ake three or four weasel testicles and half a handful of young mouse-ear [a plant] and burn it all equally in an earthenware pot鈥︹�� This is no witch鈥檚 potion, but a 15th-century attempt to cure infertility, and one of many delights in , an exhibition at Cambridge University Library.
It鈥檚 a treasure trove of rare manuscripts, some never on show before. The well-thumbed and sometimes illustrated tomes (hand-written in middle English, Latin, French and Arabic) conjure images of a harried physician trying to cure lice or fistulas, or just dishing out advice.
Medieval medicine has a terrible reputation for bizarre remedies and wrong-headed theories, but these manuscripts show real attempts to understand disease, building on Greek and Arabic knowledge.
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Even if you can鈥檛 visit the exhibition (on until 6 December), the manuscripts are online as part of the library鈥檚 .
