A linguistic study of pseudo-hippocratic zodiacal lunaries in late middle English manuscripts

Resumo

During the Middle Ages, many lunar prognostic treatises written in Middle English proliferated due to the strong bond established between medicine and astrology. The identification of these texts is an arduous task. Firstly, because they are brief and independent astrological treatises, incorporated into medical codices which contain more relevant works. Secondly, because they have gone unnoticed thus far. This is the case of Þe boke of ypocras, contained in Glasgow University Library, Hunter MS 513 (ff. 98r-104r). The aim of this thesis is to identify and localise all the different manuscript copies of Þe boke of ypocras in order to study their Middle English language from a dialectal perspective. To analyse them linguistically, I have used the electronic version of A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English. This Atlas contains a corpus of Middle English texts dating between 1350 and 1450. It allows the researcher to compare the forms and spellings of the different Middle English dialects in order to establish the dialectal provenance of a specific manuscript copy. I have applied this method of analysis to the ten identified copies of Þe boke of ypocras, introducing an innovation which distinguishes between diagnostic forms, which are of especial value in determining the dialect, and more general and widespread ones. This new approach aims to overcome the limitations that the Atlas has regarding scientific manuscript copies dating from the late fifteenth century. The results demonstrate that the linguistic characteristics of a subset of manuscript copies of Þe boke of ypocras are associated with Northamptonshire and another with Norfolk. Some features from Somerset have also been systematically identified in almost all manuscript copies. To interpret these results, I have used migration and mobility of scribes in order to explain and conclude that the manuscript copies of Þe boke of ypocras were not produced in any of these three counties.