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Coffee With a Codex: Medicine & Magic of Women (Ms. Codex 1136)



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Coffee With A Codex is an informal lunch or coffee time to meet virtually with Kislak Curator Dot Porter and talk about one of the manuscripts from Penn's collections. Each week we'll feature a different manuscript and the expertise of other curators. We meet over Zoom on Wednesdays at 12pm ET / 5pm GMT / 9am PT and everyone is welcome to attend.

On May 18, Curator Dot Porter brought out Ms. Codex 1136, a 15th century Germany copy of De secretis mulierum (also known as Secreta mulierum), a work frequently but erroneously attributed to Albertus Magnus since the late 13th century, with an unidentified commentary. The text covers various issues of women's health, but it is in the genre of natural philosophy, not medicine, so it includes many incorrect assumptions about how women's bodies work. It also includes several sections about how the movement of the planets influences human health. In the video, we read from the translation and reference illustrations in other manuscripts, including astronomical diagrams and the zodiac man.

Both Albertus Magnus and De secretis mulierum date from the 13th century, not the 12th century as stated in the video. Thank you to Dr Monica Green for pointing out the error.

Ms. Codex 1136: https://franklin.library.upenn.edu/catalog/FRANKLIN_9942706493503681

Supplemental texts:
LJS 463 (Zodiac man): https://franklin.library.upenn.edu/catalog/FRANKLIN_9948425633503681
Ms. Coll. 591 Folder 31 Glossed psalter leaf: https://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0002/html/mscoll591_f31.html
LJS 226 Certain astrological and astronomical figures: https://franklin.library.upenn.edu/catalog/FRANKLIN_9950511113503681

Further reading:

Women's Secrets, translation of the text by Helen Rodnite Lemay (SUNY Press, 1992)
More recent edition of the text (not a translation): José Pablo Barragán Nieto, El De secretis mulierum atribuido a Alberto Magno. Estudio, edición crítica y traducción, Oporto, 2012.
Further reading: Monica Green, Making Women's Medicine Masculine (OUP, 2008)

More about Coffee With A Codex, including links to join our mailing list and to register for future events: https://schoenberginstitute.org/coffee-with-a-codex/
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Health
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