Originally published in England in 1656, this self-help medical book was authored by both self-taught healers and physicians. The manual presents folk remedies as well as complex medicinals of the time. The contemporary editors have included a discussion of how this book belonged in the genre of self-help tracts being published in England at that time, how medicinals were prepared and how the remedies covered here differ from those set forth by Culpepper, the best-known herbalist of the time. Targeted toward the mediaeval general public, the original manuscript begins with the premise that...

Originally published in England in 1656, this self-help medical book was authored by both self-taught healers and physicians. The manual presents folk remedies as well as complex medicinals of the time. The contemporary editors have included a discussion of how this book belonged in the genre of self-help tracts being published in England at that time, how medicinals were prepared and how the remedies covered here differ from those set forth by Culpepper, the best-known herbalist of the time. Targeted toward the mediaeval general public, the original manuscript begins with the premise that...