Reed Digital Tools 3
drynke medicyne. And forto hele tho men and
wommen that ben syke.
<head>Scorpio is coold & moist.</head>
Whan the mone is in scorpionn. that
is the signe of alusarde. that signe is stedfast cold
& moist. fleumatyke of kynde of that water.
than it is good for to drynke medycynable drinke
& forto be laten blood. And that tyme it is for
to eschew to travaile by londe either by water
forto make edificacyonn & fundementes of
castelles. and of other comonn houses by that
water stonding in a mery gronde. & forto sett trees.
<head>Sagittarius hoot & drie</head>
Whan the mone is in the signe of Sagit=
tarius. that is a signe of an Archere. And is
hoot & drye. colerike of kynde of that fire.
than it is good to travaile by contraye and
by londe. and forto hele tho that been syke.
In my transcription, the text included guidance that functions almost like medical and astrological recipes. The passage explains what actions are beneficial depending on the zodiac sign the moon is in. For example, when the moon is in Scorpio, which is described as “cold and moist”, it recommends drinking medicinal drinks and performing bloodletting for people who are sick. It also suggests avoiding travel by land or water and instead focusing on building foundations for castles, houses, or planting trees in the moist ground. When the moon is in Sagittarius, which is described as “hot and dry”, the text suggests that it is a good tiem to travel by land and to heal those who are sick. The instructions reflect a medieval belief that health and everyday activities should align with astrological conditions.
Learning to transcribe Middle English was very challenging but also fun at times. The spelling is very different from modern English, and there were multiple words I never heard of. I had to look closely and sound them out to connect them to the modern English word. Paying attention to the structure and punctuation was very important too. A lot of the commas looked like periods, so it was important to look at the capitilization of the following letter. As I moved down the page, letters and punctuation became easier to recognize and understand.
One question that I have about recording this recipe in a manuscript is who it was written for. Is this for the ordinary people who want to learn daily health and life? Or is this for the medical practitioners or astrologists. Also, how trustworthy were these instructions. I would’ve liked to see a manuscript that records someone actually doing these steps. Because astrology is mentioned heavily in the manuscript, whoever the writer was strongly believed that celestial bodies impacted health and daily decisions
Encoding the text with XML tags transform how the text is used and studied. By adding headings, zodiac signs, or instructions, researchers can search, organize, and analyze the content easily. This connects to Pamela Smith’s idea that writing requires translating embodied knowledge into direct instructions. When encoding the text with XML tags, we are doing a similar act of translation, which is turning the structure and meaning of the manuscript into an “easy to understand” digital form. The tags clarify relationships between parts of the text, turning what might seem like a simple transcription into structured data that can be studied and used in new ways.