RESTRICTED: Extremely fragile. Use digital reproduction. Original available by special permission only.

Notebook of John Ward [manuscript], 1665-1666.

1 v. (83 leaves) ; 147 x 90 mm

Among the people Ward mentions are Thomas Willis, Dr. Boghil (i.e. Robert Boyle), George Bate, Stephen Toone, Thomas Wharton, Nathaniel Hodges, Thomas Sydenham, Thomas Hollier, Mr. Brooks, Michael Montaigne, Edmund Dickinson, Walter Needham, John Peachi, Sir Alexander Fraizer, Robert Morison, Edward Morgan, Edward Jorden, Thomas Guidott, Sir Richard Baker, Edward Terry, William Beveridge, Anthony Wood and his prospective Antiquities of Oxford, and John Fell of Christchurch.

Notes chiefly on Ward's medical practice with numerous references to contemporary physicians, surgeons, chemists, and theologians. Notes made during Oxford visits include accounts of several dissections and a postmortem, comments on surgical procedures, descriptions of blood transfusions, and therapies (especially those of Thomas Willis). There are also notes on diet, medical recipes (including a way to embalm a dead body), longevity, the Lucy and Clopton families, the plague and its effects, the virtues of various waters, and a few archaeological finds. His friendship with Sir Edward Walker leads to many remarks on Europe; that with Captain Swan on India and the East Indies, including their diseases, and also on the West Indies.

On leaf 20r, Ward comments "Whether Dr. Hylin does well in Reckoning vp [th]e Dramatick poets w[hi]ch haue been famous in England to omit Shakespear."
Entries made at Oxford and Stratford, predominantly from 9 November 1665-end of 1666 (1r-60), with a few later entries made at Stratford, ca. 1669-1672.
One of several volumes, originally 17 in number, known as "Ward's Diary." 16 of these volumes are now Folger MS V.a.284-299.
List of contents partially derived from typescript description. Location of specific references not verified.
Poem with first line "A knife a wife and a walnut tree" listed in Folger index of first lines.
For a microfilm copy of D'Arcy Power's transcript of this and 5 other John Ward notebooks, see Folger Film Acc. 683 (original typescripts held at the Wellcome Trust).

"The pen's excellencie" : treasures from the manuscript collection of the Folger Shakespeare Library / compiled and edited by Heather Wolfe. Seattle : Distributed by University of Washington Press, 2002, p. 77.
Frank, R.G. Journal of the History of Medicine, 29 (1974).
Yeandle, Laetitia. "Shakespeare allusions." Shakespeare quarterly, XX (1969), p. 87-88.
Extracts included in Diary of the Rev. John Ward, A.M. : vicar of Stratford-upon-Avon, extending from 1648 to 1679 ... / arranged by Charles Severn (London : H. Colburn, 1839).

Medical Society of London MS -- Dr. J.A.S.N. Rosenbach, of New York (Sotheby's, London, April 4, 1928, lot 631).
Formerly Folger MS 2073.5.

Chicago, IL. Newberry Library, Sept. 23 -Dec. 31, 2016. Creating Shakespeare. Open to fo.20.

Great Britain -- England.

V.a.294

cs2073