Cardanus Rider
Rider’s British Merlin for 1681
London: Thomas Newcomb, 1681

John Moore’s personal interest in medicine began in his earliest days at Cambridge, and continued throughout his life. He frequently wrote notes of medicines in his diaries and almanacs, carefully specifying in this instance that after taking Dr Sydenham’s cure for jaundice the patient must fast for two hours. The Library holds around a dozen of these notebooks, with numerous recipes on the endpapers; Moore’s reputation as a medic was widely known and several letters requesting medical help survive in the Ely archives.

Adv.e.38.9, fifth front endpaper (Royal Library)