Translated by Fr Robert Nixon, OSB

This booklet offers English translations from a remarkable volume, Thesaurus Pauperum. (The Paupers’ Treasury) The author of this book was Pope John XXI (1215-1277), who was one of the most outstanding physicians, logician and scientist of his time.

This work is a collection of home remedies and secret cures for a wide variety of physical and emotional ailments. Many of these are strange and even ghoulish, involving ingredients like bat’s blood, decomposed serpents, mashed frogs, and bear’s fat. This volume offers a modern translation of a small but representative selection of those.