The weirdest medieval cures you could try at home... if you dare: Manuscripts reveal bizarre methods 15th century doctors used to cure common illnesses

As far as treatments for infertility go, it is certainly out there.

But couples trying for a baby are best advised to stick to conventional medical advice, rather than harbouring any hope that weasels testicles will help them conceive.

A 15th Century manuscript containing the unusual treatment features in a new exhibition detailing the bizarre cures that were used for all manner of ills in the medieval period. 

The cure for infertility advised women to burn and then grind down weasel testicles and a common plant, before putting the mixture into their vagina. 

The Cambridge University Library exhibition also reveals a treatment for lice that involved consuming a mixture made up of the element mercury - now known to be poisonous - and apple sauce.

Among the detailed illustrations on display is a surgeons guide to operating on anal fistulas.

Curious Cures: Medicine In The Medieval World, looks at how medical practitioners of the time sought to understand and treat illness with often strange methods.

Dr James Freeman, the exhibitions curator, said: The remedies in these manuscripts take you to the medieval bedside and reveal the strange and surprising things that physicians and healers tried to make their patients well again.

A depiction of the insides of the human body in the first Arabic medical treatise to contain illustrations, on display during the press preview of Curious Cures: Medicine in the Medieval World exhibition at the Cambridge University Library

Among the detailed illustrations on display is a surgeons guide to operating on anal fistulas

Weve translated many of the recipes on display.

The manuscript prescribing weasel testicles to treat infertility was compiled by a Carmelite friar in Latin.

It reads: Take three or four weasel testicles and half a handful of young mouse-ear and burn it all equally in an earthenware pot.

Afterwards, grind and combine with the juice of the aforementioned herb, and thus make soft pills in the manner of a hazelnut kernel, and place them so deeply in the private parts that they touch the uterus, and leave there for three days, during which she should abstain entirely from sex.

After these three days however, she should have intercourse with a man and she should conceive without delay.

Medieval medicine wasnt simply superstition or blind trial-and-error, Dr Freeman added.

It was guided by elaborate and sophisticated ideas about the body and the influence upon it of the wider world and even the cosmos.

The wide variety of manuscripts in Curious Cures also shows us that medicine wasnt practised just by university-educated physicians, but by monks and friars, by surgeons and their apprentices, by apothecaries and herbalists, by midwives, and by women and men in their own homes.

A 15th century manuscript containing a fertility cure made from weasels testicles on display during the press preview of Curious Cures: Medicine in the Medieval World exhibition at the Cambridge University Library

Illustrations in a 13th century manuscript describing a cauterization treatment for nasal polyps

Zodiac Man, a representation of the human body that was common in the Medieval era. It depicted the human body with the signs of the zodiac superimposed

One of the most beautiful manuscripts on display belonged to Elizabeth of York, Queen of England, wife of Henry VII and mother of Henry VIII. This richly illuminated book contains a copy of the Regime Du Corps, a guide to healthy living

A manuscript belonging to Elizabeth of York, Queen of England, wife of Henry VII and mother of Henry VIII

A diagram in a 14th century manuscript illustrating how humours fluctuated according to a persons age and the season

Manuscripts drawn from the collections of the university library and Cambridges historic colleges will go on display.

There will also be rotating astronomical instruments, surgical diagrams and some of the earliest anatomical images in western Europe.

A particularly striking manuscript contains illustrations of Vein Man and Zodiac Man, illuminating how medicine and astrology were entwined in medieval times.

One of the most beautiful manuscripts on display belonged to Elizabeth of York, Queen of England, wife of Henry VII and mother of Henry VIII.

This richly illuminated book contains a copy of the Regime Du Corps, a guide to healthy living originally composed two hundred years earlier for a French noblewoman by her personal physician.

It was written in French, the language of royalty and aristocracy and spread quickly across western Europe.

Such a detailed health regime was out of reach for all but the most wealthy, said Dr Freeman.

However, the medical recipes that were added later at the back of the book use the same spices and common herbs that are found time and time again in more common recipe books.

There is even a recipe for a laxative powder, which makes you wonder about Elizabeth and Henrys diet!

Another 15th century manuscript on display tells how a friar in Lincolnshire was cured of his nosebleeds by dipping his testicles in cold water and vinegar.

A Medieval manuscript featuring coloured diagrams of urine flasks

Descriptions and diagrams in a 15th century manuscript detailing the different colours of urine and relevant illnesses and treatments

A 14th century manuscript containing over 800 pictures and describing a herbal treatment for a snake bite

Also revealed are a set of instructions for how to restore a persons health by letting blood from their veins – a treatment that was common right up until the late 19th century.

Medieval cures frequently blurred the line between magic and medicine.

Many manuscripts contain charms and rituals alongside herbal remedies, and there are even instructions on how to make amulets to protect a persons health.

Even university-educated physicians showed an interest in using magic in their medical practice. 

Other volumes on display reveal remedies for everyday ills, including headache, toothache, constipation, diarrhoea, sore joints, itchy skin and coughs. 

Testimony in one 15th-century manuscript recorded how a friar in Lincolnshire was cured of his nosebleeds by dipping his testicles into cold water and vinegar.

Another records the allegedly successful treatment of a man who had suffered for a year from gonorrhoeal discharge.

The free exhibition will open to the public on Saturday and will run until December 6, with pre-booking essential.