Bald's Leechbook

Bald's Leechbook (also known as Medicinale Anglicum) is a medical text in Old English and Medieval Latin probably compiled in the mid-tenth century, possibly under the influence of Alfred the Great's educational reforms.

The term Leechbook is not related to leeches as such, although they were used in ancient medicine, but a modernisation of the Old English word lǣċe-bōc ('book of medical prescriptions', literally Old English lǣċe 'physician' + bōc 'book').

The Leechbook's name comes from its owner; a Latin verse colophon at the end of the second book begins Bald habet hunc librum Cild quem conscribere iussit, meaning "Bald owns this book which he ordered Cild to compile."

The text survives in only one manuscript, which is in the British Library in London, England, and can be viewed in digitised form online. The manuscript contains a further medical text, called Leechbook III, which is also covered in this article.