A New Middle English Fragment of John Arderne’s Extracta Hemorroidarum: Evidence for the Surgical Readership of Translation T.

This article focuses on the discovery and significance of a previously unrecognized Middle English fragment of John Arderne's *Extracta Hemorroidarum*, part of his surgical writings, preserved in London, British Library, Sloane MS 73. The fragment belongs to the Middle English translation known as Translation T, which was previously attested only in Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O. 9.37, and its presence in Sloane 73 expands the known manuscript tradition and demonstrates the text's practical use by fifteenth-century surgeons. The manuscript context and marginalia indicate that Translation T was actively read and adapted within surgical communities in late medieval England, challenging prior views that it was a poorly transmitted and little-used version. The article also clarifies misconceptions about the manuscript's ownership and production, situating Translation T within a broader professional milieu of London surgeons rather than solely associating it with the barber-surgeon Richard Dod.