In Thesaurus pauperum, Pietro Ispano (1220?-1277), first physician of the popes, then himself a pope, collected therapeutic suggestions: "whoever openly reads this will find easy & effective medicines for nearly all diseases", as written in the introduction (c. a2r). The author advises extreme caution in the diagnosis "that otherwise the blind doctor may fall into the pit of death with the patient". The author declares to have collected "all the books of the ancient philosophers & masters & also those of modern experiments" with the aim to share information: he collected "using the same words or making them approachable for all kind of intellect". Despite the reference to the authority, the aim was to make the content useful and understandable.

The organisation of the recipes follows the order of the body: "We first begin with infirmities of the head descending down to the feet" (c. a2v).

Among the remedies proposed are recipes with indications of doses and preparation, that use herbal medicines such as betony, hemlock, lettuce, wormwood and rue, and animal medicines, such as horns, nails, hides or parts of donkeys, deer, but also of bats and frogs, with a recipe that can make us think of witchcraft, like this one to cure epilepsy: "Take the frog and make an incision with a knife on the back, cut the lung and place it in a leaf of cabbage; cook in a pot which has never been used and give the powder to an epileptic when the illness appears, with strong wine, and if there is no healing on the first attempt, administer as many times as necessary and there will be healing without consequences" (c. B1r), or this remedy for the eyes "the gall of a vulture, or better of a billy-goat, with human dung mixed with wine and poured carefully to improve vision" (c. B5v), as well as "Item… aloe and opium mixed with the milk of a female nursing a male is known to be very beneficial" (c. B5v).