Also vade mecum. [L., vāde imper. sing. of vādĕre to go + mēcum with me. So F., Sp., Pg. vademecum (Pg. also -meco).]
1. A book or manual suitable for carrying about with one for ready reference. (Sometimes used as the title of such a work.)
1629. (title) Vade Mecum: A Manuall of Essayes Morrall, Theologicall.
1649. F. Roberts, Clavis Bibl., 405. Among the very Ethiopians this book was in such repute, that the Ethiopian Eunuch made it his (Vade mecum) his companion in his journey.
1679. (title) A Vade-mecum for the Lovers of Musick.
1731. Fielding, Grub St. Op., Introd. It is a sort of family Opera. The husband’s vade-mecum; and is very necessary for all married men to have in their houses.
1797. Monthly Mag., III. 128. The Odéon shall possess a literary journal,… to be a valuable vade-mecum for such persons as are not in the habit of deciding on the merits of theatrical performances.
1818. Byron, Juan, I. cci. Aristotle’s rules, The Vade Mecum of the true sublime, Which makes so many poets, and some fools.
1880. Muirhead, Gaius, Introd. p. xv. It is the remains … of a handbook for the practitioner; a vade mecum, as modern law-writers would call it.
fig. a. 1631. Donne, Select. (1840), 51. His vade mecum, the abridgment of all nature, and all law, his own heart, and conscience.
2. A thing commonly carried about by a person as being of some service to him.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., VIII. 355. Gold … was my continuall vade Mecum.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 71. Whose Vade mecum is an Aqua vitæ Bottle.
1678. Yng. Man’s Call., 50. You may safely take it [a maxim] as your vade mecum along with you, in reference to the things of this life.
1774. ‘J. Collier,’ Mus. Trav., App. 23. To write a pamphlet against the use of a medicine which had been his vade mecum in all his journies.
