Yale Medical Library. Manuscript. 18 [Herbarium Apuleii and other works].

Title: Yale Medical Library. Manuscript. 18 [Herbarium Apuleii and other works].
Date Created: ca. 1400
Place of Origin: Italy, Lombardy
Collection: History and Special Collections for the Sciences Collection
Index of Medieval Medical Images

Summary: Produced in Lombardy about 1400, Yale Medical Library Ms. 18 is a late illustrated example of a very traditional herbal, a group of texts sometimes called the Herbarius complex, the origins of which go back to the 4th century. It became the most widely used of all anthologies on materia medica available in the early Middle Ages. One of the texts, "Ex herbis feminis," based on Dioscorides, was illustrated at least as early as the sixth century, judging from the admonition of Cassiodorus "if you do not have sufficient facility reading Greek, then you can turn to the herbal of Dioscorides, which describes and draws the herbs of the field with wonderful faithfulness." (The original work of Dioscorides was, of course in Greek and not illustrated.) That work, the Herbarius of Pseudo-Apuleius, which gives its name to the complex, and the Liber medicinae ex animalibus et avibus attributed to Sextus Placitus, contain the bulk of the illustrations. These consist mostly of plant and animal portraits, bold and attractively tinted, but also include several authorial portraits, a few harvesting scenes, consultation scenes, and cityscapes. In addition, some interesting mythological scenes appear in the Precationes (Precatio terrae and Precatio omnium herbarum), lightly Christianized pagan prayers to the powers of the earth and of its herbs. Manuscript owned by the Yale Medical Library.