Pseudo-Antonius Musa, De herba vettonica liber; Pseudo-Apuleius Platonicus, Herbarium or De medicaminibus herbarum liber, imperfect

An illustrated herbal describing the healing properties of plants, including a short text on the properties of the herb betony, traditionally attributed to Antonius Musa, and a compilation of herbal remedies drawing from Greek and Latin sources, traditionally attributed to Apuleius Madaurensis or Apuleius Platonis. On paper, produced in Northern Italy, early 15th century. The manuscript is incomplete and its texts are out of sequence.

Contents:

1. ff. 1v-2v and 16r-v: Pseudo-Antonius Musa, De herba vettonica liber, a short treatise on the virtues and properties of the herb betony, imperfect. Traditionally attributed to Antonius Musa, the physician of Emperor Octavianus Augustus, it is in fact of unknown origin and dates to the 4th or 5th century AD: see M. Collins, Medieval Herbals: The Illustrative Traditions (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000), p. 166.

First printed without the prologue at the beginning of the Herbarium Apulei, as its first plant, by Johannes Philippus de Lignamine in Rome about 1481-82 (ISTC ih00058000), with woodblock engraving.

Listed in eTK, A digital resource based on Lynn Thorndike and Pearl Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin (Cambridge, MA: Mediaeval Academy, 1963; with supplements in 1965 and 1968; online at https://medievalacademy.site-ym.com/?page=Books#etk), no. 629L.

Edited in E. Howald and H. E. Sigerist, Antonii Musae De herba Vettonica liber. Pseudoapulei Herbarius. Anonymi De taxone liber. Sexti Placiti Liber medicinae ex animalibus, etc. (Lipsiae: Teubnerus, 1927), pp. 3-11.

In the present manuscript the prefatory letter is absent. The text ends with chapter 47, 'Ad podagram': see Howald and Sigerist, Antonii Musae De herba Vettonica liber …, p. 10.

For other manuscript copies of this treatise in the Wellcome Library, see MSS 573 (ff. 3v-6r, and 148v-149r; late 13th century) and 575 (ff. 1r-5r; late 15th century).

ff. 1v-2r: Incipit: Scolapius ubi legit vetonicam quam ipse inuenit / [f. 2r] Nomen herbe vetonice. / Omiseos dicunt cestros. Alij cironem uocant … / [H]Ec herba vetonica nascitur in pratis …

f. 2v: Breaks at: Ad tussim. Herbe vetonice uncias .ij. cum melle … [The text corresponds to chapter 19 in Howald and Sigerist, Antonii Musae De herba Vettonica liber … , p. 7].

f. 16r: Text continues : … [cum melle] accipiat per dies .9. …

f. 16v: Explicit: … Ad podagram … dolorem lenire experti affirmant.

2. ff. 3r-15v, 17r-52v: Pseudo-Apuleius Platonicus, Herbarium or De medicaminibus herbarum liber, incomplete and out of sequence. This herbal, traditionally attributed to Apuleius Madaurensis or Apuleius Platonis, is in fact a compilation of herbal remedies drawing from Greek and Latin sources put together by an anonymous compiler in the 4th century AD (about 350-395 AD), and possibly revised sometime in the 7th century: see G. Maggiulli and M.F. Buffa Giolito, L'altro Apuleio. Problemi aperti per una nuova edizione dell' 'Herbarius' (Naples: Loffredo Editore, 1996), pp. 11-32; M. Collins, Medieval Herbals ..., pp. 165-7.

First printed as part of the Herbarium Apulei by Johannes Philippus de Lignamine in Rome about 1481-82 (ISTC ih00058000), with woodblock engravings.

Edited in Howald and Sigerist, Antonii Musae De herba Vettonica liber …, pp. 15-225.

Listed in eTK as nos 117D, 117E and 535D for the prefatory letter.

The manuscript, damaged and probably incomplete, was disbound in the late 19th or early 20th century and reconstructed by rearranging and binding the leaves in single bifolia that do not respect the original textual sequence and collation (the only extant original bifolia are those formed of ff. 7-8 and 17-18). As a consequence the text is imperfect and out of sequence.

For other manuscript copies of this treatise in the Wellcome Library, see MSS 573 (ff. 6v-37r; late 13th century) and 575 (ff. 5v-52v; late 15th century).

f. 3r: Incipit: Epistola Platonici ad ciues suos / [A]polensis platon ad ciues suos. Ex pluribus paucas vires herbarum et curationem corporis ...

f. 50v: Breaking at: ... [Herba Diptamnum] ... mox pascitur sagitta excucietur plaga sanabitur eis pascendo diptamum [sic] herbe diptami [sic] et argimonie et ambrosie sucus eorum cum butiro plagas imponis miraberis in omnibus diptamum [sic]. [The text on this page corresponds to chapter 62 in Howald and Sigerist, Antonii Musae De herba Vettonica …, pp. 116-7; it is followed by the illustrations of peonia, atriplex, esula, aleluia panis cuculis and cardonus on ff. 50v-52r and an additional illustration of the sileris montanus on f. 52r (late 15th century)].

Early 15th Century

1 volume

On thick paper [with deep traces of the laid lines]. Watermark of stag head surmounted by a 6-point star on one line (height c. 100 mm; width c. 40 mm; distance between chainlines 42 mm), unidentified but similar to various watermarks used in North-East Italy (mainly Verona) and Southern Germany between the end of the 14th century and the first decades of the 15th century.

52 leaves, wanting an unknown number of leaves, plus three modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and the end; modern foliation '1-52' in pencil in upper right corner of rectos. 283 x 202 mm.

Collation: leaves now bound as a succession of made-up single bifolia; the only extant original bifolia are those formed of ff. 7-8 and 17-18, though both bound back-to-front.

Secundo folio: Nomen herbe vetonice. / Omiseos dicunt cestros.

Written in cursive Gothic bookhand in brown ink, Italy, mid-15th century.

Half-page vignette in watercolour showing two physicians seated in academic robes on f. 1 recto, stated by the bookseller (Desgranges of Paris) to represent Avicenna and Arnoldus de Villanova. The lower half of this page contains drawings of two unidentified plants.

In all there are 104 watercolour drawings of plants, of which 17 are full-page. They mostly draw from traditional models, 'but many have been reworked from observation of nature (e.g. f. 47r, Eleborus niger, with an almost full-page illustration of the Christmas Rose)': see Collins, Medieval Herbals ..., p. 238n.

Dedicated spaces for one-line initials left blank on ff. 2r and 3r.

Marginal captions on treatments and plants, and a long annotation on camomile added in Italian in black ink on f. 7r, 18th century.

Binding: Modern vellum binding from a photographically reproduced leaf of an unidentief 14th century medical manuscript.

Purchased 1933.

This material has been digitised and can be freely accessed online through Wellcome Collection catalogue.

For original description, see S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973), vol. 1, pp. 448-9.

Collins, Minta. Medieval Herbals: The Illustrative Traditions (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000), p. 238n.

Inscribed 'Ricordati o ladra man non far rapina / D'un libro che Contine sì gran Dottrina' in grey ink on verso of f. 52, late 17th century [?].

Inscribed 'Herbarius. Manuscrit en latin du commencement du XVème: contenant une interessante miniature à la première page representant Arnoldus de Villanove et Avicenna, nombreuses fig. de plantes en couleurs. Velin' in pencil on upper pastedown. The inscription was identified by Moorat as by the bookseller Desgranges of Paris: see Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973), vol. 1, p. 449.

Inscribed '2287. MUSA (Antonius). De herba vettonica / Pseudo-APULEIUS. Herbarium. Book incomplete / [Middle 15th cent.]' on upper pastedown, early 20th century.