06-05-2017, 08:37 AM
(06-05-2017, 07:25 AM)ReneZ wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view....
There are lots more intriguing herbs in the same part of the MS and I have not yet had time to look at all of them.
On You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (top), for example, is a herb with the very distinctive name 'Tetrahit Yudaica'. This herb is also found in the Tractatus tradition, sometimes without and sometimes with the 'Yudaica'. However, the illustration does not look like these.
The description of the herb also refers to Centaurea Minor, and the illustration looks quite similar to that. Now that does not help us a lot, since this herb is common in essentially all herbal traditions that I know of.
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Yes, that's an interesting one. I haven't had a chance to look into it yet, but my detective work so far on "tetrahit" in general suggests that tetrahit from the 15th century may be Anthyllis (possibly A. cretica). It is usually depicted with slender, medium-short odd pinnate branches, smooth-margined leaves, and puffs of pinkish flowers, which would fit well with kidney-vetch.
But... I don't have enough examples yet to be sure and the Trinity tetrahit doesn't have odd-pinnate leaves and the leaves are serrated, so it seems out of step with other plants with the same name. There are a few Anthyllis species that have elliptical leaves growing up the stock, but they tend to be short and rounded, not long and pointed. The Trinity plant leaves are a good match for hemp-nettle (Galeopsis tetrahit), but then the flowers don't match. If I have time to look at it further and come across anything helpful, I'll post it.