When plants are (tentatively) identified, I always wonder if these plants were actually known and used in the middle ages or before.
Clearly "filipendula vulgaris" is modern so that is not interesting. "Kleines Mädesüß" sounds more interesting, and a bit of searching around the net suggested a couple of things.
For one, it seems that "Mäde" is not from "Mädel" (little girl) but from "Med" (english: mead) which is a honey-based alcohol already brewed in Germany in the earliest middle ages. The drink also appears in Dioscorides' Materia Medica.
Filipendula would have been added for the taste, but this would have been filipendula ulmaria, i.e. "real" Mädesüss, not "small" Mädesüss.
The word honey has already been brought in connection with the next folio in the MS ("mel" on fol.66r ) , but I am not convinced about that one, and this just seems like one of these coincidences.
Finally, the leaves are really wrong for filipendula, even if they were based on a written description.
Clearly "filipendula vulgaris" is modern so that is not interesting. "Kleines Mädesüß" sounds more interesting, and a bit of searching around the net suggested a couple of things.
For one, it seems that "Mäde" is not from "Mädel" (little girl) but from "Med" (english: mead) which is a honey-based alcohol already brewed in Germany in the earliest middle ages. The drink also appears in Dioscorides' Materia Medica.
Filipendula would have been added for the taste, but this would have been filipendula ulmaria, i.e. "real" Mädesüss, not "small" Mädesüss.
The word honey has already been brought in connection with the next folio in the MS ("mel" on fol.66r ) , but I am not convinced about that one, and this just seems like one of these coincidences.
Finally, the leaves are really wrong for filipendula, even if they were based on a written description.