[Trinity] General discussion of Trinity College MS O.2.48 Apuleii Herbarium

[-JKP-]

The second line describes the habitat as the mountains of Capadocié (Cappadocia was historically in Anatolia).

I notice they made a reference to cameleo'te mi'oris (cameleonte minor) in the fourth line. Cameleonte is found in numerous herbals. It was used to describe several thistles and thistle-like plants. Some used it to refer to teasel, some to globe thistle.

But... when they add "minor" (minore, minoris) to these old names, it isn't necessarily the same species. It is often a smaller plant the LOOKS like the "major" one or a plant that is used for similar purposes as the "major" one, but may not be related in other ways (sometimes they don't even look alike).

The root must have been considered important. There's quite a bit of information about it.

Line 9 - I'm not sure what is meant by the first word, but it might be abbreviated "dulcis", in which case it's saying it has a sweet taste and is aromatic.

Line 10 - reference to millefollium minus. Unfortunately, this could mean about 30 different plants. They used "millefolium" to refer to almost any plant with a lot of branching leaves or flowers (plants like yarrow, tansy, and many others) and the addition of the "minus" complicates it even more because it's so frequently an unrelated plant. In the Middle Ages, millefolium was more of a generic term than a specific species. I see if frequently for different plants (usually it's yarrow, but it also refers to many others).

Lines 12 - There are lots of abbreviations, so feel free to correct if I didn't get this completely right:

...omnis languidos curat qui numquam ab aliquo egus?/egregius? rudine possunt libari...