Plants and labels in pharma section

[MarcoP]

Hello Anton,
the task you propose seems to me potentially very useful.

I think there are three main possibilities:

1. The herbal and pharma sections were written by the same author and discuss different kinds of plants (as in the Cadamosto example: medical and alimentary plants). In this case, there should be a very small or empty intersection.

2. The herbal and pharma sections were written by the same author and discuss different aspects of the same plants (e.g. the “botanical” aspect and how to mix ingredients to produce compounds). In this case, we can expect a wide intersection (possibly close to 100%). I am not aware of parallels for this kind of organization, but I think it's the idea recently discussed by You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (the pharma section as an “index”).

3. The two sections were written by different authors. We can expect an intersection, but its impossible to say anything about its size (it depends on the degree of similarity between the two works). This case frequently occurs in Latin medieval manuscripts.

Unluckily, the possibilities that (2) actually is the case seem rather limited.

Here are examples of illustrations of the same plants from the Pseudo-Apuleius and Pseudo-Dioscorides treaties in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., Netherlands, end of the XII Century. We can certainly expect a certain degree of variation in both plant images and plant names.