I have no illustrations to offer, but here is a You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. to a book chapter about "Alchemy and the Virtues of Stones in Muscovy".
Although it is primarily concerned with stones, there is a short section which discusses herbals on p. 152.
It explains the lack of "hortus" literature in Russia before the game-changing translation of Gart der Gesundheit by Nicolaus Bulow in 1534 as the Blagoprokhladnyi Vertograd.
From then, hortus literature (vertogrady?) flourished, often mixing the herbals with Russian translations of the Secretum Secretorum.
This does not completely rule out that there were Russian herbals before then, but the tradition seems to have really taken off after this 16th C translation.
There is a thesis written about this Bulow herbal translation by a J. Muskala, Uppsala University, but all I've been able to find online is an abstract.
Although it is primarily concerned with stones, there is a short section which discusses herbals on p. 152.
It explains the lack of "hortus" literature in Russia before the game-changing translation of Gart der Gesundheit by Nicolaus Bulow in 1534 as the Blagoprokhladnyi Vertograd.
From then, hortus literature (vertogrady?) flourished, often mixing the herbals with Russian translations of the Secretum Secretorum.
This does not completely rule out that there were Russian herbals before then, but the tradition seems to have really taken off after this 16th C translation.
There is a thesis written about this Bulow herbal translation by a J. Muskala, Uppsala University, but all I've been able to find online is an abstract.