alchemical herbals

[-JKP-]

Marco, it was a good idea to bring that manuscript into this thread.

What I noticed about it, that I mentioned in the other thread, is that the plants are easier to ID than a lot of plants (without looking at the labels).

Then, after going through a few more, I noticed that many of the plants have been inked and pressed onto the page (and sometimes painted over). If you zoom in on Element 44, you can see the individual vein patterns from the actual leaf, which explains why they are more naturalistic than in most herbals.

Looking further, I noticed that Lunaria is drawn as in other alchemical herbals (it's not a pressed plant).


That's rather useful! It helps distinguish real plants from those that are either mythical, or which medieval illustrators themselves didn't know how to ID.

It's not a perfect dichotomy, I notice that some plants (real ones) that are too big to fit on a page (like those that grow 4 or 5 feet tall) have not been inked and pressed, they have been drawn, but it MIGHT help sort out which plants they knew as real plants and which ones were passed down as mythical ones.

[MarcoP]

In 2017, I translated You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (XV Century) that I found reproduced in a book. Now scans of the whole manuscript are You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. In addition to the alchemical herbal, it includes several other texts, among which a bestiary.
I attach some details (top to bottom, with page numbers):

25 Lucia and Teodorisse (Alchemical Herbal #34, #33)
28 Canalaritas (AH#9) here called "capitroni vel cornua capronis"
33 the classical Borissa / Lunaria
35 Scudaria (AH#78)
162 a bottle illustrating "De Virtutibus Aquae Vitae" ("De la virtude de laqua vitta")
194 woodpecker and lion

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[MarcoP]

It seems that Wilfrid Voynich sold to J.P. Morgan a book including an unillustrated manuscript copy of the Alchemical Herbal made in Germany in the 15th Century (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.).

The text is discussed in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., Curt F. Bühler, 1954.

[MarcoP]

A recent book (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) includes a chapter by Sivan Gottlieb about the Hebrew copies of the alchemical herbal (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.). Some of the chapter (‘Already Verified’ A Hebrew Herbal between Text and Illustration) can be read on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. 
About Lat. 17844, Gottlieb found the date 1436 (written in Hebrew characters and using the Hebrew counting from the creation of the world), which is interesting since the dating of many of the copies of the alchemical herbal is uncertain.

[Bernd]

The Bodleian Library MS. Canon. Misc. 408 has 2 plants with stems sproiting from flat-top roots, sililar to some VM plants.

   
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The Tuscany herbal has a similar depiction of a stem from a flat-top root, a root table and a quite similar depiction of a VM 'smilax' down to the root.

   
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[Bernd]

BNF Lat 17844 also has a lot of VM features including very similar flowers shapes.
More flat root tops
   
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A similar flower shape, I think there are also similar leaves in the VM
   
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VM You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.    


Leaves on one side, fruit at the other.
If I read correctly it's supposed to be Polygonatum so the depiction is accurate.

   
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[Aga Tentakulus]

   
Nice to see why he drew the root twisted. Polygonatum

[ReneZ]

I guess many people will have seen the recent blog post by Nick Pelling, which discusses a relevant new publication about alchemical herbals.

It refers to several herbal manuscripts that were not previously discussed by Segre Rutz, but some of them were already mentioned here.

It is not something that I can give priority right now, but someone else may want to delve into this.

[MarcoP]

Firenze Riccardiana You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is a rather late copy (1463-1499), but the artistic quality is quite high. It also includes plants from other sources.
   

[bi3mw]

In Ricc. 2174 there is also a plant with faces in the roots. This also occurs in other alchemical herbals, but it's always interesting to see. At least it's something concrete and unambiguous.