Sunday, February 5, 2012

Tractatus de Herbis

Codex Sloane 4016 is a 15th century Italian parchment manuscript belonging to a class of books known as herbals. These medicinal treatises recorded knowledge accumulated in the oral tradition about plants believed to possess therapeutic properties. See: one, two, three.



Miniature of plants and a demon - the herb Ypericon, supposed to repell demons - (Tractatus de Herbis - Sloane 4016   f. 103)
Miniature of plants and a demon - the herb Ypericon, supposed to repel demons



Manuscript miniature of fruit picking
Miniature of a plant and boys standing in the branches of a fruit tree
picking fruit and throwing down to a woman standing below



Miniature of a tree, a spider web, and an eagle - (Tractatus de Herbis - Sloane 4016   f. 6)
Miniature of a tree, a spider web, and an eagle



Miniature of plants, including a mandrake plant with a naked male body as the root - (Tractatus de Herbis - Sloane 4016   f. 56v)
Miniature of plants, including a mandrake plant with a naked male body as the root



Miniatures of plants, and a cat and mouse - (Tractatus de Herbis - Sloane 4016   f. 40)
Miniatures of plants, and a cat and mouse



15th c bestiary & herbal - animal sketches
Miniature of a lion, a leopard, a rabbit hare, and an elephant



Medieval manuscript bestiary & herbal and map
Miniatures of plants, a braying donkey, and a map



Medieval herbal and bestiary
Miniatures of plants, crabs, and [most likely] a lobster-like animal [versus a scorpion as captioned at the source site] (thanks ogerard)



Miniatures of a tree and a snake - (Tractatus de Herbis - Sloane 4016   f. 65v)
Miniatures of a tree and a snake



Herbal/bestiary from 1400s
Miniatures of a plant and a bird, holding a horseshoe in its mouth



Medieval manuscript : herbal & bestiary
Miniature of a plant, a cricket, a crane, and a salamander



Miniature of a tree and an animal castrating itself - (Tractatus de Herbis - Sloane 4016   f. 28)
Miniature of a tree and an animal castrating itself


Produced in Lombardy in Northern Italy in 1440, 'Tractatus de Herbis' consists of over two hundred beautifully illustrated pages accompanied by Latin commentary in a Gothic script.

The whole manuscript (Sloane 4016) is accessible online from the British Library; including enlarged detail images.

A facsimile edition of 'Tractatus de Herbis' is available from the Spanish manuscript reproduction firm of M Moleiro.

VIA: Medieval & Earlier Manuscripts Blog | Miniaturaitaliana.

Previously: flora/medieval.

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