Herbals: 15th cent.

Herbal, with names of medicinal plants, and short receipts for their use: in Latin. The illustrations which are of the crude design, as found in the earliest printed herbals, are in water-colour, with the exception of the last, which is a pen-drawing, and probably a later addition. In some instances grotesque faces, etc. have been added to the roots of the plants. On fol. 41 (leaf 24) is an unusual illustration of a female mandrake, with the dog attached to the feet of the plant, and a kneeling figure with his hands to his ears. On the second unnumbered leaf at the end (80), are two receipts by a later 15th cent. hand: below these an inscription: 'Paulus caualis doctor in sua pratizione sam [?] altrimente [?] de sua profezione', written by an early 16th cent. hand. On the verso of the same leaf the date 1480, above a note: 'Questo libro es[t] meus di S. Beltramo di Roncalis'.

c. 1475

1 volume 78 [114] ff. + 6 ll. (last 4 bl.). folio. 29 x 30 cm. Modern green morocco binding. Margins slightly cropped. In the original foliation 1-114, the following leaves are wanting: 1-12, 21-23, 25, 36, 50, 53, 55, 70, 71, 79, 84, 97-108. The last 6 ll. were not foliated. The MS. has been re-foliated in pencil.

Purchased 1925.

Written under this, and signed J. R. Martin: 'A contemporary copy of a famous MS herbal preserved at [the] Laurentian Library in Florence. Bought for 700 fr. by Woynich [Voynich] 1912'.

Database description transcribed from S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973).

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