Shelfmark
MS 204
Title
Herbal [manuscript]
Varying form of title
Title in Ker, MMBL II: Apuleius Barbarus, etc.
Publication, distribution, etc.
Holy Roman Empire, 1100-1200.
Physical description
1 v. : ill. ; 274 x 188 mm.
Language
Written in Latin, with some glosses in German. For example, in pseudo-Apuleius's De medicaminis herbarum, many herbs include interlinear German names; in Anthimus's treatise on food "agabuh" glosses "perca" (f.63r).
Note
Quarto folio: vettonice herbe. It is the fourth folio because the text proper begins at f.3r.
Note
Date of creation: Ker suggests a narrowed date range: the middle of the 12th century, perhaps due to the decoration style and the use of Tironian nota.
Note
Material: membrane; Gregory's rule (HFFH).
Note
Format: codex.
Note
Written space: 199 x 138 mm.
Note
Number of leaves: i + 80 +ii.
Note
Accompanying material: manuscript waste has been used as flyleaves and pastedowns; f.82 has been cut and then pasted onto one such flyleaves. They are five leaves from a copy of Major Prophets in a southern littera textualis hand, likely from Italy. Ker dates it to the 12th century.
Note
Collation: 1² 2-3⁸ 4⁸ (ff.19, 20, 25-30) +2 bifolia inserted after 2 (ff.21-24) 5⁸ + a slip after 7 (i.e. f.37a) 6⁸ 7⁸ (wants 3 and 6) 8-10⁸ 11⁴.
Note
Quire and leaf signatures and catchwords: none.
Note
Page preparation: ruled in dry point; pricking visible on long margin.
Note
Mise-en-page: single columns (29 lines) written in a set script above the first ruled line. Rubrics.
Note
Decoration: two full-page miniatures at ff.1v-2r. The first depicts a rural scene with three men, one beardless youth in the middle of two old men with white hair and beards, collecting herbs from the ground with the help of a shovel. The second depicts an urban scene with two men indoors, one holding a scale over a table with small pots while the other is sitting and pointing at the other man while holding a pot. The style of these miniatures is Romanesque, using a palette of green, blue, red and yellow hues. The same style characterises animal drawings at ff.52-58. Folio 3-51 include drawings of herbs, a couple of which have been cut out. Each plant drawing appears near a symbol (which varies from plant to plant) which also appears next to the corresponding text description. These symbols, and the fact that some drawings are drawn over the text, suggest they were added after the text had been copied. The plant drawings at ff.21-24 (the inserted folios) are not in colour and are much less detailed: they look more like sketches. Decorated initials (5 lines) with foliage interlace drawn in red ink and filled in green and blue.
Note
Handwriting: littera praegothica; one main scribe throughout, with a near-contemporary hand copying the inserted folios 21-24 (see Contents). This second scribe may also be one of the annotators, see f.77r.
Note
Abbreviation and punctuation: use of Tironian nota as well as & ligature. Puncti.
Note
Correction: spelling mistakes corrected inter linea or through knife erasure.
Note
Marginalia, later additions: there are some contemporary glosses mentioning the German name of herbs, and occasionally minor comments (e.g. f.60r). An early modern hand has added the foliation (which this description follows) and some marginal bibliographic references.
Formatted contents note
For a list of incipits, see Ker. Folio 1r: blank ; ff.1v-2r: two full-page miniatures (see Decoration note) ; f.2v: blank ; ff.3r-5r: Antonius Musa, De herba vettonica liber ; ff.5r-20v, 25r-51v: pseudo-Apuleius, De medicaminis herbarum (ends imperfectly at Mandragora; folio 49 is missing) ; ff.21r-24v: inserted folios containing descriptions of 22 herbs in a different 12th-century hand ; f.37a: a smaller inserted folio (measuring 143 x 90 mm) showing drawing of "heribulbum" ; f.52: missing ; f.53r: pseudo-Apuleius, Medicina de taxone (begins imperfectly) ; ff.53r-58r: Sextus Placitus, Liber medicinae ex animalibus ; f.58r-v: De menta ; ff.59r-66r: Anthimus, De observatione ciborum ; ff.66r-75r: Gargilius Martialis, De oleribus et pomis (chapters 1-56); ff.75r-77r: Diaeta Theodori ; ff.77r-78v: De clisteribus (six paragraphs on enemas) ; ff.78r-80r: discussion of the virtues of the lion and other animals including birds ; ff.80r-82r: a series of medical recipes found also in British Library, MS Harley 4986.
Citation/references note
N.R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, v. 2 (1977), pp. 779-781
Citation/references note
A. Beccaria, I codici di medicina del periodo presalernitano (1956), pp. 252-254
Summary, etc.
Scope and content: This volume contains a variety of texts (in partial form) concerning herbs, animals and cures for ailments. It is closely related to British Library MS Harley 4986, described by Augusto Beccaria (n. 77).
Cite as
Eton College Library, MS 204
Additional physical form available
Reproduction available; Bodleian Library; Eton College Library should be contacted for permission to reproduce; SFW 3091
Provenance
Origin: it was probably produced in one of the German-speaking territories of the Holy Roman Empire, given the glosses.
Provenance
Provenance: Ker notes that J.A. Herbert, helped by a reagent, read part of an erased 15th-century inscription at the head of f.3r as "Iste liber pertinet ad librariam ecclesie et capituli ecclesie". The style of the binding suggests the volume may have been in Italy by that point. It was donated to Eton College Library by W.J. Myers in 1896.
Binding
15th-century ?sheepskin over wood boards, repairs to the spine and upper cover. Covers decorated with blind fillets and tools in an Italian rope pattern; two metal clasps on lower cover fully intact -- traces of leather straps on upper cover. Spine with three raised bands, decorated with blind fillets. Endleaves of medieval manuscript waste (pastedowns and flyleaves). Kept in a sand-and-grain cloth book sleeve.
Subject
Medicine, Medieval Manuscripts.
Subject
Herbals Manuscripts.
Added entry--name
Apuleius, Barbarus.
Added entry--name
Added entry--name
Added entry--name
Added entry--name
Added entry--name
Myers, William Joseph, 1858 - 1899 former owner.
Added entry--place
Germany.
Language code
lat
Identifier
B50155