Alchemical Herbals

Alchemical Herbals

Herbals, compendiums of plant lore, have a more complex history than most mediaeval books. They typically consist of short chapters each devoted to a single plant, with its various names, a description of its properties and (usually but not always) an illustration which was more often copied from an older manuscript than drawn from life. Compared with most mediaeval manuscripts, herbals were subject to much editing and rewriting at each copying, in part to suit patrons in different botanical regions of Europe: we therefore speak not of different copies of the same work but of successive works in certain well defined traditions, rather like successive editions of the same atlas or dictionary today. The principal traditions such as Dioscorides and Pseudo-Apuleius go back to individual books written in classical antiquity, as is shown in the recent comprehensive survey of the subject by Minta Collins.

The Voynich manuscript has been compared to a particular herbal tradition known by the slightly misleading name of ‘alchemical herbals’ (they are simply herbals and are not about alchemy). An examination of works in this tradition shows that the Voynich manuscript is certainly not a copy or translation of any of them, but like the Fontana ciphers they are a close analogue in various ways. The alchemical herbals are characterised by their somewhat surreal illustrations, similar in each manuscript and deriving from a lost original probably composed in early fifteenth century Italy: many of the plants are pictured with strange roots shaped like animals or contorted into geometrical patterns, and some of the leaves are drawn with eyes. They also share a common textual tradition based on a fixed list of 98 plants which is extended in some manuscripts but always appears in the same, non-alphabetical order. The unfamiliar names are derived from Italian folk tradition and enable most of the plants to be identified. This web page has an image of one page from an alchemical herbal.

The alchemical herbals have been studied by Vera Segre Rutz, the material on this page being a summary of her work. Segre Rutz identifies a direct tradition of seven manuscripts and an indirect tradition of seventeen others which rework the same material more freely. Four manuscripts of the indirect tradition were owned by the distinguished naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1607) and bequeathed by him to the university library of Bologna. He identified them as describing plants of particular interest to alchemists (for instance the herba lunaria was reputed to aid the transmutation of base metal into silver and gold). Aldrovandi himself was not an alchemist and his own herbal belongs to a later, more scientific period in the history of botany.

Manuscripts in the direct tradition

  • Fermo, Biblioteca Comunale MS 18
    s. 15, North Italy
    Florence, Biblioteca di Botanica dell’Universita MS 106
  • s. 15, North Italy
  • Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Can. Misc. 408
  • October 1378, Milan
  • Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale MS Lat. 17844
  • s. 15, North Italy
  • Paris, Bibiliotheque Nationale MS Lat. 17848
  • s. 15, North Italy
  • Pavia, Biblioteca Universitaria MS Aldini 211
  • s. 14 end, North Italy
  • Vicenza, Biblioteca Bertoliana MS G.23.2.3 (362)
  • s. 15, Italy and Germany

Manuscripts in the indirect tradition

  • Bologna, Museo Aldrovandiano, Biblioteca Universitaria MS 151(1)
  • s. 15, East Lombardy
  • Bologna, Museo Aldrovandiano, Biblioteca Universitaria MS 151(2)
  • s. 15 late, North Central Italy
  • Bologna, Museo Aldrovandiano, Biblioteca Universitaria MS 152
  • s. 16, Bologna
  • Bologna, Museo Aldrovandiano, Biblioteca Universitaria MS 153
  • s. 15, North Central Italy
  • Brescia, Biblioteca Queriniana MS B.V.24
  • s. 15, Lombardy
  • The first five pages contain a treatise on gynaecology
  • Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana Ashb. 456
  • s. 15, Tuscany
  • Florence, Biblioteca Marucelliana MS 168/C
  • 1512, Tuscany
  • London, Wellcome Historical Medical Library MS 261
  • s. 15, Veneto
  • London, Wellcome Historical Medical Library MS 334
  • s. 15, Italy
  • London, Wellcome Historical Medical Library MS 337
  • s. 16, North Central Italy
  • Pages 35-43 contain a treatise by the Venetian Luigi Dardano on conception and astral influences on birth.
  • New York, Pierpont Morgan Library MS 22.222
  • s. 15, Germany
  • A manuscript bound together with printed material. No illustrations.
  • Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Add. A. 23
  • s. 15, South Central Italy
  • Padua, Biblioteca Universitaria MS 604
  • s. 15, North Italy
  • Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale MS Hebr 1199
  • s. 15 late, North Italy
  • A Hebrew translation; Christian references replaced with Jewish ones.
  • Trent, Museo Provinciale d’Arte MS 1591
  • s. 15, North Italy
  • Venice, Biblioteca Marciana MS It. III.11 (5004)
  • 1463, Tuscany
  • Venice, Biblioteca Marciana MS It II.12 (4936)
  • s. 15, Veneto

History of the direct tradition

The textual history of the seven manuscripts in the main tradition is this. An original manuscript ‘x’ was the exemplar of two direct copies ‘y’ and ‘z’. All three are now lost, but ‘y’ was copied twice as the two Paris manuscripts; and the Vicenza manuscript is a copy of the Paris manuscript 17844. The other four surviving manuscripts are direct copies of the lost ‘z’.

Bibliography

  • Lupo, Michelangelo
  • L’erbario di Trento: il manoscritto n. 1591 del Museo provinciale d’arte.
  • Trento, 1982.
  • Ragazzini, Stefania
  • Un erbario del XV secolo: il Ms. 106 della Biblioteca di Botanica dell’Universita di Firenze
  • Florence, 1983
  • Segre Rutz, Vera
  • Il giardino magico degli alchimisti: un erbario illustrato trecentesco della Biblioteca universitaria di Pavia e la sua tradizione. Introduzione, edizione critica e commento.
  • Milan, 2000.
  • Collins, Minta
  • Medieval herbals: the illustrative tradition.
  • London, 2000.

Lupo presents an edition and facsimile of the Trent manuscript with selected illustrations from other manuscripts in the direct and indirect traditions. Ragazzini gives an edition of the Florence manuscript and Segre Rutz an edition of the Pavia manuscript with pictures of each of its illustrations and a verbal description of all the other manuscripts in the direct and indirect tradition. Collins briefly surveys the tradition of alchemical herbals but avoids duplicating Segre Rutz’s work.

Names of the 98 herbs in the alchemical herbals

  • Herba Antolla minor
  • Herba Bortines
  • Herba Torogas
  • Herba Nigras
  • Herba Stellaria
  • Herba Bonifatia
  • Herba Betonega
  • Herba Instanutia
  • Herba Canalaritas romana
  • Herba Rena
  • Herba Triacho
  • Herba Bososilles
  • Herba Angalles
  • Herba Toros
  • Herba Grantia
  • Herba Tortorellis
  • Herba Lingua cornena
  • Herba Trifolio
  • Herba Ariola
  • Herba Superna
  • Herba Faba inversa
  • Herba Paris
  • Herba Ciloga
  • Herba Antollas
  • Herba Antolla lupanas
  • Herba Cofflesanas
  • Herba Cancealis
  • Herba Toffanas
  • Herba Brancha lupina
  • Herba Salsifica
  • Herba Sabastrella
  • Herba Amorsu serpentis
  • Herba Tedorixe
  • Herba Lucea et de nouem una
  • Herba Ditimo biancho
  • Herba Requificia
  • Herba Illocharias
  • Herba Foleas
  • Herba Angalles
  • Herba Luza Mandragora
  • Herba Illioris
  • Herba Tilles
  • Herba Paroischas
  • Herba Corporelis
  • Herba Cipola marina
  • Herba Palma Christi
  • Herba Bazea minor et de nouem una
  • Herba Folio
  • Herba Rigogola
  • Herba Pane porcino
  • Herba Artetica montaria
  • Herba Mula campana
  • Herba Zinziana
  • Herba Oculus Domini
  • Herba Sancta Maria
  • Herba Lunaria greca
  • Herba Capalias
  • Herba Nascurso
  • Herba Belletollis
  • Herba Metries
  • Herba Ystatoris
  • Herba Polexinas
  • Herba Serpentina
  • Herba Pionica
  • Herba Rucha savlaticha
  • Herba Caspetres
  • Herba Brancha
  • Herba Spigonarda
  • Herba Lunaria
  • Herba Erba rigano
  • Herba Sigillo de Sancta Maria
  • Herba Rapillis
  • Herba Bustania
  • Herba Forus
  • Herba Capalarices
  • Herba Luminellas
  • Herba Ruschasia
  • Herba Scudaria
  • Herba Lunaria
  • Herba Tunegi
  • Herba Lactica
  • Herba Barbaria
  • Herba Tura
  • Herba Gerbia
  • Herba Bruza
  • Herba Lunaria tercia
  • Herba Attillia
  • Herba Victoria
  • Herba Rondella
  • Herba Genesiana aliter Genciana
  • Herba Fiorina
  • Herba Capillaria
  • Herba Giralia
  • Herba Gratilia sive Gratiana
  • Herba Granellaria
  • Herba Pionia
  • Herba Consolida mayor
  • Herba Consolida minor

Sample text: description of Antolla minor

Ad sanandum omnia vulnera. Accipe folia et radices et fac pulverem et de pulvere pone in vulneribus; facit sanare et purificare illa vulnera. Item mulier que patitur egritudinem in matrice asuescat comedere de ista herba per spatium triginta dierum et erit sanata. Item persona quem momorderit bissa vel alia bestia venenosa, accipiat de dicta herba et pistet eam et faciat emplastrum super morsuram, subito removet dolorem et tosicum. Item si quis habet angustiam aut dolorem in corpore, bibat de pulvere superscripte herbe et subito curatur. Nascitur in terreno macro ubi sunt castani.