Color reproduction, reduced in size by one-third, of

"a compendium of popular Late Antique texts brought together in the 6th century. It contains writings on herbs and materia medica by authors heavily reliant on the works of Pliny and Dioscorides. Of the 50 surviving copies of this influential miscellany produced before the end of the Middle Ages, the present manuscripts is one of the most enticing. Executed in Southern Italy in the first half of the 13th century, it is beautiful illustrated in vibrant body colour with plants, animals and scenes of medical treatments, faithfully drawn after late antique models. The facsimile of the complete manuscript is followed by an essay which sets the manuscript in the context of the history of medicine. Codicological information is also provided and all plants and animals are identified.

"The "Herbarius complex," the most widely used of all anthologies on materia medica available in the early Middle Ages, survives in forty-seven manuscripts. Of these, Codex Vindobonensis 93 of the Austrian National Library is the most elaborate and visually striking....

"Cod. Vind. 93 was produced in Italy in the early part of the thirteenth century--exactly at the moment when the Herbarius complex was at the height of its influence, when medical education was spreading, but before translations from Muslim versions of the classical medical tradition began to dominate. It preserves healing lore from the end of the Roman imperial era. Not confined to the physical healing powers of plants, it includes prayers to the earth goddess, directions for making amulets, prescribed rituals for the collection and preparation of herbs, references to mythological heroes, and lists of magical powers, such as calming storms at sea. It dramatizes for us, in Professor Jones's apt phrase, "the curious mixture of fantasy and pragmatism" that shaped late antique and early medieval medical practice (p. 28)" (publisher).

Full-size color reproduction: Codices selecti 27.27, Graz: Akademische Druck-u. verlaganstalt,1972.