Medieval Herbals

An illustrated study of manuscript Herbals produced between 600 and 1450. The author examines the two principal Herbal traditions of Classical descent: the Ioscorides manuscripts in Greek, Arabic and Latin, and the Latin Herbarius of Apuleius Platonicus. In doing so she reveals how, from 1300, the illustrations showed a new observation of nature, paving the way for the 15th-century French Livres de Simples and the plant paintings of later Italian Herbals. She also demonstrates how many Herbals were not only produced for medical scholars but were also commissioned as decorative items by bibliophiles.