Guarnerinus de Padua - 1441

Codex MA 592 of the Biblioteca Civica di Bergamo is an illustrated herbal written by Antonio Guarnerino da Padova in 1441. A complete transcription of the text (an Italian translation of "De viribus herbarum" by Macer Floridus) and small reproductions of the illustrations have been published in 2000 (“Herbe Pincte”, G.Silini, G.Polimeni ed.).

The manuscript includes a beautiful self-portrait of Guarnerinus, appropriately holding a plant and a brush. The face of the figure was unluckily altered by a later hand.

Transcription: Iste herbe pincte sunt per me magistrum Antonium Guarnerinum filium olim Bonaventure de Padua | et fuerunt pincte ad honorem et individue Sancte Trinitatis, Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti | in millesimo quatuorcentesimo quadragesimo primo, decimo octavo iulii, in civitate Feltrina. | Centum 58 herbe.

Translation: These plants were painted by me, Master Antonius Guarnerinus son of Bonaventura from Padua. | They were painted in honor of the undivided Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit | in 1441, the 18th of July, in the city of Feltre. | 158 plants.

Vermont MS 2: visaria / luccia minore

University of Vermont MS 2 is a late XV Century herbal from Central Italy (Tuscany). The top half of page 40 (image 37 in the online scans) illustrates a mysterious “erba visaria” with an impressive anthropomorphic flower. The herball, or, Generall historie of plantes (1636) by John Gerard and Thomas Johnson lists “bisaria” among the names of Dracunculus Arum, but this might be just a coincidence.

Transcription: [top right] erba luccia minore | luce di nocte | Erba visaria vel cifaricha nasce in luoghi alpestri | et prati montuosi fa e fiori come uno viso con fogle rosse dintorno et fa la | foglia del ghambo forchuta et rossa la somita della foglia e[t] luce di notte chome | stella vale [con]tra elmorso delcane rabbioso pesta e[t] posta su cura e[t] chaccia quello | veleno e[t] simile fa dogni morso danimale velenoso. vuolsi corre dimaggio o digiugno | o diluglo sotto il segno de gemini. Salda ogni ferita ilsuo sugho e[t]lerba in cinque hore | Alchunj erbolarij dichono che e spetie derba luccia minore p[er]che luce dinocte vuolsi | portarla in zendado biancho peroche ha molte virtu.

Translation: [top right] lesser lucia plant | glows at night | “Visaria” or “cifaricha” grows in high places | and mountain meadows. It makes flowers similar to a face. Its leaves are red on the border. The leaves | of the stem are forked and the tips of the leaves are red. At night, it glows like | a star. It is helpful against the bite of rabid dogs: crushed and applied on [the wound] it removes that | venom and does the same for the bite of any kind of venomous animal. It must be gathered in May, or June, | or July under the sign of Gemini. The plant and its juice heal all wounds in five hours. | Some herbals say that it is a kind of the lesser "lucia" plant because it glows at night. It is taken | inside a white scarf, because it has many virtues.

Since the manuscript includes several illustrations that appear to have been copied from manuscripts belonging to the “alchemical herbals” tradition (e.g. the collection of Lunarie at p.34), the expression "alchunj erbolarij" at the end is likely to refer to the alchemical herbals, that discussed an "Erba Lucea" or "Lucia", usually represented with fish-like roots.

A completely different, but still anthropomorphic, Lucia Minor appears in Paris, Bibl. Sainte-Geneviève, ms. 3369, f18r. The Vermont herbal presents a similar illustration at p.52.

Liège Tacuinum Sanitatis – Roxe / Roses

MS 1041 of the Liège University is one of the earliest Tacuinum Sanitatis. It is attributed to the workshop of Giovannino de Grassi and dated to 1370-90. The text is a simplified version of a work by the physician Ibn Butlan who lived in Bagdan in the XI Century.

Roses are illustrated on f64r.

Transcription: Roxe \ Nature: F[rigidae] i[n] 1o. s[iccae] in 3o melius ex ee plus hodorifere et recentes. \ Juvanmentu[m]: cerebro calido nocume[n]tum efficit quibusdam fodda \ Remotio nocume[n]ti. Cum canfora.

Translation: Roses \ Nature: Cold in the first degree and dry in the third. The best are the freshest and most fragrant. \ Benefits: cure the illness of hot brain to whoever eats them. \ Removal of the illness: with camphor.

Oak Spring - Italian manuscript: Bugloss

The Oak Spring Foundation has published a beautiful page from an Italian manuscript herbal dating to 1425 ca. It illustrates Anchusa azurea / garden anchusa / bugloss.

Transcription: Questa buglosa eperfeta a metere la radise nel uino e de quelo bere / perche el fa bona memoria e chonforta el celebro / anchora a farne aqua alambi e conforta ecaza la malanconia / cho conforta el core a berne / Ancora che auese postrema- / cion dura granda pestarla / e farla bolir nel vin e me- / ter su la resolve nel princi- / pio del mal Ancora delifi- / ori se fa el zucaro buglosa /

Ancusa L Crision g.ce Calcanta Lactuca asini Latine Lingua birona latine
Arabice: Calsa, Abugilise, Suitar, Smiar, Carfelus, Herfilus, Enochalia, Lotassus, abugelabus, Lucapsus, albicidion, Encusis, Cirospleton Latine: Meretricaria, Pes columbinus, Circeon
G.ce: Enochilon, archehion, Nochalin, Cresia, Oneusus

Erba buglosa, lin cua bounia nase per campi e fa algune / parechi canbe insimia in un hora algune pochi canbe e chi 1 / sola e tal dai e fa le foglie per tera destese e fa alta vii / bazo detera ouero pocho mancho.

Translation: This bugloss is perfect if you put its root in wine and drink it: / it gives a good memory and helps the brains. / It is also good distilled: it so cures and drives away melancholy. / Drinking it also help the heart. / Also, if one had large and hard / abscesses, crush [the plant] / boil it wine and put / it upon the abscess: it cures the / sickness in its beginning. Also, one / uses the flowers to make bugloss sugar.

Latin name: Ancusa
Greek: Crision, Calacanta
Latin: Donkey lettuce, birona tongue
Arabic: Calsa, Abugilise, Suitar, Smiar, Carfelus, Herfilus, Enochalia, Lotassus, abugelabus, Lucapsus, albicidion, Encusis, Cirospleton Latin: Meretricaria, dove's foot, Circeon
Greek: Enochilon, archehion, Nochalin, Cresia, Oneusus

The bugloss plant, ox-tongue, grows in the fields. Sometimes / it has several stems at a time, sometimes only a few and sometimes / just one. Its leaves grow on the ground. It grows seven / palms [?] from the ground, on a little less.

voynich

Cadamosto: die laughing with Apio (water dropwort)

The paragraph about Apio riso (Oenanthe crocata, Water dropwort) from Giovanni Cadamosto's herbal – Img.23 from manuscript ONB Cod. 5264 Han. (1470 ca) Vienna.

Transcription:
Apio riso e caldo et secco in terzo grado. mangiata lherba purga li humori melancolici et discaccia le tristicie del cuore et e inductivo di tanta alegreza chi ne mangiera in qu- antitade ridendo morietur. 

Translation: 
Water dropwort is hot and dry in the third degree. Eating this plant purges melancholic humors and drives sadness away from the heart. It causes such cheerfulness that he who eats a great quantity of it will die laughing.

Cadamosto: Artemisia / Mugwort against demons and kidney stones

The paragraph about Artemisia (mugwort) from Giovanni Cadamosto's  herbal - Img.13 from manuscript ONB Cod. 5264 Han. (1470 ca) Vienna.

Transcription:
ARtemesia e calda in terzo grado e secca in secondo et e dimandata
matre delle herbe. La decoctione de questa herba beuta cura le
apostreme de la matrice et sedendo in dicta decoctione cura le sue
dureze, pistata con buono vino et beuta fa disperdere le done.
et emplastrata suso el ventre provoca la secondina, beuta la
sua decocione facta con vino bianco p[ro]voca la urina et condu-
ce for a le pietre delle vene. adiuta quelli che sono gialdi et
cura quelli che hanno recevuto lo Opio pistata et beuta con
vino, et chi mangiara de la dicta herba sara sicuro del noci-
mento de le medecine. portandola al colo non sara morduto da
bestia venenosa. mettendo lherba ad bulire nel mosto nel vasello
bevendo de quel vino havera bono et gratissimo odore. et conf-
ortara el Stomaco et levara li humori melancolici del cuore.
mangiata dicta herba apre le vene emoroidale et cure le apo-
steme del sedio, et chi la porta con si non teme la fatica de
lo andare. missa nel casa discatia li Demonij et veta
at tutti li incantamenti.

Translation:
Artemisia is hot in the third degree and dry in the second. It is called
the mother of plants. Drinking a decoction of this plant cures the
apostemes of the uterus. Sitting in said decoction cures the harness
of uterus. Crushed with good wine and drunk it causes abortion.
Plastered upon the abdomen, it causes the expulsion of the placenta.
Drinking its decoction made with white wine causes urination and
takes out the stones from the veins [calculi]. It helps those who are
yellow [jaundice]. Crushed and mixed with wine, it cures those who
took opium. And whoever eats this plant will be safe from the damage
of medicines. Wearing it at the neck one will not be bitten by poisonous
animals. If you boil the plant with must in a small jar, drinking that wine
you will have a good and very pleasant smell. It will comfort
the stomach and remove melancholic humors from the heart.
When eaten, this plant opens hemorrhoidal veins and cures the
apostemes of the bottom. Who brings it with himself will not be
tired for traveling. Kept in the house, it drives demons away and
prevents all spells.

Cadamosto and Wellcome MS 336

I propose a visual comparison between two manuscripts of the herbal of Giovanni Cadamosto da Lodi and a Wellcome Library manuscript in which some of the illustrations are clearly derived from Cadamosto's. I learned of this third herbal from Rene Zandbergen. The manuscript was also discussed on the Voynich.Ninja forum.

• Vienna ONB Cod. 5264 Han. – possibly the earliest copy, but almost contemporary to the BNF ms.

• Paris BNF Italien 1108 – a 1471 copy made as a gift to Borso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara

• London Wellcome Library MS 336 – late XV Century. Not all the illustrations seem to derive from Cadamosto's but some certainly do. From the comparison, it is clear that the direct or indirect source is the BNF ms.

The three pants, top to bottom, are:

1. "Afodili" , asphodelus 
2. "Peonia" , paeonia / peony 
3. "Dragontea" , dracunculus vulgaris

I find particularly relevant for the comparison the roots of Afodili and Dragontea. Peonia in the Vienna ms seems almost unrelated with the other two illustrations.