Details

Subjects:

Materia medica -- Early works to 1800.
Materia medica.
Botany, Medical -- Early works to 1800.
Botany, Medical.
Botany -- Pictorial works -- Early works to 1800.
Botany.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Herbals (reference sources)
Pen and wash drawings.
Manuscripts, Greek (Medieval and modern)
Manuscripts, Renaissance.
Pictorial works.
Illustrated works.

Language:

Greek.

Summary:

Work on plants and their medicinal properties in 679 chapters, preceded by illustrations, a prologue, and a table of contents listing 697 chapters. The prologue attributes it to Dioscorides, Galen, and Isocrates; the work is very similar to the De materia medica of Dioscorides. With many notes added.

Contents:

1. f.1r-10v: [Pen-and-wash drawings of medicinal plants and 2 drawings of Dioscorides]
2. f.11r-16r: [Prologue about plants and their medicinal virtues]
3. f.17r-30r: [Table of contents]
4. f.31r-121v: [Herbal]

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Collation: Paper, 121; 1-2⁴ 3² 4⁸(-2) 5⁴ 6¹⁰ 7¹² 8²⁴(-1) 9¹⁰(-1) 10¹⁰(-4, outer 2 bifolia) 11⁸(-2) 12¹⁰(-2) 13⁸(-1) 14¹³(?) 15⁸(-2, central bifolium) 16¹; text of the herbal (f. 31-121) has early pagination in ink, 1-66, 69-90, 97-108, 113-114, 117-124, 127-146, 149-165, [v], 166-187, 192-199, upper outer corners.
Layout: Written in 20-36 long lines.
Script: Written in Greek cursive minuscule script.
Decoration: 71 pen-and-wash drawings of medicinal plants (f. 1r-10v); pen-and-wash illustrations of Dioscorides and a companion collecting plants in bags (f. 1v) and Dioscorides and Galen (f. 4v); headings, captions, small initials, and large initials (sometimes with flourishes and extensions; for example, f. 82 (p. 117-118)) in red.
Binding: Possibly 17th-century Greek blind-stamped calf over pasteboards; some leaves detached or almost detached.
Origin: Written in the eastern Mediterranean in the 15th century.

Local notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Penn Provenance:

Sold at auction at Sotheby's, 10 Dec. 1996, lot 61, to Lawrence J. Schoenberg.
Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2011.
Gift of Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2019.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 100-101 (LJS 62).

Cited as:

UPenn LJS 62.

Contributor:

Dioscorides Pedanius, of Anazarbos, attributed name.
Galen, attributed name.
Isocrates, attributed name.
Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

OCLC:

779966964

Web link:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page