Tractatus de Herbis

Codex Sloane 4016 is a 15th century Italian parchment manuscript belonging to a class of books known as herbals. These medicinal treatises recorded knowledge accumulated in the oral tradition about plants believed to possess therapeutic properties. See: one, two, three.

Miniature of plants and a demon - the herb Ypericon, supposed to repel demons

Miniature of a plant and boys standing in the branches of a fruit tree

picking fruit and throwing down to a woman standing below

Miniature of a tree, a spider web, and an eagle

Miniature of plants, including a mandrake plant with a naked male body as the root

Miniatures of plants, and a cat and mouse

Miniature of a lion, a leopard, a rabbit, and an elephant

Miniatures of plants, a braying donkey, and a map

Miniatures of plants, crabs, and [most likely] a lobster-like animal [versus a scorpion as captioned at the source site] (thanks ogerard)

Miniatures of a tree and a snake

Miniatures of a plant and a bird, holding a horseshoe in its mouth

Miniature of a plant, a cricket, a crane, and a salamander

Miniature of a tree and an animal castrating itself

Produced in Lombardy in Northern Italy in 1440, 'Tractatus de Herbis' consists of over two hundred beautifully illustrated pages accompanied by Latin commentary in a Gothic script.

The whole manuscript (Sloane 4016) is accessible online from the British Library; including enlarged detail images.

A facsimile edition of 'Tractatus de Herbis' is available from the Spanish manuscript reproduction firm of M Moleiro.

VIA: Medieval & Earlier Manuscripts Blog | Miniaturaitaliana.

Previously: flora/medieval.