Vlasta Radan Manuscript Analysis Manuscript: Clm 337, Parchment, Ff
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Vlasta Radan Manuscript Analysis Manuscript: Clm 337, parchment, ff. 1771 Depository Library: Bayerishe Staatsbibliothek, München, Germany MSS title: Dioscorides, De materia medica (Five-Book Recension) Year: approximately late 10th century Created: South Italy Size: 245 x 200(205) mm (Collins 2000, p. 149) Bayerishe Staatsbibliothek (BS) catalog entry: 337 membr. 4o. s. X (?). 177 fol. Dioschorides Dioscoridis de simplici medicina libri V. Codex litteris longobardicis scriptus, plurimis delineationibus pictis plantarum, serpentum, aliorum animalium, vasorum medicinalium et paucis hominum (scribentis f. 39, aegrotorum f. 123, regis f. 137, rupem scindentis f. 146) ornatus. Exciderunt f. 1 quaternionis primi, quaternionis 15 fol. 3-8, quaternionis 16 fol. 1-3 et 6-8; quaternionis 22 nil restat nisi fol. 4 et 5 (ultima codicis), quae exeunt in caput 161 libri V, qui continet 188 capita. Liber I editus est in 'Romanische Forschungen' I (1882) p. 49-105. Codice usus est Marcellus Virgilius (c. 1518) Florentiae; deinde eum 'Cardinalis Capuanus a Salnuccio Sangeminianense dono acceptum mihi in testamento reliquit' J. A. Widmestadius in tegumento scripsit. Addidit alia manus 'Ego Joannes Rebhauer pharmacopola Lanndshutensis ab orbatae prolis Widmanstadianae curatoribus dono accepi a. 1557' (BS 1). October 10, 2005 1 Collins (2000, p. 149) states that the book has 157 folios. Introduction The codex with shelfmark Codici latini manuscripti (Clm) 337 is a quarto-sized book containing the full five book Latin version of De materia medica written by Greek medico and herbalist Pedanius Dioscorides of Anazarbus (40-90 CE). As its name indicates, the text deals with medicinal uses of various substances—minerals, animal products, oils—including information about approximately 600 plants and their medicinal uses. The codex is moderately illustrated depicting plants, animals, and humans. There is no monograph detailing the Clm 337 codex, presumably because of its humble visual appearance. Although, neglected by art historians, the codex is often mentioned in books about the history of medicine, botany, and herbals. Through that literature, it is possible to gain quite interesting information, if not about the appearance of the codex, then about the role of herbals in Medieval life and the ways of transmission of the knowledge between cultures. The book on medieval herbals by Minta Collins (2000) was a source that provided the most information on the physical appearance and making of the codex and interesting insights about the debate surrounding the genealogy of herbals. Besides two black and white pictures (f.146v and f.39), her book had the only color picture of a page in the codex (f.66v) that could be obtained. John Riddle (1985) was extremely informative about the text of De materia medica, ancient medicinal practices, and in addition of botanical and medical information, contains the chapter about different manuscripts of Dioscorides’ text. Unfortunately it has only two small (3x3in) reproductions of photostats of pages from the codex (f108v2) and details of folios 123v and 39, all in black and white. The book about health and medicine in medieval Southern Italy by Patricia Skinner (1997) has two black and white pictures showing only a fragment of a page. The only two digital images that are available are on the web page of a Columbia University 2 The two photostats, one on p. 197 and other on p. 200 show tow different verso pages, but captions identify both as folio 108 verso. Radan Vlasta 2 Clm 337 site, and they are the scans of black and white plates from E. A. Lowe, Scriptura Beneventana published in 1929 (Beneventan 2005). The Beneventan Script by E.A. Lowe (1914/1980) is probably the most comprehensive book on the beneventan script, its development, historical background, and paleography. It shows examples of the beneventan script, but unfortunately none from Clm 337. The book gives some information about the technical characteristics of manuscripts produced in South Italy, but the book is the first of all a paleographic study. There are some other books that contain reproductions from the codex; however, they were not accessible at this time. The BS has a very helpful catalog of books that are cross-referenced with the manuscripts in their depository (BS 2). Most of the texts that deal with herbal genealogy discuss the origin of Clm 337, but do not interest themselves with its provenance in later centuries. Only three sources that could provide any information on the provenance were the BS catalog, and in passim Collins (2000, p. 153) and Godman (1998, p. 218). At the end of the 19th century, the codex was described for the first time in any detail in Romanische Forschungen, vol I (1882), edited by K. Hofmann and T. M. Auracher. On the turn of the century, the codex, or rather its script, often appears in paleographic texts and debates in connection with identification of the beneventan script (Lowe 1914/1980, p. 22-40). Later, the codex was recognized as important element in transmission of the Greek scientific thought and for understanding the genealogy of herbals (Singer 1927, p. 20) and especially as one of the crucial sources for collating the modern Latin version of the Dioscorides (Sigerist 1941). Manuscript3 The Clm 337, is written in lettera beneventana, i.e., beneventan minuscule, the script used almost exclusively in Southern Italy and Benedictine monasteries on the Dalmatian coast. The codex is the only surviving illustrated copy of the complete—five book recension—text of Dioscorides in Old Latin translation. 3 Description of the manuscript is exclusively from Collins 2000, p.149-153, unless noted otherwise. Radan Vlasta 3 Clm 337 The codex in copied onto poor quality parchment. The text is arranged in two columns with wide margins and small illustrations. Illustrations do not take more than the width of each column and accompany the beginning of the chapters. Each of the five books starts with a list of the chapter titles. This is a unique feature common only to a Latin version of this recension4 of Dioscorides manuscript. The text is written in light brown ink, by the same hand, but not by the best of scribes. The initials are simple, mostly just three or two line calligraphic capitals in colors different from the body of the text. There are also some very simple zoomorphic initials. The initials and illustrations are painted in pale yellow, red, blue, and a clear blue-green with traces of white. The coloration of the illustrations does not follow the natural coloration of the objects (blue dogs, blue-leafed plants, green scorpions, red snakes). The chapter titles and the chapter numbers are in Greek and written in red ink. They also tend to slant uncharacteristically from the rest of the text, what can indicate a different hand (probably illuminator or rubricator), or latter addition. Besides plants, the figures show different kinds of animals, mostly associated with the cures against bites or stings inflicted by these animals. There are seventeen illustrations with human figures. They are nude or draped in cloth, illustrating various symptoms or cures. In the illustrations very often plant roots extend into gaps left in the text, area and spaces on the top and bottom of the columns were left for later illustrations. In the book V, scribe did not leave place for the illustrations, so pictures are dispersed on the margins or squeezed between lines of chapters. The images of the scorpions, snakes, dragons, dogs and insects are scattered haphazardly on the margins of the codex. There are three compositions that are more elaborate. On folio 94, the pictures show a human figure piercing the stem of the plant with arrows and collecting the sap. On folio 4 There are two other codices that contain what is defined as Old Latin translation of five books, non- alphabetic recension of Dioscorides: Paris lat. 9332 from the 8th/9th century and Paris lat. 12995 from the early 9th century. But beside the text itself, they have different general appearance and they are not considered as the possible exemplars for Clm 337 (Collins 2000, p. 149). Radan Vlasta 4 Clm 337 137, there is a picture of a person in a vine press with a sick person lying below; and on folio 146, a man pokes a stick into the mountainside in order to extract the ore. On folio 39, it is also a framed half-column high picture of a scribe writing the book. Based on the type of the clothing decoration and contemporary regional visual formula, the figure is identified as Adam counting the animals (sic). According Lowe (1914/1980), the older manuscripts written in the beneventan script tend to be written across the page in long lines, however when looking for higher calligraphic results scribe would write text in two columns. Most often two column systems would be applied for the manuscripts that were intended for recitations so the reader would have easier time navigating the text. With maturing of the script, sometimes around 9th century, two columns become standard (p. 289). Up to the 12th century, pages were ruled with a plummet, and after that time with a dry or hard point. On the picture of the f108v (Riddle 1985, p. 200) it is possible to see the horizontal ruling of individual lines in the column. The layout of the pages included two sets of lines—one that bound the body text and one that lined up the calligraphic letters (rubrics) which protruded out form the rest of the text. Ruling was guided by pricking through the parchment after sheets were gathered in the quires (Lowe 1914/1980, p. 293). Quires of the beneventan manuscripts are usually made of quaternion (four folded sheets or sixteen pages), but the number of the sheets vary considerably depending on the position of the quire in the codex, and condition of the parchment.