Written in a rounded gothic hand, 36/37 lines to a page. Some headings in red, and some capitals and paragraph marks in alternate red-blue, blue-red.
Contents
1. f. 1r Precatio terrae matris, abbreviated and corrupted
Incipit: 'Dea sancta tellus regenerationis per que [sic] de cuncta gerensa [sic] generasti...'
Explicit: '...hoc michi es quod te suplex rogo'.
2. ff. 1r-3v Precatio omnium herbarum, abbreviated and corrupted
Incipit: 'V[o]s potestates omnes herbas. Or[o] [e]xoro magestatemque [sic] uos quas parens tellus...'
Explicit: '...attussicos. Cxxxvi.'
3. ff. 3v-6r Antonius Musa, De herba vettonica
Incipit: 'Caesari augusto prestantissimo...'
Explicit: '...mire dolorem lenire experti afirmant'.
4. ff. 6v-37r Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius
Incipit: 'Paucas uires herbarum et curationes corporis...'
Explicit: 'Herbarium apulei platonici quem [sic] accept a chironi. Macistro Achilis. Et Ascolapio. Explicit feliciter.'
5. ff. 37v-38v Anonymous, De taxone
Incipit: 'Non modo studiosus set etiam capecem mutuo inter uos congnouissem marcelline...'
Explicit: '...et modice subsiccet et initiat sibi in cor pur [sic] purgabitur'.
6. ff. 38v-46v and 76r-149v Sextus Placitus, De medicina ex animalibus
Incipit (f. 39r) 'De cervo et ad omnes homines cornus ceruinus habetuim...'
Explicit: 'Explicit liber de uirtutibus herbarum peccudum et quorundam alliorum animalium etc.'.
7. ff. 46v-68v 'Curae herbarum, interpolated within the Sextus Placitus herbal
Incipit: 'Nomen herbe licanis stefanotice. Folia habet oblonga...'
Explicit: 'Paralyticus enim eam tonsam herbam cum lac bubulum et storacem calamitem statim eum liberabit. Expliciunt cure herbarum feliciter.'
8. ff. 68v-75r Receipts, interpolated within Sextus Placitus herbal
Begins: 'Ad cauculum de perna uteri quod appelatur uertebra...'
Ends: '...ad distilationem [sic] urine'.
9. ff. 150r-151r Relation of a cure of a friend of the scribe
Begins: 'Conquestus est michi G. abustusus religiosus qui erat amicus meus...'.
10. ff. 151v-152v Tables of Roman and Arabic numerals from 1 to 1,000,000.
Initials: On fol. 1 are two illuminated historiated initials. The first a D, showing a seated bearded figure in a purple robe and blue over-dress, holding a red book [Hippocrates? Asklepius?]: below this another similar initial U showing three plants in a bowl [?]. In the upper corners, one on each side, a Sun and a Moon. On fol. 75v is a full page illustration in colours of three standing male figures, one of which is a nude boy: they appear on a filed of flowers, with three trees in the background. Charles Singer has suggested that this is probably a Christian version of the Presentation to Apuleius of the 'Herbarius' by Aesculapius and Chiron.
The MS. is illustrated by 159 coloured, and 44 uncoloured drawings of plants and animals. In a few cases there are blank spaces where the illustrations have been omitted.
Bibliography
Clark, Willene B. and McMunn, Meradith T. Beasts and birds of the Middle Ages: the bestiary and its legacy (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989), p. 573.
Collins, Minta. Medieval Herbals: The Illustrative Traditions (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000), pp. 156-162, et passim
Kristeller, Paul Oskar; Cranz, Ferdinand Edward and Brown, Virginia. Mediaeval and Renaissance Latin Translations and Commentaries, vols. 4-5 (Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1980), p. 128
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