Pseudo-Apuleius
Pseudo-Apuleius is the name given in modern scholarship to the author of a 4th-century herbal known as Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarius or Herbarium Apuleii Platonici. The author of the text apparently wished readers to think that it was by Apuleius of Madaura (124–170 CE), the Roman poet and philosopher, but modern scholars do not believe this attribution. Little or nothing else is known of Pseudo-Apuleius.
The oldest surviving manuscript of the Herbarium is the 6th-century Leiden, MS. Voss. Q.9. Until the 12th century it was the most influential herbal in Europe, with numerous extant copies surviving into the modern era, along with several copies of an Old English translation. Thereafter, it was more or less displaced by the Circa instans, a herbal produced at the school of Salerno. "Pseudo-Apuleius" is also used as a shorthand generic term to refer to the manuscripts and derived works.
Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarius
= Illustrations =
image: Leiden Arnoglossa.jpg|Manuscr. Leiden 6th cent Arnoglossa, Plantago
image: Leiden Dragontea.jpg|Manuscr. Leiden 6th cent Dragontea
image: Leiden Centauria maior.jpg|Manuscr. Leiden 6th cent Centauria maior
image: Leiden Centauria minor.jpg|Manuscr. Leiden 6th cent Centauria minor
image: Leiden Caelidonia.jpg|Manuscr. Leiden 6th cent Caelidonia
image: Leiden Nymphea.jpg|Manuscr. Leiden 6th cent Nymp[h]ea
image: Wien Plantago.jpg|Cod. Vind. 93 13th cent. Arnoglossa. Plantago
image: Wien Dracontea.jpg|Cod. Vind. 93 13th cent. Drag[on]tea
image: Wien Centaurea maior.jpg|Cod. Vind. 93 13th cent. Centauria maior
image: Wien Centaurea minor.jpg|Cod. Vind. 93 13th cent. Centauria minor
image: Chelidonia.jpg|Cod. Vind. 93 13th cent. Chelidonia
image: Nifea.jpg|Cod. Vind. 93 13th cent. Ni[m]fea
image: Rom Plantago.jpg|Print Rome 1481. Plantago, Arnoglossa
image: Rom Dracontea.jpg|Print Rome 1481. Dracontea
image: Rom Centauria.jpg|Print. Rome 1481. Centauria [maior]
image: Rom Centauria minor.jpg|Print Rome 1481. Centauria minor
image: Rom Celidonia.jpg|Print Rome 1481. Celidonia
image: Rom Nymphea.jpg|Print Rome 1481. Nymphea
= Text =
The text of Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarius is based on late antique sources, especially Pliny's Historia naturalis and Discorides' De materia medica. Scholars agree that it was compiled in the 4th century, according to Sigerist (1930, p. 200) from Latin, according to Singer (1927, p. 37) from Greek sources. Each of the 128 to 131 chapters (the number varying between manuscripts) deals with one medical plant. In these chapters the name of the plant is followed by the enumeration of indications in the form of recipes and by synonyms of the plant's name.
For example: Chapter 89, Herba millefolium (Edition of Howald/Sigerist 1927):
class="wikitable" | |
Text (Howald/Sigerist 1927) | Translation |
---|---|
{{lang|la|Herba millefolium}} | The herb millefolium [now interpreted as Achillea millefolium] |
1. {{lang|la|Ad dentium dolorem. Herbae millefolium radicem ieiunus conmanducet.}} | 1. For toothache. The root of the herb millefolium should be chewed before breakfast. |
2. {{lang|la|Ad uulnera de ferro facta. Herba millefolium cum axungia pistata et inposita uulnera purgat et sanat.}} | 2. For wounds inflicted by iron. If you put on the herb millefolium crushed in fat, so it cleans and heals wounds. |
3. {{lang|la|Ad tumores. Herbam millefolium contusam cum butiro inpone.}} | 3. For tumours. Put on the herb millefolium crushed in butter. |
4. {{lang|la|Ad urinae difficultatem. Herbae millefolium sucus cum aceto bibitur, mire sanat.}} | 4. For difficulties of urination. The juice of the herb millefolium drunk mixed with wine vinegar, heals wonderfully. |
{{lang|la|Nomina herbae. A Graecis dicitur miriofillon, alii ambrosiam, alii ciliofillon, alii crisitis, Galli mulicandos, alii uigentia, Daci diodela, Itali millefolium, alii militaris, alii Achillion, alii supercilium Veneris, alii cereum siluaticum. Hanc herbam Achilles inuenit, unde ferro percussus sanabat, quae ob id Achillea uocatur, de hac sanasse Telephium dicitur.}} | Names of the herb. The Greeks call it miriofillon, others ambrosia, others ciliofillon, others crisitis. The Gauls [call it] mulicandos, others vigentia. The Dacians [call it] diodela. The Italians [call it] millefolium, others militaris, others Achillion, others supercilium Veneris, others cereum silvaticum. This herb was discovered by Achilles because it healed wounds, beaten by iron. It was therefore named Achillea. |
{{lang|la|[Interpolationes ex Diosc.] Nascitur in palustris locis …}} | [ |
Associated texts
In the surviving codices the Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarius was combined with other treatises:
- {{lang|la|De herba vettonica}}. Treatise dealing with the herb Stachys officinalis. It was falsely ascribed to Antonius Musa, physician of the Roman emperor Augustus.
- {{lang|la|Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarius}}.
- {{lang|la|De taxone liber}}. Anonymous treatise on the use of the European badger in medicine.
- {{lang|la|Liber medicinae ex animalibus}} ascribed to an unknown Roman physician named "Sextus Placitus Papyriensis".Printing: {{cite book |title=Sexti Placiti Papyriensis, de medicamentis ex animalibus, libellus |publisher=Johann Petri |location=Nürnberg |year=1538 |url=http://www.biusante.parisdescartes.fr./histmed/medica/cote?05033x02}}
- * A-version with 12 chapters about quadrupeds.
- * B-version with 31 chapters about quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, spiders, insects and humans.
- {{lang|la|(Pseudo-)Dioscorides de herbis femininis}}. According to Riddle{{cite journal|last1=Riddle|first1=John|title=Dioscorides|journal=Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum|date=1980|volume=4|pages=125–126|url=http://catalogustranslationum.org/PDFs/volume04/v04_dioscorides.pdf|access-date=28 August 2015}} written before the 6th century in Southern Europe.Edition: H. F. Kästner. Pseudo-Dioscorides de herbis feminis. In: Hermes, Bd. 31 (1896), S. 578-636 [https://archive.org/stream/hermeswies31wies#page/578/mode/2up Archive.org]
- {{lang|la|Precatio terrae matris}} (Incantation of the mother of earth) and {{lang|la|Precatio omnium herbarum}} (Incantation of all herbs).In English translation according to Harley MS 1585 (London, British Library, previously British Museum, 12. Jh.) in: Singer 1927, p. 48.
Manuscripts
Howald and Sigerist (edition 1927, V–XVI) divided the codices into 3 classes (α, β and γ) according to the varying mixture of associated texts in the codices:
- α-class containing parts 1, 2, 3, 4a and 5, moreover better synonyms than in the β-class-texts and no interpolations. The α-class is considered to be the class with the best text-tradition.
- β-class containing parts 1, 2, 3, 4b, 5 and 6, moreover interpolations. The ß-class is considered to be the class with the best illustrations.
- γ-class containing parts 1, 2 and 6, without the interpolations of the β-class. γ-class contains the oldest manuscripts.
Singer (1927), Grape-Albers (1977, pp. 2–5) and Collins (2000) cited more manuscripts:
- St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. 217, 9th century.{{cite journal |first=E. |last=Landgraf |title=Ein frühmittelalterlicher Botanikus. Diss. med. Leipzig |language=de |journal=Kyklos |volume=1 |year=1928 |pages=1–35}}{{cite book |first=Monica |last=Niederer |title=Der St. Galler Botanicus. Ein frühmittelalterliches Herbar. Kritische Edition, Übersetzung und Kommentar |language=de |publisher=Peter Lang |location=Bern |year=2005 |isbn=9783039101955}}
- London, British Library, Harley MS 585, 11th – 12th century.{{cite web |url=http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_585 |title=Medical miscellany |work=Harley MS 585 |publisher=British Library}}
- London, British Library, Harley MS 1585, 12th century.{{cite web |url=http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_1585 |title=Illustrated pharmacopeial compilation |work=Harley MS 1585|publisher=British Library}}
- London, British Library, Harley MS 5294, 12th century.{{cite web |url=http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_5294 |title=Pharmacopeial compilation |work=Harley MS 5294 |publisher=British Library}}
- London, British Library, Harley MS 6258 B, 12th century.{{cite web |url=http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_6258_B |title=Medical miscellany |work=Harley MS 6258 B |publisher=British Library}}
- London, British Library, Sloane MS 1975, 12th century.{{cite web |url=http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=8792&CollID=9&NStart=1975 |title=Medical and herbal collection, including Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius; Pseudo-Dioscorides, De herbis femininis (ff. 49v–73); Sextus Placitus, De medicina ex animalibus |work=MS. Sloane 1975 |publisher=British Library}}
- Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Ashmole 1431, 11th century.{{cite web |url=http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/mss/ashmole/1431.htm |title=Ps. Apuleius, Herbal England, St. Augustine's abbey, Canterbury; 11th century, c. 1070–1100 |work=MS Ashmole 1431 |location=Oxford |publisher=Ashmolean Museum}}
- Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Ashmole 1462, 12th century.{{cite web |url=http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/mss/ashmole/1462.htm |title=Miscellaneous medical and herbal texts, in Latin England, late 12th century |work=Ms Ashmole 1462 |location=Oxford |publisher=Ashmolean Museum}}
- Turin, Bibliotheca Universitaria, MS. K IV 3, 11th century, destroyed by fire.
Several more manuscripts can be added (see Mylène Pradel-Baquerre 2013 and Claudine
Chavannes-Mazel 2016):
- Leiden, University Library, MS BPL 1283, c 1300 (related to Lucca)
- Leiden, University Library, MS Voss.Lat.Qu. 13, 10th century (Anglo-Saxon group)
- Leiden, University Library, MS Voss.Lat.Qu. 40, 11th century (German group)
- Montpellier, Bibliothèque de l'Ecole de Médecine, MS 277, 15th century
- The Hague, Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum MS 10 D 7, 10th century (alpha group)
Translation: the ''Old English Herbarium''
A version of the Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarius was translated into Old English, surviving now in four manuscripts:
- London, British Library, Cotton MS Vitellius C III (illustrated)
- Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Hatton 76
- London, British Library, Harley MS 585
- London, British Library, Harley MS 6258 B (updated into early Middle English)
Like many of the Latin manuscripts, it includes the Herbarium of Pseudo-Apuleius, De herba vetonica, De taxone, medicina de quadrupedibus, and the Liber medicinae ex herbis feminis.Anne Van Arsdall (trans.), [https://books.google.com/books?id=FY8kw-k8j1gC Medieval Herbal Remedies: The Old English Herbarium and Anglo-Saxon Medicine] (New York: Routledge 2002). It was first edited and translated by Oswald Cockayne,{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/leechdomswortcun01cock#page/n15/mode/2up|title=Leechdoms Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England Being a Collection of Documents, for the Most Part Never Before Printed Illustrating the History of Science in this Country Before the Norman Conquest|last=Cockayne|first=Oswald|series=Rerum Britannicarum Medii Ævi Scriptores (Rolls Series)|year=1864|volume=I|location=London|publisher=Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts and Green}} (Based on London, British Library, MS Cotton Vitellius C III.) re-edited in 1984 by Jan de Vriend,Hubert Jan de Vriend (ed.), The Old English Herbarium and Medicina de Quadrupedibus, The Early English Text Society, 286 (London: Oxford University Press, 1984). re-translated in 2002 by Anne Van Arsdall, and again re-edited and re-translated in 2023 by John D. Niles and Maria A. D'Aronco.John D. Niles and Maria A. D'Aronco (ed. and trans.), Medical Writings from Early Medieval England, Volume I, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 81 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2023). A variety of dates and places have been suggested for the production of this translation, ranging from eighth-century Northumbria to late-tenth-century Winchester, with recent scholarship tending towards tenth-century Wessex.Article Hall (2013), '[http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/78178/ Elleborus in Anglo-Saxon England, 900–1100: Tunsingwyrt and Wodewistle]', [https://archive.org/details/lse-2013-whole-issue Leeds Studies in English, new series, 44] (2013), 70-93 (p. 73).
Incunabula and early printings
Based on a 9th-century manuscript of Monte Cassino the first incunable of Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarius was printed in Rome in 1481.{{cite book |first1=Franzesco |last1=Gonzage |last2=Iulius |title=Herbarium Apulei Platonici |location=Rome |year=1481–1482 |url=http://bildsuche.digitale-sammlungen.de/index.html?c=viewer&bandnummer=bsb00064270&pimage=7&v=2p&nav=&l=en |publisher=Johannes Philippus de Ligmanine}} (Digitised at the Bavarian State Library){{cite book |first=F. W. T. |last=Hunger |title=The Herbal of Pseudo-Apuleius. From the ninth-century manuscript in the abbey of Monte Cassino (Codex Casinensis 97) together with the first printed edition of Joh. Philippus de Lignamine (Edition princeps Romae 1481) both in facsimile, described and annotated |publisher=Brill |location=Leyden |year=1935}}{{cite web|first=William M.|last=Ivins|title=The Herbal of 'Pseudo-Apuleius'|url=http://www.metmuseum.org/pubs/bulletins/1/pdf/3257131.pdf.bannered.pdf|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art|location=New York|access-date=2014-12-02}}
The first printing in northern Europe was done in 1537 in Zürich.{{cite web |last1=Antonius |first2=Gabriel |last2=Hummelberger |url=http://bildsuche.digitale-sammlungen.de/index.html?c=viewer&bandnummer=bsb00018958&pimage=7&v=2p&nav=&l=en |language=la |title=De herba vetonica |location=Tigurum |year=1537}} (Digitised at the Bavarian State Library)
Editions
- {{cite encyclopedia |first1=Ernst |last1=Howald |first2=Henry E. |last2=Sigerist |author-link2=Henry E. Sigerist |title=Antonii Musae De herba vettonica, Liber Pseudo-Apulei her-barius, Anonymi De taxone liber, Sexti Placiti Liber medicinae ex animalibus |language=la |series=Corpus medicorum latinorum |volume=IV |location=Leipzig |publisher=B. G. Teubner |year=1927}}
- de Vriend, Hubert Jan (ed.), The Old English Herbarium and Medicina de Quadrupedibus, The Early English Text Society, 286 (London: Oxford University Press, 1984). (Contains a Latin text alongside the Old English.)
- Kai Brodersen (2015). Apuleius, Heilkräuterbuch / Herbarius, Latin and German. Marix, Wiesbaden. {{ISBN|978-3-7374-0999-5}}
- Niles, John D. and Maria A. D'Aronco (ed. and trans.), Medical Writings from Early Medieval England, Volume I: The Old English Herbal, Lacnunga, and Other Texts, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 81 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2023). Old English and Modern English translation.
Sources
- Claudine A. Chavannes-Mazel, L. IJpelaar (eds), The Green Middle Ages. The Depiction and Use of Plants in the Western World, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2022. ISBN 978 94 6372 619 1. Dutch edition Lecturis 2016 and 2019. ISBN 978-94-6226-297-3
- {{Cite book |first=Minta |last=Collins |title=Medieval Herbals. The Illustrative Traditions |series=British Library Studies in Medieval Culture |publisher=University of Toronto Press |location=London |date=September 2000 |pages=165–220 |isbn=9780802083135}}
- {{cite book |first=Heide |last=Grape-Albers |title=Spätantike Bilder aus der Welt des Arztes. Medizinische Bilderhandschriften der Spätantike und ihre mittelalterliche Überlieferung |trans-title=Late Antiquity images from the world of the physician. Medical illuminated manuscripts of the late antiquity and medieval tradition| language=de |publisher=Guido Pressler |location=Wiesbaden |year=1977 |isbn=9783876460376}}
- {{cite book |first1=Stephanie |last1=Hollis |first2=Michael |last2=Wright |title=Old English prose of secular learning |url={{Google books|Jsat7SRTmxAC|page=319|plainurl=true}}|publisher=Brewer |location=Cambridge |year=1992 |isbn=9780859913430}}
- {{cite journal |first=Henry E. |last=Sigerist |author-link=Henry E. Sigerist |title=Zum Herbarius Pseudo-Apuleius |language=de |journal=Sudhoffs Archiv |volume=23 |year=1930 |pages=197–204}}
- {{cite journal |first=Charles |last=Singer |author-link=Charles Singer |title=The Herbal in the Antiquity |journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies |volume=XLVII |year=1927 |pages=1–52 (37–48)|doi=10.2307/625251 |jstor=625251 |s2cid=163356763 }}
- {{cite journal |first=Karl |last=Sudhoff |author-link=Karl Sudhoff |title=Szenen aus der Sprechstunde und bei Krankenbesuchen des Arztes in mittelalterlichen Handschriften |language=de |journal=Sudhoffs Archiv |volume=10 |year=1916 |pages=71–90}}
- {{cite journal |first=Georg |last=Swarzenski |title=Mittelalterliche Kopien einer antiken medizinischen Bilderhandschrift |language=de |journal=Jahrbuch des kaiserlichen deutschen archäologischen Instituts |volume=XVII |year=1902 |pages=45–53 |url=https://archive.org/stream/jahrbuchdeskaise17kaisrich#page/n55/mode/2up}}
References
{{reflist|2}}
External links
- {{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/claudiigalenilib00gale |title=Claudii Galeni pergameni liber de plenitudine; Polybus de salubri vistus ratione privatorum; Apuleius Platonicus de herbarum virtutibus; Antonii Benivenii libellus de adbditis nonnullis ac mirandis morborum et sanationum causis |language=la |year=1528}}
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