The pharmacopeia of Pedanius Dioscorides (20-70 ce), entitled Peri Ylis Ialikis (latinized as De Materia Medica, On Medical Matters)was written in Greek about the year 65. It was destined to be one of the most famous books on pharmacology and medicine but is also richin horticulture and plant ecology. An illustrated alphabetical version of Dioscorides’ manuscript was completed in Constantinople about 512. This magnificent volume was prepared and presented to the imperial Princess Juliana Anicia (462-527), daughter of the Emperor Anicius Olybrius, Emperor of the Western Roman Empire. The bound manuscript stored in Ōsterreichische National bibliothek in Vienna is available in facsimile and is now referred to as the Juliana Anicia Codex (JAC) or the Codex Vindobonensis Dioscorides. The JAC contains 383 paintings of plants including many horticultural crops, many of which can still be recognized in modern day examples. Ananalys is of the illustrations indicates that they were made by numerous artists of varying skills and it is probable that some were derived from an earlier lost version. The Codex Neapolitanus (NAP) (late 6th or early 7th century) which now contains 406 plant images on 172folios resides in the Biblioteca Nazionale, Naples is closely related to JAC, and is also available in facsimile editions. A comparison ofthe 352 common illustrations contained in both NAP and JAC suggests that many of the illustrations derived from a common source,perhaps an illustrated collection owned by Theodosius II, but the possibility also exists that some of the NAP images are direct copies of JAC images. There are 31 images in JAC which do not appear in NAP, 1 is a 13th century addition, 4 are images that can be assigned to2 torn pages. and 26 can be assigned to 11 missing leaves of the NAP. Of the 54 images in NAP which do not appear in JAC, 2 are likely to have been Mandragora included in lost folios in JAC, but the other 52 may include other images that existed in the common source. While common images in NAP and JAC are often very similar, 11.6% show substantially differences including variants of the same plant in different stages. Additional images in the archetypic source including different stages of the same plant could have provided the copyists working on JAC and NAP the opportunity to select different images to fulfill their commissions.
Plant illustrations were compared in three ancient illustrated recensions of the non-illustrated manuscript of Dioscorides titled ΠεÏί Ïλης ιατÏικής (De Materia Medica in Latin; On Medical Matters in English) written about the year 65: Juliana Anicia Codex (JAC) or Codex Vindobonensis produced in the year 512, Codex Neapolitanus (NAP) produced in the late 6th or early 7th century, and Morgan 652 (M652) produced between 927 and 985. M652 contains many illustrations that are similar to those of JAC, and it has long been evident that large parts of the M652 were based on the JAC or a precursor. NAP also appears to be a source in the creation of M652 since M652 contains several images that appear in NAP but not JAC, and when images are common in all three herbals about 19.3% of the M652 images are closer to NAP than JAC. We conclude that M652 illustrations are based on images from both JAC and NAP. A database of the three herbals is available online www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/herbalimages.
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