Pseudo-Antonius Musa, De herba vettonica liber; Pseudo-Apuleius Platonicus, Herbarium or De medicaminibus herbarum liber, imperfect

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An illustrated herbal describing the healing properties of plants, including a short text on the properties of the herb betony, traditionally attributed to Antonius Musa, and a compilation of herbal remedies drawing from Greek and Latin sources, traditionally attributed to Apuleius Madaurensis or Apuleius Platonis. On paper, produced in Northern Italy, early 15th century. The manuscript is incomplete and its texts are out of sequence.
Contents:
1. ff. 1v-2v and 16r-v: Pseudo-Antonius Musa, De herba vettonica liber, a short treatise on the virtues and properties of the herb betony, imperfect. Traditionally attributed to Antonius Musa, the physician of Emperor Octavianus Augustus, it is in fact of unknown origin and dates to the 4th or 5th century AD: see M. Collins, Medieval Herbals: The Illustrative Traditions (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000), p. 166.
First printed without the prologue at the beginning of the Herbarium Apulei, as its first plant, by Johannes Philippus de Lignamine in Rome about 1481-82 (ISTC ih00058000), with woodblock engraving.
Listed in eTK, A digital resource based on Lynn Thorndike and Pearl Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin (Cambridge, MA: Mediaeval Academy, 1963; with supplements in 1965 and 1968; online at https://medievalacademy.site-ym.com/?page=Books#etk), no. 629L.
Edited in E. Howald and H. E. Sigerist, Antonii Musae De herba Vettonica liber. Pseudoapulei Herbarius. Anonymi De taxone liber. Sexti Placiti Liber medicinae ex animalibus, etc. (Lipsiae: Teubnerus, 1927), pp. 3-11.
In the present manuscript the prefatory letter is absent. The text ends with chapter 47, 'Ad podagram': see Howald and Sigerist, Antonii Musae De herba Vettonica liber …, p. 10.
For other manuscript copies of this treatise in the Wellcome Library, see MSS 573 (ff. 3v-6r, and 148v-149r; late 13th century) and 575 (ff. 1r-5r; late 15th century).
ff. 1v-2r: Incipit: Scolapius ubi legit vetonicam quam ipse inuenit / [f. 2r] Nomen herbe vetonice. / Omiseos dicunt cestros. Alij cironem uocant … / [H]Ec herba vetonica nascitur in pratis …
f. 2v: Breaks at: Ad tussim. Herbe vetonice uncias .ij. cum melle … [The text corresponds to chapter 19 in Howald and Sigerist, Antonii Musae De herba Vettonica liber … , p. 7].
f. 16r: Text continues : … [cum melle] accipiat per dies .9. …
f. 16v: Explicit: … Ad podagram … dolorem lenire experti affirmant.
2. ff. 3r-15v, 17r-52v: Pseudo-Apuleius Platonicus, Herbarium or De medicaminibus herbarum liber, incomplete and out of sequence. This herbal, traditionally attributed to Apuleius Madaurensis or Apuleius Platonis, is in fact a compilation of herbal remedies drawing from Greek and Latin sources put together by an anonymous compiler in the 4th century AD (about 350-395 AD), and possibly revised sometime in the 7th century: see G. Maggiulli and M.F. Buffa Giolito, L'altro Apuleio. Problemi aperti per una nuova edizione dell' 'Herbarius' (Naples: Loffredo Editore, 1996), pp. 11-32; M. Collins, Medieval Herbals ..., pp. 165-7.
First printed as part of the Herbarium Apulei by Johannes Philippus de Lignamine in Rome about 1481-82 (ISTC ih00058000), with woodblock engravings.
Edited in Howald and Sigerist, Antonii Musae De herba Vettonica liber …, pp. 15-225.
Listed in eTK as nos 117D, 117E and 535D for the prefatory letter.
The manuscript, damaged and probably incomplete, was disbound in the late 19th or early 20th century and reconstructed by rearranging and binding the leaves in single bifolia that do not respect the original textual sequence and collation (the only extant original bifolia are those formed of ff. 7-8 and 17-18). As a consequence the text is imperfect and out of sequence.
For other manuscript copies of this treatise in the Wellcome Library, see MSS 573 (ff. 6v-37r; late 13th century) and 575 (ff. 5v-52v; late 15th century).
f. 3r: Incipit: Epistola Platonici ad ciues suos / [A]polensis platon ad ciues suos. Ex pluribus paucas vires herbarum et curationem corporis ...
f. 50v: Breaking at: ... [Herba Diptamnum] ... mox pascitur sagitta excucietur plaga sanabitur eis pascendo diptamum [sic] herbe diptami [sic] et argimonie et ambrosie sucus eorum cum butiro plagas imponis miraberis in omnibus diptamum [sic]. [The text on this page corresponds to chapter 62 in Howald and Sigerist, Antonii Musae De herba Vettonica …, pp. 116-7; it is followed by the illustrations of peonia, atriplex, esula, aleluia panis cuculis and cardonus on ff. 50v-52r and an additional illustration of the sileris montanus on f. 52r (late 15th century)].

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Pseudo-Antonius Musa, De herba vettonica liber; Pseudo-Apuleius Platonicus, Herbarium or De medicaminibus herbarum liber, imperfect

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