#ljs278

[upennmanuscripts]

A really incredible illustration of sap-tapping from p. 243 of LJS 278, a 16C herbal that originates from India and is a translation (into many different languages!) of Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica.

Manuscript description and digital images can be found here at OPenn, and you can download an ebook version here.

[upennmanuscripts]

Illustrations of plants from LJS 278, Kitāb-i ḥashāʼish (a translation of De Materia Medica), an illustrated herbal by Pedanius Dioscorides of Anazarbos. The manuscript has detailed descriptions in multiple languages (but all written in the Persian nastaʻlīq script) of the physical appearance and the medicinal effect of many plants, as well as some trees, minerals, and substances derived from animals. The manuscript is not complete: it comprises text and illustrations from parts of Chapter 1, substantial parts of Chapters 2-4, and parts of Chapter 5. Many leaves have extensive repairs at the edges or corners. The manuscript seems never to have been bound. It was written in Deccan, India (attributed by Simon Digby, linguist and historian of India), in Muharram A.H. 1004 (September 1595).

Manuscript description and digital images: http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/LJSchoenbergManuscripts/html/ljs278.html