The Alsace circa instans - De simplici medicina

The Alsace circa instans - De simplici medicina is an extraordinary herbarium that was created around 1450 in East Central Germany. Its pages are dominated by unusually detailed and finely executed plant illustrations in every shade of green – with the exception of fol. 1r, each page features at least four plants. An impressive total of 313 miniatures are spread across just 66 pages. The high-quality images are reminiscent of dry-pressed plants and thus correspond to the typical pictorial tradition of medieval herbariums. The accompanying short texts were written on the parchment in two columns around the images by the so-called Wellcome scribe after the illuminations. About half of the texts originate from the famous medical handbook by Matthäus Platearius, which we know today as Circa instans or De simplicibus medicinis and which is one of the most influential works of the prestigious School of Salerno. The remaining texts contain little more than the names of the respective plants. Nevertheless, all drugs are arranged alphabetically, which makes the manuscript a wonderful and, above all, visual reference work.