Collection ID: 0027 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

De virtutibus herbarum et aromatum

Authors

• Macer Floridus (Odo of Meung) (http://viaf.org/viaf/165437022)

Funders

• Council on Library and Information Resources

Call number

10a 159
(Philadelphia, United States, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia)

Alternate identifiers

• deRicci: 3
• Hirsch: 618

Publisher

Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia

Language

Latin

Origin

Place

Italy

Summary

A 15th-century Italian copy of Odo of Meung's De virtutibus herbarum et aromatum, an unillustrated text that describes the medicinal properties of 77 herbs and is written in Latin hexameter.

Extent

Iii + 41 + ii; 205×152mm bound to 213x160mm

Foliation

Foliated in contemporary red ink, 1–40, the last leaf and flyleaves foliated in modern pencil i–iii, 41–43

Collation

1-3 (10), 4 (11, +11)

Signatures

Some survive; in red ink

Support

Paper

Catchwords

Catchwords survive: 10v, 20v, 30v

Binding

Sewn on four bands and bound in 18th-century Italian plain green vellum over pasteboards, similar to the characteristic bindings of Carlo Archinto of Milan; the spine with single gilt fillets and a brown leather titlepiece lettered in gilt capitals "[M]acer / De / Virtut / Herbar", the edges of the leaves speckled red and brown; secundo folio: "Noxius et crudus"

Layout

Thirty-six lines per page; ruled in two columns throughout; written area: 161 x 115 mm

Script

Gothic

Provenance

• Copied and signed by "Christoforo B." in 1493: the first two colophons record that the first text was written from June 17 to 27, and the second in about seven hours, also on June 27; recorded in Colophons de manuscrits occidentaux des origins au XVIe siècle, I (Fribourg, 1965), p.330 no.2633; the reading and meaning of the third colophon (fol.40v) is unclear: in 1493 July 5 was indeed a Friday, but the feast of St Margaret the virgin martyr was normally on July 20 (which was a Saturday in 1493); Donato Ferdinando Antonio Silva (1690–1779), Count Silva, of Milan, naturalist; presumably bound for him (the binding is very similar to those on books from the library of Donato's Milanese fellow nobleman Carlo Archinto, 1670–1732, with whom he founded the Società Palatina); with a pointedoval or vesicaseal shaped armorial book stamp, c.58×38mm, lettered "Comes Donatus Silva" (closely comparable to that described by J. Gelli, 3500 ex libris italiani (Milan, 1908), p.376; this manuscript is doubtless the "Macri de virtutibus herbarum et aromatum … Ms. in4o sæculi XV.", p.49 no.295 in the "Nota delle edizioni del XV secolo e di antichi manoscritti … " (1810) in the middle of the Catalogo de' libri della Biblioteca Silva in Cinisello (Monza, 1811);3 inscribed in ink, 18th(?) century, perhaps by him, "M.S. sæc XV. / [?]oelen s [?] [?]oresice[?] Bened tus [?]"; thence to his nephew; Ercole Giuseppe de Silva (1756–1840), Conte di Biandrate; his sale at Paris, Catalogue de livres rares et précieux, imprimés et manuscrits … provenant de la bibliothèque de M. le comte H. de S*** de Milan … les lundi 15 et mardi 16 février 1869, lot 247 (bought by Gay, according to de Ricci); John Stockton Hough (1845–1900), M.D., of Philadelphia and Trenton, on whom see Fred B. Rogers and Thomas A. Horrocks, "Dr. John Stockton Hough: Medical Bibliophile and Bibliographer", Transactions and Studies of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 11, no.4 (December 1989), pp.355–61; this manuscript not identified in his handwritten catalogue of his library (College of Physicians, 10a. 157); inscribed in pencil with his(?) acquisition(?) price(?) and date(?): "26 fr / 1890" (fol.ir, upper left corner); with a purple inkstamp "Stockton-Hough / Library" (fols.ir, 1r); College of Physicians: Library bookplate stamped with the accession number "64919" and "Caspar Wistar Library Fund" and "By purchase", all in capitals, and inscribed with the cost "$2.00", stamped with the date "Sep 12 1901" (fol.1r); with a booklabel printed in capitals "From the / J. Stockton Hough / Library" (front pastedown)
   

Keywords

• Treatise
• 15th century
• Italy
• Italian
• Science
• Science -- Medicine
• Literature -- Poetry
• Paper

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 10a 159: De virtutibus herbarum et aromatum are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  To the extent possible under law, The Historical Medical Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia 10a 159: De virtutibus herbarum et aromatum. This work is published from: United States. For a summary of CC0, see https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Legal code: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode

Decorations

• fol. 27v — Manicule