A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 1 (of 2) by Lynn Thorndike
1888. Schanz (1905) 138, mentions only continental MSS, although there
1170 words | Chapter 90
are numerous MSS of it in the British Museum and Bodleian libraries,
some of which have been used and others described by O. Cockayne in his
edition of the _Herbarium_ and the other treatises accompanying it in
his _Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England_, Vol. I
(1864) in RS XXXV. Nor does Schanz note Cockayne’s book.
[2445] See Sloane 1975, a vellum MS of the 12th or early 13th century
written in fine large letters and beautifully illuminated; Ashmole
1431, end of 11th century, and 1462, 13th century, fol. 45r. Harleian
4986, Apuleii Platonici de medicamentis cum figuris pictis, is another
early illuminated English MS. Cockayne I, lxxxii, does not date it, but
the MSS catalogue lists it as tenth century. In CU Trinity 1152, 14th
century, James (III, 162-3) estimates the number of colored drawings as
between 800 and 1000; he describes only a few. Singer (1921) reproduces
a number of such illuminations from MSS of the _Herbarium_ and of
Dioscorides.
[2446] Lucca 236, 9-10th century, “Herbarium Apuleii Platonici
quem accepit a Chironi magistro Achillis et ab Escolapio explicit
feliciter.” In Cotton Vitellius C-III, early 11th century, in
Anglo-Saxon, although the title reads, “The Herbarium of Apuleius the
Platonist which he received from Esculapius and Chiron the centaur,
the master of Achilles,” a full page painting shows Plato and Chiron
receiving the volume from Aesculapius (Cockayne, I, lxxxviii). And
Sloane 1975 and Harleian 1585 speak of the _Herbarium_ as “Liber
Platonis Apoliensis.” In a 15th century MS (Rawlinson C-328, fol.
113v-, Incipit de herbis Galieni Apolei et Ciceronis) Galen and Cicero,
who perhaps replace Chiron and Aesculapius, are associated with
Apuleius as authors.
[2447] Daremberg (1853), 11-12, said that the pagan incantations
were preserved intact in a number of MSS at Oxford and Cambridge.
Conjurations of herbs are not limited to the Pseudo-Apuleius in
medieval MSS but sometimes occur singly as in Perugia 736, 13th
century, where at fol. 267 a 14th century hand has added a passage in
Latin which may be translated: “In the name of Christ, Amen. I conjure
you, herb, that I may conquer by lord Peter etc. by moon and stars etc.
and may you conquer all my enemies, pontiff and priests and all laymen
and all women and all lawyers who are against me etc.” In Sloane 1571,
15th century, fols. 1-6, at the close of fragments of a Latin-English
dictionary of herbs is a Latin prayer entitled, _Benedictio omnium
herbarum_.
[2448] The above passages are from Sloane 1975 and the edition of 1547.
[2449] Ashmole 1431, 11th century, fol. 3r, “In nomine domini incipit
herboralium apuleii platonis quod accepit ascolapio et chirone centauro
magistro. Lege feliciter. Precantatio omnium herbarum ad singulas
curas.” CU Trinity 1152, 14th century, fol. 1. Gonville and Caius 345,
14th century, fol. 89v.
[2450] Or Papyriensis Placitus.
[2451] Perhaps merely for “auctor.” ed. Fabricius, Bibl. Graec. XIII,
395-423, _Sexti Placiti liber de medicina ex animalibus_.
[2452] In Montpellier 277, 15th century, “Liber Sesti platonis de
animalibus,” perhaps because the Apuleius of the _Herbarium_ is
called a Platonist. In Digby 43, late 14th century, fol. 15, “Liber
Septiplanti Papiensis de bestiis et avibus medicinalis.” In Rawlinson
C-328, 15th century, fol. 128, “Incipit liber Papiriensis ex animalibus
ex avibus.” The work is sometimes found in juxtaposition with a
somewhat similar “Liber medicinalis de secretis Galieni,” concerning
which see below, chapter 64, II, 761.
[2453] V. Rose (1875) 337-8 suggests that this is a fragment from a
fuller work of Aesculapius to Augustus cited by Thomas of Cantimpré,
Albertus Magnus, and Vincent of Beauvais. See also Peter of Abano, _De
venenis_, cap. 5, “in epistola Esculapii philosophi ad Octavianum.” But
perhaps these writers refer to the entire work of Sextus Papirius.
[2454] Ed. Ruellius, with Scribonius Largus, Paris, 1529.
[2455] In a later medieval vocabulary _taxus_ is given as a synonym for
the animal called _camaleon_: _Alphita_, ed. Daremberg from BN 6954 and
6957 in De Renzi, _Collectio Salernitana_, III, 272-322.
[2456] Cotton Vespasian B, X, #6.
[2457] Harleian 3859, called tenth century in the Harleian catalogue
which is often incorrect in its dating, but 11th or 12th century
by d’Avezac, Mommsen in his edition of Solinus, and Beazley, _Dawn
of Geography_, I, 523. Royal 15-B-II and 15-C-IV, both of the 12th
century. For other MSS at Paris, Leyden, and Rome see Beazley, _op.
cit._
[2458] But after all is Suetonius any more respectable a historian than
Aethicus and Solinus are geographers?
[2459] Bunbury, _History of Ancient Geography_, II, Appendix: “How
M. Wuttke can attach any value to such a production is to me quite
incomprehensible; still more that he should ascribe the translation
to the great ecclesiastical writer,” Jerome. Bunbury believed that
the work was not earlier than the seventh century. Beazley, _Dawn of
Geography_, I, 355-63, is of the same opinion.
[2460] In his edition of Solinus, p. xxvii, he contends that certain
passages which Wuttke pointed out as common to Aethicus and Solinus are
borrowed by Aethicus from Isidore who died in 636.
[2461] Harleian 3859.
[2462] Steele, _Opera hactenus inedita_, 1905, Fasc. I, pp. 1-2.
[2463] CUL 213, 14th century, fols. 103v-14, “Qui hunc librum legit
intelligat Ethicum philosophum non omnia dixisse que hic scripta sunt,
set Solinus (so James, but _Jeronimus_ in d’Avezac, p. 237) qui eum
transtulit sententias veritati consonas ex libro eiusdem excerpsit et
easdem testimonias scripture nostre confirmavit. Non enim erat iste
philosophus Christianus sed Ethnicus et professione Achademicus.”
[2464] Bridges I, 267-8.
[2465] Cited by d’Avezac, pp. 257 and 267.
[2466] Vienna 2272, 14th century, fol. 92, De vindemiis a Burgundione
translatus: Pars Geoponicorum.
[2467] Such is the view set forth in PW _Geoponica_.
[2468] H. Beckh, _Geoponica sive Cassiani Bassi scholastici de re
rustica eclogae_, Lipsiae, Teubner, 1895. PW criticizes this edition as
“_leider völlig verfehlten_.” Its preface lists the earlier editions.
[2469] _Geoponica_, VII, 5; II, 15.
[2470] VII, 11; XV, 1.
[2471] I, 12; VII, 13; etc.
[2472] XV, 1.
[2473] R. Heim, _Incantamenta magica graeca latina_, in _Jahrb.
f. class. Philologie_, Suppl. Bd. 19, Leipzig, 1893, pp. 463-576,
drew from the _Geoponica_ 13 out of his total of 245 instances of
incantations from Greek and Latin literature.
[2474] VII, 14.
[2475] XIII, 15.
[2476] The first two volumes, published at Berlin in 1907, 1906,
covered the first four of the five genuine books. A previous attempt
was K. Sprengel’s edition in vols. 25-26 of C. J. Kühn’s _Medici
Graeci_, Leipzig, 1829. On the textual history and problems see further
Wellman’s articles: “Dioskurides” in Pauly-Wissowa, and in _Hermes_,
XXXIII, (1898) 360ff.
[2477] Περὶ βοτανῶν, περὶ ζῴων παντοίων, περὶ παντοίων ἐλαίων, περὶ
ὕλης δένδρων, περὶ οἴνων καὶ λίθων, is another order suggested.
[2478] The MS is said by Singer (1921) 60, to have now been removed
from Vienna to St. Mark’s Library at Venice; it was procured
from Constantinople in 1555 for the future Emperor Maximilian II
(1564-1576). A photographic copy was published in 1906 in the Leiden
Collection, _Codices Graeci et Latini_, by A. W. Sijthoff, with an
Reading Tips
Use arrow keys to navigate
Press 'N' for next chapter
Press 'P' for previous chapter