[A medieval herbal from the 14th century, a new version of the Latin Macer?].
A medical compendium of "Melleus liquorphysicae artis" has survived under the name Alexander Hispanus; it is in codex Ms. 8769 of the Biblioteca nacional in Madrid. Therein a herbal from the 14th century is integrated. However, today people must think that we have one herbal and two authors: Alexander Hispanus and Henrik Harpestraeng (died 1244), a physician from Scandinavia. First of all, the parts of the medical compendium are presented. We do not know which parts originally belong to the medical compendium. The examination of many handwritings suggested that the discourses about consumption and dropsy were not originally included in the compendium; that seems certain. Further it was shown that probably Alexander Hispanus did not live after all and we must see him as a fictional person. Nevertheless we should not automatically regard Henrik Harpestraeng as the author of the herbal although it contains typical plants of the North like Angelica. The oldest codex of the herbal was probably written in Bavaria or Austria because it contains old Bavarian words. This handwriting can be seen as a piece of evidence that the knowledge about Angelica was spreading from the South. We should explore the connection with handwritings of the Macer, too. The herbal could be a Latin version of the Macer, in which the original verses are abandoned. An analysis of the medical plants made it clear that the herbal is probably directed to a male readership. Especially the chapter on Galganum elucidates that. In the 14th century Galganum was thought to have a contraceptive effect, but this was kept secret from women! All in all the structure of the herbal suggests a use as a kind of reference book that was not used daily though.
Mauch
Ute
U
utemauch@t-online.de
D001319:Authorship; D005060:Europe; D029001:Herbal Medicine / Q000266:history*; D049668:History, 15th Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans; D008374:Manuscripts, Medical as Topic / Q000266:history*