Herbals: 16th cent.

Herbal in Italian. With an added collection of alchemical receipts and iatro-chemical remedies: also notes on conception, pregnancy, and astrology by Luigi Dardano. Written by various hands. Twelve leaves containing the alchemical receipts, etc. have been bound in between fol. 31 and fol. 32. There are 56 ll. containing water-colour drawings of medicinal plants. These are of a crude type, in the style of the early printed herbals: some have grotesque heads and faces included in the design. Each has a short description in Italian. The Index is on fol. 31 and fol. 32: it contains entries for the missing ff. 61, 62. Dardano's work is found on the versos of ff. 35-38, 40, 41, 43: at the end (fol. 43v) is a note 'Tutta l'antedetta dottrina e di Luigi Dardano Gran Canceliero del Senato Vinitiano'.

c. 1525-1575

1 volume 58 [62] + 12 ll. 4to. 211/2 x 14 cm. Modern vellum covers, with vellum ties. The first two leaves, and at least 2 leaves at the end are wanting: some leaves are frayed in the margins and stained.

The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

Purchased 1913.

Database description transcribed from S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973).