A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 1 (of 2) by Lynn Thorndike

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