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Pseudo Apuleius

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Pseudo-Apuleius is the name given to the author of a 4th-century herbal known as Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarius or Herbarium Apuleii Platonici. He is not identical with Apuleius of Madaura (124–170), the Roman poet and philosopher. Little or nothing else is known of Pseudo-Apuleius apart from this. The oldest surviving manuscript of the Herbarium is 6th-century Leiden, MS. Voss. Q.9. Until the 12th century it was the most influential herbal in Europe, with numerous extant copies surviving into the modern era. Thereafter it was more or less displaced by the Circa instans, a herbal produced at the school of Salerno. "Pseudo-Apuleius" is also used as a shorthand generic term to refer to the manuscripts and derived works.

Contents

Text

The text of Pseudo-Apuleius herbarius is based on late antique sources, especially on historia naturalis of Pliny and on de materia medica of Dioscorides. Scholars agree that the herbarius was compiled in the 4th century, according to Sigerist (1930, p. 200) from Latin, according to Singer (1927, p. 37) from Greek sources. Each of the 128 up to 131 chapters of the book (the number varying between manuscripts) dealt with one medical plant. In these chapters the name of the plant was followed by the enumeration of indications in the form of recipes and by synonyms of the plants name.

For example: Chapter 89, Herba millefolium (Edition of Howald/Sigerist 1927):

Manuscripts

In the codices the Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarius was combined with other treatises:

  1. De herba vettonica. Treatise dealing with the herb Stachys officinalis. It was falsely ascribed to Antonius Musa, physician of the Roman emperor Augustus.
  2. Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarius.
  3. De taxone liber. Anonymous treatise on the use of the European badger in medicine.
  4. Liber medicinae ex animalibus ascribed to an unknown Roman physician named "Sextus Placitus Papyriensis".
  5. A-version with 12 chapters about quadrupeds.
  6. B-version with 31 chapters about quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, spiders, insects and humans.
  7. (Pseudo-)Dioscorides de herbis femininis. According to Riddle written before the 6th century in South-Europe.
  8. Precatio terrae matris (Incantation of the mother of earth) and Precatio omnium herbarum (Incantation of all herbs).

Howald and Sigerist (edition 1927, V–XVI) divided the codices into 3 classes (α, β and γ) according to the varying mixture of these treatises in the codices:

  • α-class containing parts 1, 2, 3, 4a and 5, moreover better synonyms than in the β-class-texts and no interpolations. The α-class is considered to be the class with the best text-tradition.
  • β-class containing parts 1, 2, 3, 4b, 5 and 6, moreover interpolations. The ß-class is considered to be the class with the best illustrations.
  • γ-class containing parts 1, 2 and 6, without the interpolations of the β-class. γ-class contains the oldest manuscripts.

    • Singer (1927), Grape-Albers (1977, pp. 2–5) and Collins (2000) cited more manuscripts:

  • St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. 217, 9th century.
  • London, British Museum, MS. Harley 585, 11th – 12th century.
  • London, British Museum, MS. Harley 1585, 12th century.
  • London, British Museum, MS. Harley 5294, 12th century.
  • London, British Museum, MS. Harley 6258 B, 12th century.
  • London, British Museum, MS. Sloane 1975, 12th century.
  • Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Ashmole 1431, 11th century.
  • Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Ashmole 1462, 12th century.
  • Turin, Bibliotheca Universitaria, MS. K IV 3, 11th century, destroyed by fire.

    • Several more manuscripts can be added (see Mylène Pradel-Baquerre 2013 and Claudine Chavannes-Mazel 2016):

  • Leiden, University Library, MS BPL 1283, c 1300 (related to Lucca)
  • Leiden, University Library, MS Voss.Lat.Qu. 13, 10th century (Anglo-Saxon group)
  • Leiden, University Library, MS Voss.Lat.Qu. 40, 11th century (German group)
  • Montpellier, Bibliothèque de l'Ecole de Médecine, MS 277, 15th century
  • The Hague, Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum MS 10 D 7, 10th century (alpha group)

    • Incunabula and early printings

    Based on a 9th-century manuscript of Monte Cassino the first incunable of Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarius was printed in Rome in 1481.

    The first printing in northern Europe was done 1537 in Zürich.

    Editions

  • Cockayne, Oswald (1864). Leechdoms Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England Being a Collection of Documents, for the Most Part Never Before Printed Illustrating the History of Science in this Country Before the Norman Conquest. Rerum Britannicarum Medii Ævi Scriptores (Rolls Series). I. London.  (London, British Library, MS Cotton Vitellius C. iii – 11. Jh. - as groundwork for this edition.)
  • Howald, Ernst; Sigerist, Henry E. (1927). "Antonii Musae De herba vettonica, Liber Pseudo-Apulei her-barius, Anonymi De taxone liber, Sexti Placiti Liber medicinae ex animalibus". Teubner. Corpus medicorum latinorum (in Latin). IV. Leipzig. 
  • Kai Brodersen (2015). Apuleius, Heilkräuterbuch / Herbarius, Latin and German. Marix, Wiesbaden. ISBN 978-3-7374-0999-5

    • References

    Pseudo-Apuleius Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA