Macer Floridus

Title page of a 16th century printed edition

De Viribus Herbarum (On the properties of plants), also known by the author's pseudonym, Macer Floridus, is a Latin hexameter poem on the properties of herbs. It was written, probably by Odo of Meung-sur-Loire, in the 11th century. ^[1] It was still in scholarly use as late as the 16th century, but was superseded by more comprehensive herbals. ^[1]

Translations

The herbal was translated first into Hebrew, then also German, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, English, French, Italian, and Spanish. ^[1]

A Middle English version of the poem was translated by John Lelamour, a schoolmaster from Hereford, in the fourteenth century. ^{[2] [3]}

Sources

The original poem lists 77 plants and their properties; it is accompanied by 20 additional items known as "Spuria", which were added later. The ultimate source of most of the information is Pliny's Historia naturalis , though Odo may have come to this information second-hand, possibly through the Roman writer Gargilius Martialis. ^{[4] : 395–396}

See also

• Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum
• Treatise on Herbs

Further reading

• Flood, Bruce P. (1976). "The Medieval Herbal Tradition of Macer Floridus". Pharmacy in History. 18 (2): 62–66. ISSN   0031-7047.
• Schnell, Bernhard; Crossgrove, William, eds. (2003-12-31). Der deutsche >Macer< (Vulgatfassung) - Mit einem Abdruck des lateinischen Macer Floridus >De viribus herbarum. DE GRUYTER. doi:10.1515/9783110911763. ISBN   978-3-484-36050-1.
• Macer; Calle Martín, Javier; Miranda García, Antonio (2012). The Middle English version of De viribus herbarum: (GUL MS Hunter 497, ff. 1r-92r): edition and philological study. Late Middle English texts. University of Glasgow. Bern; New York: P. Lang. ISBN   978-3-0343-0697-3.
• Hunt, Tony; Macer; Princeton University, eds. (2008). An Old French herbal (MS Princeton U.L. Garrett 131). Textes vernaculaires du Moyen Âge. Turnhout: Brepols. ISBN   978-2-503-52881-6. OCLC   430806089.
• Moreno Olalla, David (2013). "The Textual Transmission of the Northern Macer Tradition" . English Studies. 94 (8): 931–957. doi:10.1080/0013838X.2013.839134. ISSN   0013-838X.

References

1. Crossgrove, William C. (2010). "Macer Floridus". The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages (1 ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780198662624.001.0001. ISBN   978-0-19-866262-4.
2. Moreno Olalla, David (2017-12-25). Lelamour Herbal (MS Sloane 5, ff. 13r–57r). Peter Lang CH. doi:10.3726/b11857. ISBN   978-3-0343-3157-9.
3. Moreno Olalla, David (2017-11-10). "Reconstructing 'John Lelamour's' Herbal: The Linguistic Evidence" . Anglia. 135 (4): 669–699. doi:10.1515/ang-2017-0067. ISSN   1865-8938.
4. Flood, Bruce P. (1977). "Pliny and the Medieval 'Macer' Medical Text" . Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. XXXII (4): 395–402. doi:10.1093/jhmas/XXXII.4.395. ISSN   0022-5045.

External links

• Beinecke MS 823, a fully digitized twelfth-century copy of De Viribus Herbarum
• A digitized copy of the first printed edition (Naples, 1477)
• Choulant, Johann Ludwig, ed. (1832). De viribus herbarum. Lipsiae : Leopoldi Vossii., a critical edition of the poem