"The illuminated manuscript pages reproduced in this book are taken from three classic works of medieval science from the Bodleian Library, Oxford, England, the Austrian National Library in Vienna, Austria, and the Burger Bibiothek in Bern, Switzerland. The text commentaries, which are written in a highly readable and entertaining style, discuss the origin of each manuscript illustration, symbolic meanings associated with each plant or animal, healing powers ascribed to it and any medical properties modern science has established in it. An introductory essay describes the essential characteristics of medieval scientific thought." - publisher

The three manuscripts used are the Viennese Tacuinum (Cod. ser. nov. 2644), the Bern Physiologus (Codex Bongarsianus 318) and the Ashmole Bestiary (MS. Ashmole 1511).

96 pp. Color and black & white illustrations (many full page), bibliography.

Language: English

ISBN: 3-7913-2585-X