The Naples Dioscurides, in the Biblioteca Nazionale,

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...

(MS Suppl. gr. 28), is an early 7th-century secular

illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, th ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

herbal. The book has 172 folios and a page size of 29.7 x 14 cm (11 11/16 x 5 1/2 inches) and the text is a redaction of ''

De Materia Medica (Latin name for the Greek work , , both meaning "On Medical Material") is a pharmacopoeia of medicinal plants and the medicines that can be obtained from them. The five-volume work was written between 50 and 70 CE by Pedanius Dioscorides, ...

'' by the 1st century Greek military physician

Dioscorides Pedanius Dioscorides ( grc-gre, Πεδάνιος Διοσκουρίδης, ; 40–90 AD), “the father of pharmacognosy”, was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of '' De materia medica'' (, On Medical Material) —a 5-vo ...

, with descriptions of plants and their medicinal uses. Unlike ''De Materia Medica'', the text is arranged alphabetically by plant. The patron who commissioned it and the craftsmen who worked on the manuscript have not been identified. The style of Greek script used in the manuscript indicates that it was probably written in Byzantine-ruled southern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, where ancient Greek cultural traditions remained strong, although it is not known exactly where it was produced. The

codex The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...

derives independently from the same model as the

Vienna Dioscurides The Vienna Dioscurides or Vienna Dioscorides is an early 6th-century Byzantine Greek illuminated manuscript of an even earlier 1st century AD work, '' De materia medica'' (Περὶ ὕλης ἰατρικῆς : Perì hylēs iatrikēs in the ori ...

, which was created ca. 512 for a Byzantine princess, but differs from it significantly. Additionally, in the Naples manuscript, the illustrations occupy the top half of each folio, rather than being full page miniatures as in the Vienna Dioscurides. The script is somewhat rough and uneven, and the painting style of the miniatures less precise and naturalistic than the Vienna manuscript, indicating a certain falling-off in standards.

History

Origin

The Naples Dioscurides is derived from the first-century manuscript ''

,'' written by

Pedanius Dioscorides Pedanius Dioscorides ( grc-gre, Πεδάνιος Διοσκουρίδης, ; 40–90 AD), “the father of pharmacognosy”, was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of '' De materia medica'' (, On Medical Material) —a 5-vo ...

, a Greek physician in the Roman army.Weitzmann, 206 ''De Materia Medica'' was an encyclopedia focused on medicines that could be derived from herbs, plants, minerals, and animals. It was widely distributed throughout the ancient Mediterranean, and remained in use for centuries. Despite the fall of the Western Roman Empire, its Eastern counterpart remained strong, keeping the traditions of Rome alive. By the time of the writing of the Naples Dioscurides, the manuscript had remained popular amongst the Byzantines and the newly powerful Islamic Empires. The secular subject of ''De Materia Medica'' kept the overall Christianization of Europe from significantly affecting the manuscript. Art historians can study the original ''De Materia Medica'' through medieval manuscripts (though the Naples Dioscurides is not an exact copy). ''De Materia Medica'' was still a highly influential manuscript, and by the seventh century, was still being widely read by the Byzantine Empire and their satellite states. One of these states, the

Duchy of Naples The Duchy of Naples ( la, Ducatus Neapolitanus, it, Ducato di Napoli) began as a Byzantine province that was constituted in the seventh century, in the reduced coastal lands that the Lombards had not conquered during their invasion of Italy in ...

, retained a Greek-influenced culture. The population spoke and wrote in Greek, a reference to Naples's roots as an Ancient Greek colony.

Attribution

The scribe and the illuminator behind the Naples Dioscurides are lost to history. What is known is quite limited, though this is common with many manuscripts. Art historians believe the manuscript was manufactured in Italy, around the beginning of the early seventh century. However, its geographical origin in Italy is unclear, though likely an area of Italy strongly influenced by Byzantium. The manuscript is written in Ancient Greek, which was still a language spoken in the Duchy of Naples.

Provenance

For several centuries, the Naples Dioscurides was held at the Augustine monastery,

San Giovanni a Carbonara San Giovanni a Carbonara is a Gothic church in Naples, Southern Italy. It is located at the northern end of via Carbonara, just outside what used to be the eastern wall of the old city. The name ''carbonara'' (meaning "coal-carrier") was given t ...

in the

Kingdom of Naples The Kingdom of Naples ( la, Regnum Neapolitanum; it, Regno di Napoli; nap, Regno 'e Napule), also known as the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was ...

. Marginal notes indicate that the manuscript had contact with the medical school at Salerno in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The manuscript was taken to Vienna in 1718 by the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 unt ...

, which controlled the

following the

Treaty of Rastatt The Treaty of Rastatt was a peace treaty between France and Austria that was concluded on 7 March 1714 in the Baden city of Rastatt to end the War of the Spanish Succession between both countries. The treaty followed the Treaty of Utrecht of 11 A ...

of 1714. The Naples Dioscurides was then housed in the Viennese Court Library, owned by the ruling

Habsburg Dynasty The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...

. The Naples Dioscurides was preserved at the Viennese Court Library for 200 years, and was returned to Naples in 1919. The manuscript was returned to the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to ...

by the

Austro-Hungarian Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1 ...

monarch following the peace talks of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. It was returned to the Biblioteca Nazionale, where it is kept today. The Naples Dioscurides was exhibited at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in a show entitled, "Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition," from March 12, 2012- July 8, 2012. A luxurious facsimile has been published by Salerno Editrice, Rome, in collaboration with Akademische Druck of Graz, Austria, publishers of a comparable facsimile of the Vienna Dioscurides.

Description

Blite_and_blackberry_Naples_Dioscorides_65

The Naples Dioscurides comprises 172 folios with an approximate page size of 29.7 x 14 cm (11 11/16 x 5 1/2 inches). Not all folios are exactly the same size. The medium of the Naples Dioscurides is ink and parchment on vellum. The arrangement of the manuscript differs from the original ''De Materia Medica'' heavily. Whereas the ''De Materia Medica'' features plants, animals, and minerals, the Naples Dioscurides only features plants. It should also be noted that instead of five volumes, the Naples Dioscurides is only one. Unlike other Dioscurides, the Naples Dioscurides lists plants in alphabetical order, more in keeping with the format of a manual than the original. The plant descriptions are recorded below the illustration in two or three rather narrow columns, recalling the arrangement the earliest

scroll A scroll (from the Old French ''escroe'' or ''escroue''), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing. Structure A scroll is usually partitioned into pages, which are sometimes separate sheets of papyrus ...

version of the work would have had, before the

form became near-universal.

Composition

The composition of the Naples Dioscurides differs greatly from its predecessor, ''De Materia Medica,'' and its contemporary, the

. The Vienna Dioscurides is closer to the original text than the Naples Dioscurides. It also predates the Naples Dioscurides by one hundred years. The Vienna Dioscurides retains descriptions of animal and mineral medicine. It also differs in that it includes references to Pedanius Dioscorides through two author portraits, which are absent on the Naples Dioscurides. In fact, other copies of the Dioscurides are all much closer to the original, with only the Naples example as the outlier. Another major difference between the manuscripts is the way they are illustrated. The Naples Dioscurides features illustrations that take up one-half to two-thirds of the page. The uses of the plants are written underneath. The illustrations of the Vienna Dioscurides are full page illustrations, in contrast. A possible reason why the Naples Dioscurides only features plant information may lie with its intended use. Rather than focus on wonderfully illustrated pictures and artistic value, as the Vienna Dioscurides does, the Naples Dioscurides may have had a more practical purpose. A competing explanation for the manuscript states that it was intended as a manual rather than a gift or as part of a royal collection. This theory has some weight to it, given the fact that its sister manuscript, the Vienna Dioscurides, was manufactured for a Byzantine princess and was housed in a royal library. The Vienna Dioscurides is more richly illustrated and decorated compared to the Naples Dioscurides. The images of the Naples Dioscurides were painted naturalistically in contrast to the images of the Vienna Dioscurides. In contrast, the Naples Dioscurides was housed in a monastery, where it most likely would have served a practical purpose as a plant guide for monks. The manuscript may also have been used in the education of doctors, as marginal notes indicate that it was loaned to the Medical School of Salerno.Director of the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, Sir Arthur Hill noted the fact that some copies of the Dioscurides held by monasteries were still actively used by the nineteenth century. With this in mind, it would appear that the Naples Dioscurides most likely served a practical purpose as a book to be read and used, rather than as a gift for royalty.

Gallery

File:Of Medical Substances WDL10690.jpg, Leather Binding of the Naples Dioscurides File:Anagallis Naples Dioscorides.jpg, Anagallis, also known as Pimpernel File:59- Dioscoride VII sec.jpg, Assorted Plants

Notes

References

*Crinelli, Lorenzo. ''Treasures from Italy's Great Libraries''. New York, The Vendome Press, 1997. * *Hill, Arthur. "Preface" in Turrill, William Bertram. "A contribution to the botany of Athos Peninsula." Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew) 1937.4 (1937): 197. *Janick, Jules and Kim E. Hummer. "The 1500th Anniversary (512-2012) of the Juliana Anicia Codex: An Illustrated Dioscoridean Recension. Chronica horticulturae. 52(3) 2012 pp. 9-15 * *“The Naples Dioscurides, The Met.” ''Metmuseum.org'', 2012, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/477160. * Weitzmann, Kurt, ed.,
Age of spirituality: late antique and early Christian art, third to seventh century
', no. 180, 1979,

, New York, {{ISBN, 9780870991790; full text available online from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries 7th-century illuminated manuscripts Biology books Scientific illuminated manuscripts Byzantine illuminated manuscripts