About this Item

Title
On Plants.

Other Title
Historia Plantarum

Summary
Historia Plantarum (On Plants) is a natural science encyclopedia in which animals, plants, and minerals are illustrated and described for their medicinal properties. It follows the medieval tradition of tacuina medievali (health handbooks), from which the codex derives its common name, Tacuinum sanitatis.

The work was originally compiled as Taqwim al-Sihhah (The Maintenance of Health) by the 11th-century Baghdad physician Ibn Butlan. One of his primary Greek sources was Dioscorides, a first-century physician. A Latin translation was commissioned by the Sicilian court in the mid-13th century.

The manuscript is divided into alphabetically ordered sections, each decorated with elaborate architectural motifs resembling branching forms highlighted with gold. The text is richly illustrated with miniatures created in the Northern Italian Lombard style, primarily by Giovannino de’ Grassi and Salomone de’ Grassi. These illustrations depict animals, plants, minerals, and tools, rendered in watercolor or line drawings, typically positioned at the top of each page.

Each section begins with an ornate initial letter, often containing figures of scholars or physicians depicted in half-length portraits, framed by decorative friezes, architectural designs, and figures of humans and animals. Chapter initials are illuminated in gold on blue backgrounds, while simpler initials and paragraph markers appear in red and blue. Many pages feature phytomorphic (plant-like) and zoomorphic (animal-like) decorative elements.

The codex was created at the Visconti court in Milan for King Wenceslas IV of the House of Luxembourg, who ruled Bohemia from 1378 to 1419, was King of Germany from 1376 to 1400, and was emperor-elect of the Holy Roman Empire. Duke Giangaleazzo Visconti presented the manuscript to Wenceslas around 1396–1397.

On folio 1r, a large portrait shows Wenceslas among the six electors of the Holy Roman Empire, surrounded by the three theological virtues and four cardinal virtues. Later, King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (reigned 1458–1490) inherited the codex and added it to his renowned library, the Bibliotheca Corviniana, inserting his coat of arms over the original Luxembourg emblem.

Only traces remain of the original binding, which was produced in Buda at the end of the 15th century. The exact date when the manuscript entered the Bibliotheca Casanatense is unknown. Due to the absence of records between the death of Cardinal Girolamo Casanate in 1700 and its appearance in a 1744 catalog, it is likely that the codex originated from his collection.

Names
Dioscorides Pedanius of Anazarbos, contributor
Grassi, Giovannino de’ (circa 1340–1398), illuminator
Grassi, Salomone de’ (active 1399–1400), illuminator

Created / Published
Milan, Italy: [publisher not identified], [1395 to 1400]