#Dioscorides

[lionofchaeronea]

A mad dog bites a man. Miniature (gouache, ink, and gold on paper) from an Arabic translation of Dioscorides' Materia Medica, with calligraphy by Abdallah ibn al-Fadl; written in 1224. Now in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Εκμαίνει χείλη με ῥοδόχροα, ποικιλόμυθα, ψυχοτακ

Dioscorides

I am driven mad by those rose-red, discursive, soul-melting lips…

[frrogiie]

Dioscorides and a companion collecting plants in bags, 1v

Dioscorides and Galen, 4v

Herbal in the tradition of Dioscorides, Manuscripts Oversize LJS 62

[upennmanuscripts]

Today's #FloraFriday is a page full of flowers - folio 9v in LJS 62, an herbal in the tradition of Dioscorides. Written in the eastern Mediterranean in the 15th century.

Online:

[florencebrennan]

I found out in the Dioscorides that parsley has sulfur as one of its mineral components... And it's traditionally used for hex-breaking where I live... I've had that little greeny in front of me the whole time and never thought about working with it... Behold parsley 🌿

[emvisual]

Este manuscrito, conocido como el Códice Bellunensis, es una adaptación de un antiguo trabajo del griego Dioscorides, De Materia Medica, pero también incluye observaciones sobre la flora local de los Dolomitas.

[reddirttown]

Language of Flowers: Rose Campion

In the language of flowers, the flower for today, October 20, is Rose Campion, which signifies gentleness. Image from Wikipedia. Silene coronaria, still sometimes called Lychnis coronaria in the UK, is a short-lived perennial of the pinks family that originally came from southwestern Europe but has been so long grown in gardens it is found in most temperate climates around the world. Image…

[cynthiabertelsen]

Tilting at Windmills with Don Quixote, Or, A Meditation on Spanish Herbals

  Illustration by Octavio Ocampo I’ll confess something here:  until just recently, I never read Don Quixote, except for snippets here and there. No, thanks to the preferences of my Spanish professors, instead I spent days swooning over the lyricism of poets Federico García Lorca and Pablo Neruda or stumbling through conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo’s account of Hernando Cortés’s conquest of…

[tinyshe]

Garden Report & Frugal Living 24.04.25

We have sproutage! These are the seeds from the report on the 12th of this month. The little sproutlings in the lean two are the yellow mangle root/golden beets, the poppies and the beans (the beans in the garden I'm afraid were preyed upon by ratses due to the obvious digging). I do need to purchase some garden pea seeds to get started!!

Today is more of a foraging day due to the incoming days of rain forcast: fir tips and thyme (yesterday was lilac blossoms). I am staring at the wild sorrel as it has bolted ... do I take it for seed or do I take it for root propagation and transplant it in my garden. I know... People are going 'dear heart, that's a weed'. A weed is just a plant that is where you don't want it. I wanted to collect a batch of dandelion flowers to try again to make dandelion wine but the heads just won't bloom in quanity this year. I know people say just throw them in the freezer but the freezer is small and packed with salmon I got on a great sale ... sorry but I have priorities when it comes to salmon! But I could make dandelion oil and later convert to salve. Or make dandelion vinegar. Or just dry the leaves and petals for tea. It will probably be the later as it is easiest for me to drop on a tray, turn the dial on the dehydrator, and walk away but I so like making tintures and other herbal concoctions. By the time my brain engaged into foraging mode, it was already too late for the willow bark and whips I was eyeing. The borage at home garden is racing along. I had plans to dry some leaf and some blossom. Again, funny looks but I'm on a 'classical' mission (that's the goal at least). Pliny the Elder and Pedanius Dioscorides wrote that borage was used to "exhilarate the mind", "comfort the heart", "drive sorrow away", and thereby increase one's general happiness. I can get on board for that! Once again I will keep my eyes open for fireweed so I can make Ivan tea as this is the year to resupply.

Okay my foraging compatriots, tell me what you are foraging or interest be! I'm trying to regain some spark instead of letting go and tired of fighting so striking a middle of the pathway here.

[publicdomainreview]

One of many wonderful full-page watercolour illustrations in a 16th-century edition of Pedanius Dioscorides’s work on herbal medicine, De Materia Medica (ca. 80 AD). More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/watercolours-from-a-16th-century-de-materia-medica

[margocooper]

Девясил высокий (лат. Ínula helénium)  —  вид  многолетних  растений рода Девясил (Inula) семейства Астровые (Asteraceae). Он относится к древним лекарственным растениям, которые применяли врачи эпохи Гиппократа, Диоскорида, Плиния. Растение использовалось в практике Авиценны.

Elecampane (lat. Ínula helénium) is a species of perennial plant of the genus Inula (Inula) of the Asteraceae family. It belongs to the ancient medicinal plants that were used by doctors of the era of Hippocrates, Dioscorides, and Pliny. The plant was used in the practice of Avicenna.

[zerogate]

Narrations about psychotropic plant usage and intoxication from ancient writers like Theophrastus, Pliny, Dioscorides, Athenaeus, and Plutarch reveal that drugs were used in different recreational settings.

These authors tell stories of wild parties lasting all day, multiday parties, deadly drinking contests, and the use of funnels to accelerate drinking. There are stories about people using psychotropics for artistic and intellectual inspiration. Some people were famous for using substances all day as a lifestyle choice. There are scenes where shepherds are hanging around the drug dealers in the markets having contests of drug usage. There were taverns, inns, and wine bars, where people consumed wine and psychotropic substances at all hours. Extracts and raw materials of psychoactive plants were available for sale at the open markets of the ancient world. Drug dealers sold the items and gave advice about using them. Drugs often contained multiple ingredients and were adulterated. Some items, like frankincense and myrrh, were imported to Greece and Rome through trade routes.

-- Alan Sumler, Intoxication in the Ancient Greek and Roman World

[archivist-dragonfly]

Book 536

Herbal

Joseph Wood Krutch

David R. Godine 1976

This oversized paperback is kind of an odd duck. A kind of compendium of herbal lore, science, and art, this book presents a list of 100 plants and six animals along with some random facts, history, science, philosophy, and even humor. Each entry is accompanied by an illustration taken from the 16th century folio, Commentaries on the Six Books of Dioscorides, by Pierandrea Mattioli. The illustrations are generally attributed to Giorgio Liberale and Wolfgang Meyerpeck, but there seems to be a bit of dissent regarding that. Whoever made them, they are lovely and mostly the reason why I bought the book. Originally published in 1965, this 1976 paperback is printed on two different colors of paper. It’s a wonderful effect, and it’s a shame more books aren’t printed this way anymore.

[lucifersgurl444]

Tips for magical ink 🖋️

Wormwood allegedly possesses the magic power to provide protection for the written word from all sorts of dangers spiritual and magical as well as the verminous kind with little teeth. Dioscorides recommended adding wormwood juice to ink in order to keep mice away from papyrus.

[upennmanuscripts]

Manuscript Monday: LJS 447 - [Masālik al-abṣār fī mamālik al-amṣār]. (Video Orientation)

Dot Porter, SIMS Curator of Digital Humanities, presents a Video Orientation to the University of Pennsylvania Library’s LJS 447, descriptions and illustrations of domestic and wild animals, birds, insects, marine animals, plants, stemless plants, and herbs. Sources include Dioscorides, Galen, and Ibn al-Bayṭār. The larger, encyclopedic work of which the text of this manuscript is a part, also…

[theblackdahliaemporium]

Herbalism 101: Mullein Leaf

Fun fact: Mullein is a member of the Snap Dragon Family.

The Mullein plant has been around for years and has more than 200 species. The most popular type is common mullein (Verbascum Thapsus.) the leaves harvested near the bottom of the plant and used either dried or fresh.

Mullein flowers and leaves were used on animals and people for a variety of issues:

Cough

Congestion

Bronchitis

Asthma

Constipation

Pain

Inflammation

Migraine

Sleep

Gout

By the late 1800s, mullein became a popular treatment for people with tuberculosis in Europe, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Keep in mind that many of the benefits of mullein are based on anecdotal experiences. More human clinical studies are needed to understand the benefits of this herb. -Healthline

Mullein leaf is sold in various forms:

Tea

Extract

Oil

Powder

Capsule

Elixir

Some can be made into creams.

Some herbalists recommend mullein for respiratory and inflammatory conditions, but there is not enough scientific evidence of its effectiveness. -Healthline

Dioscorides, a Greek physician pharmacologist and botanist, practicing in the 1st century in Rome, who authored the herbal De Materia Medica, was one of the first to recommend mulleins use in lung conditions around 2,000 years ago. It was used as a hair wash in ancient Roman times; the leaf ash to darken hair, and the yellow flowers for lightening it. The leaves were dried, rolled and used as wicks for candles and the entire dried flowering stalks were dipped in tallow and used for torches, hence the names 'candlewick plant' or 'torches'. According to Maida Silverman in her book A City Herbal, " The great respect and love formerly accorded to mullein can be inferred from the number and variety of the folk names for it." -Mountain Rose herbs.

Mullein leaf, flower, and root, with its litany of folk uses ranging from 'nature's toilet paper' to an effective apotropaic (fancy word meaning that which wards off evil spirits), have been used extensively in folk medicine. Its magical qualities were numerous, going beyond simply warding off evil but also was thought to instill courage and health, provide protection, and to attract love. In fact, it was believed that wearing mullein would ensure fertility and keep potentially dangerous animals at bay while trekking along in the wilderness. Further, allegedly a practice for men in the Ozark mountains to attract love consisted of simply pointing the mullein's flowering stalk towards the direction of his love's house and seeing if the stalk went upright again indicating her reciprocated love. Mullein, like so many herbs of European origin, was introduced by the colonists and then incorporated into the Native American healing tradition. The root was made into a necklace for teething infants by the Abnaki tribe, the Cherokee applied the leaves as a poultice for cuts and swollen glands, and other tribes rubbed the leaves on the body during ritual sweat bathes. Additionally, the flowers were used internally as teas and topically as poultices. The Navajos smoked mullein, referring to it as "big tobacco" and the Amish were known to partake as well. Presently, mullein can be found at health food stores often prepared as soothing leaf tea or an ear oil made of the infused flowers. -mountainroseherbs

According to King's American dispensatory (a book first published in 1854 that covers the uses of herbs used in American medical practice), "upon the upper portion of the respiratory tract its influence is pronounced." Mullein was prescribed by Eclectic Physicians (a branch of American medicine popular in the 1800-early 1900's which made use of botanical remedies) who considered it to be an effective demulcent and diuretic, and a mild nervine "favoring sleep." -Mountain Rose herbs.

DISCLAIMER: Precautions Small hairs on mullein leaf may cause mechanical irritation in the mouth and throat if not filtered out of extracts prior to consumption. We recommend that you consult with a qualified healthcare practitioner before using herbal products, particularly if you are pregnant, nursing, or on any medications.