Page f1v
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Identification
Title: "Petersen's belladonna"
Page: f1v = AB (Rene) = p002 (Stolfi)
Folio: f1
Panels: f1v
Bifolio: bA1 = f1+f8
Quire: A (Rene) = I (Beinecke)
Attributes
Language: A (Currier)
Hand: 1 (Currier)
Subsets: H (Rene), hea (Stolfi)
Subject: herbal
Colors: green,tan (Reeds), green,faded_yellow (Rene)
Plant: 1 (Petersen)
Description
There is one plant drawing, centered on page.
Root: a knobby, warped, pancanke-like tuber with
short roots attached like claws or fangs
all around the rim. Light color.
Stem: thick, well drawn. Light color.
Branches: one straight up, two oblique with drooping tips.
Leaves: broad lance-shape, with two short tails.
Stalk: short.
Flowers: one, growing at the tip of the center branch.
Stalk: very short. Chalyx:
conical, continuous with petals. Petals: short rounded,
light-colored. Core: hemispherical, dark-colored
(could be a berry; see below).
Tere are two paragraphs (unit P) with 3.8 and 5.8 lines, just
below mid-page, left- and right-justified, interrupted by the
plant's main stem.
Comments
Part of this drawing (root and leaves only) is repeated on
Pharma page f102r1[3,2].
The plant looks basically normal, except for the very peculiar
root.
Petersen identifies the plant as "Solanum Solatrium, Belladonna"
specifically the "flower". He says: "see L.Fuchs p.398". There is
no Solanum solatrium; rather, "solatrium" is an ancient
(Dioscoridean) name for some or all of these species:
Atropa Belladona (deadly nightshade)
Hyoscyamus niger (henbane)
Solanum nigrum (black nightshade)
Solanum dulcamara (bittersweet)
and perhaps other somewhat less likely species such as
Withania somnifera and Physalis alkekengi.
The leaves of f1v seem most compatible those of
Atropa belladonna (shape) and Hyoscyamus niger (attachment
to stem), and the "flower" at the top of f1v does resemble the
sheathed, shiny black fruits of these two species.
However, Atropa beladonna's root has been described as a roundish
rhizome with a long (up to 1m) tapering root, which does not seem
to match the highly distinctive "pancake with claws" of f1v. I
have found no image or description of the other plants' roots.
A very similar root, with quite different leaves, can be seen on
another Italian herbal [1]: The medieval text calls that plant
"Gran[i]a maggiore". The modern commentary tentatively identifies
it with Ecballium elaterium (Squirting Cucumber) I have found
no image or description of Ecballium elaterium's roots.
All four plants are poisonous in varying degrees. The active
principles can be absorbed by smoking or through the skin as well
as by ingestion. They were used as potent psychoactive drugs,
causing paralysis of involuntary muscles, dizziness, sleep,
hallucinations, violent behavior, etc., and have been often
associated with witchcraft.
References
[1] University of Vermont Library MS 2, fol. 39 (ca. 1500)
http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/biomed/his/immi/vm9437.htm
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