Vienna Dioscorides

Vienna Dioscorides

Like the fascinating images of human beings and animals contained in the book, the depictions of plants bear testimony to the great art of illumination in the Byzantine Empire. In line with the textual tradition – the herbarium of the Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides (1st century) including insertions from writings of other authors and a number of significant appendices – the Vienna Dioscorides has provided a virtually inexhaustible source for the history of classical sciences and early Byzantine culture. The codex had an enormous influence for several centuries and became the ancestor of numerous herbal manuscripts of the Middle Ages, down to the beginning of the modern age. It bears traces of continuous use by Greek, Latin, Turkish, Oriental, and Jewish physicians, thus proving an ongoing esteem for classical pharmacology. With the increasing interest in the effects of medicinal herbs in modern times, the Vienna Dioscorides is gaining ever-wider recognition, and was awarded the status of UNESCO Memory of the World Document in 1998.

Testimony to Byzantine Illumination

The dedication picture introducing the manuscript allows it to be dated to ca. 512 and located in a workshop in Constantinople. It shows the Byzantine princess Juliana Anikia, endower of a church in the quarter of Honoratae; she is being presented the precious codex as a gift from the citizens of Constantinople. This collective manuscript not only referred to the most diverse sources but also provided a résumé of all relevant findings of Greek research in the field of pharmacy and applied botany. The Vienna Dioscorides therefore remains an all-encompassing reference work for specialists in medicine and pharmacology.

Invaluable Source for the Sciences, Illumination, and Philology

The manuscript largely consists of a copy of the herbal by the physician and botanist Pedanius Dioscorides, which is arranged in alphabetical order. It describes 383 medicinal herbs in Greek majuscule, a script often referred to by researchers as Bible majuscule. We also find transcriptions in a later minuscule as the old majuscule script became increasingly difficult to read. In a highly sophisticated didactic approach, the descriptive text is accompanied with pictorial representations of the plants. Most of these illustrations cover a whole page and are executed in opaque color painting. Together with 66 images of poisonous animals and 47 illustrations of birds, they represent excellent copies of late Hellenistic-Roman models and are priceless not least because the antique originals have been lost. The herbarium covers the main part of the book and is followed by several appendices, among them an anonymous poem on the effects of plants dedicated to the Gods (carmen de viribus herbarum) and four transcriptions of classical scientific works. These are the transcription of Eutecnios on the Theriaca by Nicandros of Colophon containing illustrations of plants and wild animals (snakes, scorpions, spiders), the transcription of the same author on the Alexipharmaca by Nicandros, an anonymous transcription on the Halieutica by Oppianos, and an anonymous transcription on the Ornithiaca by Dionysos of Philadelphia including numerous depictions of birds, which have proved important in the history of zoological illustration. The book concludes with some small fragments of a Menaion, a liturgical service manuscript including the lives of saints, which goes beyond the scope of its contents.