Product Code Database
Pseudo-Apuleius is the name given in modern scholarship to the author of a 4th-century herbal known as Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarius or Herbarium Apuleii Platonici. The author of the text apparently wished readers to think that it was by Apuleius (124–170 CE), the Roman poet and philosopher, but modern scholars do not believe this attribution. Little or nothing else is known of Pseudo-Apuleius.
The oldest surviving manuscript of the Herbarium is the 6th-century Leiden, MS. Voss. Q.9. Until the 12th century it was the most influential herbal in Europe, with numerous extant copies surviving into the modern era, along with several copies of an Old English translation. Thereafter, it was more or less displaced by the Circa instans, a herbal produced at the school of Salerno. "Pseudo-Apuleius" is also used as a shorthand generic term to refer to the manuscripts and derived works.
For example: Chapter 89, Herba millefolium (Edition of Howald/Sigerist 1927):
| The herb millefolium now |
| 1. For toothache. The root of the herb millefolium should be chewed before breakfast. |
| 2. For wounds inflicted by iron. If you put on the herb millefolium crushed in fat, so it cleans and heals wounds. |
| 3. For tumours. Put on the herb millefolium crushed in butter. |
| 4. For difficulties of urination. The juice of the herb millefolium drunk mixed with wine vinegar, heals wonderfully. |
| Names of the herb. The Greeks call it miriofillon, others ambrosia, others ciliofillon, others crisitis. The Gauls call mulicandos, others vigentia. The Dacians call diodela. The Italians call millefolium, others militaris, others Achillion, others supercilium Veneris, others cereum silvaticum. This herb was discovered by Achilles because it healed wounds, beaten by iron. It was therefore named Achillea. |
| α | Ca | Monte Cassino, Archivo de la Badia, Cod. 97 | 09th century. |
| α | M | Munich, Bayrische Staatsbibliothek, Fragmenta Emeranensia, Clm 14672, 14766 und 15028, in all 8 pages. | 07th century. |
| α | L | Lucca, Bibliotheka Governativa, MS. 296 | 09th century. |
| α | Hal | Halberstadt, Domschatz (Bibliothek des Domgymnasiums), Inv.-Nr. 465–466 fol. Ir–IIv, Palimpsest (upper writing). | 07th century. |
| α | Be | Berlin, Staatsbibliothek Fragmentum Berolinense Ms. Lat. fol. 381 no. 1 | 08th century. |
| α | Ha | London, British Library, Harley MS 4986 | 12th century. |
| α | V | Vienna, Codex Vindobonensis 187 (nach Grape-Albers 1977, p. 3: Eton College MS. 204) | 12th century. |
| α | A | London, British Library, MS Cotton Vitellius C III | 11th century. |
| β | Hil | Hildesheim, Beverinsche Bibliothek, MS. 658 | 08th century. |
| β | Vr | Bratislava, Codex Vratislaviensis Bibl. univ. III F 19 | 09th century. |
| β | Bodley 130 | Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 130 | 11th century. |
| β | He | Herten, Codicis medici Hertensis, destroyed by fire | 09th century. |
| β | B | Bamberg, Codex Bambergensis med 8 (L III.15) | 13th century. |
| β | Laur. 7341 | Florence, Bibliotheca Laurenziana, MS. 73,41 | 09th century. |
| β | Va | Vatican City, Codex Vaticanus Barberinus 160 | 11th century. |
| β | Vat. Lat. 6337 | Vatican City, Codex Vaticanus lat. 6337 | 15th century. |
| β | Laur. 7316 | Florence, Bibliotheca Laurenziana, MS. 73,16 | 13th century. |
| β | Vi | Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Herbarium Apuleii Platonici>Codex Vindobonensis 93 | 13th century. |
| β | Arsenal 1031 | Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Codex 1031 | 15th century. |
| β | Paris 6862 | Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS. lat. 6862 | 10th century. |
| β | Ber | Berlin, Codex Berolinensis Hamil. 307 | 15th century. |
| γ | E | Fragmentum Epporigiense | 07th century. |
| γ | Vo | Leiden, Universitätsbibliothek, MS. Voss. Lat. Q. 9 | 06th century. |
| γ | C | Kassel, Landesbibliothek, 2° MS. phys. et hist. nat. 10 | 10th century. |
Several more manuscripts can be added (see Mylène Pradel-Baquerre 2013 and Claudine Chavannes-Mazel 2016):
Like many of the Latin manuscripts, it includes the Herbarium of Pseudo-Apuleius, De herba vetonica, De taxone, medicina de quadrupedibus, and the Liber medicinae ex herbis feminis.Anne Van Arsdall (trans.), Medieval Herbal Remedies: The Old English Herbarium and Anglo-Saxon Medicine (New York: Routledge 2002). It was first edited and translated by Oswald Cockayne, (Based on London, British Library, MS Cotton Vitellius C III.) re-edited in 1984 by Jan de Vriend,Hubert Jan de Vriend (ed.), The Old English Herbarium and Medicina de Quadrupedibus, The Early English Text Society, 286 (London: Oxford University Press, 1984). re-translated in 2002 by Anne Van Arsdall, and again re-edited and re-translated in 2023 by John D. Niles and Maria A. D'Aronco.John D. Niles and Maria A. D'Aronco (ed. and trans.), Medical Writings from Early Medieval England, Volume I, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 81 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2023). A variety of dates and places have been suggested for the production of this translation, ranging from eighth-century Northumbria to late-tenth-century Winchester, with recent scholarship tending towards tenth-century Wessex.Article Hall (2013), ' Elleborus in Anglo-Saxon England, 900–1100: Tunsingwyrt and Wodewistle', Leeds Studies in English, new series, 44 (2013), 70-93 (p. 73).
The first printing in northern Europe was done in 1537 in Zürich. (Digitised at the Bavarian State Library)
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