Basel De Simplici Medicina Facsimile Edition

The Basel De Simplici Medicina is a richly illustrated herbal produced in the last quarter of the 14th century in East Central Germany. Preserved today at the Universitätsbibliothek Basel, the manuscript transforms medieval pharmacological knowledge into a compact visual encyclopedia. Across its parchment leaves, medicinal plants are presented not merely as decoration, but as recognizable natural substances whose appearance, names, and therapeutic properties could be consulted in practice.

A Salernitan Tradition Recast

Much of the text derives from the Circa instans, the influential twelfth-century treatise on simple medicines associated with the School of Salerno. Organized broadly in alphabetical order, its entries belong to a long tradition of classifying substances according to their qualities, preparation, and medical uses. The Basel manuscript adapts this learned Latin heritage into a predominantly visual reference work, supplementing fuller medicinal passages with shorter plant identifications.

Plants as Instruments of Knowledge

The manuscript’s 394 plant illustrations dominate its 36 folios. Roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and branching forms are carefully isolated against the parchment, recalling specimens laid flat for examination. Their vivid greens and restrained modeling favor clarity over pictorial setting. This calculated simplicity allowed the image to function as a practical aid to recognition while preserving the visual appeal of a late medieval herbal.

Writing Around the Image

The Latin text, written in a Gothic bastarda, was arranged in two columns around illustrations that appear to have been completed first. Image and script therefore share the page in a flexible dialogue, revealing a production process shaped by the plants themselves rather than by a rigid textual grid.

A Garden Preserved on Parchment

At once medical handbook, botanical archive, and picture book, the manuscript embodies a culture in which observation and inherited authority remained inseparable. Its pages preserve the medieval plant world as a field of remedies—ordered, named, and made memorable through art.