II] 



The Latin ' Herbarius ' 



17 



known to a writer about the middle of the fourteenth 

 century, that is to say, at least a hundred years before 

 the Herbarius was published. It is quite possible that the 

 work was not written at the time it was printed, but may 

 have had a previous career in manuscript. 



The wood-blocks of the first German edition are bold 

 and decorative, but as a rule show little attempt at realism 



BRIONIA 



Text-fig. 6. "Brionia" [Arnaldus de Villa Nova, 

 Tractatus de virtutibus herbarum, 1499]. 



(Text-figs. 3, 4, 5 and 73). A different and better set of 

 figures were used in Italy to illustrate the text (Text-figs. 6, 

 57, 65, 74, 75, 76). The authorship of this version of the 

 Herbarius is sometimes erroneously attributed to Arnold 

 de Nova Villa, a physician of the thirteenth century, a 



A. 2 



