
Believe it or not, these botanical illustrations were painted in c515 CE. The manuscript, at the Austrian National Library, was made for Anicia Juliana, a daughter of the Western Roman Emperor Olybrius. It consists of 491 vellum folios, showing more than 400 pictures, mostly illustrating the De Materia Medica of Dioscurides. The one above shows a pimpernel.

We'll all pretend we don't know what this one is.

Rather ill looking violets.

Not sure what this one represents.

Anicia Juliana.
HERE'S an outline of her story.

The manuscript includes a treatise on birds by someone called Dionysius. The pictures are just as amazing as the plants.


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