Vitus Auslasser's herbal (1479)

[MarcoP]

Very interesting herbal, Marco.

I haven't read any commentary on this manuscript but I noticed right away the illustrator took a different approach to some of the plants.

For example, many manuscripts emphasize the roots of Asphodel and this illustrator emphasized the influorescences and downplayed the roots.

I noticed hart's tongue does something similar. Emphasizes the stems more than most (I think I've only seen a couple in which the stems are so prominent) and differs from many in having blunt leaves (that's somewhat unusual) but DID include the fibrous stem base which is a detail that is often overlooked.

Also, he appears to have drawn a different species of St. John's wort than is in many of the herbals. It looks like it might be H. triquetrifolium or something very like it, rather than the more commonly illustrated species.


The reason I mention these is because I think the VMS might have some similar patterns (e.g., 1) greater emphasis on a different part of a plant than many of the traditional interpretations, 2) different approach to certain parts of the plants, 3) including parts that are often overlooked).

Hello JKP, this herbal seems interesting to me too!
Thank you for your comments. I guess the plants you mention are 3 (Asphodel), 17 (hart's tongue) and 22 (St. John's wort). I have added these names to the list, next to Fischer's botanical identification. I will try to transcribe at least the Latin names of the plants (the German names seem too difficult to me).

I agree with what you write, in particular, I noticed that the roots are not only downplayed, but sometimes completely absent (e.g. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.). 
I also agree about the fact that the detailed representation of flowers somehow parallels something we observe in the Voynich. The attempt to render the 3D structure of flowers (not only perfect profile or frontal views) is not frequent in medieval herbals.


[Edit: Auslasser 137 corrected as per Helmut's comment]