Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarius  — Carolingian illuminated fragments

An exceptionally early and rare example from a monastic herbal from c.825

Two illustrated leaves (one complete, one partial) from a Carolingian medical manuscript of the Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarius, in Latin, on vellum. [Southern Germany, first half of the 9th century (probably c. 825–840)]

Two vellum fragments (one complete leaf, one approximately half-leaf), preserving text and illustration from an early medieval copy of the Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarius, the most widely transmitted botanical and medical text of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages.

The larger leaf measures approximately 195 × 274 mm, the smaller 195 × 155 mm, each written in a clear and disciplined early Caroline minuscule in a single column of c. 20–25 lines, in dark brown ink, with rubricated headings in red. Both leaves preserve coloured plant illustrations, executed in green and ochre washes, with simple but expressive modelling characteristic of early medieval scientific imagery.