Dublin Core
Title
Object #1: Vienna Dioscurides
Subject
Vienna Dioscurides is an important naturalistic scientific text that features plants and their medicinal qualities.
Description
Vienna Dioscurides is an example of a manuscript that also featured plants as it’s main source of content. Plants were a frequent object of interest among medieval individuals, for they they had to deal with naturalistic science and religious connotation. In the instance of Vienna Dioscurides, naturalistic sciences informed the denotation of this text and its illuminations.
Scientific texts like the Vienna Dioscurides were created with a different goal in mind than those of psalters and other liturgical books. The artist was focused on trying to show the audience what something looked like, and so they used a different style to express this to the audience. This style, identified as naturalistic, had to be accurate since it dealt with medicine, poison, and more.
Unlike the ivy illuminations in the French Psalterium, botanical artwork was unstylized, accurate to real life, and created with the intent to inform. The meaning behind the plants took on that of a scientific one, unlike the presence of botanical imagery and symbolism within religious texts.
Scientific texts like the Vienna Dioscurides were created with a different goal in mind than those of psalters and other liturgical books. The artist was focused on trying to show the audience what something looked like, and so they used a different style to express this to the audience. This style, identified as naturalistic, had to be accurate since it dealt with medicine, poison, and more.
Unlike the ivy illuminations in the French Psalterium, botanical artwork was unstylized, accurate to real life, and created with the intent to inform. The meaning behind the plants took on that of a scientific one, unlike the presence of botanical imagery and symbolism within religious texts.
Creator
Byzantine Greek
Source
Publisher
Date
6th Century
Contributor
Rights
© Austrian National Library
Vienna Dioscurides, MS: Cod. med. Graec. 1
Vienna Dioscurides, MS: Cod. med. Graec. 1
Relation
Format
Velum
491 folios
37x30 cm
491 folios
37x30 cm
Language
Type
Medicinal, Scientific, Naturalistic