Four Leaves from the Arabic Version of Dioscorides' De materia medica

Description Walters W.750 consists of 4 consecutive leaves (numbered fols. 237-241) from an illustrated manuscript of the Arabic version of De materia medica by Dioscorides, copied in the 7th century AH/AD 13th in Iran. Pedanius Dioscorides wrote his treatise on medicinal plants in the AD 1st century. It was translated into Syriac and then Arabic in Baghdad in the 3rd century AH/AD 9th. De materia medica by Dioscorides was one of the earliest scientific manuscripts to be translated from Greek to Arabic. The Walters' leaves illustrate 5 plants: wild cucumber, mezereon (spurge-olive), and three varieties of thymelaea (spurge-laurel).

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
3/16/1972	Treatment	re-housed
8/26/1975	Examination	examined for condition
11/07/1984	Treatment	examined for condition; re-housed

Exhibitions

• Illuminated Manuscripts: Masterpieces in Miniature. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1984-1985.

Provenance Eustache de Lorey, France [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1952, by purchase.

Credit Museum purchase with funds provided by the S. & A.P. Fund, 1952