Page f1v

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Identification

  Title: "Petersen's belladonna"
  Page: f1v = AB (Rene) = p002 (Stolfi)
  Folio: f1
  Panels: f1v
  Bifolio: bA1 = f1+f8
  Quire: A (Rene) = I (Beinecke)

Attributes

  Language: A (Currier)
  Hand: 1 (Currier)
  Subsets: H (Rene), hea (Stolfi)
  Subject: herbal
  Colors: green,tan (Reeds), green,faded_yellow (Rene)
  Plant: 1 (Petersen)

Description

  There is one plant drawing, centered on page. 

    Root: a knobby, warped, pancanke-like tuber with 
      short roots attached like claws or fangs 
      all around the rim. Light color.
    Stem: thick, well drawn. Light color.
    Branches: one straight up, two oblique with drooping tips.
    Leaves: broad lance-shape, with two short tails.
      Stalk: short.
    Flowers: one, growing at the tip of the center branch.  
      Stalk: very short.  Chalyx:
      conical, continuous with petals.  Petals: short rounded,
      light-colored.  Core: hemispherical, dark-colored
      (could be a berry; see below).

  Tere are two paragraphs (unit P) with 3.8 and 5.8 lines, just
  below mid-page, left- and right-justified, interrupted by the
  plant's main stem.

Comments

  Part of this drawing (root and leaves only) is repeated on
  Pharma page f102r1[3,2].

  The plant looks basically normal, except for the very peculiar
  root.

  Petersen identifies the plant as "Solanum Solatrium, Belladonna"
  specifically the "flower".  He says: "see L.Fuchs p.398".  There is
  no Solanum solatrium; rather, "solatrium" is an ancient
  (Dioscoridean) name for some or all of these species:

    Atropa Belladona (deadly nightshade)
    Hyoscyamus niger (henbane)
    Solanum nigrum (black nightshade)
    Solanum dulcamara (bittersweet)

  and perhaps other somewhat less likely species such as 
  Withania somnifera and Physalis alkekengi. 

  The leaves of f1v seem most compatible those of
  Atropa belladonna (shape) and Hyoscyamus niger (attachment
  to stem), and the "flower" at the top of f1v does resemble the
  sheathed, shiny black fruits of these two species.

  However, Atropa beladonna's root has been described as a roundish
  rhizome with a long (up to 1m) tapering root, which does not seem
  to match the highly distinctive "pancake with claws" of f1v. I
  have found no image or description of the other plants' roots.

  A very similar root, with quite different leaves, can be seen on
  another Italian herbal [1]: The medieval text calls that plant
  "Gran[i]a maggiore". The modern commentary tentatively identifies
  it with Ecballium elaterium (Squirting Cucumber) I have found
  no image or description of Ecballium elaterium's roots.

  All four plants are poisonous in varying degrees. The active
  principles can be absorbed by smoking or through the skin as well
  as by ingestion. They were used as potent psychoactive drugs,
  causing paralysis of involuntary muscles, dizziness, sleep,
  hallucinations, violent behavior, etc., and have been often
  associated with witchcraft.

References

  [1] University of Vermont Library MS 2, fol. 39 (ca. 1500)
  http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/biomed/his/immi/vm9437.htm

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