Herbarium Apulei Platonici (1481)
published in Rome by J.P. de Lignamine (C.F. La Legname) from a medieval manuscript, apparently of the 9th century A.D., found in the library of the Montecassino abbey. The relevant entry begins:
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“Nomen Herbae Peoniae. A graecis dicit Pentorobon. Allii Cudionena. Alii Agbaosotes. Itali Peoniam. Iventa Peonio nomen auc-toris retinet. Nascitur crete”. The accompanying crude illustration (Fig. 2) bears no resemblance whatever to any peony; indeed virtually all the figures in this work are useless as guides to the plants concerned, the result of continual mindless copying over a long period of time. From Stearn & Davis, Peonies in Greece |
1481 The next reference to paeonies is in one of the first herbals ever printed, known as the Herbarium of Apuleius Platonicus. Nothing about the author is known and his herbal, which was printed in Rome, is mainly derived from the works of Dioscorides and Pliny
Stern 1946
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