On the basis of two online images of a meticulously lettered paragraph in two early copies of Dioscorides' De Materia Medica - one smaller, colour one from the Morgan manuscript, and one larger, more distinct, black&white one from the Vienna manuscript - would anyone be able to help transcribe and possibly translate the text? (My previous appeal for a classical Japanese page found great help from the hive mind!)
The text pertains to the first illustration on the page, of a stag's head - the inscription next to it (in the Morgan, above it in the Vienna) reads: "elaphou kephale" - and I am lead to believe (by a third, knowledgable source) the text actually deals with a kind of aphrodisiac tuber/fungus. It's part of a section absent from most other copies of Dioscorides seminal work, so I haven't been able to locate a version either transcribed or translated. And, full disclosure, I have no level of Greek, least of all its medieval majuscule bookhand version, so I'm kind of stuck... TIA for any pointers or assistance! |