Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis

The Badianus Manuscript of 1552 is the first illustrated and descriptive scientific text of Nahua medicine and botany produced in the Americas.

There it presumably remained until the early 17th century, when it somehow came into the possession of Diego de Cortavila y Sanabria, pharmacist to King Philip IV.

[6] According to a study by Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano, the Badianus herbal was prepared for the king of Spain to demonstrate the intellectual sophistication of the Nahuas which might have skewed the manuscript to emulating aspects of European culture.

The examples in the Badianus manuscript deal solely with the medical conditions and curative aspects of the plants.

For example, in the Gates translation, subject headings for plants' curative powers include "Against stupidity of the mind," [against] "Goaty armpits of sick people," "Against lassitude," "Medicine to take away foul and fetid breath.

"[3] For scholars interested in women's health, the Badianus manuscript has a whole chapter on "remedies for recent parturition, the menses, lotion of the internal parts, childbirth, tubercules of the breasts, [and] medicine for increasing milk flow.

[10] In 2014, Arthur Tucker and Rexford Talbert published a paper claiming that some of the plant illustrations in the Voynich Manuscript match plant illustrations from the Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis, suggesting that the Voynich Manuscript originated in the New World.