The manuscripts derived from them are mainly divided between a group originating in northern Italy, some copies of which are devoid of text, and a French translation containing almost thirty testimonies and known collectively as the Livre des simples médecines.

The latter was responsible for the publication of the first herbarium printed in French, Le Grant Herbier en françoys, which underwent several reissues between the late 15th and early 16th centuries, and was in turn translated into English as the Grete Herball.

The treatise attracted the attention of the self-taught botanist Jules Camus, who recognized it as an amplified and illustrated version of Circa instans, a twelfth-century Latin text attributed to Matthieu Platearius and known since the second half of the eighteenth century through the works of Albrecht von Haller and, above all, Kurt Sprengel.

In his study published in 1886, Camus also analyzed a second manuscript from the Estense library, which he identified as the French translation of the Tractatus de herbis and as the primitive version of a work printed at the end of the 15th century under the title Le Grant Herbier en françoys.

[4] In 1974, the Swiss Felix Baumann studied the development of this tradition, alongside his work on the Carrara herbarium, and popularized the use of the term Tractatus de herbis to describe the texts contained in numerous codexes from the 13th and 14th centuries, and to distinguish them from the Circa instans from which they derive.

[11] In 2006, Jean Givens analyzed the evolution of the transmission of medical and botanical knowledge through the study of three versions of the Tractatus de herbis: ms. Egerton 747 from London, a Livre des simples médecines from the Royal Library in Copenhagen and a printed edition by Grete Herball.

It opens with a series of quatrains containing the Dits de philosophes, at the bottom of which the copyist gives his name ("Aguiton") in a Latin formula common among medieval scribes: "Nomen scriptoris: aguito plenus amoris "ref 4.

The codex has a specificity for the history of the transmission of the Tractatus de herbis: an anonymous reader at the end of the 15th century inserted between the pages additional folios with the complete translation of the text into German, in a dialect of the Austro-Bavarian group.

Unlike the Morgan Library manuscript, ms. Masson 116 was not originally designed to contain images only: the folios show traces of a discreet pen and ink rule, and the trees are placed in the center of the pages to allow the insertion of two columns of text.

[36] The details of the costumes and certain scenes show many similarities with the illustrations of a Guiron le Courtois and a Lancelot du Lac transmitted by two Parisian manuscripts,[notes 5] suggesting that they may have come from the same workshop, and have made it possible to date ms. Masson 116 to the years 1370 or 1380.

[39] It was at the court of the Visconti family that the most luxurious version of Manfred's treatise was produced: ms. 459 from the Casanatense library in Rome, otherwise known as the Historia plantarum, is a grandiose edition of over 900 entries that represents the pinnacle of medieval scientific illustration.

[47] On the other hand, that of the animals and figurative scenes differs markedly: it corresponds more closely to the studies carried out in the de' Grassi workshop, and has many points in common with the contemporary production of the Tacuinum sanitatis illustrated in the Lombard region.

[56] The Livre des simples médecines is clearly derived from the Pseudo-Barthélémy Mini version: it contains the same chapters, presented in the same sequence, and strictly adheres to alphabetical order, even when the transition to French would have required otherwise.

Finally, while the stemma codicum of the Livre des simples médecines tends to indicate a unique archetype,[55] the original translation developed over time and evolved into several sub-editions, according to what its copyists felt authorized to add or subtract.

The work is dedicated to "the perfect knowledge and understanding of all kinds of herbs and their gracious virtues"[notes 11] and incorporates a number of novelties: a register of chapters in Latin and English, an anatomical diagram showing the names of different human bones, a section devoted to 25 treatments presented as "innovative" or a treatise on urine attributed to Avicenna.

[61] The colophon of ms. Egerton 747, copied in full in the Modena manuscript, cites Diascorides (Dioscorides), Platone (Appuleius Platonicus), Galienus (Galien) and Macronem (Macer Floridus) as authors of the treatise,[62] and mentions the name of "Bartholomeus Mini de Senis" as compiler and scribe:[63] « Explicit tractatus h[e]rbar[um] Diascorides & Platone adq[ue] Galienus et Macrone[m] tra[n]s latate manu et i[n]tellectu bartholomei mini d[e] senis i[n] arte speciare se[m]p[er] i[n]fusus d[e]o gra[tia]s am[en].

The reason for this probable usurpation remains unknown, but it is possible that Bartholomew Mini of Siena made several corrections and additions to the original text, and that he considered these modifications sufficient justification for substituting his name for those of the compiler and scribe.

The incipit of the treatise contains his original signature:[63] "Cum ego, Manfredus de Monte Imperiali, in artis speciarie semper optans scire virtutes [...] in libro hoc scripsi et per figuram demonstravi."

The explicit title would also indicate the author's attachment to the teachings of the famous medical school:[35]" Ne vero presentis operis prolixitas in immensum infundatur, haec leto fine illud concludimus.

Other texts typical of the school's pharmacopoeia are conspicuous by their absence: barely a handful of chapters can be compared with the antidotaries of the Liber iste and Antidotarium Nicolai, or with the glossary of the Alphita, but these are only vague reminiscences that could very well have come from glosses in other sources.

While the Tractatus de herbis is not the first amplified version of the Circa instans to include extracts from Isaac's work,[79] the modality of these extrapolations is very specific: they are mostly written in a smaller script inserted in the empty spaces of the columns or in the margins.

Manfred de Monte Imperiale's version makes more extensive and detailed use of the pharmaco-botanical literature available at the end of the thirteenth century: the author includes Arabic medical science, represented by Avicenna's Canon and the Liber aggregatus in medicinis simplicibus by Pseudo-Serapion.

Manfred's superior erudition is finally perceptible in the treatment of several entries originally based on oral tradition: the author retains the substance's common name, but replaces the chapter's content with written sources, mainly from the work of Dioscoride.

This choice betrays a tendency to seek prestige on the part of a compiler who also made a selection among the entries in the Parisian version to retain only "noble" substances (perfumes, spices, exotic plants and fruits), as well as those that could be easily illustrated.

To accompany the chapter dedicated to the "Tree of Paradise", which is devoid of illustration in ms. Egerton 747, the painter followed the indications given by the text: the plant is described with leaves resembling those of the greater elecampane, but longer and broader, with long, thick branches and lemon-like fruits, whose sweet taste appeals to the gallbladder.

[105] The depiction of the ivory-supplying elephant (see above), although much more common in medieval art, is equally inaccurate: the animal resembles a pig with a trunk, short hair along the back, tusks that grow abruptly upwards and marked ribs.

According to Minta Collins, they closely resemble the work of Jacobellus of Salerno, an illuminator active in the last years of the 13th century: curved tendrils in the corners form roundels containing heads or grotesques on a gold background, some with wings in the shape of small acanthus leaves.

[112] Drawing on the work of science historian Charles Singer, Otto Pächt considers medieval herbariums to be field guides, asserting that "the illustration of these manuals would be useless to the herbalist (and physician) if the plants were not depicted with such veracity that they could be easily identified".

The French version does, however, include several new features: an alphabetical glossary to help explain the more learned terms, often translated literally from Latin, and an index of effective remedies for various ailments, starting with headaches and ending with more general disorders such as fever or poisons.

[124] The Grant Herbier en françoys and its translation Grete Herball, the last representatives of the tradition, would in turn disappear in the second half of the sixteenth century, following the introduction into European pharmacopoeias of products from the New World and Paracelsian medical principles.