Since our last set of coloring pages, we have been moving around the globe to highlight some lesser-known medieval manuscripts.

For August, I bring you pages from and Herbal Manuscript (Iraq or Syria).

I have been trying to bring more awareness to medieval manuscripts from all over the world, because I think it is important to remember other cultures and peoples existed, sharing their ideas on art, sciences, maths, languages, and martial skills. There were clothings made, fabrics woven, and homes and lives made bountiful beyond what is commonly known as medieval Europe.

So this month, I would like to highlight these pages. The Curator for the LACMA states, “
Beginning in the ninth century and under the direction of the ‘Abbasid caliph, scribes began translating, updating, and expanding ancient Greek scientific and philosophical manuscripts. Among the translated texts was Dioscorides’s De materia medica, a guide to medicinal plants and the inspiration for later herbal manuscripts, from which [these] thirteenth-century page[s] derive. Physicians and pharmacists may have relied on nonillustrated versions of the text in their practice, but illustrated versions such as this one, which often have more limited textual information, were likely commissioned for their visual appeal.

https://collections.lacma.org/node/239656