the mandrake (painted in a deep madder), which embodies the
old legend that it was death to dig up the root, and that therefore a
dog was tied to a rope and made to drag it up. It is the opinion of
some authorities that these figures show the influence of the school
represented by the two splendid Vienna manuscripts of Dioscorides
dating from the fifth and seventh centuries. There is no definite
evidence of this, and though the illustrations in the Saxon manuscript
show the influence of the classical tradition, they are poor compared
with those in the Vienna manuscript. To some extent at least the
drawings in this herbal must necessarily have been copies, for many of
the plants are species unknown in this country.

[Illustration: AESCULAPIUS PLATO AND A CENTAUR
From the Saxon translation of the _Herbarium of Apuleius_
(Cott. Vit., C. 3, folio 19_a_)]

The Saxon translation of the +Peri Didaxeon+ (Harl. 6258) is a thin
volume badly mutilated in parts. Herr Max Loewenbeck[10] has shown that
this is in part translated from a treatise by an eleventh-century
writer, Petrocellus or Petronius, of the School of Salerno--the
original treatise being entitled _Practica Petrocelli Salernitani_.[11]
As has been pointed out by many eminent authorities, the School of
Salerno, being a survival of Greek medicine, was uncontaminated by
superstitious medicine. Consequently there are striking differences
between this and the other Saxon manuscripts. The large majority of the
herbs mentioned are those of Southern Europe, and the pharmacy is very
simple compared with the number of herbs in prescriptions of native
origin. As Dr. J. F. Payne[12] has pointed out, Herr Loewenbeck's
important discovery does not account for the whole of the English book.
The order of the chapters differs from that of the Salernitan writer;
there are passages not to be found in the _Practica_, and in some
places the English text gives a fuller reading. It is fairly evident
that the Saxon treatise is at least in part indebted to the
_Passionarius_ by Gariopontus, another Salernitan writer of the same
period.

The _Lacnunga_ (Harl. 585), an original work, and one of the oldest
and most interesting manuscripts, is a small, thick volume without any
illustrations. Some of the letters are illuminated and some are rudely
ornamented. At the top of the first page there is the inscription
"Liber Humfredi Wanley," and it is interesting, therefore, to realis