Manfredus de Monte Imperiali, Tractatus de herbis: Preliminary Notes on Its Manuscript Tradition

The paper offers a preliminary review of the production process and the manuscript tradition of Manfredus de Monte Imperiali's Tractatus de herbis, written between the end of the 13th and the first decades of the 14th century. The article demonstrates that the development of the text shows some specific characteristics in comparison with the illustrative tradition, and, more specifically, the affirmation of an alphabetical redaction including all sections of the texts (viz., the one devoted to plants and animals) who, in turn, was at the basis of the compilation of the Historia plantarum produced at the Visconti's court and preserved in the manuscript Roma, Biblioteca Casanatense, 459.