Page from the Materia Medica, 1224, 11 1/4 x 7 15/16 in. ( x cm), Opaque watercolor on paper, 13th century, This page has survived from an Arabic translation of the Materia Medica, a treatise on the use of the medicinal herbs and plants written in the first century by Dioscurides, a Greek physician living in Asia Minor. The original work was a favorite text of the Abbasid caliphs, the temporal successors of Muhammad; from the eighth century on, they had several copies made for their libraries in Baghdad. The schematically drawn plants, rendered in black, sepia, and green

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Photo credit: © Penta Springs / Alamy / Afripics
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