Latin and Hebrew in Dialogue
Santorio Lecture 2026
Latin and Hebrew
in Dialogue
Text and Illustration
in Late Medieval Herbals
Sivan Gottlieb
This Santorio Lecture looks at two illuminated herbals now held in the Bibliothèque nationale de France: a Hebrew herbal produced in northern Italy in the late fifteenth century, and a Latin herbal full of Hebrew annotations. Both belong to the so-called “Alchemical Herbals”, a group of about twenty-four illuminated manuscripts that share short texts, dealing mainly with healing, and schematic plant illustrations with imaginary roots.
By comparing the texts and illustrations of the two manuscripts, and of other manuscripts in the group, the lecture shows how the Jewish translator adapted his Latin source for a Jewish audience. He omitted passages, changed Christian plant names and prayers, used Judeo-Italian, and transliterated some words.
Some of these changes may reflect medical practice, but most relate to religious practice. Three illustrations in the Hebrew herbal differ from the rest of the group, and the mandrake will be discussed in depth. The colouring annotations in the Latin herbal, including one that refers to “another book”, suggest that the Latin manuscript was not the direct model for the Hebrew one, and that another manuscript with a Jewish connection probably existed.
Together, the two herbals show Jews as translators, readers, owners and makers of manuscripts, and show how textual and visual knowledge passed between the Latin Christian and Hebrew Jewish worlds.
