Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index



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  • Title: Turnips
  • Creator: Workshop of Giovannino de Grassi, painter
  • Description: The Tacuinum sanitatis was an eleventh-century health handbook written by Ibn Butlan of Baghdad. In it he presents the elements needed for a healthful and happy life. He considers turnips helpful in making the stomach less subject to swelling. In the fourteenth-century illustrated versions the emphasis is on picturing attractive scenes drawing on themes from courtly love, fashionable dress, and estate management for an idealized view of agriculture, food production, and healthy living. This picture depicts a man walking with a sack of turnips on his back, while a woman emerges from her house and offers him money for them.
  • Source: Wikimedia Commons
  • Rights: Public Domain
  • Subject (See Also): Medical Manuscripts Trade Work
  • Geographic Area: Italy
  • Century: 14
  • Date: ca. 1380-1390
  • Related Work: Tacuinum sanitatis, a medical treatise. Also known as the Theatrum sanitatis.
  • Current Location: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS nouv.acq. Lat. 1673, fol. 43
  • Original Location:
  • Artistic Type (Category): Digital images; Manuscript Illuminations
  • Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Vellum (parchment); Paint
  • Donor: Layman; Probably commissioned by Giangaleazzo Visconti, Count of Milan, or nobility at his court.
  • Height/Width/Length(cm): //
  • Inscription:
  • Related Resources: Cathleen Hoeniger, "The Illuminated Tacuinum sanitatis Manuscripts from Northern Italy ca. 1380-1400: Sources, Patrons, and the Creation of a New Pictorial Genre." Visualizing Medieval Medicine and Natural History, 1200-1550. Edited by Jean A. Givens, Karen M. Reeds, and Alain Touwaide. Ashgate,2006. Pp. 51-81.