The Viennese manuscript of Medicina Antiqua, is one of the most significant manuscripts of its kind, not least for its precious illustration, a comprehensive medical and pharmaceutical manuscript in Latin, produced in the 1st half of the 13th century in Southern Italy, possibly in the environment of the Staufer court. This manuscript thus presents a testimony to the extremely popular reception of classical medical conceptions in the Middle Ages and in Modern Times.
The authors, or more correctly, compilers, refer more or less plainly, directly or indirectly, to classical standard works, such as the Materia Medica by Dioscorides, a well-known Greek botanist and physician of the 1st century.
