Note 2447 — Chapter XXVI · PSEUDO-LITERATURE IN NATURAL SCIENCE OF THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

Daremberg (1853), 11-12, said that the pagan incantations were preserved intact in a number of MSS at Oxford and Cambridge. Conjurations of herbs are not limited to the Pseudo-Apuleius in medieval MSS but sometimes occur singly as in Perugia 736, 13th century, where at fol. 267 a 14th century hand has added a passage in Latin which may be translated: “In the name of Christ, Amen. I conjure you, herb, that I may conquer by lord Peter etc. by moon and stars etc. and may you conquer all my enemies, pontiff and priests and all laymen and all women and all lawyers who are against me etc.” In Sloane 1571, 15th century, fols. 1-6, at the close of fragments of a Latin-English dictionary of herbs is a Latin prayer entitled, Benedictio omnium herbarum.