by Matthew Platearius, d. 1161

The Circa instans, attributed to Matthaeus Platearius (died 1161), was one of the most influential botano-medical texts of the high Middle Ages and beyond, featuring in around 240 mss. and several languages. This website presents a modern English translation of the text by Anna Kirkwood Graham, Brandon Conley, and Madi Pehringer. We are basing our translations on two easily accessible editions, one digital:

Practica Joannis Serapionis dicta breviarium … Liber de simplici medicina, dictus circa instans. Practica platearii. (Venice: Octavian Scot, 1497). f. 186r: the opening of Circa instans. Translated from the Arabic by Gerardus de Sabloneto and Simon a. Cordo. GW M41687Digital version available at https://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/0006/bsb00061068/images/index.html?id=00061068&groesser=&fip=193.174.98.30&no=&seite=375. See image below.

The second is available as an e-book: Hans Wolfel, Das Arzneidrogenbuch Circa instans in einer Fassung des XIII. Jahrhunderts aus der Universitätsbibliothek Erlangen : Text und Kommentar als Beitrag zur Pflanzen- und Drogenkunde des Mitterlalters : Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades… (Berlin, 1939).