Osservazioni sull Erbario di Rufino

The author analyzes the De virtutibus herbarum of Rufinus (end of the XIII century) in order to show that: 1) Rufinus based his quotations from Dioscorides on several different latin translations of the greek De materia medica; 2) fragments of one of these translations can also be found in the codices interpolati of the Herbarius of Pseudo-Apuleius; 3) this translation is not based on the original version of the greek De materia medica, but on the greek Alphabetical Dioscorides; 4) Rufinus quotes directly from that lost latin translation and this means that such translation was yet known at the end of the XIII century; 5) the comparison of passages from De virtutibus herbarum, Isidore's Etymologiae and the codices interpolati of the pseudo-Apuleian Herbarius reveals corruptions in the tradition and suggests textual interventions.