Minerals as medicinal substances and pigments? As primary ingredients for the healing arts and the pictorial arts? The long tradition of the illustrated medieval herbal demonstrates how the two domains were entangled in word and image. It is the focus of Prof. Brigitte Buettner’s talk, which also shows how this form of bookish knowledge about inorganic matter was translated into practice; how “simple medicines”—lapis lazuli, ceruse, coral, verdigris, and the like—found their way onto the shelves of the premodern apothecary shop.
