A Rose a Day No.37

The is an illumination from the medieval Tacuinum of Vienna (c.1407), a medical handbook. It shows red and white flowers being plucked by two handmaids from the same rose-tree and handing them to their lady who is seated on the left, and who cradles several blooms in her lap, and wears a rose garland on her head.

The rose is listed as useful in the treatment of ‘inflamed brains’. But it warns: ‘In some persons they cause a feeling of heaviness and constriction, or blockage of the sense of smell.’ The positive effects of the rose are described as follows: ‘They are good for warm temperaments, for the young, in warm seasons, and in warm regions.’ The compilers of the Christian Tacuinus absorbed medical knowledge inherited from Greece and Rome, but much was culled from Arabic botanical and medical treatises. The Tacuinum of Vienna refers specifically to the Damask Rose, and is clearly repeating verbatim the advice of Arab treatises. Drawing on ancient Greek texts, the Persian Ibn-Sînâ, or Avicenna as he is known in the West, stated in The Canon of Medicine (1025) that distilled rose-water was beneficial in cases of fainting and rapid heartbeats, and can strengthen the brain by enhancing memory. Boiling rose-water and exposing the rose bud to its steam, he wrote, is especially beneficial for eye diseases. The best roses, says the Tacuinum of Vienna, come from Suri in Persia. Trade along the ‘Silk Road’ and via ports such as Venice made Syrian and Persian rose-water and rose oil available in Western Europe – at a price.