"Three Bamboo Plants," Folio from a De Materia Medica

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 693

This rare painting was once part of a Persian-language manuscript of the De Materia Medica, created in Bijapur in the Deccan for Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II (r. 1579–1627). The text was written by Greek physician and botanist Dioscorides in the first century A.D., and was translated into Arabic in the medieval period. This page would have originally been part of a Persian manuscript translated from the Arabic version. Bamboo was known as a healing plant in India and was used as a tonic for respiratory diseases.

"Three Bamboo Plants," Folio from a De Materia Medica, Opaque color on paper

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