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Mandrake

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(Redirected from Mandrake root)
For other uses, see Mandrake (disambiguation).
The so-called "female" and "male" mandrakes, from a 1583 illustration
The flowers of Mandragora officinarum
A mandrake root, resembling a human form (Science Museum, London)

A mandrake is the root of a plant, historically derived either from plants of the genus Mandragora (in the family Solanaceae) found in the Mediterranean region, or from other species, such as Bryonia alba (the English mandrake, in the family Cucurbitaceae) or the American mandrake (Podophyllum peltatum in the family Berberidaceae) which have similar properties. The plants from which the root is obtained are also called "mandrakes". Mediterranean mandrakes are perennial herbaceous plants with ovate leaves arranged in a rosette, a thick upright root, often branched, and bell-shaped flowers that produce yellow or orange berries. They have been placed in different species by different authors. They are highly variable perennial herbaceous plants with long thick roots (often branched) and almost no stem. The leaves are borne in a basal rosette, and are variable in size and shape, with a maximum length of 45 cm (18 in). They are usually either elliptical in shape or wider towards the end (obovate), with varying degrees of hairiness.[1]

Because mandrakes contain deliriant hallucinogenic tropane alkaloids and the shape of their roots often resembles human figures, they have been associated with magic rituals throughout history, including present-day contemporary pagan traditions.[2]

Nomenclature

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The English name of the plant derives from Latin mandragora, related to the French main-de-gloire (hand of glory).[3] The German common name is Alraune ('all-rune' or 'elf-rune'), referring to the plant's folkloric ability to impart wisdom.[4]

Certain sources cite the Dutch name pisdifje ('brain thief'), claiming the plant grows from the brains of dead thieves, or the droppings of those hung on the gallows.[5] In German, it is also known as Galgenmännlein ("little gallows man") stemming from the belief they grown near the gallows, attested also in Icelandic thjofarót "thieves' root".[6][7]

Toxicity

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All species of Mandragora contain highly biologically active alkaloids, tropane alkaloids in particular. The alkaloids make the plant, in particular the root and leaves, poisonous, via anticholinergic, hallucinogenic, and hypnotic effects. Anticholinergic properties can lead to asphyxiation. People can be poisoned accidentally by ingesting mandrake root, and ingestion is likely to have other adverse effects such as vomiting and diarrhea. The alkaloid concentration varies between plant-samples. Clinical reports of the effects of consumption of Mediterranean mandrake include severe symptoms similar to those of atropine poisoning, including blurred vision, dilation of the pupils (mydriasis), dryness of the mouth, difficulty in urinating, dizziness, headache, vomiting, blushing and a rapid heart rate (tachycardia). Hyperactivity and hallucinations occurred in the majority of patients.[8][9]

Folklore

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The root is hallucinogenic and narcotic. In sufficient quantities, it induces a state of unconsciousness and was used as an anaesthetic for surgery in ancient times.[10] In the past, juice from the finely grated root was applied externally to relieve rheumatic pains.[10] It was used internally to treat melancholy, convulsions, and mania.[10] When taken internally in large doses it was said to excite delirium and madness.[10]

fol. 16r from University of Pennsylvania LJS 46: Herbal ... etc., from Italy and England, dated to ca. 1520

In the past, mandrake was often made into amulets which were believed to bring good fortune, cure sterility, etc. In one superstition, people who pull up this root will be condemned to hell, and the mandrake root would scream and cry as it was pulled from the ground, killing anyone who heard it.[2] Therefore, in the past, people have tied the roots to the bodies of animals and then used these animals to pull the roots from the soil.[2]

The ancient Greeks burned mandrake as incense.[11]

In the Bible

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Two references to דּוּדָאִים (plural; singular דודא dud̲ā) occur in the Jewish scriptures. The Septuagint translates דודאים as Koinē Greek: μανδραγόρας, romanized: mandragóras, and the Vulgate follows the Septuagint. Several later translations into different languages follow Septuagint (and Vulgate) and use mandrake as the plant as the proper meaning in both the Genesis 30:14–16 and Song of Songs 7:12-13. Others follow the example of the Luther Bible and provide a more literal translation.

In Genesis 30:14, Reuben, the eldest son of Jacob and Leah, finds mandrakes in a field. Rachel, Jacob's infertile second wife and Leah's sister, is desirous of the dudaʾim and barters with Leah for them. The trade Rachel offers is for Leah to spend that night in Jacob's bed in exchange for Leah's dudaʾim. Leah gives away the plants to her barren sister. Soon after this, in Genesis 30:14–22), Leah, who had previously had four sons but had been infertile for a long while, became pregnant once more and, in time gave birth to two more sons, Issachar and Zebulun, and a daughter, Dinah. Only years after this episode of her asking for the mandrakes did Rachel manage to become pregnant.

And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes. And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? and wouldest thou take away my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee to night for thy son's mandrakes. And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me; for surely I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.

— the Bible, King James Version, Genesis 30:14–16[12]

Sir Thomas Browne, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica, however, suggests the dudaʾim of Genesis 30:14 refers only to the opium poppy (as a metaphor describing a woman's breasts.)

The final verses of Chapter 7 of Song of Songs (verses 12–13), mention the plant once again:

נַשְׁכִּ֙ימָה֙ לַכְּרָמִ֔ים נִרְאֶ֞ה אִם פָּֽרְחָ֤ה הַגֶּ֙פֶן֙ פִּתַּ֣ח הַסְּמָדַ֔ר הֵנֵ֖צוּ הָרִמֹּונִ֑ים שָׁ֛ם אֶתֵּ֥ן אֶת־דֹּדַ֖י לָֽךְ׃ הַֽדּוּדָאִ֣ים נָֽתְנוּ-רֵ֗יחַ וְעַל-פְּתָחֵ֙ינוּ֙ כָּל-מְגָדִ֔ים חֲדָשִׁ֖ים גַּם-יְשָׁנִ֑ים דּוֹדִ֖י צָפַ֥נְתִּי לָֽךְ:

Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves. The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.

— the Bible, King James Version, Song of Songs 7:12–13[13]

Magic and witchcraft

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Medieval depiction of mandrake excavation with dog.
―Medieval. Germanisches Museum, Nuremberg. Sketched by Edmund Oskar Lippmann (1894)[14]

According to the legend, when the root is dug up, it screams and kills all who hear it. Literature includes complex directions for harvesting a mandrake root in relative safety. For example, Josephus (circa 37-100) of Jerusalem gives the following directions for pulling it up:

A furrow must be dug around the root until its lower part is exposed, then a dog is tied to it, after which the person tying the dog must get away. The dog then endeavours to follow him, and so easily pulls up the root, but dies suddenly instead of his master. After this, the root can be handled without fear.[15]

Here Josephus only refers to the plant as Baaras, after the place where it grows, and thinks the plant is a type of rue (of the citrus family)[16] however, it is considered to be identifiable as mandrake based on textual comparisons[17] (cf. § Alraun).

Mandragora tied to a dog, from Tacuinum Sanitatis (1474).

In Medieval times, mandrake was considered a key ingredient in a multitude of witches' flying ointment recipes as well as a primary component of magical potions and brews.[18] These were entheogenic preparations used in European witchcraft for their mind-altering and hallucinogenic effects.[19] Starting in the Late Middle Ages and thereafter, some believed that witches applied these ointments or ingested these potions to help them fly to gatherings with other witches, meet with the Devil, or to experience bacchanalian carousal.[20][21]

Romani people use mandrake as a love-amulet.[22]

Alraun

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Alraun in its case
―Formerly owned by Karl Lemann, Wien. Now in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum collection, Nürnberg.
See also: Kobold § Mandrake dolls

The German name for mandrake is Alrun or Alraune as already stated. The alraune doll was also known by names such as glücksmännchen [23]) and galgenmännlein.[23][24] The doll, according to superstition, worked like a charm, bringing its owner luck and fortune.[24]: 319 

Because true mandrake does not grow native in Germany, Alrun dolls were being made from cane-roots or false mandrake (German: Gichtrübe;[25] Bryonia alba of the gourd family), recorded in the herbal book by the Italian Pietro Andrea Mattioli (d. 1577/78). The roots are cut approximately to human-like shape, then replanted in the ground for some time. If hair is desired, the root is pockmarked using a sharpened dowel and millet grains pushed into the holes, and replanted until something like a head of hair grows.[26]{{Refn|Mattioli (1563), Das Vierdte Buch von der Kreuter, "Vom Alraun Cap. LXXV",[27] requoted by Marzell.[28][a][b]

The root or rhizome of an iris , gentian or tormentil (Blutwurz) was also purposed for making Alraun dolls. Even the alpine leek (German: Allermannsharnisch; Allium victorialis) was used.[28][24]: 316  The doll formerly owned by Karl Lemann of Wien (cf. fig. right; purchased by Germanisches Nationalmuseum in 1876 where it now remains[31]) had been appraised in the past as having the head made of bryony root, and the body of an alpine leek.[32]

German sources repeat the recipe of harvesting the mandrake (Alraun) by sacrificing a dog, but demand a "black dog" should be used.[33][36] This has passed into German literature,[38][39][41] and into folklore, as compiled by the Brothers Grimm in Deutsche Sagen, No. 83 "Der Alraun".[42] The Grimm version has the black dog tied by the tail,[42] but this is not a constant reflected in all the sources, nor does it match the illustrated depictions show above.

German folklore assigns the alias name Galgenmännlein ("little man of the gallows") to the mandrake, based on the belief the plant springs from the ground beneath a hanged man where his urine or semen had dripped into ground.[6] A more elaborate set of condition had to be met by the hanged man to produce the magic herb in version given by the Grimms' DS, which essentially amalgamates the formulae form two of its sources.[42] According to one source, when the hanged man comes was a hereditary thief (Erbdieb), and the mother while carrying the child either stole or contemplated stealing before giving birth to to him, and if died a virgin, then the fluids dripped down will cause a Galgn-Mänl to grow there (Grimmelshausen alias Simplicissimus's Galgen-Männlein, 1673).[43] It later states the plant is the product combining the arch-thief's (Erzdieb) soul and his semen or urine.[44][c] The other source states that when an innocent man hanged as a thief releases "water" from the pain and torture he endured, the plant with plantain-like[d] leaves like will grow from that spot. And collecting it requires only that it takes place on a Friday before dawn, with the collector stuffing his ears with cotton and sealing them with wax or pitch, and making the sign of the cross three times while harvesting (Johannes Praetorius, Satrunalia, 1663).[47]

The acquired alraun root needs to be washed with red wine wrapped in silk cloth of red and white, and deposited in its own case; it must be removed every Friday and bathed, and new white shirt be given every new moon, according to the Grimms' collated version,[42] but sources will vary on the details.[48]

And if questions are posed to the alraun doll, it will reveal the future or secrets, according to superstition. In this way, the owner becomes wealthy. It can also literally double small amounts of money each night by placing a coin on it. It must not be overdone, or the alraun will be tapped of its strength and may die.[42][49] The owner will become the friend of all, and if childless will be blessed with children.[47][50]

When the owner dies, the youngest son will inherit ownership of the doll. In the father's coffin must be place a piece of bread and a coin. If the youngest son predeceases, then the right of inheritance passes to the eldest son, but the deceased youngest son must also receive his coin and bread in the coffin.[42]

19th century esoterica

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An excerpt from Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual by nineteenth-century clergyman, occultist, and ceremonial magician Éliphas Lévi, suggests the plant might hint at mankind's "terrestrial origin:"

The natural mandragore is a filamentous root which, more or less, presents as a whole either the figure of a man, or that of the virile members. It is slightly narcotic, and an aphrodisiacal virtue was ascribed to it by the ancients, who represented it as being sought by Thessalian sorcerers for the composition of philtres. Is this root the umbilical vestige of our terrestrial origin? We dare not seriously affirm it, but all the same it is certain that man came out of the slime of the earth, and his first appearance must have been in the form of a rough sketch. The analogies of nature make this notion necessarily admissible, at least as a possibility. The first men were, in this case, a family of gigantic, sensitive mandragores, animated by the sun, who rooted themselves up from the earth; this assumption not only does not exclude, but, on the contrary, positively supposes, creative will and the providential co-operation of a first cause, which we have REASON to call GOD. Some alchemists, impressed by this idea, speculated on the culture of the mandragore, and experimented in the artificial reproduction of a soil sufficiently fruitful and a sun sufficiently active to humanise the said root, and thus create men without the concurrence of the female. Others, who regarded humanity as the synthesis of animals, despaired about vitalising the mandragore, but they crossed monstrous pairs and projected human seed into animal earth, only for the production of shameful crimes and barren deformities.[51]

The following is taken from Jean-Baptiste Pitois's The History and Practice of Magic (1870), and explains a ritual for creating a mandrake:

Would you like to make a Mandragora, as powerful as the homunculus (little man in a bottle) so praised by Paracelsus? Then find a root of the plant called bryony. Take it out of the ground on a Monday (the day of the moon), a little time after the vernal equinox. Cut off the ends of the root and bury it at night in some country churchyard in a dead man's grave. For 30 days, water it with cow's milk in which three bats have been drowned. When the 31st day arrives, take out the root in the middle of the night and dry it in an oven heated with branches of verbena; then wrap it up in a piece of a dead man's winding-sheet and carry it with you everywhere.[52]

Explanatory notes

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  1. ^ Gichtrube[25] answers to Bryonia alba, and while the latter quote from Mattioli stating "Brionienwurtz"[27] may seem ambiguous as to species, Mattioli elsewhere describes the type that grows in Hungary and Germany to be black-berried (not red),[29] which is sufficient as identifier.
  2. ^ Praetorius in his Anthropodemus: Neue Welt-Beschreibung, Volume 2 gives a different German name,schwarz Stickwurgel.[30] Mattioli lists the German names Stickwurtz, Teufelskürbtz (latter prob. "devil gourd") in his Latin treatise entry for this plant.[29] The present-day common name in German seems to be Weiße Zaunrübe.
  3. ^ The Grimms cite Simplicissimus Galgen-Männlein. It is generally known Simplicissimus was a pseudo-author/character invented by Grimmelshausen. The work's title also mentions as informant or co-author an "Israel Fromschmidt [von Hugenfelss]" (Grimms' Fron- is a typo), but this personage is also an anagram pseudonym of Grimmelshausen.[45] The date of authorship was solved from a chronogram as 1673.[46]
  4. ^ German: Wegerich.

References

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  1. ^ Ungricht, Stefan; Knapp, Sandra & Press, John R. (1998). "A revision of the genus Mandragora (Solanaceae)". Bulletin of the Natural History Museum, Botany Series. 28 (1): 17–40. Retrieved 2015-03-31.
  2. ^ a b c John Gerard (1597). "Herball, Generall Historie of Plants". Claude Moore Health Sciences Library. Archived from the original on 2012-09-01. Retrieved 2015-08-03.
  3. ^ Wedgwood, Hensleigh (1855). "On False Etymologies". Transactions of the Philological Society (6): 67.
  4. ^ "Alraune (Kulturgeschichte)", Wikipedia (in German), 2023-03-05, retrieved 2023-03-06
  5. ^ Leland, Charles Godfrey (1892). Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition. T. F. Unwin.
  6. ^ a b Simoons, Frederick J. (1998). "Chapter 4. Mandrake, a Root Human in Form". Plants of Life, Plants of Death, Frederick J. Simoons. Univ of Wisconsin Press. pp. 121–122. ISBN 9780299159047.
  7. ^ Grimm, Jacob (1883). "XVII. Wights and Elves §Elves, Dwarves". Teutonic Mythology. Vol. 2. Translated by James Steven Stallybrass. W. Swan Sonnenschein & Allen. p. 513, n1.; German: Grimm, Jacob (1875). "(Anmerkung von) XXXVII. Kräuter und Steine". Deutsche Mythologie. Vol. 3 (2 ed.). Göttingen: W. Swan Sonnenschein & Allen. pp. 352–353., note to text in Grimm (1877) 2: 1007.
  8. ^ Jiménez-Mejías, M.E.; Montaño-Díaz, M.; López Pardo, F.; Campos Jiménez, E.; Martín Cordero, M.C.; Ayuso González, M.J. & González de la Puente, M.A. (1990-11-24). "Intoxicación atropínica por Mandragora autumnalis: descripción de quince casos [Atropine poisoning by Mandragora autumnalis: a report of 15 cases]". Medicina Clínica. 95 (18): 689–692. PMID 2087109.
  9. ^ Piccillo, Giovita A.; Mondati, Enrico G. M. & Moro, Paola A. (2002). "Six clinical cases of Mandragora autumnalis poisoning: diagnosis and treatment". European Journal of Emergency Medicine. 9 (4): 342–347. doi:10.1097/00063110-200212000-00010. PMID 12501035.
  10. ^ a b c d A Modern Herbal, first published in 1931, by Mrs. M. Grieve, contains Medicinal, Culinary, Cosmetic and Economic Properties, Cultivation and Folk-Lore.
  11. ^ Carod-Artal, F. J. (2013). "Psychoactive plants in ancient Greece". nah.sen.es. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
  12. ^ "Genesis 30:14–16 (King James Version)". Bible Gateway. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
  13. ^ "Song of Songs 7:12–13 (King James Version)". Bible Gateway. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
  14. ^ Lippmann, Edmund Oskar von (1894). Über einen naturwissenschaftlichen Aberglauben: nach einem Vortrage gehalten in der Naturforschenden. Halle a. Saale: M. Niemeyer. p. 4.
  15. ^ Post, George E. (October 2004). "mandrake". In Hastings, James (ed.). A Dictionary of the Bible: Volume III: (Part I: Kir -- Nympha). University Press of the Pacific. p. 234. ISBN 978-1-4102-1726-4. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
  16. ^ Josephus (1835). "The Jewish War VII.VI.3". The Works of Flavius Josephus: The Learned and Authentic Jewish Historian and Celebrated Warrior. With Three Dissertations, Concerning Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, James the Just, God's Command to Abraham, &c. and Explanatory Notes and Observation. Translated by William Whiston. Baltimore: Armstrong and Plaskitt, and Plaskitt & Company. p. 569.
  17. ^ Ginzberg, Louis (1925). The Legends of the Jews: Notes to volumes 1 and 2: From the creation to the exodus. Translated by Henrietta Szold; Paul Radin. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America. p. 298.
  18. ^ Hansen, Harold A. The Witch's Garden pub. Unity Press 1978 ISBN 978-0913300473
  19. ^ Raetsch, Ch. (2005). The encyclopedia of psychoactive plants: ethnopharmacology and its applications. US: Park Street Press. pp. 277–282.
  20. ^ Peters, Edward (2001). "Sorcerer and Witch". In Jolly, Karen Louise; Raudvere, Catharina; et al. (eds.). Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The Middle Ages. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 233–37. ISBN 978-0-485-89003-7.
  21. ^ Hansen, Harold A. The Witch's Garden pub. Unity Press 1978 ISBN 978-0913300473
  22. ^ Gerina Dunwich (September 2019). Herbal Magick: A Guide to Herbal Enchantments, Folklore, and Divination. Weiser Books. ISBN 978-1-63341-158-6.
  23. ^ a b Ersch, Johann Samuel; Gruber, Johann Gottfried, eds. (1860). "Glücksmännchen". Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste. Vol. 1. Leipzig: Brockhaus. pp. 303–304.
  24. ^ a b c Marzell, Heinrich (1927). "Alraun". HdA, 1: 312–324-->
  25. ^ a b Praetorius (1663), p. 158.
  26. ^ Mattioli's herbal tome, Book 4, Chapter 21, cited by Praetorius (1663), p. 158
  27. ^ a b Mattioli, Pietro Andrea (1563). "Vom Alraun Cap. LXXV.". New Kreüterbuch: Mit den allerschönsten vnd artlichsten Figuren aller Gewechß, dergleichen vormals in keiner sprach nie an tag kommen. Prague: Melantrich von Auentin und Valgriß. pp. 467–468.
  28. ^ a b c d e Marzell, Heinrich [in German] (1922). "6. Kapitel. Heren- und Zauberpflanzen". Die heimische Pflanzenwelt im Volksbrauch und Volksglauben: Skizzen zur deutschen Volkskunde. Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer. pp. 95–96.
  29. ^ a b Mattioli, Pietro Andrea (1586). "Vitis alba, siue Bryonia". De Plantis epitome vtilissima, Petri Andreae Matthioli Senensis... novis plane, et ad vivum expressis iconibus, descriptionibusque... nunc primum diligenter aucta, et locupletata, à D. Ioachimo Camerario... Accessit... liber singularis de itinere ab urbe Verona in Baldum montem plantarum ... Franfurt am Main: Johann Feyerabend. p. 987.
  30. ^ a b Praetorius, Johannes (1666). "VIII. Von Holz-Menschen". Ander Theil der Neuen Welt-Beschreibung. Vol. 2. Magdeburg: In Verlegung Johann Lüderwalds. pp. 215, 216!--215–233-->.
  31. ^ Germanisches Nationalmuseum. "Alraunmännchen". Ihr Museum in Nürnberg. Retrieved 2024-10-01.
  32. ^ Perger, Anton Franz Ritter von [in German] (May 1861). Über den Alraun. Schriften des Wiener-Alterthumsvereins. p. 268, Fig. C. alt etext @ books.google
  33. ^ Mattioli, op. cit.[28]
  34. ^ Libavius, Andreas (1599). Singularium Andreae Libavii Pars Secunda... Francofurti: Kopffius. p. 313.
  35. ^ Schlosser (1912), p. 28.
  36. ^ Andreas Libavius Singularium Pars II (1599), under "Exercitatio de agno vegetabili Scythiae" (Vegetable Lamb of Tartary)、p, 313.[34][35]
  37. ^ Grimmelshausen (1673), pp. 7–8.
  38. ^ Grimmelshausen (1673), Galgen-Männlein, p. 4 notes that Alraun requires a black dog, just like Josephus prescribes for extracting Baraas [sic], then elaborates on Josephus's method in the Annotatio.[37]
  39. ^ Praetorius (1663) Saturnalia ("Saturnalia: That Is, A Company of Christmastide Antics"), pp. 166–167 also cite Josephus, The Jewish War Book 7, Ch. 25 and explain the procedure for unrooting the Baaras (correct spelling).
  40. ^ Praetorius, Johannes (1666). "XV. Von Pflantz-Leuten". Anthropodemus Plutonicus. Das ist, Eine Neue Welt-beschreibung Von allerley Wunderbahren Menschen. Vol. 1. Illustrated by Thomas Cross (fl. 1632-1682). Magdeburg: In Verlegung Johann Lüderwalds. pp. 172, 184.
  41. ^ Praetorius's Anthropodemus: Neue Welt-beschreibung volume 1, ch. 5 on "Plant-people" discusses the alraun and black dog,[40] but Grimm's citation only includes volume 2, ch. 8 on the "Wood-man", with some bits of information.[30]
  42. ^ a b c d e f Grimms, ed. (1816). "83. Der Alraun". Deutsche Sagen. Vol. 1. Berlin: Nicolai. pp. 135–137.
  43. ^ Grimmelshausen (1673), pp. 3–4.
  44. ^ Grimmelshausen (1673), pp. 22–23.
  45. ^ Breuer, Dieter (2005). Simpliciana: Schriften der Grimmelshausen-Gesellschaft XXVI (2004). in Verbindung Mit Dem Vorstand der Grimmelshausen-Gesellschaft. Peter Lang. p. 64. ISBN 9783039106264.
  46. ^ Scholte, Jan Hendrik (1921). Zonagri Discurs von Waarsagern: Ein Beitrag zu unserer Kenntnis von Grimmelshausens Arbeitsweise in seinem Evigwährenden Calendar mit besonderer Berücksichtiging des Eingangs des abentheuerlichen Simplicissimus. Amesterdam: Johannes Müller. p. 79.
  47. ^ a b c Praetorius, Johannes (1663). "Propositio VII". Saturnalia, das ist eine Compagnie Weihnachts-Fratzen oder Centner-Lügen [Saturnalia: That Is, A Company of Christmastide Antics]. Leipzig: Joh. Wittigau. pp. 155, 156 !--155–190-->. ((Also figures A, B of male and female mandrakes, Imperial Library, Vienna, pp. 183, 189）
  48. ^ Mattioli: washed with wine and water all Saturday long;[28] Grimmelshausen (1673), p. 4: wash with red wine, wrap in soft linen or silk, and bathe every Friday. Praetorius Saturnalia: wrap in white and red silk, encased, and prayed to.[47]
  49. ^ Grimm, after Grimmelshausen (1673), p. 3 provides the monetary limits. A ducat (gold coin) will rarely succeed in doubling, and if the owner wants the doll to endure, a half thaler (silver coin) would be about the limit.
  50. ^ Mattioli also remarks that the barren will become fertile.[28]
  51. ^ pp. 312, by Eliphas Levi. 1896
  52. ^ pp. 402-403, by Paul Christian. 1963

Bibliography

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Further reading

[edit]
  • Heiser, Charles B. Jr (1969). Nightshades, The Paradoxical Plant, 131-136. W. H. Freeman & Co. SBN 7167 0672-5.
  • Thompson, C. J. S. (reprint 1968). The Mystic Mandrake. University Books.
  • Muraresku, Brian C. (2020). The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name. Macmillan USA. ISBN 978-1250207142
[edit]
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