Hover over each illustration to read the poem behind it
Erbario Lapidario
Herbals, both ancient and modern, transmit knowledge about nature’s powers. Both plants and stones can heal, preserve, and kill, but sometimes their language is arcane, or ambiguous. Thus, herbals and lapidaries are often illustrated, as is this combined one, with 53 full-color paintings by Marco Vacchetti. Erbario lapidario is intended to bring comfort, pleasure, and enlightenment to those who peruse it.
Artemisia
La madre dell’assenza
da cui tutto incomincia;
amare per tre volte
le lacrime di questa
stella, diana dei boschi,
d’un’arte che risana
con un’esca gentile.
Artemisia
The mother of absence
from which everything begins;
love three times
the tears of this
star, Diana of the woods,
of an art that heals
with a gentle bait.
Ginestra
Il giallo della vita.
Broom
The yellow thriller of one’s life.
Issopo
“Lavami e tornerò
più bianca della neve”,
sussurra la camicia
della festa macchiata
da un peccato di gola.
Poi aggiunge “E so bene
che tornerò a sporcarmi”.
Hyssop
“Wash me and I shall be again
whiter than snow”
whispers the stained
shirt from the party
after a sin of gluttony.
Then it adds, “And I know well
I’m going to get dirty again.”