is Galen. He is flanked by three pairs of other physicians, seated on stones or the ground. Closest to Galen are Crateuas and Dioscurides. The second pair are Apollonius Mys and Nicander. Farthest from Galen are Andreas and Rufus of Ephesus. Each of the figures is a self-contained portrait and was probably modeled on authors' portraits from the various authors' treatises. The seven figures are contained within an elaborate decorated frame. The background is solid gold, which places the figures in an abstract space. This is the earliest known manuscript to use a solid gold background. Following the two miniatures of seven pharmacologists, there are two author portraits. In the second portrait (see here), Dioscurides sits writing in a codex on his lap. He is shown in profile, which corresponds to the portrait in the previous miniature. It is possible that there was a tradition based on Dioscurides' life portrait that the images are based on. In front of Dioscurides is an artist, seated at a lower level, painting an illustration of the mandrake root. He is painting from nature. The mandrake root he is looking at is held by the personification of Epinoia (the power of thought). There is architectural background consisting of a colonnade with a central niche. The paraphrase of the treatise on birds by Dionysius is in three books. The first two books have illustrations of the birds inserted into the text columns without frame or background (for example, see here). The third book has 24 birds arranged in a grid on a full-page miniature (see illustration above). The birds portrayed throughout the treatise are of high artistic merit and are faithful to nature in form and color. Most of the birds are easily identifiable. Some of the birds contained in the full-page miniature in the third book are not described in the text of the paraphrase. It is probable that these illustrations are based on the illustrations from an older, different treatise, possibly that of Alexander of Myndus. This manuscript, however, is the oldest surviving illustrated treatise on birds. Gallery References Notes Sources Walther, Ingo F. and Norbert Wolf. Codices Illustres: The world's most famous illuminated manuscripts, 400 to 1600. Köln, TASCHEN, 2005. Weitzmann, Kurt. Late Antique and Early Christian Book Illumination. New York: George Braziller, 1977. Further reading Leslie Brubaker, "The Vienna Dioskurides and Anicia Juliana" in Byzantine Garden Culture ed. Antony Robert Littlewood,