Manuscript Illumination

Rome, Biblioteca Casanatense, MS 4182, XCVII

The plants could perhaps be identified as Brassica napus (L.), variety napobrassica (L). The swede is also known as: rutabaga, swedish turnip, wax turnip, yellow turnip, neep, rape or wild rape.

White-fleshed swede varieties have a rough green skin and are of irregular form, while yellow-fleshed varieties are more regularly-shaped and have a smooth skin of a green, purple, bronze or brown colour.

The man is carrying swede roots in a creel, and others are held in a bunch in his left hand (a creel is a large wicker basket used to carry goods on the carrier's back).

The swede plants are depicted as black perhaps in accordance with the latin text, placed below the miniature, which states that the best swede plants are "the long, wrinkled, black ones".