This miniature of c.1400 depicts the type of shop often shown in late Medieval manuscripts - an open-front structure with a street counter and shelves stocked with jars and flasks of various kinds. The pharmacist is holding scales and the customer is about to drink his purchase, a herbal syrup, at the counter. The medicine, syropus acetosus, compounded from the herb, acetosa, was described by the Persian physician, Ibn Sina (Avicenna, 980-1037) as being useful not only for coughs but also for ailments of the spleen and stomach as well as those associated with coitus.

Source: Rome, Casanatense Library, MS 4182, folio 183. Elluchasem Elimithar, Theatrum sanitatus.