A
[The use of a or an depends on whether or not herbal is pronounced with a silent h.] herbal is "a collection of descriptions of plants put together for medicinal purposes." Expressed more elaborately — it is a book containing the names and descriptions of plants, usually with information on their
virtueVirtue is moral excellence. A virtue is a positive trait or quality subjectively deemed to be morally excellent and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being....
s (properties) — and in particular their
medicinalMedicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
,
tonicAn herbal tonic is used to help restore, tone and invigorate systems in the body or to promote general health and well-being....
, culinary, toxic, hallucinatory, aromatic, or
magicMagic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
al powers, and the
legendA legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
s associated with them. A herbal may also classify the plants it describes, may give recipes for
herbal extractTincture is a liquid solution of herbs and a fluid menstruum, usually ethanol. The dried or fresh herbs are combined with alcohol, then the solid matter is removed leaving only the oils of the herbs mixed with the alcohol...
s,
tinctureA tincture is an alcoholic extract or solution of a non-volatile substance . To qualify as a tincture, the alcoholic extract is to have an ethanol percentage of at least 40-60%...
s, or
potionA potion is a consumable medicine or poison.In mythology and literature, a potion is usually made by a magician, sorcerer, dragon, fairy or witch and has magical properties. It might be used to heal, bewitch or poison people...
s, and sometimes include mineral and animal medicaments in addition to those obtained from plants. Herbals were often illustrated to assist
plant identificationPlant identification is the process of matching a specimen plant to a known taxon. It uses various methods, most commonly dichotomous keys or multi-access keys. The natural key systems use morphological characteristics that can be compared with known databases to achieve typically the plants' genus...
.
Herbals were among the first literature produced in
Ancient EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
,
ChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
,
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, and
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
as the medical wisdom of the day accumulated by
herbalistAn herbalist is:#A person whose life is dedicated to the economic or medicinal uses of plants.#One skilled in the harvesting and collection of medicinal plants ....
s,
apothecariesApothecary is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist and some caregivers....
and
physicianA physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
s. Herbals were also among the first books to be printed in both China and Europe. In Western Europe herbals flourished for two centuries following the invention of moveable type (c. 1470–1670).
In the late 17th century, the rise of modern
chemistryChemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
,
toxicologyToxicology is a branch of biology, chemistry, and medicine concerned with the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms...
and
pharmacologyPharmacology is the branch of medicine and biology concerned with the study of drug action. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function...
reduced the medicinal value of the classical herbal. As reference manuals for
botanicalBotany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
study and plant identification herbals were supplanted by
FloraFlora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
s — systematic accounts of the plants found growing in a particular region, with scientifically accurate botanical descriptions,
classificationBiological classification, or scientific classification in biology, is a method to group and categorize organisms by biological type, such as genus or species. Biological classification is part of scientific taxonomy....
, and illustrations. Herbals have seen a modest revival in the
western worldThe Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
since the last decades of the 20th century, as
herbalismHerbalism is a traditional medicinal or folk medicine practice based on the use of plants and plant extracts. Herbalism is also known as botanical medicine, medical herbalism, herbal medicine, herbology, herblore, and phytotherapy...
and related disciplines (such as
homeopathyHomeopathy is a form of alternative medicine in which practitioners claim to treat patients using highly diluted preparations that are believed to cause healthy people to exhibit symptoms that are similar to those exhibited by the patient...
and
aromatherapyAromatherapy is a form of alternative medicine that uses volatile plant materials, known as essential oils, and other aromatic compounds for the purpose of altering a person's mind, mood, cognitive function or health....
) became popular forms of complementary and alternative medicine.
History
The word
herbal is derived from the mediaeval Latin
liber herbalis ("book of herbs"): it is sometimes used in contrast to the word
florilegiumIn medieval Latin a florilegium was a compilation of excerpts from other writings. The word is formed the Latin flos and legere : literally a gathering of flowers, or collection of fine extracts from the body of a larger work. It was adapted from the Greek anthologia "anthology", with the same...
, which is a treatise on flowers with emphasis on their beauty and enjoyment rather than the herbal emphasis on their utility. Much of the information found in printed herbals arose out of
traditional medicineTraditional medicine comprises unscientific knowledge systems that developed over generations within various societies before the era of modern medicine...
and herbal knowledge that predated the invention of writing.
Before the advent of printing, herbals were produced as
manuscriptA manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
s, which could be kept as
scrollA scroll is a roll of parchment, papyrus, or paper, which has been drawn or written upon.Scroll may also refer to:*Scroll , the decoratively curved end of the pegbox of string instruments such as violins...
s or loose sheets, or bound into
codicesA codex is a book in the format used for modern books, with multiple quires or gatherings typically bound together and given a cover.Developed by the Romans from wooden writing tablets, its gradual replacement...
. Early handwritten herbals were often illustrated with paintings and drawings. Like other manuscript books, herbals were "published" through repeated copying by hand, either by professional scribes or by the readers themselves. In the process of making a copy, the copyist would often translate, expand, adapt, or reorder the content. Most of the original herbals have been lost; many have survived only as later copies (of copies...), and others are known only through references from other texts.
As printing became available, it was promptly used to publish herbals, the first printed matter being known as incunabula. In Europe, the first printed herbal with
woodcutWoodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
(xylograph) illustrations, the
Puch der Natur of
Konrad of MegenbergKonrad of Megenberg was a German Catholic scholar, and a versatile writer.- Biography :...
, appeared in 1475. Metal-engraved plates were first used in about 1580. As woodcuts and metal engravings could be reproduced indefinitely they were traded among printers: there was therefore a large increase in the number of illustrations together with an improvement in quality and detail but a tendency for repetition.
As examples of some of the world's most important records and first printed matter, researchers will find herbals scattered through the world's most famous libraries including the
Vatican LibraryThe Vatican Library is the library of the Holy See, currently located in Vatican City. It is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts. Formally established in 1475, though in fact much older, it has 75,000 codices from...
in Rome, the
Bodleian LibraryThe Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...
in Oxford, the
Royal LibraryThe office of Royal Librarian, in the Royal Collection Department of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, is responsible for the care and maintenance of the royal collection of books and manuscripts owned by the Sovereign in an official capacity, as distinct from those owned...
in Windsor, the
British LibraryThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
in London and the major continental libraries.
Shennong pen Ts’ao ching of China
China is renowned for its traditional herbal medicine that date back thousands of years. Legend has it that Emperor
ShennongShennong , which names mean "Divine Farmer", but also known as the Emperor of the Five Grains , was a legendary ruler of China and culture hero reputed to have lived some 5,000 years ago...
, the founder of Chinese herbal medicine, composed the
Shennong pen Ts’ao ching or
Great Herbal in about 2700 BCE as the forerunner of all later Chinese herbals. It survives as a copy made c. 500 CE and describes about 365 herbs. High quality herbals and
monographA monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...
s on particular plants were produced in the period to 1250 CE including: the
Chen Lei Pen Ts’ao written by T’Ang Shenwei in 1108, which passed through twelve editions until 1600; a monograph on the
lycheeThe lychee is the sole member of the genus Litchi in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae. It is a tropical and subtropical fruit tree native to Southern China and Southeast Asia, and now cultivated in many parts of the world...
by Ts’ai Hsiang in 1059 and one on the oranges of Wen-Chou by Han Yen-Chih in 1178. In 1406 Chou Wang Hsiao published the herbal
Chiu Huang Pen Ts'ao. It contained high quality woodcuts and descriptions of 414 species of plants of which 276 were described for the first time, the book pre-dating the first European printed book by 69 years. It was reprinted many times. Other herbals include
Pen Ts'ao Fa Hui in 1450 by Hsu Yung and
Pen Ts'ao Kangmu of Li Shi Chen in 1590.
Sushruta Samhita of India
Traditional herbal medicine of India, known as Ayurveda, possibly dates back to the second millennium BCE tracing its origins to the holy
HinduHindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
VedasThe Vedas are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism....
and, in particular, the
AtharvavedaThe Atharvaveda is a sacred text of Hinduism and one of the four Vedas, often called the "fourth Veda"....
. One authentic compilation of teachings is by the surgeon Sushruta, available in a treatise called Sushruta Samhita. This contains 184 chapters and description of 1120 illnesses, 700 medicinal plants, 64 preparations from mineral sources and 57 preparations based on animal sources. Other early works of Ayurveda include the
Charaka SamhitaThe ' is an early Ayurvedic text on internal medicine. It is believed to be the oldest of the three ancient treatises of Ayurveda...
, attributed to
CharakaCharaka, sometimes spelled Caraka, born c. 300 BC was one of the principal contributors to the ancient art and science of Ayurveda, a system of medicine and lifestyle developed in Ancient India...
. This tradition, however is mostly oral. The earliest surviving written material which contains the works of Sushruta is the
Bower ManuscriptThe Bower Manuscript is a medical manuscript written predominantly in the Sanskrit language,made up of 51 birch-bark leaves, written in an early Indian script.It is today preserved as part of the collections of the Bodleian Library in Oxford...
—dated to the 4th century CE.
Hernandez - Rerum Medicarum and the Aztecs
An illustrated herbal published in Mexico in 1552,
Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum HerbisThe Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis is an Aztec herbal manuscript, describing the medicinal properties of various plants used by the Aztecs...
("Book of Medicinal Herbs of the Indies"), is written in the
AztecThe Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
Nauhuatl language by a native physician, Martín Cruz. This is probably an extremely early account of the medicine of the Aztecs although the formal illustrations, resembling European ones, suggest that the artists were following the traditions of their Spanish masters rather than an indigenous style of drawing. In 1570 Francisco Hernández (c.1514–1580) was sent from Spain to study the natural resources of New Spain (now Mexico). Here he drew on indigenous sources, including the extensive botanical gardens that had been established by the Aztecs, to record c. 1200 plants in his
Rerum Medicarum of 1615.
Nicolás MonardesNicolás Bautista Monardes was a Spanish physician and botanist.The genus Monarda was named for him.Monardes published several books of varying importance. In Diálogo llamado pharmacodilosis , he examines humanism and suggests studying several classical authors, principally Pedanius Dioscorides...
’
Dos Libros (1569) contains the first published illustration of tobacco.
Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome
By about 2000 BCE, medical
papyriPapyrus is a thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt....
in ancient Egypt included medical prescriptions based on plant matter and made reference to the herbalist's combination of medicines and magic for healing.
Papyrus Ebers
The ancient Egyptian Papyrus Ebers is one of the earliest known herbals; it dates to 1550 BCE and is based on sources, now lost, dating back a further 500 to 2000 years. The earliest
SumerSumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age....
ian herbal dates from about 2500 BCE as a copied manuscript of the 7th century BCE. Inscribed
AssyriaAssyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
n tablets dated 668–626 BCE list about 250 vegetable drugs: the tablets include herbal plant names that are still in use today including:
saffronSaffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus, commonly known as the saffron crocus. Crocus is a genus in the family Iridaceae. Each saffron crocus grows to and bears up to four flowers, each with three vivid crimson stigmas, which are each the distal end of a carpel...
,
cuminCumin is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native from the east Mediterranean to India. Its seeds are used in the cuisines of many different cultures, in both whole and ground form.-Etymology:...
,
turmericTurmeric is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. It is native to tropical South Asia and needs temperatures between 20 °C and 30 °C and a considerable amount of annual rainfall to thrive...
and
sesameSesame is a flowering plant in the genus Sesamum. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for its edible seeds, which grow in pods....
.
The ancient Greeks gleaned much of their medicinal knowledge from Egypt and Mesopotamia.
HippocratesHippocrates of Cos or Hippokrates of Kos was an ancient Greek physician of the Age of Pericles , and is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine...
(460–377 BCE), the "father of medicine" (renowned for the eponymous
Hippocratic oathThe Hippocratic Oath is an oath historically taken by physicians and other healthcare professionals swearing to practice medicine ethically. It is widely believed to have been written by Hippocrates, often regarded as the father of western medicine, or by one of his students. The oath is written in...
), used about 400 drugs, most being of plant origin. However, the first Greek herbal of any note was written by
Diocles of CarystusDiocles of Carystus , a very celebrated Greek physician, was born at Carystus in Euboea, lived not long after the time of Hippocrates, to whom Pliny says he was next in age and fame. Not much is known of his life, other that he lived and worked in Athens, where he wrote what may be the first...
in the fourth century BC—although nothing remains of this except its mention in the written record. It was
AristotleAristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
’s pupil
TheophrastusTheophrastus , a Greek native of Eresos in Lesbos, was the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He came to Athens at a young age, and initially studied in Plato's school. After Plato's death he attached himself to Aristotle. Aristotle bequeathed to Theophrastus his writings, and...
(371–287 BCE) in his
Historia PlantarumHistoria Plantarum is Latin and literally means History of Plants, although in reality it means something closer to "on plants" or "treatise on plants". There has been more than one book by this title....
and
De Causis Plantarum (better known as the
Enquiry into PlantsHistoria Plantarum is Latin and literally means History of Plants, although in reality it means something closer to "on plants" or "treatise on plants". There has been more than one book by this title....
) that established the scientific method of careful and critical observation associated with modern botanical science. Based largely on Aristotle’s notes, the Ninth Book of his
Enquiry deals specifically with medicinal herbs and their uses including the recommendations of herbalists and druggists of the day, and his plant descriptions often included their natural habitat and geographic distribution. With the formation of the
Alexandrian SchoolThe Alexandrian school is a collective designation for certain tendencies in literature, philosophy, medicine, and the sciences that developed in the Hellenistic cultural center of Alexandria, Egypt during the Hellenistic and Roman periods....
c. 330 BCE medicine flourished and written herbals of this period included those of the physicians Herophilus,
MantiasMantias, a Greek physician who was the tutor of Heraclides of Tarentum, and one of the followers of Herophilus; and who lived therefore most probably in the 3rd century BC. Galen says that he was no ordinary physician, and that he was the first who wrote a regular work on pharmacy...
, Andreas of Karystos, Appolonius Mys, and
NicanderNicander of Colophon , Greek poet, physician and grammarian, was born at Claros, , near Colophon, where his family held the hereditary priesthood of Apollo. He flourished under Attalus III of Pergamum.He wrote a number of works both in prose and verse, of which two survive complete...
. The work of rhizomatist (the rhizomati were the doctors of the day, berated by Theophrastus for their superstition) Krateuas (
fl.Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...
110 BCE) is of special note because he initiated the tradition of the illustrated herbal in the first century BCE.
Dioscorides - De Materia Medica
The
De Materia Medica (c. 40–90 CE; Greek, Περί ύλης ιατρικής) of Pedanios Dioscorides, a physician in the Roman army, was produced in about 65 CE. It was the single greatest classical authority on the subject and the most influential herbal ever written, serving as a model for herbals and pharmacopoeias, both oriental and occidental, for the next 1000 years up to the
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
. It drew together much of the accumulated herbal knowledge of the time, including some 500 medicinal plants. The original has been lost but a lavishly illustrated
ByzantineByzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
copy known as the
Codex VindobonensisCodex Vindobonensis refers to codices that are housed at the Austrian National Library in Vienna , and may specifically refer to a variety of documents:- Manuscripts of philosophical treatises :...
dating from about 512 CE remains.
Pliny - Naturalis Historia
Pliny the ElderGaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
's (23–79 CE) encyclopaedic
Naturalis Historia (c. 77–79 CE) is a synthesis of the information contained in about 2000 scrolls and it includes myths and folklore; there are about 200 extant copies of this work. It comprises 37 books of which sixteen (Books 12–27) are devoted to trees, plants and medicaments and, of these, seven describe medicinal plants. In medieval herbals, along with
De Materia Medica it is Pliny's work that is the most frequently mentioned of the classical texts, even though the work
De Simplicibus of
GalenAelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamon , was a prominent Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher...
(131–201 CE) is more detailed and notable. Another Latin translation of Greek works that was widely copied in the Middle Ages, probably illustrated in the original, was that attributed to
ApuleiusApuleius was a Latin prose writer. He was a Berber, from Madaurus . He studied Platonist philosophy in Athens; travelled to Italy, Asia Minor and Egypt; and was an initiate in several cults or mysteries. The most famous incident in his life was when he was accused of using magic to gain the...
and this also contained the alternative names for particular plants given in several languages. It dates to about 400 CE and a surviving copy dates to about 600 CE.
The Middle Ages and Arab World
During the 600 years of the European Middle Ages from 600 to 1200 CE, the tradition of herbal lore fell to the
monasteriesMonastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
. Many of the monks were skilled at producing books and manuscripts and tending both medicinal gardens and the sick, but written works of this period simply emulated those of the classical era.
Meanwhile, in the Arab world, by 900 CE the great Greek herbals had been translated and copies lodged in centres of learning in the
Byzantine empireThe Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
of the eastern Mediterranean including Byzantium, Damascus, Cairo and Baghdad where they were combined with the botanical and pharmacological lore of the Orient. In the
medieval Islamic worldDuring the Islamic Golden Age philosophers, scientists and engineers of the Islamic world contributed enormously to technology and culture, both by preserving earlier traditions and by adding their own inventions and innovations...
,
Muslim botanistsThe Arab Agricultural Revolution is a term coined by the historian Andrew Watson in his influential 1974 paper postulating a fundamental transformation in agriculture from the 8th century to the 13th century in the Muslim...
and
Muslim physiciansIn the history of medicine, Islamic medicine, Arabic medicine or Arabian medicine refers to medicine developed in the Islamic Golden Age, and written in Arabic, the lingua franca of Islamic civilization....
made a major contribution to the knowledge of herbal medicines.
Al-DinawariĀbu Ḥanīfah Āḥmad ibn Dawūd Dīnawarī was a Persian polymath excelling as much in astronomy, agriculture, botany and metallurgy and as he did in geography, mathematics and history. He was born in Dinawar, . He studied astronomy, mathematics and mechanics in Isfahan and philology and poetry in...
described more than 637 plant drugs in the 9th century, in the 12th century
Ibn Al-'AwwamAbu Zakariya Yahya ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Al-Awwam Al-Ishbili, was a Hispano-Muslim agriculturist who flourished at Seville about the end of the 12th century. He wrote the famous treatise on agriculture, Kitab al-fila-hah, one of the most important medieval works on the subject...
described 585 fungi (55 associated with
fruit treeA fruit tree is a tree which bears fruit that is consumed or used by people — all trees that are flowering plants produce fruit, which are the ripened ovaries of flowers containing one or more seeds. In horticultural usage, the term 'fruit tree' is limited to those that provide fruit for...
s), and Ibn Al-Baitar described more than 1,400 different plants, foods and drugs, over 300 of which were his own original discoveries, in the 13th century. Others associated with this period include
Mesue MaiorYuhanna ibn Masawaih, also written Ibn Masawaih, Masawaiyh, and in Latin Mesue, Masuya, Mesue Major, Msuya, and Mesue the Elder was an Assyrian physician from the Academy of Gundishapur...
(Masawaiyh, 777–857 CE) who, in his
Opera Medicinalia, synthesised the knowledge of Greeks, Persians, Arabs, Indians and Babylonians and this work was complemented by the medical encyclopaedia of
AvicennaAbū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā , commonly known as Ibn Sīnā or by his Latinized name Avicenna, was a Persian polymath, who wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived...
(Ibn Sina, 980–1037 CE). Avicenna’s
Canon of Medicine was used for centuries in both East and West. During this period Islamic science protected classical botanical knowledge that had been ignored in the West and Muslim pharmacy thrived.
Albertus Magnus - De Vegetabilibus
In the 13th century, scientific inquiry was returning and this was manifest through the production of encyclopaedias; those noted for their plant content included a treatise by Albertus Magnus (c. 1193–1280) a Suabian educated at the University of Padua and tutor to St Thomas Aquinas. It was called
De Vegetabilibus (c. 1256 AD) and even though based on original observations and plant descriptions it bore a close resemblance to the earlier Greek, Roman and Arabic herbals. Another famous account of the period was
De Proprietatibus Rerum (c. 1230–1240) of English Franciscan monk Bartholomaeus Anglicus.
Western Europe
Perhaps the best known herbals were produced in Europe between 1470 and 1670. The invention in Germany of printing from movable type in a printing press c. 1440 was a great stimulus to herbalism. The new herbals were more detailed with greater general appeal and often with Gothic script and the addition of woodcut illustrations that more closely resembled the plants being described.
Three important herbals, all appearing before 1500, were printed in Mainz, Germany. Two of these were by Peter Schoeffer, his Latin
Herbarius in 1484, followed by an updated and enlarged German version in 1485, these being followed in 1491 by the
Hortus Sanitatis printed by Jacob Meyderbach. Other early printed herbals include the
Kreuterbuch of Hieronymus Tragus from Germany in 1539 and, in England, the
New Herball of William Turner in 1551 were arranged, like the classical herbals, either alphabetically, according to their medicinal properties, or as "herbs, shrubs, trees". Arrangement of plants in later herbals such as
Cruydboeck of Dodoens and John Gerard’s
Herball of 1597 became more related to their physical similarities and this heralded the beginnings of scientific classification. By 1640 a herbal had been printed that included about 3800 plants – nearly all the plants of the day that were known.
In the
Modern AgeModern Age is an American conservative academic quarterly journal, founded in 1957 by Russell Kirk in close collaboration with Henry Regnery...
and
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
, European herbals diversified and innovated, and came to rely more on direct observation than being mere adaptations of traditional models. Typical examples from the period are the fully illustrated
De Historia Stirpium Commentarii Insignes by
Leonhart FuchsLeonhart Fuchs , sometimes spelled Leonhard Fuchs, was a German physician and one of the three founding fathers of botany, along with Otto Brunfels and Hieronymus Bock .-Biography:...
(1542, with over 400 plants), the
astrologicallyAstrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
-themed
Complete Herbal by
Nicholas CulpeperNicholas Culpeper was an English botanist, herbalist, physician, and astrologer. His published books include The English Physician and the Complete Herbal , which contain a rich store of pharmaceutical and herbal knowledge, and Astrological Judgement of Diseases from the Decumbiture of the Sick ,...
(1653), and the
Curious Herbal by
Elizabeth BlackwellElizabeth Blackwell , was a Scottish botanical illustrator and author. She achieved fame as a botanical illustrator, and was both artist and engraver for the plates of "A Curious Herbal", published between 1737 and 1739...
(1737).
Anglo-Saxon herbals
Anglo-Saxon plant knowledge and gardening skills (the garden was called a
wyrtzerd, literally, herb-yard) appears to have exceeded that on the continent. Our limited knowledge of
Anglo-SaxonAnglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
plant vernacular comes primarily from manuscripts that include: the
Leech Book of Bald, and the
Lacnunga. The
Leech Book of Bald (Bald was probably a friend of King Alfred of England) was painstakingly produced by the scribe Cild in about 900–950 CE. This was written in the
vernacularA vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
(native) tongue and not derived from Greek texts. The oldest illustrated herbal from Saxon times is a translation of the Latin
Herbarius Apulei Platonici, one of the most popular medical works of medieval times, the original dating from the fifth century; this Saxon translation was produced about 1000–1050 CE and is housed in the British Library. Another vernacular herbal was the
Buch der natur or "Book of Nature" by Konrad von Megenberg (1309–1374) which contains the first two botanical woodcuts ever made; it is also the first work of its kind in the vernacular.
Anglo-Norman herbals
In the 12th and early 13th centuries, under the influence of the Norman conquest, the herbals produced in Britain fell less under the influence of France and Germany and more that of Sicily and the Near East. This showed itself through the
ByzantineByzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
-influenced
RomanesqueRomanesque art refers to the art of Western Europe from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic style in the 13th century, or later, depending on region. The preceding period is increasingly known as the Pre-Romanesque...
framed illustrations. Anglo-Saxon herbals in the vernacular were replaced by herbals in Latin including Macers Herbal,
De Viribus Herbarum (largely derived from Pliny), with the English translation completed in about 1373.
Fifteenth century incunabula
The earliest printed books and broadsheets were known as incunabula and the first printed herbal appeared in 1469, a version of Pliny's
Historia Naturalis: this was published nine years before Dioscorides
De Materia Medica was set in type. Important incunabula include the encyclopaedic
De Proprietatibus Rerum of
FranciscanMost Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
monk Bartholomew Anglicus (c. 1203–1272) which, as a manuscript, had first appeared between 1248 and 1260 in at least six languages and after being first printed in 1470 ran to 25 editions. Assyrian physician Mesue (926–1016) wrote the popular
De Simplicibus,
Grabadin and
Liber Medicinarum Particularum the first of his printings being in 1471. These were followed, in Italy, by the
Herbarium of Apuleius Platonicus and three German works published in Mainz, the
Latin Herbarius (1484), the first herbal published in Germany,
German Herbarius (1485), the latter evolving into the
Ortus Sanitatis (1491). To these can be added
MacerMacer may refer to:* Gaius Licinius Macer , was an official and annalist of ancient Rome;* Lucius Clodius Macer was a legatus of the Roman Empire in Africa in the time of Nero.* Aemilius Macer was a Roman poet of the late Republic....
’s
De Virtutibus Herbarum, based on Plinys work, the printed edition of 1477 being among the first printed herbals with illustrations.
Fifteenth century manuscripts
In medieval times, medicinal herbs were generally referred to by the apothecaries (physicians or doctors) as "
simpleExcept in botanical usage, an herb is "any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume" or "a part of such a plant as used in cooking"...
s" or "
officinalOfficinal is a term applied in medicine to drugs, plants and herbs, which are sold in a chemist or druggist shop, and to medical preparations of such drugs, et cetera, as are made in accordance with the prescriptions authorized by a pharmacopoeia. Not to be confused with the word "official"...
s". Before 1542, the works principally used by apothecaries were the treatises on simples by
AvicennaAbū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā , commonly known as Ibn Sīnā or by his Latinized name Avicenna, was a Persian polymath, who wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived...
and
SerapionSerapion the Younger was an Arabic medical writer who wrote in the 12th century . He is called "the Younger" to distinguish him from Serapion the Elder, aka Yahya ibn Sarafyun, an earlier Arabic medical writer with whom he was often confused...
’s
Liber De Simplici Medicina. The
De Synonymis and other publications of Simon Januensis, the
Liber Servitoris of Bulchasim Ben Aberazerim, which described the preparations made from plants, animals and minerals, provided a model for the chemical treatment of modern pharmacopoeias. There was also the
Antidotarium of Nicolaus de Salerno, which contained
GalenAelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamon , was a prominent Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher...
ical compounds arranged in alphabetical order.
Spain and Portugal - de Orta, Monardes, Hernandez
The Spaniards and Portuguese were explorers, the Portuguese to India (
Vasco da GamaVasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India...
) and Goa where physician
Garcia de OrtaGarcia de Orta was a Portuguese Renaissance Sephardi Jewish physician and naturalist. He was a pioneer of tropical medicine.- Life :...
(1490–1570) based his work
Coloquios dos Simples (1563). The first botanical knowledge of the
New WorldThe New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
came from Spaniard
Nicolas MonardesNicolás Bautista Monardes was a Spanish physician and botanist.The genus Monarda was named for him.Monardes published several books of varying importance. In Diálogo llamado pharmacodilosis , he examines humanism and suggests studying several classical authors, principally Pedanius Dioscorides...
(1493–1588) who published
Dos Libros between 1569 and 1571. The work of Hernandez on the herbal medicine of the Aztecs has already been discussed.
Germany - Bock, Brunfels and Fuchs
Otto BrunfelsOtto Brunfels was a German theologian and botanist...
(c. 1489–1534),
Leonhart FuchsLeonhart Fuchs , sometimes spelled Leonhard Fuchs, was a German physician and one of the three founding fathers of botany, along with Otto Brunfels and Hieronymus Bock .-Biography:...
(1501–1566) and
Hieronymus BockHieronymus Bock was a German botanist, physician, and Lutheran minister who began the transition from medieval botany to the modern scientific worldview by arranging plants by their relation or resemblance....
(1498–1554) were known as the "German fathers of botany" although this title belies the fact that they trod in the steps of the scientifically feted
Hildegard of BingenBlessed Hildegard of Bingen , also known as Saint Hildegard, and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, visionary, and polymath. Elected a magistra by her fellow nuns in 1136, she founded the monasteries of Rupertsberg in 1150 and...
whose writings on herbalism were
Physica and
Causae et Curae (together known as
Liber subtilatum) of 1150. The original manuscript is no longer in existence but a copy was printed in 1533.
The 1530,
Herbarum Vivae Eicones of Brunfels contained the admired botanically accurate original woodcut colour illustrations of Hans Weiditz along with descriptions of 47 species new to science. Bock, in setting out to describe the plants of his native Germany, produced the
New Kreuterbuch of 1539 describing the plants he had found in the woods and fields but without illustration; this was supplemented by a second edition in 1546 that contained 365 woodcuts. Bock was possibly the first to adopt a botanical classification in his herbal which also covered details of ecology and plant communities. In this, he was placing emphasis on botanical rather than medicinal characteristics, unlike the other German herbals and forshadowing the modern
FloraFlora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
.
De Historia Stirpium (1542 with a German version in 1843) of Fuchs was a later publication with 509 high quality woodcuts that again paid close attention to botanical detail: it included many plants introduced to Germany in the sixteenth century that were new to science. The work of Fuchs is regarded as being among the most accomplished of the Renaissance period.
Low Countries - Dodoens, Lobel, Clusius
The Flemish printer Christopher Plantin established a reputation publishing the works of Dutch herbalists
Rembert DodoensRembert Dodoens was a Flemish physician and botanist, also known under his Latinized name Rembertus Dodonaeus.-Biography:...
and Carolus Clusius and developing a vast library of illustrations. Translations of early Greco-Roman texts published in German by Bock in 1546 as
Kreuterbuch were subsequently translated into
DutchDutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
as
Pemptades by Dodoens (1517–1585) who was a Belgian botanist of world renown. This was an elaboration of his first publication
Cruydeboeck (1554).
Matthias de LobelMathias de l'Obel, Mathias de Lobel or Matthaeus Lobelius was born in Lille, Nord-Pas de Calais, France, and died at Highgate, London, England after serving as a physician to William, Prince of Orange and James I of England.Lobel studied medicine in Leuven and Montpellier...
(1538–1616) published his
Stirpium Adversaria Nova (1570–1571) and a massive compilation of illustrations while Clusius’s (1526–1609) magnum opus was
Rariorum Plantarum Historia of 1601 which was a compilation of his Spanish and Hungarian floras and included over 600 plants that were new to science.
Italy - Mattioli, Calzolari, Alpino
In Italy, too herbals were beginning to include botanical descriptions. Notable herbalists included
Pietro Andrea MattioliPietro Andrea Gregorio Mattioli was a doctor and naturalist born in Siena.He received his MD at the University of Padua in 1523, and subsequently practiced the profession in Siena, Rome, Trento and Gorizia, becoming personal physician of Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria in Prague and Ambras...
(1501–1577), physician to the Italian aristocracy and his
Commentarii (1544), which included many newly described species, and his more traditional herbal
Epistolarum Medicinalium Libri Quinque (1561). Sometimes, the local flora was described as in the publication
Viaggio di Monte Baldo (1566) of Francisco Calzolari. Prospero Alpino (1553–1617) published in 1592 the highly popular account of overseas plants
De Plantis Aegypti and he also established a
botanical gardenA botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...
in Padua in 1542, which together with those at Pisa and Florence, rank among the world’s first.
England - Turner, Gerard, Parkinson, Culpeper
The first true herbal printed in Britain was Richard Banckes'
Herball of 1525 which, although popular in its day, was unillustrated and soon eclipsed by the most famous of the early printed herbals, Peter Treveris's
Grete Herball of 1526 (derived in turn from the derivative French
Grand Herbier).
William Turner (?1508–7 to 1568) was an English
naturalistNaturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...
, botanist, and theologian who studied at Cambridge University to eventually became known as the “father of English botany” achieving botanical notoriety through his 1538 publication
Libellus de re Herbaria Novus, which was the first essay on scientific botany in English. His three-part
A New Herball of 1551–1562–1568, with woodcut illustrations taken from Fuchs, was noted for its original contributions and extensive medicinal content and for being more accessible by being written in vernacular English. Turner described over 200 species native to England. and his work had a strong influence on later eminent botanists such as
John RayJohn Ray was an English naturalist, sometimes referred to as the father of English natural history. Until 1670, he wrote his name as John Wray. From then on, he used 'Ray', after "having ascertained that such had been the practice of his family before him".He published important works on botany,...
and
Jean BauhinJean Bauhin was a French physician. He was born in Amiens, France and died in Basel, Switzerland, where he had to relocate after converting to Protestantism.He was the physician to Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre....
.
John Gerard (1545–1612) is the most famous of all the English herbalists. His
Herball of 1597 is, like most herbals, largely derivative. It appears to be a reformulation of Hieronymus Bock's
Kreuterbuch subsequently translated into
DutchDutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
as
Pemptades by
Rembert DodoensRembert Dodoens was a Flemish physician and botanist, also known under his Latinized name Rembertus Dodonaeus.-Biography:...
(1517–1585), and thence into
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
by Carolus Clusius, (1526–1609) then re-worked by
Henry LyteHenry Lyte was an English botanist and antiquary. He is best known for two works, A niewe Herball , which was a translation of the Cruydeboeck of Rembert Dodoens , and an antiquarian volume, The Light of Britayne , both of which are dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I.-Life:Henry Lyte was born at...
in 1578 as
A Nievve Herball. This became the basis of Gerard's
Herball or
General Hiftorie of Plantes. that appeared in 1597 with its 1800 woodcuts (only 16 original). Although largely derivative, Gerard's popularity can be attributed to his evocation of plants and places in Elizabethan England and to the clear influence of gardens and gardening on this work.
He had published, in 1596,
Catalogus which was a list of 1033 plants growing in his garden.
John Parkinson (1567–1650) was apothecary to
James I James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
and a founding member of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. He was an enthusiastic and skilful gardener, his garden in Long Acre being stocked with rarities. He maintained an active correspondence with important English and Continental botanists, herbalists and plantsmen importing new and unusual plants from overseas, in particular the
LevantThe Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
and
VirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. Parkinson is celebrated for his two monumental works, the first
Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris in 1629: this was essentially a gardening book, a
florilegiumIn medieval Latin a florilegium was a compilation of excerpts from other writings. The word is formed the Latin flos and legere : literally a gathering of flowers, or collection of fine extracts from the body of a larger work. It was adapted from the Greek anthologia "anthology", with the same...
for which
Charles ICharles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
awarded him the title
Botanicus Regius Primarius — Royal Botanist. The second was his
Theatrum Botanicum of 1640, the largest herbal ever produced in the English language. It lacked the quality illustrations of Gerard's works, but was a massive and informative compendium including about 3800 plants (twice the number of Gerard's first edition
Herball), over 1750 pages and over 2,700 woodcuts. This was effectively the last and culminating herbal of its kind and, although it included more plants of no discernible economic or medicinal use than ever before, they were nevertheless arranged according to their properties rather than their natural affinities.
Nicholas Culpeper (1616–1654) was an English botanist,
herbalistAn herbalist is:#A person whose life is dedicated to the economic or medicinal uses of plants.#One skilled in the harvesting and collection of medicinal plants ....
,
physicianA physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
,
apothecaryApothecary is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist and some caregivers....
and
astrologerAn astrologer practices one or more forms of astrology. Typically an astrologer draws a horoscope for the time of an event, such as a person's birth, and interprets celestial points and their placements at the time of the event to better understand someone, determine the auspiciousness of an...
from London's East End. His published books were
A Physicall Directory (1649), which was a pseudoscientific pharmacopoeia.
The English Physitian (1652) and the
Complete Herbal(1653), contain a rich store of pharmaceutical and herbal knowledge. His works lacked scientific credibility because of their use of
astrologicalAstrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
although he combined diseases, plants and astrological prognosis into a simple integrated system that has proved extremely popular to the present day.
Legacy
The legacy of the herbal extends beyond medicine to botany and horticulture. Herbal medicine is still practiced in many parts of the world but the traditional grand herbal, as described here, ended with the European Renaissance, the rise of modern medicine and the use of synthetic and industrialized drugs. The medicinal component of herbals has developed in several ways. Firstly, discussion of plant lore was reduced and with the increased medical content there emerged the official pharmacopoeia. The first British Pharmacopoeia was published in the English language in 1864, but gave such general dissatisfaction both to the medical profession and to chemists and druggists that the General Medical Council brought out a new and amended edition in 1867. Secondly, at a more popular level, there are the books on culinary herbs and herb gardens, medicinal and useful plants. Finally, the enduring desire for simple medicinal information on specific plants has resulted in contemporary herbals that echo the herbals of the past, an example being
Maud GrieveSophia Emma Magdalene Grieve was the Principal and Founder of The Whins Medicinal and Commercial Herb School and Farm at Chalfont St. Peter in Buckinghamshire, England. Maud Grieve was a Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society with an encyclopedic knowledge of medicinal plants...
's
A Modern Herbal, first published in 1931 but with many subsequent editions.
The magical and mystical side of the herbal also lives on. Herbals often explained plant lore, displaying a superstitious or spiritual side. There was, for example, the fanciful
doctrine of signaturesThe doctrine of signatures is a philosophy shared by herbalists from the time of Dioscurides and Galen. This doctrine states that herbs that resemble various parts of the body can be used to treat ailments of that part of the body. Examples include the plants liverwort; snakeroot, an antidote for...
, the belief that there were similarities in the appearance of the part of the body affected the appearance of the plant to be used as a remedy. The astrology of Culpeper can be seen in contemporary
anthroposophyAnthroposophy, a philosophy founded by Rudolf Steiner, postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world accessible to direct experience through inner development...
(biodynamic gardening) and alternative medical approaches like
homeopathyHomeopathy is a form of alternative medicine in which practitioners claim to treat patients using highly diluted preparations that are believed to cause healthy people to exhibit symptoms that are similar to those exhibited by the patient...
,
aromatherapyAromatherapy is a form of alternative medicine that uses volatile plant materials, known as essential oils, and other aromatic compounds for the purpose of altering a person's mind, mood, cognitive function or health....
and other
new ageThe New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
medicine show connections with herbals and traditional medicine.
It is sometimes forgotten that the plants described in herbals were grown in special herb gardens (physic gardens). Such herb gardens were, for example, part of the medieval monastery garden that supplied the simples or officinals used to treat the sick being cared for within the monastery. Early physic gardens were also associated with institutes of learning, whether a
monasteryMonastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
,
universityA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
or
herbariumIn botany, a herbarium – sometimes known by the Anglicized term herbar – is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in...
. It was this medieval garden of the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, attended by
apothecariesApothecary is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist and some caregivers....
and
physicianA physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
s, that established a tradition leading to the systems gardens of the eighteenth century (gardens that demonstrated the classification system of plants) and the modern
botanical gardenA botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...
. The advent of printing, woodcuts and metal engraving improved the means of communication. Herbals prepared the ground for modern botanical science by pioneering plant description, classification and illustration. From the time of the ancients like Dioscorides through to Parkinson in 1629, the scope of the herbal remained essentially the same.
The greatest legacy of the herbal is to botany. Up to the seventeenth century, botany and medicine were one and the same but gradually greater emphasis was placed on the plants rather than their medicinal properties. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, plant description and classification began to relate plants to one-another and not to man. This was the first glimpse of non-anthropocentric botanical science since Theophrastus and, coupled with the new system of
binomial nomenclatureBinomial nomenclature is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, although they can be based on words from other languages...
resulted in "scientific herbals" called
FloraFlora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
s that detailed and illustrated the plants growing in a particular region. These books were often backed by
herbariaIn botany, a herbarium – sometimes known by the Anglicized term herbar – is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in...
, collections of dried plants that verified the plant descriptions given in the Floras. In this way modern botany, especially
plant taxonomyPlant taxonomy is the science that finds, describes, classifies, identifies, and names plants. It thus is one of the main branches of taxonomy.Plant taxonomy is closely allied to plant systematics, and there is no sharp boundary between the two...
, was born out of medicine. As herbal historian
Agnes ArberAgnes Robertson Arber was a renowned British plant morphologist and anatomist, historian of botany and philosopher of biology. She was born in London but lived most of her life in Cambridge, including the last 51 years of her life...
remarks - "Sibthorp's monumental
Flora Graeca is, indeed, the direct descendant in modern science of the
De Materia Medica of Dioscorides."
External links