Full text of "Herbals, their origin and evolutiion; a chapter in the history of botany, 1470-1670"

HERBALS

THEIR ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION

A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF BOTANY

1470 — 1670

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

2onOon: FETTER LANE, E.C.

C. F. CLAY, Manager

fEbmburgh : ioo, PRINCES STREET
ILonnon: WILLIAM WESLEY & SON, 28, ESSEX STREET, STRAND

Berlin: A. ASHER & CO.

Eeipjtg: F. A. BROCKHAUS

jficfo If orft : G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

Bombag anb Calcutta: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd.

LEONHARU FUCHS (1501 — 1566).
[Engraving by Speckle in De historia stirfiium, 1542.]

HERBALS

THEIR ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION

A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF BOTANY

1470 — 1670

AGNES ARBER

(Mrs E. A. NEWELL ARBER)

D.Sc, F.L.S., FELLOW OF NEWNHAM COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
AND OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON

js'9qa^

Cambridge :

at the University Press

1912

Cambridge:

PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

TO MY FATHER

H. R. ROBERTSON

"Wherefore it maye please your...gentlenes to take these my

labours in good worthe, not according unto their unworthines, but

accordinge unto my good mind and will, offering and gevinge them

unto you."

William Turner's Herbal, 1568.

PREFACE

TO add a volume such as the present to the existing
multitude of books about books calls for some apology.
My excuse must be that many of the best herbals, especially
the earlier ones, are not easily accessible, and after experi-
encing keen delight from them myself, I have felt that some
account of these works, in connection with reproductions of
typical illustrations, might be of interest to others. In the
words of Henry Lyte, the translator of Dodoens, "I thinke
it sufficient for any, whom reason may satisfie, by way of
answeare to alleage this action and sententious position :
Bonum, quo communius, eo melius et prcestantius : a good
thing the more common it is, the better it is."

The main object of the present book is to trace in
outline the evolution of the printed herbal in Europe
between the years 1470 and 1670, primarily from a botanical,
and secondarily from an artistic standpoint. The medical
aspect, which could only be dealt with satisfactorily by
a specialist in that science, I have practically left untouched,
as also the gardening literature of the period. Bibliographical
information is not given in detail, except in so far as it
subserves the main objects of the book. Even within these
limitations, the present account is far from being an exhaustive
monograph. It aims merely at presenting a general sketch
of the history of the herbal during a period of two hundred
years. The titles of the principal botanical works, which
were published between 1470 and 1670, are given in
Appendix I.

a 5

viii Preface

The book is founded mainly upon a study of the herbals
themselves. My attention was first directed to these works
by reading a copy of Lyte's translation of Dodoens' Herbal,
which happened to come into my hands in 1894, and at once
aroused my interest in the subject. I have also drawn
freely upon the historical and critical literature dealing with
the period under consideration, to which full references will
be found in Appendix II. The materials for this work
have chiefly been obtained in the Printed Books Department
of the British Museum, but I have also made use of a number
of other libraries. I owe many thanks to Prof. Seward,
F.R.S., who suggested that I should undertake this book,
and gave me special facilities for the study of the fine
collection of old botanical works in the Botany School,
Cambridge. In addition I must record my gratitude to
the University Librarian, Mr F. J. H. Jenkinson, M.A.,
and Mr C. E. Sayle, M.A., of the Cambridge University
Library, and also to Dr Stapf, Keeper of the Kew Herbarium
and Library. By the kindness of Dr Norman Moore,
Harveian Librarian to the Royal College of Physicians,
I have had access to that splendid library, and my best
thanks are due to him, and to the Assistant- Librarian,
Mr Barlow. To the latter I am especially indebted for
information on bibliographical points. I have also to thank
Mr Knapman of the Pharmaceutical Society, Dr Molhuizen,
Keeper of the Manuscripts, University Library, Leyden,
and the Librarian of the Teyler Institute, Haarlem, for
giving me opportunities for examining the books under
their charge.

The great majority of the illustrations are reproduced
from photographs taken directly from the originals by
Mr W. Tarns of Cambridge, to whom I am greatly indebted
for the skill and care with which he has overcome the
difficulties incidental to photographing from old books, the
pages of which are so often wrinkled, discoloured or

Preface ix

worm-eaten. For the use of Plate XVIII, which appeared
in Leonardo da Vinci's Note-Books, I am under obligations
to the author, Mr Edward M c Curdy, M.A., and to Messrs
Duckworth & Co. Text-figs. 7, 18, yy, 78 and 112 are
reproduced by the courtesy of the Council of the Biblio-
graphical Society, from papers by the late Dr Payne, to
which the references will be found in Appendix II, while,
for the use of Text-fig. 108, I am indebted to the Royal
Numismatic Society. For permission to utilise the modern
facsimile of the famous Dioscorides manuscript of Juliana
Anicia, from which Plates I, II, and XV are derived,
I have to thank Prof. Dr Josef Ritter von Karabacek, of
the k. k. Hofbibliothek at Vienna. In connection with the
portraits of herbalists here reproduced, I wish to acknow-
ledge the generous assistance which I have received from
Sir Sidney Colvin, formerly Keeper of Prints and Drawings,
British Museum.

I would also record my thanks to Mr A. W. Pollard,
Secretary of the Bibliographical Society, Prof. Killermann
of Regensburg, Signorina Adelaide Marchi of Florence,
Mr C. D. Sherborn of the British Museum (Natural
History) and Dr B. Daydon Jackson, General Secretary
of the Linnean Society, all of whom have kindly given me
information of great value. For help in the translation
of certain German and Latin texts, I am indebted to
Mr E. G. Tucker, B.A., Mr F. A. Scholfield, M.A., and
to my brother, Mr D. S. Robertson, M.A., Fellow of
Trinity College, Cambridge.

I wish, further, to express my gratitude to my father
for advice and suggestions. Without his help, I should
scarcely have felt myself competent to discuss the subject
from the artistic standpoint. To my husband, also, I owe
many thanks for assistance in various directions, more par-
ticularly in criticising the manuscript, and in seeing the
volume through the press. I am indebted to my sister,

x Preface

Miss Janet Robertson, for the cover, the design for which
is based upon a wood-cut in the Ortus Sanitatis of 1491.

A book of this kind, in the preparation of which many
previous works have been laid under contribution, is doubt-
less open to a certain criticism which William Turner, "the
Father of British Botany," anticipated in the case of his
own writings. I think I cannot do better than proffer my
excuse in the very words of this sixteenth-century herbalist :

"For some of them will saye, seynge that I graunte
that I have gathered this booke of so manye writers, that
I offer unto you an heape of other mennis laboures, and
nothinge of myne owne,...To whom I aunswere, that if the
honye that the bees gather out of so manye floure of herbes,
shrubbes, and trees, that are growing in other mennis
medowes, feldes and closes : maye justelye be called the
bees honye:... So maye I call it that I have learned and
gathered of manye good autoures...my booke."

AGNES ARBER.

Balfour Laboratory, Cambridge,
26th July, 191 2.

CONTENTS

CHAP.
I.

II.

III.

IV.

VI.

' VII.
VIII.

IX.

The
r

g
J'

The
i.

The
i

3
4

5
6,

7
The

Early History of Botany

Introductory

Aristotelian Botany

Medicinal Botany

Earliest Printed Herbals (Fifteenth Century)
The Encyclopaedia of Bartholomaeus Anglicus and 'The

Book of Nature'

The 'Herbarium' of Apuleius Platonicus

The Latin 'Herbarius'

The German 'Herbarius' and related Works
The 'Hortus Sanitatis'

Early History of the Herbal in England
The 'Herbarium' of Apuleius Platonicus

Banckes' Herbal

'The Grete Herball'

Botanical Renaissance of the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries

The Herbal in Germany

The Herbal in the Low Countries

The Herbal in Italy

The Herbal in Switzerland

The Herbal in France

The Herbal in England

The Revival of Aristotelian Botany ....

Evolution of the Art of Plant Description

The Evolution of Plant Classification ....
The Evolution of the Art of Botanical Illustration
The Doctrine of Signatures, and Astrological Botany

Conclusions

Appendix I

A Chronological List of the Principal Herbals and Related
Botanical Works published between 1470 and 1670

Appendix II

A List, in Alphabetical Order, of the Principal Critical and
Historical Works dealing with the Subjects discussed in
this Book

Index

page

1
2
6

10
11
16
18

47
70

79
90

98
100
116

119
134
154
204
221

227

241

247

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FRONTISPIECE

Leonhard Fuchs (1501 — 1566) [Engraving by Speckle in De historia

stirpium, 1542]

PLATES

PLATE Face page

I. "Sonchos" [Dioscorides. Codex Aniciae Julianas, circa A.D.

500]. Reduced 4

II. "Stratiotes" [Dioscorides. Codex Aniciae Julianae. circa

A.D. 500]. Reduced 8

III. Wood-cut of Plants [Konrad von Megenberg. Das puch

der natur. 1475]. Reduced 10

IV. "Orbicularis" [Herbarium Apuleii Platonici. ? 1484]. {The

tint represents colouring, which was probably contemporary) 1 2

V. "Mandragora" = Mandrake [Herbarium Apuleii Platonici.

? 1484]. ( The tint represents colouring, which was probably
contemporary) 34

VI. Joachim Camerarius, the younger (1534 — 1598) [Engraving

by Bartholomaeus Kilian. Probably between 1650 and
1700. Department of Prints and Drawings, British
Museum] 68

VII. Charles de PEcluse (1526 — 1609) [Print in the Botany School,

Cambridge] 74

VIII. Mathias de l'Obel (1538 — 1616) [Engraving by Francois

Dellarame. 161 5. Department of Prints and Drawings,
British Museum] 78

IX. Fabio Colonna (1567 — 1650) [Ekphrasis. 1606] ... 88

X. Konrad Gesner (15 16 — 1565) [Print in the Botany School,

Cambridge] 92

XI. Gaspard Bauhin (1560 — 1624) [Theatrum Anatomicum.

1605] 94

XII. John Gerard (1545— 1607) [The Herball. 1636] ... 108

XIII. John Parkinson (1567 — 1650) [Theatrum botanicum. 1640] . 114

List of Illustrations

Xlll

PLATE Face page

XIV. Andrea Cesalpino (15 19— 1603) [Drawn by G. Zocchi and

engraved by F. Allegrini, 1765, after an old portrait in
the Museum of the Botanic Garden at Pisa. Print in the
Botany School, Cambridge] 116

XV. "Phasiolos" = Bean [Dioscorides. Codex Aniciae Julianae.

circa a.d. 500]. Reduced 154

XVI. "Dracontea" [Herbarium Apuleii Platonici. ? 1484]. {The tint

represents colouring, which was probably contemporary) . 1 56

XVII. Study of Aquilegia vulgaris L., Columbine [Albrecht Diirer,

1526. Drawing in the Albertina, Vienna]. Reduced . 168

XVIII. Study of Ornithogalum umbellatum L., Star of Bethlehem,
and other plants [Leonardo da Vinci. 1452 — 1 519. Draw-
ing in the Royal Library, Windsor]. Reduced . . . 170

XIX. "Crocus Byzantinus" and "Crocus Montanus hispan." [Part

of a plate from Crispian de Passe. Hortus Floridus.

1614] 202

XX. "Cervaria fcemina" [Thurneisser. Historia sive Descriptio

Plantarum. 1587] 216

XXI. Nicholas Culpeper(i6i6 — 1654) [A Physicall Directory. 1649.

Engraving by Cross] 218

FIGURES IN THE TEXT 1

[The initial letters, which will be found at the beginning of each chapter,
are taken from Pierre Belon's 'Les Observations de plusieurs singularitez et
choses memorables, trouvees en Grece, Asie, Jude"e, Egypte, Arabie, et autres
pays estranges,. ..Imprime' a Paris par Benoist Prevost.' 1553]

TEXT- FIG.

1
2

5
6

7
8

10,
11
12
13
14

15
16

17
18

20.
21

23-

"Plantago" = Plantain [Herbarium Apuleii Platonici, ?I484] .
"Artemisia" [Herbarium Apuleii Platonici, ? 1484] .
"Lilium" [Herbarius Moguntinus, 1484] ....

"Aristolochia longa" [Herbarius Moguntinus, 1484]
"Serpentaria" [Herbarius Moguntinus, 1484] ....
"Brionia" [Arnaldus de Villa Nova, Tractatus de virtutibus her

barum, 1499]

"Acorus" = Iris [Herbarius zu Teutsch, Mainz, 1485]

"Leopardus" [Ortus Sanitatis, Mainz, 1491] ....

"Daucus" = Carrot [Ortus Sanitatis, Mainz, 1491] .

" Passer " = Sparrow [Ortus Sanitatis, Mainz, 1491] .

"Pavo" = Peacock [Ortus Sanitatis, Mainz, 149 1] .

"Arbor vel lignum viteparadisi" [Ortus Sanitatis, Mainz, 1491]

"Narcissus" [Ortus Sanitatis, Mainz, 1491] ....

"Bauser vel Bausor" [Ortus Sanitatis, Mainz, 1491]

"Panis" = Bread [Ortus Sanitatis, Mainz, 1491]

"Ambra" = Amber [Ortus Sanitatis, Mainz, 1491] .

"Unicornus" [Ortus Sanitatis, Mainz, 1491] ....

A Herbalist's Garden [Le Jardin de Sant£, ? 1539] .

Wood-cut of Plants [Bartholomaeus Anglicus, Liber de proprie

tatibus rerum, Wynkyn de Worde, ? 1495]. Reduced
"Yvery" = Ivory [The Crete Herball, 1529] ....
"Nenufar" = Waterlily [The Grete Herball, 1529] .
"Walwurtz vc&xwXvn." = Symphytum, Comfrey [Brunfels, Herbarum

vivas eicones, Vol. 1. 1530]. Reduced ....
"Helleborus Niger " = Helleborus vhidis L., Green Hellebore

[Brunfels, Herbarum vivae eicones, Vol. 1. 1530]. Reduced

PAGE

12
13
14

15
16

25
26

27
27
28

29
3o
3i
32
33
34

42
44

48
49

1 The dates refer, in each case, to the particular edition from which the figures have
been copied, which is not always the first. For fuller titles and dates of first editions,
see Appendix I.

Figures in the Text xv

TEXT- FIG. PACK

24. "Synnaw" = Alchemilla, Ladies' Mantle [Brunfels, Herbarum

vivas eicones, Vol. II. 1531]. Reduced 51

25. "Caryophyllata" = Geum, Avens [Brunfels, Herbarum vivae

eicones, Vol. III. 1540]. Reduced 52

26. Hieronymus Bock or Tragus (1498 — 1554) [Kreuter Buch,

1551] ... ....... S3

27. "Erdberen" = /v-^rtr/a, Strawberry [Bock, Kreuter Buch, 1546] . 54

28. " Pimpernuss " = Pistacia, Pistachio-nut [Bock, Kreuter Buch,

1546] .... 56

29. "Tribulus aquaticus" = Trapa nutans L., Bull-nut [Bock, De

stirpium, 1552] 57

30. "Brassicae quartum genus "= Cabbage [Fuchs, De historia stirpium,

1 542]. Reduced 59

31. "Polygonatum latifolium" = Solomon's Seal [Fuchs, De historia

stirpium, 1542]. Reduced 61

32. "Cucumis turcicus" = Cucurbita maxima Duch., Giant Pumpkin

[Fuchs, De historia stirpium, 1542]. Reduced. ... 63

33. "Erdopffel" = Ranunculus ficaria L., Lesser Celandine [Rhodion,

Kreutterbuch, 1533] 65

34. "Ocimoides {ruticosum" = Silene frzeticosa L. [Camerarius, Hortus

medicus, 1588] 67

35. "Palma" = Seedlings of Phoenix dactylifera L., Date Palm [Came-

rarius, Hortus medicus, 1588] 69

36. Rembert Dodoens (1 517 — 1 585) [A Niewe Herball. Translated

by Lyte, 1578] 71

37. "Capparis" = Cap/>aris ovata L. [Dodoens, Pemptades, 1583] . 73

38. "Anemone trifolia" [Dodoens, Pemptades, 1583] .... 75

39. "Lacryma lob" — Coix lachryma-Jobi L., Job's Tears [de PEcluse,

Rariorum...per Hispanias, 1576] 77

40. Pierandrea Mattioli (1501— 1577) [Engraving by Philippe Galle,

Virorum Doctorum Effigies, Antwerp, 1572] .... 80

41. "Fyra" = Pyrus communis L., Pear [Mattioli, Commentarii, 1560] . 81

42. "Avena" = Oats [Mattioli, Commentarii, 1560] .... 82

43. "Trifolium acetosum" = Oxalis [Mattioli, Commentarii, 1565]. Re-

duced .... 83

44. u Mains" = Pyrus malus L., Apple [Mattioli, Commentarii, 1565].

Reduced . 84

45. "Arbor Malenconico " or "Arbor tristis"= Tree of Sorrow [Durante,

Herbario Nuovo, 1585] 86

46. "Apocynum" [Colonna, Phytobasanos, 1592] 87

47. "Kalli" = Salicornia, Glass wort [Prospero Alpino, De plantis

yEgypti, 1592] 89

48. "Lachryma lob" = Coix lachryma-Jobi L., Job's Tears [Simler,

Vita Conradi Gesneri, 1566] 91

49. "Solanum tuberosum esculentum" = Potato [Bauhin, Prodromos,

1620] 95

XVI

Figures in the Text

TEXT-FIG.

5c. Jacques d'Ale"champs (1513 — 1588) [Wood-cut, circa 1600
Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum]
Enlarged

51. "Ornithogalum magnum" [d'Aldchamps, Historia generalis plan

tarum, 1586]

52. " Tabaco" =Nicotlana, Tobacco [Monardes, Joyfull newes out of

the newe founde worlde, 1580]

53. " Reubarbe" = Centaurea rhaponticum L. [Lyte, A Niewe Herball

1578]

54. "The breede of Barnakles" [Gerard, The Herball, 1597]

55. " Barberry" = £erberis [Part of a large wood-cut from Parkinson

Paradisus Terrestris, 1629]

56. "Cardamomum" = (?) Solatium dulcamara L., Bittersweet [Ortus

Sanitatis, Mainz, 1491]

57. "Pionia"= Peony [Arnaldus de Villa Nova, Tractatus de virtutibus

herbarum, 1499]

58. "Petasites" = Butterbur [Fuchs, De historia stirpium, 1542]

Reduced

59. "Sedum majus" [de l'Ecluse, Rariorum...per Hispanias, 1576]

60. "Battata Virginiana" = Solamtm tuberosum L., Potato [Gerard

The Herball, 1597]

61. "Rose Ribwoorte" = an abnormal Plantain [Gerard, The Herball

1597]

62. "Beta Cretica semine aculeato" [Bauhin, Prodromos, 1620] .

63. "Carui" [Ortus Sanitatis, Mainz, 1491]

64. "Buglossa" [Ortus Sanitatis, Mainz, 1491] ....

65. "Nenufar" = Waterlily [Arnaldus de Villa Nova, Tractatus de

virtutibus herbarum, 1499]

66. " Nenuphar" = Nymphaa alba L., White Waterlily [Brunfels, Her

barum vivse eicones, Vol. I. 1530]. Reduced

67. "Gele Plompen" = Nuphar luteum Sm., Yellow Waterlily [de l'Obel

Kruydtbceck, 1581]

68. "Ninfea" = Waterlily [Durante, Herbario Nuovo, 1585] .

69. " TussWago" = Tusstlago farfara L., Coltsfoot [Fuchs, De historia

stirpium, 1542]. Reduced

70. "Plantago major " = Plantain [Fuchs, De historia stirpium, 1542]

Reduced

71. "Althaea Thuringica" = Lavatera thuringiaca L. [Camerarius

Hortus medicus, 1588]

72. " Pulsatilla" = A nemone Pulsatilla L., Pasque-flower [Camerarius

De plantis Epitome... Matthioli, 1586] ....

73. "Brionia" [Herbarius Moguntinus, 1484J ....

74. "Ireos vel Iris" [Arnaldus de Villa Nova, Tractatus de virtutibus

herbarum, 1499]

75. "Capillus Veneris " = Maidenhair Fern [Arnaldus de Villa Nova

Tractatus de virtutibus herbarum, 1499] ....

PAGE

Figures in the Text xvii

TEXT-FIG. I'AGE

76. "Cuscuta" = Dodder [Arnaldus de Villa Nova, Tractatus de vir-

tutibus herbarum, 1499] l ^ x

77. " Cuscuta" = Dodder [Herbarius zu Teutsch, Mainz, 1485] . . 163

78. "Alkekengi" = /7y\M//.y, Winter Cherry [Herbarius zu Teutsch,

Mainz, 1485] 164

79. "Alkekengi" = .P^j>.m/z.f, Winter Cherry [Ortus Sanitatis, Mainz,

1491] 165

80. "Cuscuta"= Dodder [Ortus Sanitatis, Mainz, 1491] ... 166

81. "Botris" [Ortus Sanitatis, Mainz, 1491] 167

82. "Asarum" = Asarabacca [Brunfels, Herbarum vivae eicones, Vol. 1.

1530]. Reduced 169

83. "KuchenscheW = Anemone pu/sati//a L., Pasque-flower [Brunfels,

Herbarum vivas eicones, Vol. 1. 1530]. Reduced . . . 171

84. " Lappa" ^Arctium, Burdock [Brunfels, Herbarum vivas eicones,

Vol. II. 1 531]. Reduced 173

85. "Scolopendria" = Hart's-tongue Fern [Rhodion, Kreutterbuch,

1533] J 74

86. "Dipsacus albus" = Teasle [Fuchs, De historia stirpium, 1542].

Reduced 176

87. " Apios " = Lathyrus tuberosus L., Earth-nut Pea [Fuchs, De

historia stirpium, 1542]. Reduced 178

88. "Arum" = ^4/-«w maculatum L., Wild Arum [Fuchs, De historia

stirpium, 1542]. Reduced 179

89. The Draughtsmen and Engraver employed by Leonhard Fuchs

[De historia stirpium, 1542]. Reduced 181

90. "Wintergriin" = / , _yr^/a, Wintergreen [Bock, Kreuter Buch, 1546] 182

91. "Rautten" = Bottyc/u'um, Moonwort [Bock, Kreuter Buch, 1546] . 183

92. "Castanum nuss" =Cashinea, Chestnut [Bock, Kreuter Buch,

1546] 184

93. " Fungi " = Toadstools [Mattioli, Commentarii, 1560]. Reduced . 185

94. "Rosaceum" [Mattioli, Commentarii, 1560]. Reduced . . 186

95. "Suber primus" [Mattioli, Commentarii, 1565]. Reduced . . 187

96. "Tragorchis" = Orc/us /ii'rcina L., Lizard Orchis [Dodoens, Pemp-

tades, 1583] 188

97. " Aconitum luteum minus " — Erauthis hiemalis L., Winter Aconite

[Dodoens, Pemptades, 1583] 189

98. "Draco arbor "—Draccena^ Dragon Tree [de l'Ecluse, Rariorum...

per Hispanias, 1576] 191

99. "Cyclaminus" [Camerarius, De plantis Epitome. ..Matthioli, 1586] 192

100. "Rosa Hierichuntica." = A uastatica hierochuntica L., Rose of

Jericho [Camerarius, Hortus medicus, 1588]. . . . 193

101. "Piper Nigrum " = Pepper [d'Ale'champs, Historia generalis plan-

tarum, Vol. II. 1587] 194

102. " Cedrus"== Cedar [Belon, De arboribus, 1553] .... 195

103. "Lentisco del Peru " ' — Pistacia lentiscus L., Mastic Tree [Durante,

Herbario Nuovo, 1585] 197

xviii Figures in the Text

TEXT-FIG. PAGE

104. "Mala Aurantia Chinensia" = Orange [Aldrovandi, Dendrologia,

1667]. Reduced 198

105. "Chondrilla" [Colonna, Phytobasanos, 1592] .... 201

106. "A\kekengi" = P/ijysah's, Winter Cherry [Blankaart, Neder-land-

schen Herbarius, 1698] 203

107. The Male Mandrake [Brunfels, Contrafayt Kreiiterbuch, Ander

Teyl, 1537] 205

108. Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus (1493 — 1541)

[From a medal, now in the British Museum. See F. W.
Weber, Appendix II] 206

109. Herbs of the Scorpion [Porta, Phytognomonica, 1 591] . . . 209

no. Lunar Herbs [Porta, Phytognomonica, 1591] 213

in. Astrological Diagram relating to the gathering of "Cervaria

fcemina" [Thurneisser, Historia sive Descriptio Plantarum,

1587] 217

112. Wood-cut from the Title-page of the Crete Herball, 1526.

Reduced 223

113. A Herbalist's Garden and Store-room [Das Kreiiterbuch oder

Herbarius. Printed by Heinrich Stayner, Augsburg, 1534] 225

CHAPTER I
THE EARLY HISTORY OF BOTANY

i. Introductory.

N the present book, the special subject
treated is the evolution of the printed
Jierbal, between the years 1470 and
1670, but it is impossible to arrive
at clear ideas on this subject without
some knowledge of the earlier stages
in the history of Botany. The first
chapter will therefore be devoted to
the briefest possible sketch of the progress of Botany before
the invention of printing, in order that the position occupied
by the Herbal in the history of the science may be realised
in its true perspective.

From the very beginning of its existence, the study of
plants has been approached from two widely separated
standpoints — the philosophical and the utilitarian. Regarded
from the first point of view, Botany stands on its own
merits, as an integral branch of natural philosophy, whereas,
from the second, it is merely a by-product of medicine
or agriculture. This distinction, however, is a somewhat
arbitrary one ; the more philosophical of botanists have not
disdained at times to consider the uses of herbs, and those
who entered upon the subject, with a purely medical inten-
tion, have often become students of plant life for its own
sake. At different periods in the evolution of the science,
one or other aspect has predominated, but from classical
times onwards, it is possible to trace the development of
these two distinct lines of inquiry, which have sometimes

A. I

2 Early History of Botany [ch.

converged, but more often pursued parallel and unconnected
paths.

Botany as a branch of philosophy may be said to have
owed its inception to the wonderful mental activity of the
finest period of Greek culture. It was at this time that the
nature and life of plants first came definitely within the
scope of inquiry and speculation.

2. Aristotelian Botany.

Aristotle, Plato's pupil, concerned himself with the
whole field of science, and his influence, especially during
the Middle Ages, had a most profound effect on European
thought. The greater part of his botanical writings, which
belong to the fourth century before Christ, are unfortunately
lost, but, from such fragments as remain, it is clear that his
interest in plants was of an abstract nature. He held that
all living bodies, those of plants as well as of animals, are
organs of the soul, through which they exist. It was broad,
general speculations, such as these, which chiefly attracted
him. He asks why a grain of corn gives rise in its turn to
a grain of corn and not to an olive, thus raising a plexus
of problems, which, despite the progress of modern science,
still baffle the acutest thinkers of the present day.

Aristotle bequeathed his library to his pupil Theo-
phrastus, whom he named as his successor. Theophrastus
was well fitted to carry on the traditions of the school, since
he had, in earlier years, studied under Plato himself. He
produced a 'History of Plants' in which Botany is treated in
a somewhat more concrete and definite fashion than is the
case in Aristotle's writings. Theophrastus mentions about
450 plants, whereas the number of species in Greece known
at the present day is at least 3000. His descriptions,
with few exceptions, are meagre, and the identification
of the plants to which they refer is a matter of extreme
difficulty.

In various points of observation, Theophrastus was in
advance of his time. He noticed, for instance, the distinc-
tion between centripetal and centrifugal inflorescences — a
distinction which does not seem to have again attracted
the attention of botanists until the sixteenth century. He

i] Aristotelian Botany 3

was interested in the germination of seeds, and was aware,
though somewhat dimly, of the essential differences between
the seedling of the Bean and that of the Wheat.

. In the Middle Ages, knowledge of Aristotelian botany
was brought into western Europe at two different periods,
— the ninth and the thirteenth centuries. In the ninth
century of the Christian era, Rhabanus Magnentius Maurus,
a German writer, compiled an encyclopaedia which con-
tained information about plants, indirectly derived from
the writings of Theophrastus. Rhabanus actually based
his work upon the writings of Isidor of Seville, who lived
in the sixth and seventh centuries — Isidor having obtained
his botanical data from Pliny, whose knowledge of plants
was in turn borrowed from Theophrastus.

'The renewal of Aristotelian learning in the thirteenth
century was derived less directly from classical writings
than was the case with the earlier revival. From the time
of Alexander onwards, various Greek schools had been
founded in Syria. These schools were largely concerned
with the teachings of Aristotle, which were thence handed
on into Persia, Arabia and other countries. The Arabs
translated the Syriac versions of Greek writers into their
own language, and their physicians and philosophers kept
alive the knowledge of science during the dark ages when
Greece and Rome had ceased to be the homes of learning,
and while culture was still in its infancy in Germany,
France and England. The Arabic translations of classical
writings were eventually rendered into Latin, or even
sometimes into Greek again, and in this guise found their
way to western Europe.

,' Amongst other books, which suffered these successive
metamorphoses, was the pseudo-Aristotelian botany of
Nicolaus of Damascus, which has acquired importance in
the annals of western science, because it formed the basis
of the botanical work of Albertus Magnus.

Albert of Bollstadt (1 193 — 1280), Bishop of Ratisbon,
was a famous scholastic philosopher. He was esteemed one
of the most learned men of his age, and was called "Albertus
Magnus" during his life-time, the title being conferred on
him by the unanimous consent of the schools. The "Angelic
Doctor," St Thomas Aquinas, became one of his pupils.

4 Early History of Botany [ch.

According to legendary lore the name of Albertus would
have been unknown in science, but for divine intervention,
which miraculously affected his career. As a boy, tradition
says that he was singularly lacking in intelligence, so much
so that it was feared that he would be compelled to abandon
the hope of entering monastic life, since he seemed incapable
even of the limited acquirements necessary. However,
one night, the Blessed Virgin, touched by his fervour and
piety, appeared before him in glory, and asked whether he
would rather excel in philosophy or in theology. Albertus
without hesitation chose philosophy. The Virgin granted
his desire, but, being inwardly wounded at his choice, she
added that, because he had preferred profane to divine
knowledge, he should sink back, before the end of his life,
into his pristine state of stupidity. According to the legend,
this came to pass. Three years before his death he was
suddenly struck down, in the presence of his students, and
never regained his mental powers.

The botanical work of Albertus forms only a small
fraction of his writings, but it is with that part alone that
we are here concerned. As already mentioned, his know-
ledge of botany was based upon a mediaeval Latin work,
which he reverenced as Aristotle's, but which is now attri-
buted to Nicolaus Damascenus, who was, however, a follower
of Aristotle and Theophrastus. Although Albertus un-
doubtedly drew his botanical inspiration from this book, a
large proportion of his writings on the subject were original.

The ideas of Albertus were in many ways curiously
advanced, especially in the suggestions which he gives as
to the classification of plants, and in his observations of
detailed structure in certain flowers. We shall return to his
writings in future chapters dealing with these subjects.
It will suffice now to mention his remarkable instinct for
morphology, in which he was probably unsurpassed during
the next four hundred years. He points out, for instance,
that, in the vine, a tendril sometimes occurs in place of a
bunch of grapes, and from this he concludes that the tendril
is to be interpreted as a bunch of grapes incompletely
developed. He distinguishes also between thorns and
prickles, and realises that the former are stem structures,
and the latter merely surface organs.

Plate I

'Sonchos' [Dioscorides, Codex Aniciae Julianas, circa a.d. 500]. Reduced.

i] Albert ms Magnus 5

Albertus seems to have had a fine scorn for that branch
of the science now known as Systematic Botany. He
considered that to catalogue all the species was too vast
and detailed a task, and one altogether unsuited to the
philosopher. However, in his Sixth Book he so far un-
bends as to give descriptions of a number of plants.

As regards abstract problems, the views of Albertus
on plant life may be summed up as follows. The plant
is a living being, and its life principle is the vegetable
soul, whose function is limited to nourishment, growth and
reproduction — feeling, desire, sleep, and sexuality, properly
so called, being unknown in the plant world.

Albertus was troubled by many subtle problems con-
nected with the souls of plants, such questions, for instance,
as whether in the case of the material union of two indi-
viduals, such as the ivy and its supporting tree, their souls
also united. Like Theophrastus, and other early writers,
Albertus held the theory that species were mutable, and
illustrated this view by pointing out that cultivated plants
might run wild and become degenerate, while wild plants
might be domesticated. Some of his ideas, however, on
the possibility of changes from one species to another, were
quite baseless. He stated, for instance, that, if a wood ot
oak or beech were razed to the ground, an actual transfor-
mation took place, aspens and poplars springing up in place
of the previously existing trees.

The temperate tone of the remarks made by Albertus
on the medical virtues of plants contrasts favourably with
the puerilities of many later writers. Much of the criticism
from which he has suffered at various times has been, in
reality, directed against a book called ' De virtutibus her-
barum,' the authorship of which was quite erroneously
attributed to him. We shall refer to this work again in
Chapter VIII.

After the time of Albertus, no great student of Aristo-
telian botany arose before Andrea Cesalpino, whose writings,
which belong to the end of the sixteenth century, will be
considered in a later chapter. The work of Cesalpino had
great qualities, but, curiously enough, it had little influence
on the science of his time. He may be regarded as perhaps
the last important representative of Aristotelian botany.

6 Early History of Botany [ch.

3. Medicinal Botany.

With the Revival of Learning, the speculative botany
of the ancients began to lose its hold upon thinking men.
This may be attributed to the curious lack of vitality, and
the absence of the power of active development, manifested
in this aspect of the subject since its initiation at the hands
of Aristotle. It had proved comparatively barren, because,
though the minds which engaged in it were among the
finest that have ever been concerned with the science, the
basis of observed fact was inadequate in quality and
quantity to sustain the philosophical superstructure built
upon it. It might have been supposed a priori that accurate
observation of natural phenomena needed a less highly
evolved type of mind than that required to cope with meta-
physical considerations, and hence that, in the development
of any science, the epoch of observation would have pre-
ceded the epoch of speculation. In actual fact, however,
the reverse appears to have been the case. The power of
scientific observation seems to have lagged many centuries
behind the power of reasoning, and to have reached its
maturity at least two thousand years later.

Aristotle and Theophrastus arrived by the subtlest
mental processes at a certain attitude towards the universe,
and at certain ideas concerning the nature of things. They
attempted a direct advance in scientific thought by extend-
ing these conceptions to include the plant world. It was
an heroic effort, but one which could not ultimately form
a basis for continued progress, because, in its inception,
preconceived ideas had come first, and the facts of Nature
second. It seems to be almost a law of thought, that it is
the indirect advances which in the end prove to be the
most fertile. The progress of a science, like that of a
sailing boat, more often proceeds by means of "tacking"
than by following a direct course.

iTn the case of botany, the path which was destined to
lead furthest in the end was the apparently unpromising
one of medicine. Various plants from very early times had
been used as healing agents, and it became necessary to
study them in detail, simply in order to discriminate the
kinds employed for different purposes. It was from this

i] Medicinal Botany 7

purely utilitarian beginning that systematic botany for the
most part originated. As we shall show in later chapters,
nearly all the herbalists whose work is discussed in the
present volume were medical men. The necessity for some
means of recognising accurately the individual species of
medicinal plants led in time to a sounder and more exact
knowledge of their morphology than had ever been acquired
under the influence of thinkers such as Albertus Magnus,
who regarded with some contempt the idea of becoming
acquainted in detail with the countless forms of plant life.

The mass of observations relating to herbs and flowers,
accumulated during a period of many centuries, largely for
medicinal purposes, is to-day serving as the basis for far-
reaching biological theories, which could never have arisen
without such a foundation. ,

It is not systematic botany alone that we owe in the
first instance to medicine. Nehemiah Grew (1641 — 17 12),
one of the founders of the science of plant anatomy, was
led to embark upon this subject because his anatomical
studies as a physician suggested to him that plants, like
animals, probably possessed an internal structure worthy of
investigation, since they were the work of the same Creator.

In Ancient Greece there was considerable traffic in
medicinal plants. The herbalists 1 and druggists 2 who made
a regular business of collecting, preparing and selling them,
do not appear however to have been held in good repute.
Lucian makes Hercules address ^Esculapius as "a root-
digger and a wandering quack 3 ."

The herbalists seem to have attempted to keep their
business select by fencing it about with all manner of
superstitions, most of which have for their moral that herb-
collecting is too dangerous an occupation for the uninitiated.
Theophrastus draws attention to the absurdity of some of
the root-diggers' directions for gathering medicinal plants.
For instance he quotes with ridicule the idea that the
Peony should be gathered at night, since, if the fruit is
collected in the daytime, and a wood-pecker happens to
witness the act, the eyes of the herbalist are endangered.
He also points out that it is folly to suppose that an offering

1 pi^oTofj.01 — root-diggers. 2 0ap/iaKO7ro5Xat = drug-sellers.

3 Lucian, 'Dialogues of the Gods,' xm.

8 Early History of Botany [ch.

of a honey-cake must be made when Iris foetidissima is
rooted up, or to believe that if an eagle comes near when
Hellebore is being collected, anyone who is engaged in the
work is fated to die within the year.

The herbalists' knowledge of plants must have been in
the first place transmitted from generation to generation
entirely by word of mouth, but as time went on, written
records began to replace the oral tradition. The earliest
extant European work dealing with medicinal plants is
the famous Materia Medica of Dioscorides, which was
accepted as an almost infallible authority as late as the
Renaissance period.

Dioscorides Anazarbeus was a medical man who
probably flourished in the first century of the Christian
era, in the time of Nero and Vespasian. Tradition has,
however, sometimes assigned to him the post of physician
to Antony and Cleopatra. His native land was Asia Minor,
but he appears to have travelled widely. In his Materia
Medica he described about five hundred plants, with some
attempt at an orderly scheme, though, naturally, the result
is seldom successful when judged by our modern standards
of classification. The actual descriptions of the plants are
very slight, and it is only those with particularly salient
characteristics which can be recognised with any ease.
Careful research on the part of later writers has however
led to the identification of a number of the plants to which
he refers.

There is a famous manuscript of Dioscorides at Vienna,
which is said to have been copied at the expense of Juliana
Anicia, the daughter of the Emperor Flavius Anicius,
about the end of the fifth, or the beginning of the sixth
century. The character of the script settles the age within
narrow limits. Juliana lived into the reign of Justinian,
and was renowned for her ardent Christian faith, and for
the churches which she built. The manuscript which bears
her name is illustrated by a number of drawings, which are
in some cases remarkably beautiful, and very naturalistic.
A facsimile reproduction of this manuscript was published
in 1906, and it is thus rendered accessible to students.
Examples of the figures are shown on a reduced scale in
Plates I, II and XV.

Plate II

' Stratiotes ' [Dioscorides, Codex Aniciae Julianae, circa A.D. 500]. Reduced.

i] The Elder Pliny

The botanists of the Renaissance devoted a great deal
of time and energy to the consideration of the writings of
Dioscorides. The chief of the many commentators who
dealt with the subject were Matthiolus, Ruellius and
Amatus Lusitanus, and a discussion of the botany of
Dioscorides formed an integral part of almost every six-
teenth-century herbal.

One of the contemporaries of Dioscorides, Gaius Plinius
Secundus, commonly called the Elder Pliny, should perhaps
be mentioned at this point, although he was not a physician,
nor does he deserve the name of a philosopher. In the
course of his ' Natural History,' which is an encyclopaedic
account of the knowledge of his time, he treats of the
vegetable world. He refers to a far larger number of
plants than Dioscorides, probably because the latter con-
fined himself to those which were of importance from a
medicinal point of view, whereas Pliny mentioned indiscrimi-
nately any plant to which he found a reference in any
previous book. Pliny's work was chiefly of the nature of a
compilation, and indeed it would scarcely be reasonable to
expect much original observation of nature from a man who
was so devoted to books that it was recorded of him that
he considered even a walk to be a waste of time !

The writings of the classical authors, especially Theo-
phrastus and Dioscorides, dominated European botany
completely until, in the sixteenth century, other influences
began to make themselves felt. As we shall see in the
following chapter, the earliest printed herbals adhered
closely to the classical tradition.

CHAPTER II

THE EARLIEST PRINTED HERBALS
(Fifteenth Century)

i. The Encyclopaedia of Bartholom/eus Anglicus
and 'The Book of Nature.'

FTER the invention of printing, a
very active period of book pro-
duction followed, during which many-
works, which had previously passed
a more or less lengthy existence in
manuscript, were put into circula-
tion in print, contemporaneously with
books actually written at the time.
The result is that a number of the
" incunabula," as printed books of the fifteenth century are
technically called, are far more ancient, as regards the
matter which they contain, than the date of their publication
would seem to suggest.

This characteristic is illustrated in the Encyclopaedia of
Bartholomseus Anglicus, and in Konrad von Megenberg's
1 Das puch der natur,' which were perhaps the earliest
printed books containing strictly botanical information.
The former work, which was first printed about 1470, was
compiled by a monk, sometimes called Bartholomew de
Glanville, who flourished in the thirteenth century. The
title by which it is generally known is ' Liber de pro-
prietatibus rerum.' One of the sections of which it is
composed is concerned with an account of a large number
of trees and herbs, arranged in alphabetical order, and is
chiefly occupied with their medicinal properties. It also

rial,- III

Wood-cut of Plants [Konrad von Megenberg, Das puch der natur, 1475]. Reduced.

ch. n] The ' Herbarium ' of Apuleius 1 1

includes some theoretical considerations about plants, on
Aristotelian lines. An English translation, which was
printed by Wynkyn de Worde before the end of the
fifteenth century, is interesting as containing the very primi-
tive botanical wood-cut reproduced in Text-fig. 19.

' Das puch der natur ' is slightly later as regards the
date of publication, having been printed by Hanns Bamler
at Augsburg in 1475. It seems to have been very popular,
for it passed through six or seven editions before the end
of the fifteenth century. A very large number of manu-
scripts of ' The Book of Nature ' exist, as many as eighteen
being preserved in the Vienna Library and seventeen at
Munich. The text is a compilation from old Latin writings,
and is said to have been translated into German as early as
1349. The portion dealing with plants consists of an
account of the virtues of eighty-nine herbs with their Latin
and German names. The chief interest of the work, from
our present point of view, lies in the fact that it contains
the earliest known botanical wood engraving (Plate III).
We shall return to this subject in Chapter VII.

2. The Herbarium of Apuleius Platonicus.

Another very early book based on classical writings,
especially those of Dioscorides and Pliny, was the ' Her-
barium ' of Apuleius Platonicus. This little Latin work is
among the earliest to which the term " Herbal " is generally
applied. A herbal has been defined as a book containing
the names and descriptions of herbs, or of plants in general,
with their properties and virtues. The word is believed to
have been derived from a mediaeval Latin adjective "her-
balis," the substantive "liber" being understood. It is
thus exactly comparable in origin with the word " manual "
in the sense of a hand-book.

Four early printed editions of the Herbal of Apuleius
Platonicus are known, all of which appear to have been
based on different manuscripts. The earliest was published
in Rome late in the fifteenth century, from a manuscript
discovered by Joh. Philippus de Lignamine, physician to
Pope Sixtus IV. Nothing is definitely known concerning
the author, but it is conjectured that he was a native of

Fifteenth-Century Herbals

[CH.

Africa, and that his book may date from the fifth century,
or possibly even the fourth. The work undoubtedly
had a career of many centuries in manuscript before it
was printed.

Text-fig.

Plantago" = Plantain [Herbarium Apuleii Platonici, ? 1484]-

Various extant manuscripts of the Herbarium are illus-
trated with coloured drawings of the crudest description,
which are found on comparison to be identical in many
different examples, and to have been reproduced, in a
degraded form, when the book was printed. The original
figures, from which the drawings in the different manuscripts
were copied, must date back to very early times. They
probably represent, as Dr Payne has pointed out, a school
of botanical draughtsmanship derived from late Roman art.

Plate TV

HERBA ORBICVLARIS.T.R APVRa.

'Orbicularis' [Herbarium Apuleii Platonici, ? 1484]. The
tint represents colouring, which was probably contemporary.

The * Herbarium ' of Apuleius

These illustrations, some of which are reproduced in Plates
IV, V and XVI, and Text-figs. 1 and 2, will be discussed
in greater detail in Chapter VII. One of their peculiarities
is that, if a herb has the power of healing the bite or sting

HERBA ARTEMISIA LFPTAr
F1LOS.LMATRJCALE.

Text-fig. 2. "Artemisia" [Herbarium Apuleii Platonici, ? 1484}

of any animal, that animal is drawn with the plant on the
same block.

Soon after the appearance in Italy of the earliest printed
editions of the Herbarium of Apuleius Platonicus, three
works of great importance were published at Mainz in
Germany. These were the Latin 'Herbarius' (1484), the
German 'Herbarius' (1485), and derived from the latter, the

Fifteenth-Century Herbals

[CH.

' Hortus Sanitatis' (1491). The Latin and the German
Herbarius, together with the Herbarium of Apuleius
Platonicus, may be regarded as the doyens amongst printed
herbals. All three seem to have been largely based upon
pre-existing manuscripts, representing a tradition of great
antiquity.

Text-fig. 3. "Lilium" [Herbarius Moguntinus, 1484].

The various forms of the Latin and German Herbarius,
and of the Hortus Sanitatis are described under many
titles, and the unravelling of the various editions is a matter
of great difficulty. In the fifteenth century, before copy-
right existed, as soon as a popular work was published,
pirated editions and translations sprang into existence. In
the case of the German Herbarius, a new edition was printed
at Augsburg only a few months after the appearance of the
original at Mainz. Some such editions were dated, and

The Earliest Printed Herbals

some undated, and the sources from which they were derived
were seldom acknowledged.

The passage of the earliest printed books through the
press was naturally extremely slow, as compared with the
rapid production of the present day. The result was that
the printer had leisure to make occasional alterations, so
that different copies belonging actually to the same edition
sometimes show slight variations. The bibliographer has
thus to deal with an additional element of confusion.

Text-fig. 4. " Aristolochia longa" [Herbarius Moguntinus, 1484].

As far as the works now under consideration are con-
cerned, however, much of the obscurity has been removed
by the late Dr Payne, to whom we owe a very lucid memoir
on the various editions of the Latin and German Herbarius
and the Hortus Sanitatis, based in part upon the researches
of Dr Ludwig Choulant. Free use has been made of his
account in the present chapter.

Fifteenth-Century Herbals

[CH.

3. The Latin Herbarius.

The work to which we may refer for convenience as the
Latin Herbarius is also known under many other titles —
' Herbarius in Latino,' 'Aggregator de Simplicibus,' ' Her-
barius Moguntinus,' ' Herbarius Patavinus,' etc. It was
originally printed at Mainz by Peter Schoffer in 1484, in the
form of a small quarto. It is interesting to recall that the
earliest specimen of printing from movable type known to
exist was produced in the same town thirty years before.

Text-fig. 5. " Serpentaria " [Herbarius Moguntinus, 1484].

Other early editions and translations of the Herbarius
appeared in Bavaria, the Low Countries, Italy, and
probably also in France. The work, like most of the
early herbals, was anonymous, and was a compilation from
mediaeval writers, and from certain classical and Arabian
authors. It seems to have no connection with the
Herbarium of Apuleius, which is nowhere cited. The
majority of the authorities quoted wrote before 1300 a.d
and no author is mentioned who might not have been

II]

The Latin ' Herbarius '

known to a writer about the middle of the fourteenth
century, that is to say, at least a hundred years before
the Herbarius was published. It is quite possible that the
work was not written at the time it was printed, but may
have had a previous career in manuscript.

The wood-blocks of the first German edition are bold
and decorative, but as a rule show little attempt at realism

BRIONIA

Text-fig. 6. "Brionia" [Arnaldus de Villa Nova,
Tractatus de virtutibus herbarum, 1499].

(Text-figs. 3, 4, 5 and 73). A different and better set of
figures were used in Italy to illustrate the text (Text-figs. 6,
57, 65, 74, 75, 76). The authorship of this version of the
Herbarius is sometimes erroneously attributed to Arnold
de Nova Villa, a physician of the thirteenth century, a

A. 2

1 8 Fifteenth-Century Herbals [ch.

mistake which arose through the conspicuous citation of his
name in the preface to the Venetian editions.

The descriptions and figures of the herbs are arranged
alphabetically. All the plants discussed were natives of
Germany or in cultivation there, and the object of the
work seems to have been to help the reader to the use
of cheap and easily obtained remedies, in cases of illness or
accident.

4. The German Herbarius and related Works.

Of even greater importance than the Latin Herbarius
is the German Herbarius or 'Herbarius zu Teutsch,' some-
times also called the German Ortus Sanitatis, or the
Smaller Ortus. This folio, which was the foundation of
the later works called H ortus (or Ortus) Sanitatis, appeared
at Mainz, also from the printing press of Peter Schofifer in
1485, the year following the publication of the Latin Her-
barius. It has been mistakenly regarded by some authors
as a mere translation of the latter. However, the two
books are neither the same in the text nor in the illustra-
tions. The German Herbarius appears to be an independent
work except as regards the third part of the book — the index
of drugs according to their uses — which may owe something
to the Latin Herbarius.

It seems from the preface that the originator of the
book was a rich man, who had travelled in the east, and
that the medical portion was compiled under his direction
by a physician. The latter was probably Dr Johann von
Cube, who was town physician of Frankfort at the end of
the fifteenth century.

The preface to the Herbarius zu Teutsch begins with
the words, "Offt und vil habe ich by mir selbst betracht
die wundersam werck des schepfers der natuer." Similar
words are found in all the different German editions, and in
the later Hortus Sanitatis they are translated into Latin.
The preface reveals so clearly and so delightfully the spirit
in which the work was undertaken that it seems worth while
to translate it almost in extenso.

It is impossible, however, to grasp the medical ideas
characteristic of the earlier herbals, such as those presented

ii] The "Principles" and "Elements' 19

in the preface which follows, unless one understands the
special terminology, in which the "four elements " and the
"four principles" or "natures'' play a great part. The ideas
expressed by these terms had begun to dominate medical
and physiological notions five or six hundred years before
the birth of Christ, and they held their own for a period of
more than two thousand years. As an instance of their
constant occurrence in literature we may recall Sir Toby's
remark in 'Twelfth Night,' "Do not our lives consist of
the four elements?" In Aristotle's time these conceptions
must have been already quite familiar to his pupils. Like,
his predecessors he distinguished four elements, Fire,
Water, Earth and Air, and to these he added a fifth —
the Ether. In the four elements, the four principles are
combined in pairs — fire being characterised by heat and
dryness, air by heat and moisture, water by cold and
moisture, and earth by cold and dryness. According to
Aristotle, heat and cold are active, while dryness and
moisture are passive in their nature. By the "tempera-
ment" of a man is understood the balance or proportion
maintained between these conflicting tendencies. The
particular "virtues" of each plant, in other words the power
of restoring lost health or "temperament," are determined
by the "principles" which it contains, and the proportions
in which these occur. With this introduction we may pass
on to the preface of the Herbarius zu Teutsch 1 :

" Many a time and oft have I contemplated inwardly
the wondrous works of the Creator of the universe : how in
the beginning He formed the heavens and adorned them
with goodly, shining stars, to which He gave power and
might to influence everything under heaven. Also how He
afterwards formed the four elements : fire, hot and dry —
air, hot and moist — water, cold and moist — earth, dry and
cold — and gave to each a nature of its own ; and how after
this the same Great Master of Nature made and formed
herbs of many sorts and animals of all kinds, and last of
all Man, the noblest of all created things. Thereupon I
thought on the wondrous order which the Creator gave
these same creatures of His, so that everything which has
its being under heaven receives it from the stars, and

1 Translated from the second (Augsburg) edition of 1485.

20 Fifteenth-Century Herbals [ch.

keeps it by their help. I considered further how that in
everything which arises, grows, lives or soars in the four
elements named, be it metal, stone, herb or animal, the four
natures of the elements, heat, cold, moistness and dryness
are mingled. It is also to be noted that the four natures
in question are also mixed and blended in the human body
in a measure and temperament suitable to the life and
nature of man. While man keeps within this measure,
proportion or temperament, he is strong and healthy, but
as soon as he steps or falls beyond the temperament or
measure of the four natures, which happens when heat
takes the upper hand and strives to stifle cold, or, on the
contrary, when cold begins to suppress heat, or man
becomes full of cold moisture, or again is deprived of the
due measure of moisture, he falls of necessity into sickness,
and draws nigh unto death. There are many causes of
disturbances, such as I have mentioned, in the measure of
the four elements which is essential to man's health and
life. In some cases it is the poisonous and hidden influence
of the heavens acting against man's nature, for from this
arise impurity and poisoning of the air ; in other cases the
food and drink are unsuitable, or suitable but not taken in
the right quantities, or at the right time. Of a truth I
would as soon count thee the leaves on the trees, or the
grains of sand in the sea, as the things which are the causes
of a relapse from the temperament of the four natures, and a
beginning of man's sickness. It is for this reason that so
many thousands and thousands of perils and dangers beset
man. He is not fully sure of his health or his life for one
moment. While considering these matters, I also remem-
bered how the Creator of Nature, Who has placed us amid
such dangers, has mercifully provided us with a remedy,
that is with all kinds of herbs, animals and other created
things to which He has given power and might to restore,
produce, give and temper the four natures mentioned above.
One herb is heating, another is cooling, each after the
degree of its nature and complexion. In the same manner
many other created things on the earth and in the water
preserve man's life, through the Creator of Nature. By
virtue of these herbs and created things the sick man may
recover the temperament of the four elements and the

ii] The German ' Herbarius ' 2 1

health of his body. Since, then, man can have no greater
nor nobler treasure on earth than bodily health, I came to
the conclusion that I could not perform any more honour-
able, useful or holy work or labour than to compile a book
in which should be contained the virtue and nature of
many herbs and other created things, together with their
true colours and form, for the help of all the world and
the common good. Thereupon I caused this praiseworthy
work to be begun by a Master learned in physic, who, at my
request, gathered into a book the virtue and nature of many
herbs out of the acknowledged masters of physic, Galen,
Avicenna, Serapio, Dioscorides, Pandectarius, Platearius
and others. But when, in the process of the work, I turned
to the drawing and depicting of the herbs, I marked that
there are many precious herbs which do not grow here in
these German lands, so that I could not draw them with
their true colours and form, except from hearsay. Therefore
I left unfinished the work which I had begun, and laid
aside my pen, until such time as I had received grace and
dispensation to visit the Holy Sepulchre, and also Mount
Sinai, where the body of the Blessed Virgin, Saint Catherine,
rests in peace. Then, in order that the noble work I had
begun and left incomplete should not come to nought, and
also that my journey should benefit not my soul alone, but
the whole world, I took with me a painter ready of wit, and
cunning and subtle of hand. And so we journeyed from
Germany through Italy, Istria, and then by way of Slavonia
or the Windisch land, Croatia, Albania, Dalmatia, Greece,
Corfu, Morea, Candia, Rhodes and Cyprus to the Promised
Land and the Holy City, Jerusalem, and thence through
Arabia Minor to Mount Sinai, from Mount Sinai towards
the Red Sea in the direction of Cairo, Babylonia, and also
Alexandria in Egypt, whence I returned to Candia. In
wandering through these kingdoms and lands, I diligently
sought after the herbs there, and had them depicted and
drawn, with their true colour and form. And after I had,
by God's grace, returned to Germany and home, the great
love which I bore this work impelled me to finish it, and
now, with the help of God, it is accomplished. And this
book is called in Latin, Ortus Sanitatis, and in German,
gart d'gesuntheyt 1 . In this garden are to be found the

1 Garden of health.

22 Fifteenth-Century Herbals [ch.

power and virtues of 435 plants and other created things,
which serve for the health of man, and are commonly
used in apothecaries' shops for medicine. Of these, about
350 appear here as they are, with their true colours and
form. And, so that it might be useful to all the world,
learned and unlearned, I had it compiled in the German
tongue. ******

"Now fare forth into all lands, thou noble and beautiful
Garden, thou delight of the healthy, thou comfort and life
of the sick. There is no man living who can fully declare
thy use and thy fruit. I thank Thee, O Creator of heaven
and earth, Who hast given power to the plants, and other
created things contained in this book, that Thou hast granted
me the grace to reveal this treasure, which until now has
lain buried and hid from the sight of common men. To
Thee be glory and honour, now and for ever. Amen."

Passing from the preface to the botanical part of the
German Herbarius, we find that it is divided into chapters,
each of which deals with a herb, except in a comparatively
small number of cases in which an animal, or a substance
useful to man such as butter or lime, forms the subject.
The chapters are arranged in alphabetical order.

The Herbarius zu Teutsch represents a notable
advance upon the Latin Herbarius in the matter of the
figures. Its publication, according to Dr Payne, "forms an
important land-mark in the history of botanical illustration,
and marks perhaps the greatest single step ever made in
that art." This estimate seems to the present writer to be
somewhat exaggerated, but it must at least be conceded
that the figures in question are, on the whole, drawn with
greater freedom and realism than those of the Latin
Herbarius, and are often remarkably beautiful (Text-
figs. 7, yy, 78). The most attractive is perhaps that of
the Dodder climbing on a plant with flowers and pods
(Text-fig. yy), which is drawn in a masterly fashion. These
wood-cuts form the basis of nearly all botanical illustrations
for the next half-century, being copied and recopied from
book to book. No work which excelled, or even equalled
them was produced until a new period of botanical illus-
tration began with the Herbal of Brunfels, published in
I530.

The German ' Herbarius '

Text-fig. 7. "Acorus" = Iris [Herbarius zu Teutsch, Mainz, 1485].

24 Fifteenth-Century Herbals [ch.

The German Herbarius was much copied and translated
into other languages, the original set of figures being,
as a rule, reproduced on a smaller scale. According to
Dr Payne, the earliest French edition called 'Arbolayre'
(derived from the Latin, herbolariunt) is now an exceed-
ingly rare book. It is said to differ little from the original
except in the fact that the French translator declined to
believe the myth that the Mandrake root has human
form.

Another early French herbal, very similar to the
Arbolayre, was published under the name of ' Le Grant
Herbier.' The origin of the text of this book has been
the subject of some discussion. Choulant regarded it as
derived from the Ortus Sanitatis, but an Italian authority,
Signor Giulio Camus, has discovered two fifteenth-century
manuscripts in the Biblioteca Estense at Modena, which
have thrown a different light on the subject. One of these
is the work commonly called 'Circa instans,' while the
other is a version of the Grant Herbier; on comparing
the two, Signor Camus concluded that the French manu-
script was obviously derived from Circa instans. A
version of the latter, differing somewhat from the Modena
manuscript, was printed at Ferrara in 1488, and other
editions appeared later.

The figures which illustrate the Grant Herbier seem
to have been derived from those of the Ortus Sanitatis
rather than those of the Herbarius. The work is of
special interest to British botanists, since it was translated
into English and published, in 1526, as the ' Grete Herball,'
a book which will be discussed at length in the following
chapter.

Another work, which appeared with reduced copies of
the familiar illustrations from the German Herbarius, was
the 'Liber de arte distillandi de Simplicibus' of Hieronymus
Braunschweig (1500). In this book, the method of dis-
tilling herbs, in order to make use of their virtues, was
described in considerable detail, with drawings of the
apparatus employed.

II]

1 The Garden of Health '

5. The Hortus Sanitatis.

The third of the fundamental botanical works, produced
at Mainz towards the close of the fifteenth century, was the
'Hortus,' or as it is more commonly called 'Ortus Sanitatis,'
printed by Jacob Meydenbach in 149 1. It is in part a
modified Latin translation of the German Herbarius, but it
is not merely this, for it contains treatises on animals, birds^
fishes and stones, which are almost unrepresented in the
Herbarius. Nearly one-third of the figures of herbs are [
new. The rest are copied on a reduced scale from the
German Herbarius, and the drawing, which is by no means

Text-fig. 8. "Leopardus" [Ortus Sanitatis,
Mainz, 1491].

improved, often shows that the copyist did not fully under-
stand the nature of the object he was attempting to portray.
As an example of a wood-cut, which has lost much of its
character in copying, we may take the Dodder (cf. Text-
figs. 80 and 77).

The Ortus Sanitatis is very rich in pictures. The first
edition opens with a full-page wood-cut, modified from that
at the beginning of the German Herbarius, and representing
a group of figures, who appear to be engaged in discussing
some medical or botanical problem. Before the treatise on

Fifteenth-Century Herbals

[CH.

Animals, there is another large engraving of three figures
with a number of beasts at their feet, and before that on
Birds, there is a lively picture with an architectural back-
ground, showing a scene which swarms with innumerable
birds of all kinds, whose peculiarities are apparently being
discussed by two savants in the foreground. The treatise

Text-fig. 9. "Daucus" = Carrot [Ortus Sanitatis,
Mainz, 1491].

on Fishes begins with a landscape with water, enlivened by
shipping. There are two figures in the foreground, and
in the water, fishes, crabs and mythical monsters such as
mermen, are seen disporting themselves. Before the treatise
on Stones, there is a very spirited scene representing a

The ' Or tits San it at is '

Text-fig. 10. " Passer " = Sparrow [Ortus Sanitatis,
Mainz, 1491].

Text-fig. n. " Pavo" = Peacock [Ortus Sanitatis,
Mainz, 1491].

Fifteenth-Century Herbals

[CH.

number of figures in a jeweller's shop, and two large wood-
cuts of doctors and their patients illustrate the medical
portion with which the book concludes.

The treatise on Plants is considerably modified from the
German Herbarius, and the virtues of the herbs described
are dealt with at greater length. The Herbarium of
Apuleius Platonicus is more than once quoted, though not

Text-fig. 12. "Arbor vel lignum vite paradisi" = Tree
of Paradise [Ortus Sanitatis, Mainz, 1491].

by name. A number of new illustrations are added, some
of which are highly imaginative. The Tree of Life (Text-
fig. 1 2) and the Tree of Knowledge are dealt with amongst
other botanical objects, a woman-headed serpent being
introduced in the first case, and Adam and Eve in the
second. There is a beautiful description of the virtues of

II]

The ' Ortus Sanitatis '

the Tree of Life, in which we read that he who should eat
of the fruit "should be clothed with blessed immortality,
and should not be fatigued with infirmity, or anxiety, or
lassitude, or weariness of trouble." The engraving which
is named Narcissus (Text-fig. 13) has diminutive figures
emerging from the flowers, like a transformation scene at a
pantomime! It is probably, however, intended to represent

Text-fig. 13. "Narcissus" [Ortus Sanitatis,
Mainz, 1491].

the conversion of the beautiful youth, Narcissus, into a
flower. Apart from these mythological subjects, there are a
number of very curious engravings. A tree called " Bausor,"
for instance, which was believed to exhale a narcotic poison,
like the fabulous Upas tree, has two men lying beneath its
shade, apparently in the sleep of death (Text-fig. 14).

Fifteenth-Century Herbals

[ch.

Among the herbs, substances such as starch, vinegar,
cheese, soap, etc., are included, and as these do not lend
themselves to direct representation, they become the excuse
for a delightful set of genre pictures. " Wine " is illus-
trated by a man gazing at a glass ; "Bread," by a housewife
with loaves on the table before her (Text-fig. 15) ; "Water,"

Text-fig. 14. "Bauser vel Bausor" [Ortus Sanitatis,
Mainz, 1491].

by a fountain; "Honey," by a boy who seems to be ex-
tracting it from the comb ; and "Milk," by a woman milking
a cow. The picture which appears under the heading of
Amber shows great ingenuity (Text-fig. 16). The writer
points out that this substance, according to some authors, is

The ' Ortus Sanitatis '

the fruit or gum of a tree growing by the sea, while accord-
ing to others it is produced by a fish or by sea foam. In
order to represent all these possibilities, the figure shows
the sea, indicated in a conventional fashion, with a tree
growing out of it, and a fish swimming in it. The writer
of the Ortus Sanitatis, on the other hand, holds the opinion

Text-fig. 15. "Panis" = Bread [Ortus Sanitatis,
Mainz, 1491].

that Amber is generated under the sea, after the manner of
the Fungi which arise on land.

The treatises on animals and fishes are full of pictures
of mythical creatures, such as a unicorn being caressed by
a lady as though it were a little dog (Text-fig. 17), recalling
the "Lady and Unicorn" tapestry in the Musee Cluny — a
fight between a man and hydras — the phoenix in the flames

Fifteenth-Century Herbals

[CH.

— and a harpy with its claws in a man's body. Other
monsters which are figured include a dragon, the Basilisk,
Pegasus, and a bird with a long neck which is tied in an
ornamental knot.

Later Latin editions of the Ortus Sanitatis were
printed in Germany and Italy, and translations were also
popular. The part of the book dealing with animals and

Text-fig. 1 6. " Ambra " = Amber [Ortus Sanitatis,
Mainz, 1491].

stones was produced in German under the name of ' Gart
der Gesuntheit ; zu Latin Ortus Sanitatis,' so as to form a
supplement to the German Herbarius, which dealt, as we
have seen, almost exclusively with herbs. No really com-
plete translation of the H ortus was ever published, except

II]

' Le Jardin de Sante' '

that printed by Antoine Verard in Paris about the year
1500, under the title, ' Ortus sanitatis translate de latin
en francois.' Henry VII was one of Verard's patrons,
and in the account books of John Heron, Treasurer of the
Chamber, which are preserved at the Record Office, there
is an entry (1501 — 2) which runs, "Item to Anthony

Text-fig. 17. "Unicornus" [Ortus Sanitatis,
Mainz, 1491].

Verard for two bokes called the gardyn of helth...^6."
This refers to a copy, in two parts, of Verard's translation
of the Ortus Sanitatis, which is still preserved in the British
Museum.

The complete Ortus Sanitatis made its appearance for
the last time as ' Le Jardin de SanteV printed by Philippe
le Noir about 1539, and sold in Paris, "a lenseigne de la
Rose blanche couronnee." Text-fig. 18, taken from this
book, shows how the artist of the period represented a
"Garden of Health."

Fifteenth-Cenhiry Herbals

[CH. II

The title-pages of the early herbals were often de-
corated with such pictures. A more ambitious example
is reproduced in Text-fig. 113. In this case the apothecary's
store-room is also depicted, and a housewife is portrayed,

Text-fig. 18. A Herbalist's Garden [Le Jardin de Sante, ? 1539].

laying fragrant herbs among linen. The small garden
scene on the title-page of the ' Grete Herball' (1526) is of
special interest, since it includes representations of the male
and female Mandrake (Text-fig. 112).

Plate V

' Mandragora' = Mandrake [Herbarium Apuleii Platonici, ? 1484].
The tint represe?its colouring, which was probably contemporary.

CHAPTER III

THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE HERBAL IN

ENGLAND

i. The Herbarium of Apuleius Platonicus.

ONCERNING the Herbarium of
Apuleius Platonicus, a few remarks
have been already made. This herbal
was perhaps the first through which
any kind of systematic knowledge of
medicinal plants was brought into
Britain. For this reason it may be
mentioned here, although manuscript
herbals do not, strictly, come within our province. In the
Bodleian Library there is an Anglo-Saxon translation of
the work, which is said to have been made for King Alfred.
Another Anglo-Saxon manuscript of later date, probably
transcribed between a.d. iooo and the Norman Conquest,
has been rendered into modern English by Dr Cockayne.
The classical and Anglo-Saxon plant-names are given in
the herbal, and, although there is scarcely any attempt at
description, the localities where the plants may be found
are-sometimes mentioned.

\ The greater part of the manuscript is concerned with
the virtues of herbs. The plants were regarded in this,
as in most early works, merely as "simples," that is, the
simple constituents of compound medicines. Hieronymus
Bock in 1551 described his herbal as being an account
of "die Einfache erd Gewachs, Simplicia genant 1 ." The
term " simple," now almost obsolete, was a household word

1 " The individual herbs of the earth, called simples."

3—2

2,6 The Earlier English Herbals [ch.

in earlier times, when most remedies were manufactured at
home in the stillroom. The expression of Jaques in 'As
You Like It' — "a melancholy of mine own, compounded
of many simples, extracted from many objects " — would not
have seemed in the least far-fetched to an audience of that
day. It is interesting that, although the word "simple,"
used in this sense, has vanished from our common speech,
its antithesis "compound" has held its place in the language
of pharmacy.

The southern source of the Herbal of Apuleius is
suggested by the fact that the origin of the healing art is
attributed to ^sculapius and Chiron. We are told, also,
that the Wormwoods were discovered by Diana, who
"delivered their powers and leechdom to Chiron, the
centaur, who first from these worts set forth a leechdom."
The Lily-of-the-Valley, on the other hand, is said to have
been found by Apollo and given by him "to <^Esculapius,
the leech."

Many of the accounts of the virtues of the plants are of
the nature of spells or charms rather than of medical recipes.
For instance it is recommended that " if any propose a
journey, then let him take to him in hand this wort artemisia,

then he will not feel much toil in his journey." As is

usually the case in the older herbals, the proper mode of
uprooting the Mandrake is described with much gusto.

"This wort is mickle and illustrious of aspect, and it

is beneficial. Thou shalt in this manner take it, when thou
comest to it, then thou understandest it by this, that it
shineth at night altogether like a lamp. [[When first thou
seest its head, then inscribe thou it instantly with iron, lest
it fly from thee ; its virtue is so mickle and so famous, that
it will immediately flee from an unclean man, when he
cometh to it ; hence as we before said, do thou inscribe it
with iron, and so shalt thou delve about it, as that thou
touch it not with the iron, but thou shalt earnestly with an
ivory staff delve the earth. And when thou seest its hands
and its feet, then tie thou it up. Then take the other end
and tie it to a dog's neck, so that the hound be hungry ;
next cast meat before him, so that he may not reach it,
except he jerk up the wort with him. Of this wort it is
said, that it hath so mickle might, that what thing soever

Ill]

The Mandrake

tuggeth it up, that it shall soon in the same manner be
deceived. Therefore, as soon as thou see that it be jerked
up, and have possession of it, take it immediately in hand,
and twist it, and wring the ooze out of its leaves into a
glass ampulla.'J

Text-fig. 19. Wood-cut of Plants [Bartholomaeus Anglicus, Liber de
proprietatibus rerum, Wynkyn de Worde, ? 1495]. Reduced.

The writer of the herbal evidently fully accepted the
mythical notion that the Mandrake was furnished with
human limbs. Plate V shows how this plant was depicted
in an early printed edition of the Herbarium of Apuleius,
but much more spirited and sensational treatments of the
same subject are to be found in some of the manuscripts

v_^

38 The Earlier English Herbals [ch.

dealing with herbs. Sixteenth-century representations are
shown in Text-figs. 107 and 112.

The earliest English printed book containing informa-
tion of a definitely botanical character is probably the
translation of the ' Liber de proprietatibus rerum ' of Bar-
tholomseus Anglicus, which was printed by Wynkyn de
Worde before the end of the fifteenth century. This has
been briefly mentioned in the last chapter (pp. 10 and 11)
and a wood-cut from it is shown in Text-fig. 19.

2. Banckes' Herbal.

The first book printed in England, which can really
be called a herbal, is an anonymous quarto volume, with-
out Illustrations, published in 1525. The title-page runs,
" Here begynneth a newe mater, the whiche sheweth
and treateth of ye vertues and proprytes of herbes, the
whiche is called an Herball." On the last page we
find the words " Imprynted by me Rycharde Banckes,
dwellynge in London, a lytel fro ye Stockes in ye Pultry."
I have not been able to satisfy myself that this work is
directly derived from any pre-existing book, and it seems
possible that it may really have some claim to originality.
Dr Payne suggests that it is probably an abridgement
of some mediaeval English manuscript on herbs. It is
certainly quite a different work from the much more famous
Grete Herball, printed in the succeeding year, and, although
there are no figures, it is in some ways a better book.
Distinctly less space, in proportion, is devoted to the virtues
of the plants, and, on the whole, more botanical information
is given. For instance, under the heading " Capillus
veneris," we find the following description : "This herbe is
called Mayden heere or waterworte. This herbe hathe
leves lyke to Feme, but the leves be smaller, and it groweth
on walles and stones, and in ye myddes of ye lefe is as it
were blacke heere." The Grete Herball, on the other hand,
vouchsafes only the meagre information, " Capillus veneris
is an herbe so named " !

In cases where the virtues of the herbs are not strictly
medicinal, they are described in Banckes' herbal with more
than a touch of poetry. Rosemary has perhaps the

in] Banckes 1 Herbal 39

most charming list of attributes, some of which are worth
quoting. The reader is directed to "take the flowres and
make powder therof and bynde it to the ryght arme in a

lynen clothe, and it shall make the lyght and mery

Also take the flowres and put them in a chest amonge
youre clothes or amonge bokes and moughtes shall not
hurte them.... Also boyle the leves in whyte wyne and
wasshe thy face therwith...thou shall have a fay re face.
Also put the leves under thy beddes heed, and thou shalbe

delyvered of all evyll dremes Also take the leves and

put them into a vessel of wyne...yf thou sell that wyne,
thou shall have good lucke and spede in the sale — Also
make the a box of the wood and smell to it and it shall
preserne [preserve] thy youthe. Also put therof in thy
doores or in thy howse and thou shalbe without daunger of
Adders and other venymous serpentes. Also make the a
barell therof and drynke thou of the drynke that standeth
therin and thou nedes to fere no poyson that shall hurte ye,
and yf thou set it in thy garden kepe it honestly for it is
moche pro fy table."

The popularity of Banckes' Herbal is attested by the
fact that a large number of editions appeared from different
presses, although their identity has been obscured by the
various names under which they were published. To con-
sider these editions in detail is a task for the bibliographer
rather than the botanist, and it will not be attempted here.
We may, however, mention a few typical examples.

In 1550, a book was printed by "Jhon kynge " with
the title 'A litle Herball of the properties of Herbes newly
amended and corrected, wyth certayn Additions at the
ende of the boke, declaring what Herbes hath influence of
certain Sterres and constellations, wherby maye be chosen
the best and most lucky tymes and dayes of their ministra-
cion, according to the Moone beyng in the signes of heaven,
the which is daily appointed in the Almanacke, made and
gathered in the yeare of our Lorde God. MDL the XII
daye of February, by Anthony Askham, Physycyon.' This
work, which is generally called Askham's Herbal, is directly
derived from Banckes' Herbal, with the addition of some
astrological lore.

The book known as Cary's or Copland's Herbal, which

40 The Earlier English Herbals [ch.

was probably first published about the same time as
Askham's Herbal, is simply a later edition of the herbal of
Rycharde Banckes, and another closely similar edition with
an almost identical title was published by Kynge.

Another version of the same work, undated, and printed
by Robert Wyer, appeared under an even more deceptive
title — 'A newe Herball of Macer, Translated out of Laten
in to Englysshe.' There was, as a matter of fact, a
certain -^Emilius Macer, a contemporary of Virgil and Ovid,
who wrote about plants in Latin verse, and there is also
a herbal which was first printed in the fifteenth century,
and which is known by the name of ' Macer Floridus de
viribus herbarum.' Macer Floridus or yEmilius Macer is
supposed to have been the pseudonym of a physician whose
real name was Odo. ' De viribus herbarum ' deals with
seventy-seven plants in alphabetical order, and describes
their virtues in mediaeval Latin verse, which is believed to
date back to the tenth century. It is illustrated with
wood-cuts which are apparently copied from those of the
Herbarius zu Teutsch.

There seems to be no justification whatever for the use
of Macer's name on the title-page of 'A newe Herball of
Macer.' Except for some slight verbal differences, it is
identical with Banckes' herbal of 1525. Another closely
similar edition, also undated, was published under the name
of 'Macers Herbal. Practysd by Doctor Lynacro.' Macer's
name was probably merely borrowed in each case, in order
to give the books a well-sounding title, and thus to increase
the chances of sale.

3. The Grete Herball.

Among the earlier English herbals, the greater reputa-
tion belongs, not to Banckes' Herbal in any of its forms, but
to the 'Grete Herball' printed by Peter Treveris in 1526,
and again in 1529. This was admittedly a translation from
the French, namely from the work known as ' Le Grant
Herbier,' whose origin we have discussed on p. 24. In
the preface and supplement, however, it also shows some
indebtedness to the Ortus Sanitatis. The figures in the
Grete Herball are degraded copies of the series which

in] ' The Grete HerbalV 41

first appeared in the Herbarius zu Teutsch (see Text-figs.
20 and 21).

The introduction to the Grete Herball, though it is less
naive and charming than the corresponding part of the
German Herbarius, may yet be quoted, in part, as giving a
very lucid idea of the utilitarian point of view of the herbal-
ist of the period, and also as bringing home to the reader
the immense influence of the theory of the four elements :

" Consyderynge the grete goodnesse of almyghty god
creatour of heven and erthe, and al thynge therin compre-
hended to whom be eternall laude and prays, etc. Con-
syderynge the cours and nature of the foure elementes and
qualytees where to ye nature of man is inclyned, out of the
whiche elementes issueth dyvers qualytees infyrmytees and
dyseases in the corporate body of man, but god of his
goodnesse that is creatour of all thynges hath ordeyned
for mankynde (whiche he hath created to his owne lykenesse)
for the grete and tender love, which he hath unto hym to
whom all thinges erthely he hath ordeyned to be obeysant,
for the sustentacyon and helthe of his lovynge creature
mankynde whiche is onely made egally of the foure elementes
and qualitees of the same, and whan any of these foure
habounde or hath more domynacyon, the one than the
other it constrayneth ye body of man to grete infyrmytees
or dyseases, for the whiche ye eternall god hath gyven of
his haboundante grace, vertues in all maner of herbes to
cure and heale all maner of sekenesses or infyrmytes to hym
befallyng thrugh the influent course of the foure elementes
beforesayd, and of the corrupcyons and ye venymous ayres
contrarye ye helthe of man. Also of onholsam meates or
drynkes, or holsam meates or drynkes taken ontemperatly
whiche be called surfetes that brengeth a man sone to grete
dyseases or sekenesse, whiche dyseases ben of nombre and
ompossyble to be rehersed, and fortune as well in vilages
where as nother surgeons nor phisicians be dwellyng nygh
by many a myle, as it dooth in good townes where they be
redy at hande. Wherfore brotherly love compelleth me to
wryte thrugh ye gyftes of the holy gost shewynge and
enformynge how man may be holpen with grene herbes of
the gardyn and wedys of ye feldys as well as by costly
receptes of the potycarys prepay red."

The Earlier English Herbals

[ch.

The conclusion of the whole matter, which is set forth
immediately before the index, is in these words :

" O ye worthy reders or practicyens to whome this
noble volume is present I beseche yow take intellygence
and beholde ye workes and operacyons of almyghty god
which hath endewed his symple creature mankynde with
the graces of ye holy goost to have parfyte knowlege and
understandynge of the vertue of all maner of herbes and
trees in this booke comprehendyd."

Text-fig. 20. "Yvery" = Ivory [The Grete Herball,

1529].

From a twentieth-century point of view, the Grete
Herball contains much that is curious, especially in relation
to medical matters. Bathing was evidently regarded as a
strange fad. We learn, on the authority of Galen, that
" many folke that hath bathed them in colde wa[ter] have
dyed or they came home." Water drinking seems to have
been thought almost equally pernicious, for we are told,
"mayster Isaac sayth that it is unpossyble for them that
drynketh overmoche water in theyr youth to come to ye
aege that god ordeyned them." A period when men were

in]] ' The Grete Herball ' 43

more prone than they are to-day to settle their differences
by the use of their own strong right arms is reflected in
the various remedies proposed for such afflictions as "blacke-
nesse or brusinge comynge of strypes, specyally yf they be
in the face."

Turning to less concrete ailments, it is rather striking
to find what a large number of prescriptions against melan-
choly are considered necessary. For instance, "To make
folke mery at ye table," one is recommended to "take
foure leves and foure rotes of vervayn in wyne, than
spryncle the wyne all about the hous where the eatynge is
and they shall be all mery." The smoke of Aristolochia
" maketh the pacyent mery mervaylously," and also "dry-
veth all devyllsshnesse and all trouble out of ye house."
Bugloss and Mugwort are also recommended to produce
merriment, and it is suggested that the lesser Mugwort
should be laid under the door of the house, for, if this is
done, "man nor womann can not anoy in that hous 1 ." The
number of specifics proposed as a cure for baldness is /,
somewhat surprising, when one remembers that this condi-
tion is often attributed to the nervous stress and strain of
modern life ! Hair-dyes and stains for the nails also receive
their share of attention.

Very remarkable powers were ascribed to products
of the ocean, such as coral and pearls. The former is
described as being " a maner of stony substaunce that is
founde in partyes of the see, and specyally in holowe, and
cavy hylles that ben in ye see, and groweth as a maner of
a glewy humour, and cleveth to the stones." The writer
mentions that "some say that the reed corall kepeth the
hous that it is in fro lyghtnynge, thondre, and tempest."
Pearls were regarded as of great value in medicine, and, for
weakness of the heart, the patient is recommended to " Take
the powdre of perles with sugre of roses," which suggests
a remedy worthy of a poet ! Many travellers' tales are
incorporated in the herbal ; we find, for instance, a most
thrilling description of the lodestone. " Lapis magnetis is
the adamant stone that draweth yren. It... is founde in the
brymmes of the occyan see. And there be hylles of it, and

1 The expression in the French original is, "homme ne femme ne pourra
nuire en ceste maison."

The Earlier English Herbals

[CH.

these hylles drawe ye shyppes that have nayles of yren to
them, and breke the shyppes up drawynge of the nayles
out." This description is illustrated by a picture of a rocky
pinnacle and a ship going to pieces ; one man is already in
the water, and two others are on the point of losing their
lives.

Many of the remedies for different ailments strike the
modern reader as being violent in a terrifying degree, and
adapted to a more robust age than the present ; they incline

lae^eooface.

Text-fig. 21. "Nenufar" = Waterlily [The Grete Herball,

1529].

one to echo the words, " There were giants in the earth in
those days." But apparently the sixteenth century held
an exactly corresponding view of its predecessors, for
under the heading of "whyte elebore" we read, " In olde
tyme it was commely used in medycyns as we use squamony.
For the body of man was stronger than it is now, and myght
better endure the vyolence of elebore, for man is weyker at
this time of nature."

It is somewhat remarkable that both Christianity and

in] ' The Grete Herbair 45

Greek mythology find a place in the Grete Herball. The
discovery of Artemisia and its virtues is attributed to Diana
and the Centaurs, but in the event of being bitten by a
mad dog, the sufferer is recommended to appeal to the
Virgin Mary before employing any remedy. "As sone as
ye be byten go to the chyrche, and make thy offrynge to
our lady, and pray here to helpe and heale the. Than
rubbe ye sore with a newe clothe," etc.

Ouite a number of medicines enumerated in the Grete
Herball still hold their own in modern practice. Liquorice
is recommended for coughs ; laudanum, henbane, opium
and lettuces as narcotics ; olive oil and slaked lime for
scalds ; cuttle-fish bone for whitening the teeth, and borax
and rose water for the complexion.

This book throws an interesting light on the early
names of British plants. The Primrose is called " Prymer-
olles" or "saynt peterworte." The " devylles bytte " is
said to be "so called by cause the rote is blacke and
semeth that it is iagged with bytynge, and some say that
the devyll had envy at the vertue therof and bete the
rote so for to have destroyed it." Duckweed is called
" Lentylles of the water" or " frogges fote," while Cuckoo-
pint is known by the picturesque name of "prestes
hode," and Wood-sorrel is called " Alleluya" or "cukowes

meate."

One of the most noticeable features of the herbal is the
exposure of methods of "faking" drugs, for the protection
of the public, " to eschew ye frawde of them that selleth it."
This is a great step in advance from the days of the old
Greek herbalists, when secrecy was part of the stock-in-
trade of a druggist, and, as we have pointed out in a
previous chapter, the credulous public was warned off by
threats of the miraculous and fearful ills, which would follow
any unskilled meddling with the subject.

Another work, which was illustrated with the same
figures as those of the Grete Herball, was ' The vertuose
boke of Distillacyon of the waters of all maner of Herbes,'
which appeared in 1527. This was a translation by
Laurence Andrew from the ' Liber de arte distillandi '
of Hieronymus Braunschweig, to which we have already
referred. It was almost entirely occupied with an account

46 The Earlier English Herbals [ch. hi

of methods of distillation, but occasionally there is a pictur-
esque touch of description. For example, in speaking of
the Mistletoe, the author says, " This herbe hath a longe
slender lefe nother full grene, nor ful yelowe, and bereth a
small whyte berye." The book was printed "in the flete
strete by me Laurens Andrewe, in the sygne of the golden
Crosse."

CHAPTER IV

THE BOTANICAL RENAISSANCE OF THE
SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CEN-
TURIES

i. The Herbal in Germany.

N his History of Botany, Kurt Sprengel
first used the honoured title, " The
German Fathers of Botany," to de-
scribe a group of herbalists — Brunfels,
Bock, Fuchs and Cordus — whose work
belongs principally to the first half of
the sixteenth century.

The earliest of these was Otto
Brunfels [Otho Brunfelsius], who is said to have been born
in 1464. His surname is derived from the fact that
his father, who was a cooper, came from Schloss Brunfels,
near Mainz. When Otto grew up, he became a Carthusian
monk. We do not know how long his monastic career
lasted, but eventually his health appears to have broken
down, and, at the same time, his faith in the Roman Catholic
Church was undermined by the acquaintance which he
began to make with protestant doctrines. He fled from
the monastery, and took up his abode in Strasburg, where
he was for nine years headmaster of the grammar school.
He wrote various theological works, but ultimately turned
his attention to medicine, and, before his death in 1534, he
had become town physician at Bern. As evidence of his }
medical studies we have his fine herbal, which is still full
of interest, whereas his other works, which he probably

4 8

The Botanical Renaissance

[ch.

Text-fig. 22. "Walwurtz mannlin" = Symphytum,
Comfrey [Brunfels, Herbarum vivae eicones,
Vol. I. 1530]. Reduced.

IV]

Otto Brunfels

regarded as much more serious contributions, have fallen
into oblivion.

Hellcborus Niger.

Text-fig. 23. "Helleborus Niger " — Helleborus viridis L., Green Hellebore
[Brunfels, Herbarum vivae eicones, Vol. I. 1530]. Reduced.

\ A new era in the history of the herbal may be said to
a. 4

50 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

date from the year 1530, when the first part of Brunfels'
work, the ' Herbarum vivse eicones,' was published by
Schott of Strasburg. In this book, with its beautiful and
naturalistic illustrations, there is, as the title indicates, a
real return to nature ; the plants are represented as they
are, and not in the conventionalised aspect which had
become traditional in the earlier herbals, through successive
copying by one artist from another, without reference to the
plants themselves. The blocks for the ' Herbarum vivae
eicones' were executed by Hans Weiditz, who was probably
also the draughtsman. Examples are shown in Text-figs.
,22, 23, 24, 25, 82, 83 and 84.

The illustrations of Brunfels' herbal are incomparably

i better than the text, which is very poor, and largely borrowed

! from previous writers. Brunfels' knowledge of botany was

chiefly derived from the study of certain Italian authors,

Manardus and others, who spent their time in trying to

identify the plants they saw growing around them with

those described by Dioscorides. This was by no means

unreasonable in their case, since it was the plants of the

Mediterranean region that Dioscorides had enumerated.

When, however, Brunfels attempted to employ the same

methods in his examination of the flora of the Strasburg

district, and the left bank of the Rhine, many difficulties

and discrepancies arose. He had no understanding of the

'geographical distribution of plants, and did not realise that

[ different regions have dissimilar floras. It is curious that

this should have been so, when we remember that Theo-

phrastus, more than eighteen hundred years earlier, had

clearly pointed out that the provinces of Asia have each

their own characteristic plants, and that some, which occur

in one region, are absent from another.

Hieronymus Bock, who in his Latin writings called him-
self Tragus (Text-fig. 26), was a contemporary of Brunfels,
though his botanical work was somewhat later in date.
He was born in 1498, and destined by his parents for the
cloister. But he proved to have no vocation for the
monastic life, and, having passed through a university
course, he obtained, by favour of the Count Palatine
Ludwig, the post of school teacher at Zweibriicken, and
overseer of the Count's garden. After his patron's death

IV]

Brunfels Herbal

Text-fig. 24. " Synnaw w j= AlckemMa, Ladies' Mantle [Brunfels, Herbarum
vivas eicones, Vol. II. 1531]. Reduced.

4—2

The Botanical Renaissance

[CH.

"&ene&icrcnu>utfccl.

Text-fig. 25. "Caryophyllata "=£««», Avens [Brunfels,
Herbarum vivae eicones, Vol. ill. 1540]. Reduced.

IV]

Hieronymus Bock

he removed to Hornbach, where he preached the gospel,
and also had an extensive medical practice, devoting
his spare time to botany. But he got into some trouble,

Text-fig. 26. Hieronymus Bock or Tragus, 1498 — 1554 [Engraving
by David Kandel. Kreuter Buch, 1 5 5 1 ].

apparently owing to his protestantism, and was obliged to
leave Hornbach. He was in serious straits until Count
Philip of Nassau, whom he had previously cured of a severe

The Botanical Renaissance

SPm £fi>f>erew. caMflr*

[CH.

Text-.fig. 27. " Erdberen " = Fragaria, Strawberry [Bock, Kreuter

Buch, 1546].

iv] Bock's Herbal 55

illness, gave him shelter and support in his own castle.
He was eventually able to return to Hornbach, where he
filled the office of preacher until his death in 1554.

Bock's great work is the ' New Kreutterbuch,' a herbal
which first appeared in 1539, printed at Strasburg by
Wendel Rihel. In subsequent editions the title was
abbreviated to ' Kreuter Buch.' The first edition was
without illustrations, but a second, containing many wood-
cuts, followed in 1546. The majority of the figures are
said to have been copied on a reduced scale from those in
Fuchs' magnificent herbal, which appeared in 1 542, between
the first and second editions of Bock's work. Fuchs'
figures must have been used with great discretion, for the
plagiarism is often not obvious (see Text-figs. 27, 90, 91).
A considerable number of the figures are new, being
drawn and engraved by David Kandel, whose initials
appear on the portrait of Bock, reproduced in Text-fig. 26. '
The wood-cuts of trees in the third part of the book are
particularly noticeable (see Text-figs. 28 and 92) and are
often made more interesting by the introduction of figures
of men and animals.

Bock's chief claim to remembrance, however, does not I
lie in his figures, but in his descriptions, which were a
great advance on those previously published. He was
careful also to note the mode of occurrence and localities
of the plants mentioned, and in this feature his work
showed some approach to a flora in the modern sense of
the word. Bock seems to have been a keen collector,
although hampered by ill-health, and a great point in his
favour is that he described only those plants which had
come under his own personal observation. The Royal
Fern (Osmunda) was traditionally supposed to bear seed
upon St John's Eve, though ferns were generally believed
at that time to have no organs of fructification. To test
this statement, Bock four times spent the night in the'
forest. He found " small black seed like poppy seed," in
spite of the fact that he "used no charm, incantation or
magic character," but went upon his search without super-
stition.

Bock's freedom from the credulity which permeated the
work of so many of the early botanists is one of his most

The Botanical Renaissance

33tmpcrmtg.

[CH.

Text-fig. 28. " Pimpernuss " = Pistacia, Pistachio-nut
[Bock, Kreuter Buch, 1546].

IV]

Bock's Herbal

remarkable characteristics. His chapters on Verbena and
Artemisia reflect clearly the independence of his thought.

De Tribulo aquatico*
WaffanuQ,

Text-fig. 29. "Tribulus aquaticus " = Trapa iiatans L.,
Bull-nut [Bock, De stirpium, 1552].

He points out that the former plant is collected rather for
purposes of magic than for medicine, and he can hardly

58 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

contain his scorn at the " monkey tricks and ceremonies "
connected with the use of the latter.

Leonhard Fuchs [or Fuchsius], the third of the Fathers
of German Botany (see Frontispiece), belonged to the same
generation as Hieronymus Bock, though he was a little
younger and produced his chief work three years later.
He was born in 1501 at Membdingen in Bavaria, and at
' an early age he became a student of the University of
' Erfurt, where he is said to have taken a bachelor's degree
in his thirteenth year ! After a period of school teaching,
he resumed his studies, this time at the University of
Ingolstadt, where he devoted himself chiefly to classics, and
became a Master of Arts. After this he turned his
attention to medicine, and took a doctor's degree. At
Ingolstadt he came under the influence of Luther's writings,
which won him over to the reformed faith.

Fuchs began to practise as a physician at Munich, but
in 1526 he returned to Ingolstadt as Professor of Medicine.
He seems to have been of a restless temperament, which
was probably accentuated by the persecution to which his
protestant opinions exposed him. His career for more
than forty years consisted of periods of active practice,
alternating with periods of university teaching. In 1535
he was appointed to a professorship at Tubingen, and,
while he held this post, he declined a call to the University
of Pisa, and also an invitation to become physician to the
King of Denmark. It is clear that, both as a physician and
a teacher, he was in great demand. He acquired a wide-
spread reputation by his successful treatment of a terrible
epidemic disease, which swept over Germany in 1529.
A little book of medical instructions and prayers against
the plague, which was published in London in the latter
half of the sixteenth century, shows that his fame had
extended to England. It is entitled, 'A worthy practise of
the moste learned Phisition Maister Leonerd Fuchsius,
Doctor in Phisicke, most necessary in this needfull tyme of
our visitation, for the comforte of all good and faythfull
people, both olde and yonge, both for the sicke and for
ihem that woulde avoyde the daunger of contagion.'

In spite of his professional activity, Fuchs found time
io produce a botanical masterpiece, which appeared in

IV]

Leonhard Fucks

£<Wt£fat&

Text-fig. 30. "Brassicae quartum genus " = Cabbage [Fuchs, De historia

stirpium, 1542]. Reduced.

60 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

1542 from the press of Isingrin of Basle, under the title
1 De historia stirpium.' This was a Latin herbal dealing
with about four hundred native German, and one hundred
foreign plants, and was followed in the succeeding year by
a German edition, called the ' New Kreuterbuch.' Of all
the botanists of the Renaissance, Fuchs is perhaps the one
who deserves most to be held in honour. He is notably
L superior to his two predecessors in matters calling for
scholarship, such as the critical study of the plant nomen-
clature of classical authors. His herbal rivals, or even
surpasses, that of Brunfels in its illustrations, and that of
Bock in its German text. The letter-press of the Latin
. edition is, on the whole, inferior to the German, the brief
descriptions being often taken word for word from previous
writers.

The Latin edition opens, however, with a long and
most interesting preface, in singularly pure and fine Latin.
Fuchs is keenly indignant at the ignorance of herbs dis-
played even by medical men. His outburst on this subject
may be literally translated as follows : — " But, by Immortal
God, is it to be wondered at that kings and princes do not
at all regard the pursuit of the investigation of plants, when
even the physicians of our time so shrink from it that
it is scarcely possible to find one among a hundred who
has an accurate knowledge of even so many as a few
J plants ? "

That Fuchs' work was indeed a labour of love is a
1 conviction that must force itself upon everyone who studies
I'fris herbal, and it is further borne out by his own words in
the preface — words which bear the stamp of a lively
enthusiasm : " But there is no reason why I should dilate
at greater length upon the pleasantness and delight of
acquiring knowledge of plants, since there is no one
who does not know that there is nothing in this life
pleasanter and more delightful than to wander over woods,
mountains, plains, garlanded and adorned with flowerlets
and plants of various sorts, and most elegant to boot, and
to gaze intently upon them. But it increases that pleasure
and delight not a little, if there be added an acquaintance
with the virtues and powers of these same plants."

The wood-cuts which illustrate Fuchs' herbal are of

IV]

Leonhard Fuchs

fBtffiowfa*

Text-fig. 31. "Polygonatum latifolium" = Solomon's Seal [Fuchs, De
historia stirpium, 1542]. Reduced,

62 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

extraordinary beauty (Text-figs. 30, 31, 32, 58, 70, 86, 87,
88). Some of them gain a special interest as being the
first European figures of certain American plants, e.g.
Indian Corn {Zea mats L.) and the Great Pumpkin
(Cucurbita maxima Duch.) (Text-fig. 32). These wood-
cuts became familiar in England in the second half of the
sixteenth century, being used on a reduced scale (borrowed
from the octavo edition) in both William Turner's herbal
and Lyte's Dodoens, two books which we shall consider
a little later. In Fuchs' great work we are fortunate in
possessing, in addition to the botanical drawings, a full-
length portrait of the author himself, holding a spray of
Veronica, on the verso of the title-page (see Frontispiece),
and, at the end of the work, named portraits, which are
generally supposed to represent the artist who drew the
plants from nature, the draughtsman whose business it was
to copy the outline on to the wood, and the engraver who
actually cut the block (Text-fig. 89). It has also been
suggested that the first of these is perhaps engaged in
colouring a printed sheet. These portraits are powerfully
drawn, and remarkably convincing. It is pleasant to think
that we know not merely the names, but the very features
of the men who collaborated to give us what is perhaps
the most beautiful herbal ever produced.

The influence of Fuchs* illustrations is more strongly
felt in later work than that of his text. The majority of
the wood engravings in Bock's ' Kreuter Biich' (1546),
Dodoens' 'Cruydeboeck' (1554), Turner's 'New Herball'
(1551 — 1568), Lyte's ■ Niewe Herball' (1578) and Jean
Bauhin's 'Historia plantarum universalis' (1651), are copied
from Fuchs, or even printed from his actual wood-blocks,
while a number of his figures reappear in the herbals of
Egenolph, d'Alechamps, Tabernaemontanus, etc., and the
commentaries of Ruellius and Amatus Lusitanus on Dios-
corides.

Fuchs arranged his work alphabetically, making no
attempt at a natural grouping of the plants, and his herbal
is therefore without importance in the history of plant
classification. His influence on methods of plant descrip-
tion was, however, considerable, as is shown by the fact
that Dodoens, in his ' Cruydeboeck,' took Fuchs' herbal

IV]

Leonhard Fuchs

Text-fig. 32. "Cucumis turcicus " = Cucurbita maxima Duch., Giant
Pumpkin [Fuchs, De historia stirpium, 1542]. Reduced.

64 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

/ as a model for the order of description of each plant. Fuchs'
text, as well as his figures, may thus be said to have had an
effect, even if an indirect one, on British botany, since the
herbals of Lyte and of Gerard are based on the work of
Dodoens, in which, as we have just shown, the influence
of Fuchs is clearly felt.

The publisher Christian Egenolph of Frankfort, though
not himself a botanical writer, must be mentioned at this
stage, because he brought out, in 1533, a set of plant illus-
trations which became particularly well known (e.g. Text-
figs. 2,3 and 85). They do not reflect any great credit on
Egenolph, since they were mostly pirated from Brunfels.
They were not even used to illustrate a new herbal, but
merely a new edition of the old German Herbarius, enlarged
and improved by Dr Eucharias Rhodion, and issued under
the name of ' Kreutterbuch von allem Erdtgewachs.'

Egenolph was evidently a keen man of business, for he
made his figures do duty over and over again. He used
them not only as illustrations to the herbal, but as a
separate publication, without any letter-press, and also in
conjunction with an entirely unrelated text, such, for ex-
ample, as a Latin version of Dioscorides. Many later
editions of the Kreutterbuch appeared, and to these a
number of figures were added, chiefly copies, on a reduced
scale, from those of Bock, who had himself made consider-
able use of the drawings in the octavo edition of Fuchs'
herbal. The editions produced under the auspices of Adam
Lonicer, the publisher's son-in-law, are particularly well
known. No other botanical works of the period had a
success comparable to that of this long series of books, of
which Rhodion's 'Kreutterbuch' was the prototype. This
success was, however, achieved in the teeth of much ad-
verse contemporary criticism. Fuchs, in the preface of his
'Historia stirpium' (1542), referred with unsparing touch
to Egenolph's botanical mistakes. His trenchant indict-
ment may be rendered into English as follows — "Among
all the herbals which exist to-day, there are none which
have more of the crassest errors than those which
Egenolph, the printer, has already published again and
again." This statement Fuchs supports by means of actual
examples.

iv] The Herbal in Germany 65

It must nevertheless be admitted that, even if their
quality was poor, the herbals published by Egenolph and
his successors did good service in disseminating some
knowledge of the plant world among a very wide public.
There is, in the British Museum, a beautiful copy of the
1536 edition, with a binding stamped in gold and bear-
ing the arms of Mary, Duchess of Suffolk, daughter of
Henry VII. The duchess may perhaps have inherited
a taste for herbals from her father, for the British
Museum also possesses a copy of Ve>ard's translation of
the \Ortus Sanitatis,' which is known to have been pur-
chased by him.

JEttopffd.

Vulgago. Panisporcmus. Ciclamcn*
Malum terrae. Atthamta. Bothormarfetu

Text-fig. 33. " Erdopfifel" = Ranunculus ficaria L., Lesser
Celandine [Rhodion, Kreutterbuch, 1533].

Among the German Fathers of Botany, Sprengel in-
cludes a comparatively little known name, that of Valerius
Cordus (15 15 — 1544), a man whose actual achievement
was small, but who, if he had not died so young, would
probably have become one of the most famous of the earlier
herbalists. His father, Euricius Cordus, was a physician,
botanist, and man of letters, so Valerius was brought up in
a fortunate environment. At sixteen he graduated at the
University of Marburg, and, after studying in various towns,

66 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

he passed from the position of pupil to that of teacher, and
expounded Dioscorides at the University of Wittenberg.
He travelled widely in search of plants, and visited many
of the savants of the period. He is known to have made
a stay at Tubingen, and it is highly probable that he became
personally acquainted with Leonhard Fuchs.

Cordus had always longed to see, under their native
skies, the plants about which the ancients had written, and,
in fulfilment of this dream, he undertook a long excursion
into Italy. He visited many of the towns, amongst others
Padua, Bologna, Florence and Siena, travelling partly on
foot and partly on horseback, and generally accompanied
by his friend Hieronymus Schreiber. The journey was
a very trying one to men accustomed to a more northerly
climate. Wild and difficult country had to be traversed
in the height of summer, and the exposure and fatigue led
to a tragic conclusion. Cordus was injured by a kick from
a horse, which brought on a fever, and his companions
had great difficulty in getting him as far as Rome. He
rallied, however, and his friends were deceived into the
belief that he was on the road to recovery. They even
thought it safe to leave him, while they made an excursion
to Naples, but he did not survive until their return. His
fate, like that of Keats, was to see Rome and die.

None of the botanical works of Valerius Cordus were
published during his life-time, but his commentaries on
Dioscorides and his ' Historia stirpium ' were edited by
Gesner after his death. The great merit of the ' Historia'
lies in the vividness of the descriptions. The author seems
to have examined the plants for their own sake — not merely
in the interest of the arts of healing.

Cordus did noteworthy service to medicine, however,
for when he passed through Nuremberg on his travels he
was able to lay before the physicians of that town a
collection of medical recipes, chiefly selected from earlier
writings. This work, which had for some time been in use
in Saxony in manuscript form, was considered so valuable
that, after it had been examined and tested under the
auspices of the town council, it was published officially as
the Nuremberg ' Dispensatorium,' probably in 1546 1 . This

1 Various dates are given by different authors for the first edition of the

IV]

The Herbal in Germany

6 7

is said to be the first work of the nature of a pharmacopoeia
ever published under government authority.

A passing reference may be made at this point to
Jacob Theodor of Bergzabern (1520 — 1590), a herbalist
whose work was perhaps of no very great importance,

Text-fig. 34. " Ocimoides fruticosum" = Silene Jruticosa L.
[Camerarius, Hortus medicus, 1588].

but who is closely connected with the German Fathers of
Botany, having been the pupil both of Otto Brunfels and
of Hieronymus Bock. In his books he called himself
Tabernsemontanus.

f Dispensatorium,' but 1546 seems to be the best attested. I have not seen any
edition prior to 1598.

68 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

Like the majority of the herbalists, Theodor was a
medical man, and his study of botany was a hobby which
extended over many years. He projected a herbal, but
was unable for a long time to carry the idea into effect,
being deterred by the cost of the illustrations. This
difficulty was eventually overcome, chiefly through the
generosity of Count Palatine Frederick III, and of the
Frankfort publisher, Nicolaus Bassseus. The herbal first
appeared in 1588, under the title 'Neuw Kreuterbuch,' and
in 1590 the illustrations were published without any text
as the 'Eicones plantarum.' The herbal is a large and very
finely illustrated work. The figures, however, are for the
most part not original, but are reproduced from Bock,
Fuchs, Dodoens, Mattioli, de l'Ecluse and de l'Obel. This
collection of wood-blocks became familiar in England a few
years later, when they were acquired by the printer John
Norton, and used to illustrate Gerard's ' Herball ' which
appeared in 1597.

There is still another German herbalist of the sixteenth
century whose work must not be overlooked. This is
Joachim Camerarius 1 the younger (Plate VI). His father
was a celebrated philologist, and a friend of Melanchthon.
The son, who was born in 1534, was attracted to botany
in his early youth. He studied at Wittenberg and other
universities, and travelled in Hungary and Italy. He spent
some time in the latter country, and took a doctor's degree
in medicine at Bologna. At Pisa, he became acquainted
with Andrea Cesalpino. Finally he returned to Germany,
and settled down at Nuremberg. Here he cultivated a
garden which was kept supplied with rare plants by his
friends, and the Nuremberg merchants.

Camerarius brought out an edition of Mattioli (' De plantis
Epitome'), but his chief work was the ' Hortus medicus et
philosophicus,' which appeared in 1588. The illustrations
to this book consist partly of drawings by Gesner, which
the author had bought a few years previously, and partly
of original figures. It is impossible to discriminate with
any exactness between the work of the two men. These
wood-cuts, of which Text-figs. 34, 35, 71 and 100 are

1 The name Kammermeister or Camerarius was adopted by Joachim Came-
rarius the elder, in place of the family name of Liebhard.

Plate VI

Jcac'.'i rrui t J o v t b -.r.L,{Lm emrau
Pat MeCL,<& ?r'-_B;Unicuf

-^Deca nu C /jierjjetuus.
.V.. N > > f7+j£2>en&t5.u. cc£.tr9f .

JOACHIM CAMERARIUS, the younger (1534— 1598).

[Engraving by Bartholomseus Kilian, probably between 1650
and 1700. Department of Prints and Drawings, British
Museum.]

IV]

The Herbal in Germany

6 9

examples, will be discussed more fully in Chapter VII.
From the botanical point of view, they represent a con-\
siderable advance, since the details of floral structure are
often shown on an enlarged scale. Camerarius was a good

Text fig. 35. "Palma" = Seedlings of Phoenix dactylifera L.,
Date Palm [Camerarius, Hortus medicus, 1588].

observer, and his travels furnished him with much in-
formation regarding the localities for the plants which he
described.

70 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

2. The Herbal in the Low Countries.

In the sixteenth century, the Herbal flourished exceed-
ingly in the Low Countries. This was due in part to the
zeal and activity of the botanists of the Netherlands, but
perhaps even more to the munificence, and love of learn-
ing for its own sake, which distinguished that prince of
publishers, Christophe Plantin of Antwerp. In these
qualities he forms a notable contrast to Egenolph of
Frankfort, to whose shortcomings we have already drawn
attention.

Plantin's life extended from about 15 14 to 1589, and
thus included the central years of that wonderful century.
He was a native of Touraine, and studied the art of printing
at Caen and other French towns. Towards 1550, he and
his wife, Jeanne Riviere, settled in Antwerp, where he
worked at book-binding, and his wife sold linen in a little
shop. Later, he returned to the profession of printing,
and his business in this direction gradually developed, and
was eventually transferred to the famous Maison Plantin.
Christophe's reputation grew to such an extent that great
efforts were made, in various quarters, to tempt him from
Antwerp. The Duke of Savoy and Piedmont, for instance,
did all he could to persuade him to come to Turin, promising
him extensive printing works and all necessary funds — but
he remained faithful to the city of his adoption. Perhaps
the most potent factor in his success was his keen judgment
of men, which enabled him so to choose his subordinates
that he gathered around him an unrivalled staff.

One of Plantin's daughters married Jean Moretus, her
father's chief assistant and successor, and from him the
business descended through eight generations of printers
to Edouard Jean Hyacinthe Moretus, the last of his race,
from whom, in 1876, the citizens of Antwerp purchased the
Maison Plantin and its contents. The house had remained
practically unchanged since the days when Christophe
Plantin lived and worked there, and it is now preserved as
the Musee Plantin-Moretus. It is built round a rectangular
courtyard, and its beauty, both in proportion and in detail, is
such, that one feels at once that Plantin achieved the ambition

IV]

The Herbal in the Netherlands

he expressed in his charming sonnet — ' Le Bonheur de ce
Monde' — "Avoir une maison commode, propre et belle."
The pictures, furniture and hangings, and not only the

REMBERTI
DODONMEI
JETA.XXXV,

VIRTVTE

AMBI.

Text-fig. 36. Rembert Dodoens, 15 17 — 1585 [A Niewe Herball,
translated by Lyte, 1578].

very presses, fonts, and furnaces for casting the type, but
even the old account books and corrected proof-sheets
are still to be seen, all in their appropriate places. The

72 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

wage-books are preserved, showing the weekly earnings of
compositors, engravers and book-binders, throughout a
period of three centuries. In short, the Maison Plantin
beggars description, and a visit there is an infallible recipe
for transporting the imagination back to the time of the .
Renaissance, when printing was in its first youth, and was
treated with the reverence due to one of the fine arts.

The first Belgian botanist of world-wide renown was
Rembert Dodoens [or Dodonaeus] (Text-fig. 36). He was
a contemporary of Plantin, having been born at Malines in
1517 1 . He studied at Louvain, and visited the universities
and medical schools of France, Italy and Germany, even-
tually qualifying as a doctor. He was successful in his
profession, being physician to the Emperors Maximilian II
and Rudolph II, and finally becoming Professor of Medicine
at Leyden, where he died in 1585. His interest in the
medical aspect of botany led him to write a herbal, and,
in order to illustrate it, he obtained the use of the wood-
blocks which had been employed in the octavo edition of
Fuchs' work. To these a number of new engravings were
added. The book was published in Dutch in the year
J 554 by Vanderloe, under the title ' Cruydeboeck.' The
text is not a translation of Fuchs, as is sometimes supposed,
although Dodoens took Fuchs as his model for the order
of description of each plant. The method of arrangement
is his own, and he indicates localities and times of flowering
in the Low Countries, information which clearly could not
have been derived from the earlier writer. Almost simul-
taneously with the first Dutch edition, a French issue
appeared under the title of ' Histoire des Plantes.' The trans-
lation was carried out by Charles de l'Ecluse, with whose
own work we shall shortly deal. Dodoens supervised the
production of the book, and took the opportunity to make
some additions. It became known in England through
Lyte's translation, which will be discussed in a later section
of this chapter.

The last Dutch edition of the herbal, for which the
author himself was responsible, was printed by Vanderloe
in 1563. The publisher then parted with Fuchs' blocks,

1 There has been some uncertainty about this date, but Meerbeck (see
Appendix II) seems to have proved that 15 17 is correct.

IV]

The Herbal in the Netherlands

which were probably acquired by the printer of Lyte's
Dodoens in England. This circumstance put great diffi-
culties in the way of Dodoens' wish to reproduce his herbal

Capparis.

Text-fig. yj. "Capparis" = G*//rtr?'.y ovata L. [Dodoens,
Pemptades, 1583].

in Latin. However it proved a blessing in disguise, for
he had the good fortune to meet, in Christophe Plantin, " un

74 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

homme qui ne reculait devant aucune expense, pour don-
ner aux ouvrages qui sortaient de ses presses toute la
perfection et le merite dont ils e^aient susceptibles." Plantin
undertook to produce a much modified Latin translation of
the herbal, and to have new blocks engraved for it, whilst
Dodoens, on his side, engaged to supply the artists with
fresh plants, and to superintend their labours. The work
proceeded slowly, and was published in parts. It was finally
completed in 1583, and was produced in one volume, under
the name of ' Stirpium historiae pemptades sex sive libri
triginta.' In this work, by far the larger number of the
figures are original (see Text-figs. 37,^38, 96 and 97); some,
however, were borrowed from de l'Ecluse and de l'Obel.
This arose from the fact that Plantin was also the publisher
for both these writers, and as he bore the expense of their
blocks, he had an agreement with the three authors that
their illustrations should be treated as common property.
A few of Dodoens' figures were based upon those in the
famous manuscript of Dioscorides, now at Vienna (see
pp. 8, 85, 154).

In the ' Pemptades,' the botanist in Dodoens was more
to the fore, and the physician less in evidence than in his
earlier work. It is particularly difficult to appraise with any
exactness the services which Dodoens rendered to botany.
Between him and his two younger countrymen, de l'Ecluse
and de l'Obel, there was so intimate a friendship that they
freely imparted their observations to one another, and per-
mitted the use of them, and also of their figures, in one
another's books. To attempt to ascertain exactly what
degree of merit should be attributed to each of the three,
would be a task equally difficult and thankless.

Charles de l'Ecluse [or Clusius 1 ] (Plate VII) was born
at Arras in the French Netherlands in 1526; like Dodoens,
he passed the closing years of his life at Leyden. He
studied at Louvain, and other universities, including Mont-
pelier, where he came under the influence of the botanist,
Guillaume Rondelet, who also numbered d'Alechamps,
de l'Obel, Pierre Pena and Jean Bauhin among his pupils.
De l'licluse was an enthusiastic adherent of the reformed

1 The fullest and most correct form of his name is probably "Jules-Charles
de l'Escluse."

Plate I'll

■

CHARLES DE L'ECLUSE (1526— 1609).
[Print in the Botany School, Cambridge.]

IV]

The Herbal in the Netherlands

faith, to which he was converted by the influence of Melanch-
thon, and he suffered religious persecution, which brought
even actual martyrdom to some of his relatives. Though he
did not himself lose his life, he was deprived of his property,

Anemone tri folia.

Text-fig. 38.

"Anemone trifolia"
Pemptades, 1583].

[Dodoens,

and, between poverty and ill-health, his career seems to
have been a melancholy one. He passed a nomad existence,
attached at one time as tutor to some great family, while,

76 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

at others, he was occupied in writing or translating for
Rondelet, Dodoens or Plantin, or undertaking precarious
employment at the court of Vienna. The University of
Leyden finally appointed him to a professorship. It is
interesting to note that he paid more than one visit to
England, and that he was intimate with Sir Francis Drake,
who gave him plants from the New World.

De l'Ecluse had a reputation for versatility scarcely
exceeded by that of his contemporary, the " Admirable "
Crichton. He is said to have had a wide knowledge of Latin,
Greek, French, German, Flemish, Spanish, law, philosophy,
history, geography, zoology, mineralogy and numismatics,
besides his chosen subject of botany. Since his botanical
d^but was made as the translator of Dodoens, we may with
reason look upon him as a disciple of the latter.

The first original work de l'Ecluse produced was an
account of the plants which he had observed while on an
adventurous expedition to Spain and Portugal with two
pupils. This was so successful botanically that he brought
back two hundred new species. The description of his
finds was published by Plantin in 1576, under the title of
' Rariorum aliquot stirpium per Hispanias observatarum
Historia.' Wood-blocks were engraved purposely for this
book (see Text-figs. 39, 59 and 98), but, for the confusion of
the bibliographer, some of them were also used to illustrate
Dodoens' work in the interval while the Spanish flora of
de l'Ecluse awaited publication. In 1583 appeared our
author's second work, which did the same service for the
botany of Austria and Hungary as the previous volume
had done for the botany of Spain. These two works,
together with some additional matter, were republished in
1 601 as the ' Rariorum plantarum historia.' In this book,
the species belonging to the same genus are often brought
together, but, beyond this, there is little attempt at sys-
tematic arrangement.

De l'Ecluse was weak in the synthetic faculty, his
strength lying rather in his powers of observation. Cuvier
reckons that he added more than six hundred to the number
of known plants. It is characteristic of his versatile mind,
that his botanical interests were not confined, like those
of most of the early workers, to flowering plants. A

IV]

The Herbal in the Netherlands

manuscript is preserved in the Leyden Library 1 containing
more than eighty beautiful water-colour drawings of fungi,

Text-fig. 39. "Lacryma lob " = Coix lachryma-Jobi L., Job's Tears
[de l'Ecluse, Rariorum...per Hispanias, 1576].

executed under the direction of de l'Ecluse, by artists
employed by his great friend and patron, Baron Boldizsar

1 University Library, Leyden, Department of Manuscripts, Codex No. 303.

78 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

de Batthyany. This gentleman is said to have been so
enthusiastic a botanist, that he set a Turkish prisoner at
liberty, on the condition that he should obtain plants for
him jfrom^ Turkey.

De l'Ecluse seems to have been a man of wide friend-
ships, and his botanical correspondence was very large.
He did much for horticulture, and is called by his friend,
Marie de Brimen, Princesse de Chimay, "le pere de tous
les beaux Jardins de ce pays." He deserves especial
gratitude for one benefit of a very practical nature, namely
the introduction of the Potato into Germany and Austria.
It is worthy of note that de l'Ecluse, unlike the majority of
the herbalists, was not a physician, and although he laid
considerable stress on the properties of plants, he was not
preoccupied with the medical side of the subject. He
studied plants for their own sake, and abandoned the futile
effort to identify them with those mentioned by the ancients.

The third of the trio of botanists whom we are now
considering is Mathias de l'Obel [de Lobel or Lobelius],
who was born in Flanders in 1538, and died in England,
at Highgate, in 16 16 (Plate VIII). He studied at Mont-
pelier, under Guillaume Rondelet, who, finally, bequeathed
to him his botanical manuscripts. Here also he became
acquainted with a young Provencal, Pierre Pena, with whom
he afterwards collaborated in botanical work. De l'Obel
took up medicine as his profession, and eventually became
physician to William the Silent, a post which he held until
the assassination of the Stadtholder. Later on, he and Pena
came to England, probably to seek a peaceful life under the
prosperous sway of Queen Elizabeth, which was so favour-
able to the arts and sciences. Their principal work was
dedicated to her, in terms of hyperbolic praise. De l'Obel
seems to have been well received in this country, for he was
invited to superintend the medicinal garden at Hackney,
belonging to Lord Zouche, and he eventually obtained the
title of Botanist to James I.

De rObel's chief botanical work was the ' Stirpium
adversaria nova 1 ,' published in 1570, with Pena as joint
author. Pena does not appear to have been a botanist

1 According to Legre", the word "Adversaria" is equivalent to "livre-journal,"
i.e. day-book in the commercial sense.

Plate I'll l

MATHIAS DE L'OBEL (1538—1616).

[Engraving by Frangois Dellarame, 16 15. Department
of Prints and Drawings, British Museum.]

iv] The Herbal in Italy 79

of much importance, and he eventually quite forsook the
subject in favour of medicine. It has been suggested,
however, that de l'Obel was inclined to minimise the value
of his colleague's work. The system of classification, upon I
which de l'Obel's reputation really rests, is set forth in
this book. The main feature of his scheme is that he
distinguishes different groups by the peculiarities of their
leaves. He is thus led to make a rough separation between
the classes which we now call Dicotyledons and Monoco-
tyledons. The details of his system will be considered in
a later chapter.

In 1576 the work was enlarged, and republished as the
' Plantarum seu Stirpium Historia'; it was also translated
into Flemish, and appeared under the title of ' Kruydtbceck '
in 1 58 1, dedicated to William of Orange, and the Burgo-
masters and other functionaries of Antwerp. The blocks
(see Text-fig. 67) used to illustrate this work were taken
from previous books, especially those of de l'Ecluse. Imme-
diately after the publication of the Kruydtbceck, Plantin
brought out an album of the engravings it had contained,
which, although they had been also used to illustrate the
herbals of Dodoens and de l'Ecluse, were now grouped
according to de l'Obel's arrangement, which was recognised
as the best.

3. The Herbal in Italy.

The Italian botanists of the Renaissance devoted them-
selves chiefly to interpreting the works of the classical
writers on Natural History, and to the identification of
the plants to which they referred. This came about quite
naturally, from the fact that the Mediterranean flora, which
they saw around them, was actually that with which the
writers in question had been, in their day, familiar. The
botanists of southern Europe were not compelled, as were
those whose homes lay north of the Alps, to distort facts
before they could make the plants of their native country
fit into the procrustean bed of classical descriptions.

One of the chief of the commentators and herbalists of
this period was Pierandrea Mattioli [or Matthiolus] (Text-
fig. 40), who was born at Siena in 1501, and died of the

The Botanical Renaissance

[ch.

plague in 1577. We realise something of the frightful
extent of this scourge, when we remember that it claimed as
victims no less than three of the small company of Renais-
sance botanists, Gesner, Mattioli and Zaluzian. Leonhard
Fuchs was brought into fame by his successful treatment of
one of these epidemics. It should also be recalled that,

Text-fig. 40. Pierandrea Mattioli, 1501 — 1577 [Engraving by Philippe
Galle. Virorum Doctorum Effigies, Antwerp, 1572].

while Gaspard Bauhin, one of the best known of the later
herbalists, was practising as a physician at Basle, no less
than three of these terrible outbreaks occurred in the town.
Mattioli was the son of a doctor, and his early life was
passed in Venice, where his father was in practice. He was

IV]

The Herbal in Italy

destined for the law, but his inherited tastes led him away
from jurisprudence to medicine. He practised in several
different towns, and became physician, successively, to the
Archduke Ferdinand, and to the Emperor Maximilian II.

Pyra.

Text-fig. 41. " Pyra." = Pyrus communis L., Pear
[Mattioli, Commentarii, 1560].

Mattioli's 'Commentarii in sex libros Pedacii Dios-
coridis,' his chef-d'oeuvre, the gradual production and im-
provement of which occupied his leisure hours throughout
his life, was first published in 1544. It was translated into

The Botanical Renaissance

[CH.

many languages and appeared in countless editions. The
success of the work was phenomenal, and it is said that
32,000 copies of the earlier editions were sold. The title
does not do the book justice, for it contains, besides an

Auena .

Text-fig. 42. "Avena" = Oats [Mattioli, Commentarii, 1560].

exposition of Dioscorides, a Natural History dealing with

all the plants known to Mattioli. The early editions had

: small illustrations only (Text-figs. 41, 42, 93 and 94), but,

later on, editions with large and very beautiful figures were

IV]

The Herbal in Italy

published, such as that which appeared at Venice in 1565
(Text-figs. 43, 44, 95).

Mattioli's descriptions of the plants with which he deals
are not so good as those of some of his contemporaries.

Text-fig. 43. " Trifolium acetosum"=Ora//j- [Mattioli, Commentarii,

1 565]. Reduced.

He found and recorded a certain number of new plants,
especially from the Tyrol, but most of the species, which he
described for the first time, were not his own discoveries,

6—2

8 4

The Botanical Renaissance

[ch.

but were communicated to him by others. Luca Ghini,
for instance, had projected a similar work, but handed over
all his material to Mattioli, who also placed on record the

Text-fig. 44. " Malus" —Pyrus mains L., Apple [Mattioli, Com-
mentarii, 1565]. Reduced.

discoveries made by the physician, Wilhelm Quakelbeen,
who had accompanied the celebrated diplomatist, Auger-
Gislain Busbecq, on a mission to Turkey.

iv] The Herbal in Italy 85

Busbecq brought from Constantinople a wonderful col-
lection of Greek manuscripts, including Juliana Anicia's copy
of the Materia Medica of Dioscorides, now in the Vienna
Library (see pp. 8 and 154). He discovered this great
manuscript in the hands of a Jew, who required a hundred
ducats for it. This price was almost prohibitive, but Busbecq
was an enthusiast, and he successfully urged the Emperor,
whose representative he was, " to redeem so illustrious an
author from that servitude 1 ." His purpose in buying the
manuscript seems to have been largely in order to commu-
nicate it to Mattioli, who would thus be able to make use of
it in preparing his Commentaries on Dioscorides.

The personal character of Mattioli does not appear to
have been a pleasant one. He engaged in numerous con-
troversies with his fellow botanists, and hurled the most
abusive language at those who ventured to criticise him.

Another Italian herbalist, Castor Durante, slightly later |
in date than Mattioli, should perhaps be mentioned here,
not because of the intrinsic value of his work, but because
of its widespread popularity. At least two of his books
appeared in many editions and translations.

Durante was a physician who issued a series of botanical
compilations, bedizened with Latin verse. The best known
of his works is the * Herbario Nuovo,' published at Rome ,
in 1585 (Text-figs. 45 and 103). A second book, the \
original version of which is seldom met with, has survived
in the form of a German translation, by Peter Uffenbach.
The German version was named ' Hortulus Sanitatis.'
As an illustration of Durante's charmingly unscientific
manner, we may take the legend of the "Arbor tristis "
which occurs in both these works. The figure which
accompanies it (Text-fig. 45) shows, beneath the moon and
stars, a drawing of a tree whose trunk has a human form.
The description, as it occurs in the ' Hortulus Sanitatis,'
may be translated as follows :

"Of this tree the Indians say, there was once a very

1 "quern ego emptum cupivissem, sed me deterruit pretium : nam centum
ducatis indicabatur, summa caesarei non mei marsupii. Ego instare non desinam
donee caesarem impulero ut tarn praeclarum autorem ex ilia servitute redimat."
Epist. iv. p. 392. [Quoted by Kickx, Bull. Acad. roy. Bruxelles, Vol. v. p.
202, 1838.]

The Botanical Renaissance

[ch.

beautiful maiden, daughter of a mighty lord called Parisa-
taccho. This maiden loved the Sun, but the Sun forsook
her because he loved another. So, being scorned by the
Sun, she slew herself, and when her body had been burned,
according to the custom of that land, this tree sprang from
her ashes. And this is the reason why the flowers of this
tree shrink so intensely from the Sun, and never open in
his presence. And thus it is a special delight to see this
tree in the night time, adorned on all sides with its lovely
flowers, since they give forth a delicious perfume, the like
of which is not to be met with in any other plant, but no

Text-fig. 45. "Arbor Malenconico" or "Arbor tristis"
= Tree of Sorrow [Durante, Herbario Nuovo, 1585].

sooner does one touch the plant with one's hand than its
sweet scent vanishes away. And however beautiful the
tree has appeared, and however sweetly it has bloomed at
night, directly the Sun rises in the morning it not only fades
but all its branches look as though they were withered and
dead."

Much more famous than Durante was Fabio Colonna,
or, as he is more generally called, Fabius Columna (Plate
IX), who was born at Naples in 1567. His father was a
well-known litterateur. Fabio Colonna's profession was

IV]

The Herbal in Italy

Text-fig. 46. "Apocynum" [Colonna, Phytobasanos, 1592].

88 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

that of law, but he was also well acquainted with languages,
music, mathematics and optics. He tells us in the preface
to his principal work that his interest in plants was aroused
by his difficulty in obtaining a remedy for epilepsy, a disease
from which he suffered. Having tried all sorts of pre-
scriptions without result, he examined the literature on the
subject, and discovered that most of the writers of his time
merely served up the results obtained by the ancients, often
in a very incorrect form. So he went to the fountain head,
Dioscorides, and after much research identified Valerian as
being the herb which that writer had recommended against
epilepsy, and succeeded in curing himself by its use.

This experience convinced Colonna that the knowledge
of the identity of the plants described by the ancients was
!in a most unsatisfactory condition, and he set himself to
■produce a work which should remedy this state of things.
This book was published in 1592, under the name of
1 Phytobasanos,' which embodies' a quaint conceit after the
fashion of the time. The title is a compound Greek word
meaning "plant torture," and was apparently employed by
Colonna to explain that he had subjected the plants to
ordeal by torture, in order to wrest from them the secret of
their identity. But it must be confessed that Colonna
himself is by no means free from error, as regards the names
which he assigns to them.

The great feature of the 'Phytobasanos,' however, is the
excellence of the descriptions and figures. The latter are
famous as being the first etchings on copper used to illustrate
a botanical work (Text-figs. 46 and 105). They were an
advance on all previous plant drawings, except the work of
Gesner and Camerarius, in giving, in many cases, detailed
analyses of the flowers and fruit as well as habit drawings.
We owe to Colonna also the technical use of the word
!" petal," which he suggested as a descriptive term for the
coloured floral leaves 1 .

By means of his wide scientific correspondence, Colonna
kept in touch with many of the naturalists of his time,
notably with de l'Ecluse and Gaspard Bauhin.

A passing reference may be made here to a book which
is rather of the nature of a local flora than a herbal, entitled

1 'Ekphrasis,' 1616, pp. 245 etc.

riatc IX

FABIO COLONNA (1567— 1650)
[Ekpbrasis, 1606.]

ivj

The Herbal in Italy

8 9

Text-fig. 47. "Kaill " = Salicorma, Glasswort [Prospero Alpino, De plantis

^gypti, 1592].

90 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

' Prosperi Alpini de plantis JEgypti,' which was published
at Venice in 1592. It contains a number of wood-cuts,
which appear to be original. The one reproduced (Text-
fig. 47) represents Salicornia, the Glasswort. The author
was a doctor who went to Egypt with the Venetian consul,
Giorgio Emo, and had opportunities of collecting plants
there. He is said to have been the first European writer
to mention the Coffee plant, which he saw growing at Cairo.
Prospero Alpino eventually became Professor of Botany at
Padua, and enriched the botanical garden of that town with
Egyptian plants.

4. The Herbal in Switzerland.

Among the many scientific men, whose names are
associated with Switzerland, one of the most renowned is
Konrad Gesner (Plate X), who was born at Zurich in 15 16,
the son of a poor furrier. His taste for botany was due,
in the first instance, to the influence of his uncle, a protestant
preacher. Konrad went to France to study medicine, but
in Paris, the richness of the libraries, and the delight of
associating with learned men, tempted him away from his
special subject into a course of omnivorous reading. After
an interval of school teaching at Zurich, he betook himself
to Basle, where he entered more methodically upon the
study of medicine, at the same time attempting to support
himself by working at a Latin dictionary. However, after
a short period of student life, he found the expense too
great, and was obliged to abandon it, and to take a post as
teacher of classics in Lausanne. He had received assistance
at different times from his native town, which again came
to his help at this juncture, and generously allotted to him
a " Reisestipendium," for the continuance of his medical
studies. He indeed owed much to Zurich, for, after taking
his doctorate, he was appointed first to the professorship of
Philosophy there, and then to that of Natural History,
which he held until he died of the plague in his forty-ninth
year.

Gesner's most remarkable characteristic was his ver-
satility and encyclopaedic knowledge ; he has been called
the Pliny of his time. His work on bibliographical and

IV]

The Herbal in Switzerland

linguistic subjects was of importance, and he also wrote on
medicine, mineralogy, zoology and botany. The botanical
works published during his life were not of great importance,
but, at the time of his death, he had already prepared a
large part of the material for a general history of plants,

Text-fig. 48. "Lachryma lob" = Coix lachryma-Jobi L.,
Job's Tears [Simler, Vita Conradi Gesneri, 1566].

which was intended as a companion work to his famous
' Historia Animalium.' In order to illustrate it, he had
collected 1500 drawings of plants, the majority original,
though some were founded on previous wood-cuts, especially

92 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

those of Fuchs. The undertaking was so far advanced that
some of the figures had been drawn upon the wood, and
certain blocks had even been engraved. The whole collec-
tion, and the manuscripts, he bequeathed for publication to
his friend Caspar Wolf. Wolf seems to have made an
honest effort to carry out Gesner's wishes, and he succeeded
in publishing a few of the wood-cuts, as an appendix
to Simler's ' Vita Conradi Gesneri ' (e.g. Text-fig. 48).
Unfortunately he was hampered by weak health, and the
task, as a whole, proved beyond his powers. He sold
everything to Joachim Camerarius the younger, with the
proviso that the purchaser should make himself responsible
for the publication. Camerarius failed to fulfil the spirit of
this obligation. It is true that he brought a large number
of Gesner's figures before the public, but he did this only
by the indirect method of using them, among his own
drawings, to illustrate an edition of Mattioli, and a book of
his own.

j Finally, about a hundred and fifty years after the death
I of Camerarius, Gesner's drawings and blocks came into the
possession of the eighteenth-century botanist and biblio-
grapher, Christoph Jacob Trew, who published them, thus
giving Gesner his due so far as was possible at that late
date. Such blocks as were in good condition were printed
directly, and, from the drawings, a number of copper engrav-
ings were made, coloured like the originals. The drawings
were of unequal merit, some of them being on a very small
scale and lacking in clearness. In one point, however,
Gesner shows a marked advance on the methods of his
contemporaries — namely in giving detailed, analysed studies
of flower and fruit structure, as well as a drawing showing
the habit of the plant. It must not be forgotten that,
even in Trew's edition, it is impossible to discriminate
with certainty between the work of Gesner and that of
Camerarius.

Unfortunately, we have no knowledge of the text of
Gesner's manuscript, but his letters make it clear that his
interest in botany was thoroughly scientific. If his work
were extant, he would probably shine as a discoverer of
new species, especially among alpines, for his figures indi-
cate that he was acquainted with a number of plants which

Plate X

£2£S*5

KONRAD GESNER (1516—1565).
[Print in the Botany School, Cambridge.]

iv] The Herbal in Switzerland 93

de l'Ecluse, Gaspard Bauhin and others were the first to
describe.

Among Gesner's numerous scientific correspondents was
Jean Bauhin, a brilliant young man, twenty-five years
his junior. Their acquaintance began when Bauhin was
only eighteen, but, in spite of his friend's youth, Gesner
consulted him in botanical difficulties, describing him as
" eruditissimus et ornatissimus juvenis."

Jean Bauhin was the son of a French doctor, a native
of Amiens, who had been converted to protestantism by
reading the Latin translation of the New Testament
prepared by Erasmus. In consequence of his change
of faith, he was subjected to religious persecution, which
he avoided by retreating to Switzerland, where his sons
Jean and Gaspard were born. The medical tradition seems
to have been remarkably strong in the family. Both Jean
and Gaspard became doctors — Gaspard, whose sons also
entered the profession, being, in fact, the second of six
generations of physicians. For two hundred years, an
unbroken succession of members of the family were
medical men.

After Jean Bauhin had studied for a time at the
University of Basle, he went to Tubingen, where he
learned botany from Leonhard Fuchs. From Tubingen
he proceeded to Zurich, and accompanied Gesner on some
journeys in the Alps. After further travel on his own
account, and a period at the University of Montpelier, he
reached Lyons, where he came in contact with d'Ale^champs,
who engaged him to assist with the ' Histoire des plantes.'
Bauhin began to occupy himself with this work, but his
protestantism proved a stumbling-block to his life there,
and he was obliged to quit France.

Jean Bauhin's chief botanical work, the ' Histoire
universelle des plantes,' was a most ambitious undertaking,
which he did not live to see published. However, his
son-in-law Cherler, a physician of Basle, who had helped
him in preparing it, brought out a preliminary sketch of it
in 1619, and, in 1650 and 1651, the magnum opus itself \
was published, under the name of ' Historia plantarum
universalis.' This book is a compilation from all sources,
and includes descriptions of 5000 plants. The figures, of

94 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

which there are more than 3500, are small and badly
executed. A large proportion of them are ultimately
derived from those of Fuchs.

Jean Bauhin's more famous brother, Gaspard [or Caspar]
(Plate XI), was born in 1560, and was thus the younger
by nineteen years. Gaspard studied at Basle, Padua,
Montpelier, Paris and Tubingen. He also travelled in
Italy, making observations upon the flora, and becoming
acquainted with scientific men. Unfortunately he missed
being a pupil of Leonhard Fuchs, since his sojourn at
Tubingen took place some years after the death of the
famous herbalist, who had been his brother's teacher. The
illness and death of his father in 1582 made it necessary
for him to settle in Basle, where he became Professor of
Botany and Anatomy, and eventually of Medicine.

Inspired by the example of his brother, he conceived
the plan of collecting, in a single work, all that had been
previously written upon plants, and, especially, of drawing
up a concordance of all the names given by different
authors to the same species. His extensive early travels
served as a good preparation for this task, since he had
not only observed and collected widely, but had established
relations with the best botanists in Europe. He formed
a herbarium of about 4000 plants, including specimens
from correspondents in many countries, even Egypt and
the East Indies. Besides study bearing directly on his
great project, he accomplished a considerable amount of
critical and editorial work, which also had its value in
relation to his main plan. He produced new editions of
Mattioli's Commentaries, and of the herbal of Tabernaemon-
tanus, and published a criticism of d'Al^champs' ' Historia
plantarum.'

There is a marked parallelism between the careers of
the Bauhin brothers, for Gaspard's great work underwent
much the same vicissitudes as that of Jean. The main
part of Gaspard's chief work never saw the light at all,
although his son brought out one instalment of it, many
years after his father's death. Gaspard was however more
fortunate than Jean, in that he lived to see the publication
of three important preliminary volumes, as the result of his
researches, and it is on these that his reputation rests.

rial, xi

GASPARD BAUHIN (1560— 1624).
[Theatrum Anatomicum, 1605.]

IV]

The Herbal in Switzerland

The ' Prodromos theatri botanici' of 1620 consisted of
descriptions of 600 species, which the author regarded as
new, although several had, as a matter of fact, been already
described by de l'licluse. Figures of about 140 species

Text-fig. 49. " Solanum tuberosum esculentum" = Potato
[Bauhin, Prodromos, 1620].

are given, two of which are here reproduced (Text-figs. 49
and 62). One of these, the Potato (Text-fig. 49), still
retains the name of Solatium tuberosum which Bauhin
gave to it. He had previously published a description

96 7/^ Botanical Renaissance [ch.

of this plant in an earlier work, the ' Phytopinax ' of

1596.

In 1623, Gaspard Bauhin brought out his most im-
portant botanical book, the ' Pinax 1 theatri botanici.' By
this date, owing to the number of different names bestowed
upon the same plant by different authors, and the varying
identifications of those described by the ancients, the subject
of plant nomenclature had been reduced to a condition of
woeful confusion. Bauhin's ' Pinax ' converted chaos into
order, since it contained the first complete and methodical
concordance of the names of plants, and was so authoritative
as to earn for the author the title of " legislateur en botani-
que." The work, which dealt with about 6000 plants,
was recognised as pre-eminent for many years. Morison
criticised the scheme of arrangement on which it was based,
but adopted its nomenclature, as also did Ray. Tournefort
also retained, as far as possible, the names of the genera and
species used in the ' Pinax.' As Sachs long ago pointed
out, this work is "the first and for that time a completely
exhaustive book of synonyms, and is still indispensable for
the history of individual species — no small praise to be
given to a work that is more than 250 years old."

Gaspard Bauhin deserves great honour as the first who
introduced some degree of order into the chaotic muddle of
nomenclature and synonymy. The special merits of his
work, more especially his power of concise and lucid
description, and his faculty for systematic arrangement,
may perhaps be attributed to his French blood, since such
qualities are markedly characteristic of French scientific
writing.

It is much to be regretted that the two brothers Bauhin
should have carried on their work independently and
separately, considering that they had in view practically
identical objects — objects in which each only achieved
a partial success. It seems as if a work of much greater
value might have resulted if they had joined forces.

irlvai; — dL chart or register. A] a q)\P^~\ *

IV]

The Herbal in France

Addiderisvocem,fuerit Dalechampius fpfe
ExpreiTa ad viuum, cuius imago fait.

Text-fig. 50. Jacques d'Ale'champs, 1513 — 1588 [Enlarged from wood-cut,
circa 1600, Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum].

98 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

5. The Herbal in France.

France (excluding the French Netherlands) does not
seem, at first sight, to have contributed a great deal towards
the development of the Herbal in the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries, but it must be remembered that Jean and
Gaspard Bauhin, and the publisher, Christophe Plantin,
were French by extraction, though Switzerland and
Holland were their countries by adoption. Most of the
important herbals published in other languages were
translated into French quite early in their history, some-
times in a modified form, so that France in the sixteenth
century was probably by no means backward in botanical
knowledge. One such adaptation was ' L'Histoire des
Plantes,' by Geofroy Linocier, which was founded, in part,
on the works of Fuchs and Mattioli.

A well-known name among the earlier French writers
is that of Jean Ruel, or Joannes Ruellius, as he is commonly
called (1474 — J 537)- He was a physician, and a professor
in the University of Paris, and chiefly devoted himself to
the emending and explaining of Dioscorides. He also
wrote a general botanical treatise, ' De Natura Stirpium,'
which first appeared in Paris in 1536. This work, which is
without illustrations, is intended mainly to elucidate the
ancient writers.

The most famous of the French herbalists was Jacques
d'Alechamps (Text-fig. 50), whose magnum opus, which
appeared in 1586, formed a compendium of much of the
material which had been contributed by the different
nations. He was born at Caen in 15 13, and after studying
medicine at Montpelier, entered upon the practice of it at
Lyons, where he remained until his death in 1588.

D'Alechamps' great work is generally called the
' Historia plantarum Lugdunensis.' Curiously enough,
the author's name is not mentioned on the title-page.
From the preface one would gather that Johannes Molinaus
(or Desmoulins) was the chief author. However, judging
by the way in which the book was quoted by contemporary
writers, there appears to be little doubt that d'Alechamps

IV]

The Herbal in France

was really responsible for it, though assisted at different
times by Jean Bauhin and Desmoulins.

The ' Historia plantarum ' had numerous faults, but it
was, at the time, the most complete universal flora that

Text-fig. 51. " Ornithogalum magnum" [d'Alechamps,
Historia generalis plantarum, 1586].

existed. It contained about 2700 figures (two of which are
reproduced in Text-figs. 51 and 101), but, both in drawing
and wood-cutting, they show marked inferiority to much of
the earlier work.

ioo The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

6. The Herbal in England.

The greatest name among British herbalists of the
Renaissance period is that of William Turner, physician
and divine, the " Father of British Botany." He was a
north-countryman, a native of Morpeth in Northumberland,
where he was born probably between 1510 and 151 5. He
received his education at what is now Pembroke College,
Cambridge. Pembroke deserves to be especially held in
honour by botanists, for a hundred years later, Nehemiah
Grew, who was as pre-eminent among British botanists of
the seventeenth century as Turner was among those of the
sixteenth, also became a student at this college.

Like so many of the early botanists, William Turner
was closely associated with the Reformation. He embraced
the views of his friends and instructors at Cambridge,
Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer, and fought for the
reformed faith throughout his life, both with pen and by word
of mouth. His caustic wit was also used, with almost equal
vehemence, to attack the abuses which crept into his own
party. A ban was put upon his writings in the reign of
Henry VIII, and for a time he suffered imprisonment, but,
when Edward VI came to the throne, his fortunes improved,
and, after a long and tedious period of waiting for prefer-
ment, he obtained the Deanery of Wells. Difficulty in
ejecting the previous Dean caused much delay in obtaining
possession of the house, and Turner lamented bitterly that,
in the small and crowded temporary lodging, " i can not go
to my booke for y e crying of childer & noyse y' is made in
my chamber."

A clergyman's life must have been full of unwelcome
vicissitudes in those days, if Turner's career was at all
typical. During Mary's reign he was a fugitive, and the
former Dean of Wells was reinstated. However, when
Elizabeth ascended the throne, the position was reversed,
and Turner came back to Wells, "the usurper," as he calls
his rival, being ejected. But his triumph was short-lived,
for in 1564 he was suspended for nonconformity. His
controversial methods were violent in the extreme, and he
seems to have been a thorn in the flesh of his superiors.

iv] The Herbal in England 101

The Bishop of Bath and Wells wrote on one occasion that
he was "much encombred w th m r Doctor Turner Deane of
Welles, for his undiscrete behavior in the pulpitt : where
he medleth w th all matters, and unsemelie speaketh of all
estates, more than ys standinge withe discressyon."

Christian doctrine was by no means the only subject
that occupied Turner's attention. He had taken a medical
degree either at Ferrara or Bologna, and, in the reign of
Edward VI, he was physician to the Duke of Somerset, the
Protector. He had travelled much in Italy, Switzerland,
Holland and Germany, at the periods when his religious
opinions excluded him from England. One of the great
advantages, which he reaped from his wanderings, was the
opportunity of studying botany at Bologna under Luca
Ghini, who was also the teacher of Cesalpino. Another
savant, with whom he became acquainted on the Continent,
was Konrad Gesner, whom he visited at Zurich, and with
whom he maintained a warm friendship. He also corre-
sponded with Leonhard Fuchs. \

Turner's earliest botanical work was the ' Libellus de
re herbaria novus' (1538), which is the first book in which
localities for many of our native British plants are placed on
record. In 1548 this was followed by another little work,
1 The names of herbes in Greke, Latin, Englishe Duche
and Frenche wyth the commune names that Herbaries and
Apotecaries use.' In the preface to this book, Turner tells us
that he had projected a Latin herbal, and had indeed written
it, but refrained from publishing it because, when he "axed
the advise of Phisicianes in thys matter, their advise was
that I shoulde cease from settynge out of this boke in latin
tyll I had sene those places of Englande, wherein is moste
plentie of herbes, that I might in my herbal declare to the
greate honoure 1 of our countre what numbre of sovereine
and Strang herbes were in Englande that were not in other
nations, whose counsell I have folowed deferryng to set out
my herbal in latin, tyl that I have sene the west countrey,
which I never sawe yet in al my lyfe, which countrey of all
places of England, as I heare say is moste richely replenished
wyth all kyndes of straunge and wonderfull workes and
giftes of nature, as are stones, herbes, fishes and metalles."

1 The n is inverted in the original, no doubt a misprint.

102 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

He explains that while waiting to complete his herbal, he
has been advised to publish this little book in which he has
set forth the names of plants. He adds, " and because
men should not thynke that I write of that I never sawe,
and that Poticaries shoulde be excuselesse when as the
ryghte herbes are required of them, I have shewed in what
places of Englande, Germany, and Italy the herbes growe
and maye be had for laboure and money."

Turner's chef-d'oeuvre was his ' Herball,' published in
three instalments, the first in London in 1 55 1, the first and
second together at Cologne in 1562, during his exile in the
reign of Mary, and the third part, together with the pre-
ceding, in 1568. The title of the first part runs as follows,
, 'A new Herball, wherin are conteyned the names of
Herbes... with the properties degrees and naturall places
of the same, gathered and made by Wylliam Turner,
Physicion unto the Duke of Somersettes Grace.' The
figures illustrating the herbal are, for the most part, the
same as those in the octavo edition of Fuchs' work, pub-
lished in 1545.

The dedication of the herbal, in its completed form, to
Queen Elizabeth, throws some light on Turner's life, and
incidentally on that illustrious lady herself. The doctor
recalls, with pardonable pride and perhaps a touch of
blarney, an occasion on which the Princess Elizabeth, as
she then was, had conversed with him in Latin. "As for
your knowledge in the Latin tonge," he writes, "xvm yeares
ago or more, I had in the Duke of Somersettes house
(beynge his Physition at that tyme) a good tryal thereof,
when as it pleased your grace to speake Latin unto me :
for although I have both in England, lowe and highe
Germanye, and other places of my longe traveil and
pelgrimage, never spake with any noble or gentle woman,
that spake so wel and so much congrue fyne and pure
Latin, as your grace did unto me so longe ago."

Turner defends himself against the insinuation that
" a booke intreatinge onelye of trees, herbes and wedes,
and shrubbes, is not a mete present for a prince," and
certainly, if we accept his account of the state of knowledge
at the time, the need for such a book must have been most
urgent. He explains that, while he was still at Pembroke

iv] The Herbal in England 103

Hall, Cambridge, he endeavoured to learn the names of
plants, but, " suche was the ignorance in simples at that
tyme," that he could get no information on the subject,
even from physicians. He claims that his herbal has con-
siderable originality — a claim which seems well founded.
In his own words — "they that have red the first part
of my Herbal, and have compared my writinges of plantes
with those thinges that Matthiolus, Fuchsius, Tragus, and
Dodoneus wrote in y e firste editiones of their Herballes,
maye easily perceyve that I taught the truthe of certeyne
plantes, which these above named writers either knew not
at al, or ellis erred in them greatlye.... So yt as I learned
something of them, so they ether might or did learne som-
thinge of me agayne, as their second editions maye testifye.
And because I would not be lyke unto a cryer y l cryeth
a loste horse in the marketh, and telleth all the markes and
tokens that he hath, and yet never sawe the horse, nether
coulde knowe the horse if he sawe him : I wente into Italye
and into diverse partes of Germany, to knowe and se the
herbes my selfe."

This herbal contains many evidences of Turner's inde-
pendence of thought. He fought against what he regarded
as superstition in science with the same ardour with which
he entered upon religious polemics. The legend of the
human form of the Mandrake receives scant mercy at his
hands. As he points out, "The rootes which are conter-
fited and made like litle puppettes and mammettes, which
come to be sold in England in boxes, with heir, and such
forme as a man hath, are nothyng elles but folishe feined
trifles, and not naturall. For they are so trymmed of crafty
theves to mocke the poore people with all, and to rob them
both of theyr wit and theyr money. I have in my tyme
at diverse tymes taken up the rootes of Mandrag out of the
grounde, but I never saw any such thyng upon or in them,
as are in and upon the pedlers rootes that are comenly to
be solde in boxes." Turner was, however, by no means
the first to dispute the Mandrake superstition ; in the
Grete Herball of 1526 it is definitely refuted, and it is
ignored in some works that are of even earlier date. The
hoax was long-lived, for we find Gerard also exposing it in

1597-

104 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

Turner had a fine scorn for any superstitious notions
he detected in the writings of his contemporaries, and
L seems to have been particularly pleased if he could show
that in any disputed matter they were wrong, while the
ancients, for whom he had a great reverence, were right.
For instance he has a great deal to say about a theory, held
by Mattioli, in opposition to the opinions of Theophrastus
and Dioscorides, that the Broomrape (Orobanche) could
kill other plants merely by its baneful presence, without
any physical contact. He declares that this view is against
reason, authority and experience, and points out that the
figure which Mattioli gives is faulty, in omitting to show
the roots, which are the real instruments of destruction.
He triumphantly concludes, "And as touchynge experience,
I know that the freshe and yong Orobanche hath commyng
out of the great roote, many lytle strynges... wherewith it
taketh holde of the rootes of the herbes that grow next
unto it. Wherefore Matthiolus ought not so lyghtly to
have defaced the autorite of Theophrast so ancient and
substantiall autor." Turner's work is largely occupied with
the opinions of early writers, especially Dioscorides, and his
respect for their authority is a somewhat curious trait in a
character which seems, in other directions, to have been so
unorthodox. He did not however treat their books as the
last word on the subject, and the third part of his herbal is
occupied with plants " whereof is no mention made nether
of y e old Grecianes nor Latines."

Turner's herbal is arranged alphabetically, and does
not show evidence of any interest in the relationships of
the plants. It is as individuals, and essentially as "simples,"
that he regarded them. His descriptions of them were
often vividly expressed, though not markedly original.
It must be remembered that botany was not the only
science which he studied. He wrote about birds, and also
contributed information about English fishes to Gesner's
' Historia Animalium.'

Before discussing the next herbal which appeared in
this country, we may refer in passing to a botanical book
which hardly comes under this heading, but which is of
interest in relation to the history of the time. Nicolas
Monardes, a Spanish physician, had published, in 1569

IV]

The Herbal in England

105

and 1 57 1, some account of the plants which had lately
been brought to Europe from the recently discovered West
Indies, and this work was translated into English by John
Frampton in 1577, under the title of ' Joyfull newes out of
the newe founde worlde.' This book contains a good
figure of the Tobacco plant (Text-fig. 52), perhaps the first

Text-fig. 52. "Taba.co" = Nicotiana, Tobacco [Monardes,
Joyfull newes out of the newe founde worlde, 2nd ed. 1580].

ever published, and also a long account of its virtues. The
reader is told that the Negroes and Indians after inhaling
tobacco smoke " doe remaine lightened, without any weari-
nesse, for to laboure again : and thei dooe this with so
greate pleasure, that although thei bee not wearie, yet thei

106 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

are very desirous for to dooe it : and the thyng is come to
so muche effecte, that their maisters doeth chasten theim
for it, and doe burne the Tabaco, because thei should not
use it."

Twenty-seven years after the appearance of the first
part of Turner's herbal, a translation of Dodoens' work,
made by Henry Lyte, appeared in England. Lyte was
born about 1529, and, towards the end of the reign of
Henry VIII, he became a student at Oxford. He was
a man of means, addicted to travel, and his temperament
seems to have been much milder and less revolutionary than
that of his predecessor Turner. He did not perhaps add
very greatly to the knowledge of English botany, but he
did a valuable service in introducing Dodoens' herbal into
this country. His book, which was published in 1578, was
professedly a translation of the French version of Dodoens'
Cruydeboeck of 1554, which had been made by de l'Ecluse
in 1557. Lyte's copy of this work, with copious manuscript
notes, and, on the title-page, the quaint endorsement,
" Henry Lyte taught me to speake Englishe," is preserved
in the British Museum. This copy proves that Lyte was
no mere mechanical translator, for the work is annotated
and corrected with great care, references to de l'Obel and
Turner being introduced.

The title of Lyte's book is as follows: 'A Niewe
Herball or Historie of Plantes : wherin is contayned the
whole discourse and perfect description of all sortes of
Herbes and Plantes : their divers and sundry kindes : their
straunge Figures, Fashions, and Shapes : their Names,
Natures, Operations, and Vertues : and that not onely of
those which are here growyng in this our Countrie of
Englande, but of all others also of forrayne Realmes,
commonly used in Physicke. First set foorth in the
Doutche or Almaigne tongue, by that learned D. Rembert
Dodoens, Physition to the Emperour : And nowe first
translated out of French into English, by Henry Lyte
Esquyer.' The illustrations used in the book were the
same as those which had appeared in the translation by
de l'Ecluse, and were for the most part copies of those in
the octavo edition of Fuchs' herbal, with some additional
blocks, which had been cut specially for Dodoens. The

IV]

The Herbal in England

107

result is that many of the same figures occur both in Turner
and in Lyte. There are said to be 870 figures in Lyte's
herbal, of which about thirty are new. Of the latter
Centaurea rhaponticum is an example (Text-fig. 53).

Rha. fteubarbe*

Text-fig. 53. " Reuba.rbe" = Centaurea rhaponticum L.
[Lyte, A Niewe Herball, 1578].

Lyte occasionally adds a criticism of his own in a
different type from that used in the main body of the text.
At the beginning of the book, there is a long set of doggerel
verses "in commendation of this worke," which imply that

108 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

Rembert Dodoens himself made additions to the English
translation. The most important stanza is the following : —

"Great was his toyle, whiche first this worke dyd frame.
And so was his, whiche ventred to translate it,
For when he had full finisht all the same,
He minded not to adde, nor to abate it.
But what he founde, he ment whole to relate it.
Till Rembert he, did sende additions store.
For to augment Lytes travell past before."

We now come to John Gerard 1 (Plate XII), the best
known of all the English herbalists, but who, it must be
confessed, scarcely deserves the fame which has fallen to
his share. Gerard, a native of Cheshire, was a "Master
in Chirurgerie," but was better known as a remarkably
successful gardener. For twenty years he supervised the
gardens belonging to Lord Burleigh in the Strand, and
at Theobalds in Hertfordshire, besides having himself a
famous garden in Holborn, then the most fashionable
district of London. In 1596 he published a list of the
plants which he cultivated in Holborn, which is interesting
as being the first complete catalogue ever published of the
contents of a single garden.

Gerard's reputation rests however on a much larger
work, 'The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes,' printed
by John Norton in 1597, but the manner in which this book
originated does the author little credit. It seems that Norton,
the publisher, had commissioned a certain Dr Priest to
translate Dodoens' final work, the ' Pemptades ' of 1583,
into English, but Priest died before the work was finished.
Gerard simply adopted Priest's translation, completed it,
and published it as his own, merely altering the arrange-
ment from that of Dodoens to that of de l'Obel. He adds
insult to injury by gratuitously remarking, in an address to
the reader at the beginning of the herbal, that "Doctor
Priest, one of our London Colledge, hath (as I heard) trans-
lated the last edition of Dodon&us, which meant to publish
the same ; but being prevented by death, his translation
likewise perished." After the manner of the period, the
herbal is embellished with a number of prefatory letters,

1 The spelling " Gerarde " on the title-page of ' The Herball ' is believed to
be an error. See 'A Catalogue of Plants cultivated in the garden of John
Gerard,' edited by B. D. Jackson, London, 1876.

Plate XII

JOHN GERARD (1545—1607).
[The Herball, 1636.]

iv] The Herbal in England 109

in one of which, written by Stephen Bredwell, a statement
occurs which is so inconsistent with Gerard's own remarks
that he certainly committed an oversight in allowing it to
stand! In Bredwell's words — " D. Priest for his trans-
lation of so much as Dodonceus, hath hereby left a tombe
for his honorable sepulture. Master Gerard comming last,
but not the least, hath many waies accommodated the whole
worke unto our English nation."

The ' Herball' is a massive volume, in clear Roman
type, contrasting markedly with the black letter used in the
works of Turner and Lyte, and giving the book a much
more modern appearance. It contains about 1800 wood-
cuts, nearly all from blocks used by Tabernaemontanus in his
1 Eicones' of 1590, which Norton obtained from Frankfort ;
less than one per cent, are original. There is an illustration
representing the Virginian Potato, which appears to be
new, and is perhaps the first figure of this plant ever
published (Text-fig. 60). Gerard did not know enough
about botany to couple the wood-blocks of Tabernaemon-
tanus with their appropriate descriptions, and de l'Obel was
requested by the printer to correct the author's blunders.
This he did, according to his own account, in very many
places, but yet not so many as he wished, since Gerard
became impatient, and summarily stopped the process of
emendation, on the ground that de l'Obel had forgotten his
English. After this episode, the relations between the
two botanists seem, not unnaturally, to have become some-
what strained.

Gerard evidently aimed at conveying information in
simple language, for in one place, where he speaks of a
preparation being "squirted" into the eyes, he apologises
for the colloquialism, explaining that he does not wish " to
be over eloquent among gentlewomen, unto whom especially
my works are most necessary."

The value of Gerard's work must inevitably be at a
discount, when we realise that it is impossible, from internal
evidence, to accept him as a credible witness. His oft-
quoted account of the " Goose tree," "Barnakle tree," or the
"tree bearing Geese," removes what little respect one may
have felt for him as a scientist, not so much because he
held an absurd belief, which was widely accepted at the

no The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

time, but rather because he went out of his way to state
that it was confirmed by his own observations ! He gives
a figure to illustrate the origin of the Geese (Text-fig. 54),
which is not, however, original.

Gerard relates how trees, actually bearing shells which
open and hatch out barnacle geese, occur in the "Orchades 1 ,"
but he states that on this point he has no first-hand
knowledge. He proceeds, however, to remark, " But what
our eies have seene, and hands have touched, we shall
declare. There is a small Ilande in Lancashire called the
Pile of Foulders, wherein are found the broken peeces of
old and brused ships, some whereof have beene cast thither
by shipwracke, and also the trunks or bodies with the
branches of old and rotten trees, cast up there likewise :
wheron is found a certaine spume or froth, that in time
breedeth unto certaine shels, in shape like those of the
muskle, but sharper pointed, and of a whitish colour ;
wherein is conteined a thing in forme like a lace of silke
finely woven, as it were togither, of a whitish colour ; one
ende whereof is fastned unto the inside of the shell, even
as the fish of Oisters and Muskles are ; the other ende
is made fast unto the belly of a rude masse or lumpe, which
in time commeth to the shape and forme of a Bird : when
it is perfectly formed, the shel gapeth open, and the first
thing that appeereth is the foresaid lace or string ; next
come the legs of the Birde hanging out ; and as it groweth
greater, it openeth the shell by degrees, till at length it is
all come foorth, and hangeth onely by the bill ; in short
space after it commeth to full maturitie, and falleth into the
sea, where it gathereth feathers, and groweth to a foule,
bigger then a Mallard, and lesser than a Goose."

The fable of the Goose Tree was rejected in the later
editions of Gerard's ' Herball,' published after the author's
death. It reappears, however, late in the seventeenth
century, in the ' Historia Naturalis' of John Jonston. The
legend is of respectable antiquity, being found in various
early chronicles. Sebastian Muenster, for example, in his
' Cosmographia 1 ,' printed at Basle in 1545, refers to it
as recorded by previous writers, and figures a tree with

1 Orkney Islands

2 p. xlv.

iv] The Herbal in England 1 1 1

pendent fruits, out of which geese are dropping into a lake
or stream.

Hector Boethius [Boece] in his Scottish Chronicle

ThcbrccdcofBarnaklcs. -

Text-fig. 54. "The breede of Barnakles"
[Gerard, The Herball, 1597].

gives a quaint account of the origin of geese from drift-
wood in the sea, " in the small boris and hollis " of which
"growis small wormis. First thay schaw thair heid and

1 1 2 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

feit, and last of all they schaw thair plumis and wyngis.
Finally quhen thay ar cumyn to the iust mesure and
quantite of geis, thay fle in the aire, as othir fowlis
dois 1 ."

It is rather surprising to find that William Turner
was a believer in the same myth, although, unlike Gerard,
he took great pains to satisfy himself of the truth of the
story, which he seems to have approached with quite an
open mind. His account is as follows : —

"When after a certain time the firwood masts or planks
or yard-arms of a ship have rotted on the sea, then fungi,
as it were, break out upon them first, in which in course of
time one may discern evident forms of birds, which after-
wards are clothed with feathers, and at last become alive
and fly. Now lest this should seem fabulous to anyone,
besides the common evidence of all the long-shore men of
England, Ireland, and Scotland, that renowned historian
Gyraldus, ...bears witness that the generation of the
Bernicles is none other than this. But inasmuch as it
seemed hardly safe to trust the vulgar and by reason of
the rarity of the thing I did not quite credit Gyraldus, ... I
took counsel of a certain man, whose upright conduct,
often proved by me, had justified my trust, a theologian
by profession and an Irishman by birth, Octavian by name,
whether he thought Gyraldus worthy of belief in this affair.
Who, taking oath upon the very Gospel which he taught,
answered that what Gyraldus had reported of the generation
of this bird was absolutely true, and that with his own eyes
he had beholden young, as yet but rudely formed, and
also handled them, and, if I were to stay in London for a
month or two, that he would take care that some growing
chicks should be brought in to me 2 ."

The Goose Tree is also figured by de l'Obel and
d'Alechamps, but it is refreshing to find that Colonna in

1 Hector Boethius, 'Heir beginnis the hystory and croniklis of Scotland...
Translatit laitly in our vulgar and commoun langage, be maister Johne
Bellenden...And Imprentit in Edinburgh, be me Thomas Davidson' [1536]
(Cap. XIV. of the 'Cosmographie').

2 'Turner on Birds:... first published by Doctor William Turner, 1544.'
Edited by A. H. Evans, Cambridge, p. 27, 1903. [The original passage will
be found in Avium praecipuarum...Per Dn. Guilielmum Turnerum,... Colonise
excudebat loan. Gymnicus, 1544.]

iv] The Herbal in England 1 1 3

his ' Phytobasanos ' (1592) flatly denies the truth of the
legend.

The importance of Gerard's ' Herball ' in the history of
botany is chiefly due to an improved edition, brought out
by Thomas Johnson in 1633, thirty-six years after the
work was originally published. Johnson was an apothecary
in London, and cultivated a physic garden on Snow Hill.
His first botanical work was a short account of the plants
collected by members of the Apothecaries' Company on an
excursion in Kent. This is of interest as being the earliest
memoir of the kind published in England. Later on,
descriptions of botanical tours in the west of England, and
in Wales, appeared from his pen. But it is as the editor
of Gerard that he is chiefly remembered. He greatly en-
larged the ' Herball,' and illustrated it with Plantin's wood-
cuts. His edition contained an account of no less than
2850 plants. Johnson also corrected numerous errors, and
the whole work, transformed by him, rose to a much higher
grade of value. It was reprinted, without alteration, in
1636.

When the Civil Wars broke out, Johnson, who is said
to have been a man of great personal courage, joined the
Royalists. He took an active part in the defence of Basing
House, and received a shot wound during the siege, from
which he died.

John Parkinson (1567 — 1650) may be regarded as the
last British herbalist, of the period we are considering,
whose work was of any great interest from the botanical
point of view. His portrait is shown in Plate XIII. Like
Gerard and Johnson, he cultivated a famous garden in
London. In these days of bricks and mortar, it is hard
to realise that gardens of such importance flourished in
Holborn, Snow Hill, and Long Acre respectively. Another
important London garden of the period was that at
Lambeth, belonging to John Tradescant, gardener to
Charles I.

Parkinson became apothecary to James I and botanist
to Charles I. The earlier of the two books, by which he
is remembered, was rather of the nature of a gardening
work than of a herbal. It appeared in 1629 under the
title, ' Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris. A Garden

a. 8

ii4 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

of all sorts of pleasant flowers which our English ayre
will permitt to be noursed up... together With the right
orderinge planting and preserving of them and their uses
and vermes.' It has lately become accessible in the form
of a facsimile reprint. The words " Paradisi in Sole " form
a pun upon the author's name, and may be translated "Of
park-in-sun." The book was dedicated to Queen Henrietta
Maria, with the prayer that she will accept "this speaking
Garden."

Text-fig. 55. " Barberry " = Berberis [Part of a large
wood-cut, Parkinson, Paradisus Terrestris, 1629].

The preface to this work is entirely at variance with
the idea that scientific knowledge has only been gradually
acquired by the human race. In Parkinson's words : —
"God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, at the beginning
when he created Adam, inspired him with the knowledge
of all naturall things (which successively descended to Noah
afterwardes, and to his Posterity) : for, as he was able
to give names to all the living Creatures, according to
their severall natures ; so no doubt but hee had also the

Plate XIII

JOHN PARKINSON (1567—1650).
[Theatrum botanicum, 1640.]

iv] The Herbal in England 115

knowledge, both what Herbes and Fruits were fit, eyther
for Meate or Medicine, for Use or for Delight."

Elaborate directions for the planting and treatment of
a garden precede an account of a large number of plants
cultivated at that time, with some mention of their uses.
The book is illustrated with full-page wood engravings
of no great merit, in each of which a number of different
plants are represented (Text-fig. 55 is taken from part of
one illustration). The figures are partly original and partly
copied from the books of de l'Ecluse, de l'Obel and
others.

In 1640, Parkinson followed up this work with a much
larger volume, dealing with plants in general, and called
the ' Theatrum botanicum : The Theater of Plants. Or, an
Herball of a Large Extent.' He complains that the pub-
lication of the work has been delayed, partly through the
"disastrous times," but chiefly through the machinations
of " wretched and perverse men." According to the
preface to the ' Paradisus Terrestris,' the author's original
idea was merely to supplement his description of the
Flower Garden by an account of "A Garden of Simples."
This scheme grew into one of a more extensive and general
nature, but without losing the predominant medical interest,
which would have characterised the work as originally
planned. In accordance with this intention, the virtues of
the herbs are dealt with in great detail.

Parkinson's herbal is in some ways an improvement on
that of Johnson and Gerard. Almost the whole of Bauhin's
1 Pinax ' is incorporated, with the result that the account
of the nomenclature of each plant becomes very full and
detailed. Many of de l'Obel's manuscript notes are also
inserted. The scheme of classification adopted is, however,
markedly inferior to that of de l'Obel.

Occasionally, in spite of his comparatively late date,
Parkinson displays an imagination that is truly mediaeval.
He is eloquent on the subject of that rare and precious
commodity, the horn of the Unicorn, which is a cure for
many bodily ills. He describes the animal as living "farre
remote from these parts, and in huge vast Wildernesses
among other most fierce and wilde beasts." He discusses,
also, the use of the powder of mummies as a medicine, and

8—2

n6 The Botanical Renaissance [ch.

his description is enlivened with a picture of an embalmed
corpse.

The illustrations to the Theatrum Botanicum are of no
importance, being chiefly copied from those of Gerard.

The great British botanists who follow next upon
Parkinson, in point of time, are Robert Morison (b. 1620)
and John Ray (b. 1627), but as their chief works appeared
after the close of the period selected for special study in
this book (1470 — 1670), and as they were botanists in the
modern sense, rather than herbalists, we will not attempt
any discussion of their writings.

While Morison and Ray were advancing the subject
of Systematic Botany, Nehemiah Grew and the Italian,
Marcello Malpighi, born respectively in 1641 and 1628,
were laying the foundations of the science of Plant Anatomy.
Their work, also, is outside the scope of the present book,
and it is only mentioned at this point in order to show that
the latter part of the seventeenth century witnessed a
considerable revolution in the science. From this period
onwards, with the opening up of new lines of inquiry, the
importance of the herbal steadily declined, and though books
which come under this heading were produced even in
the nineteenth century, the day of their pre-eminence was
over.

7. The Revival of Aristotelian Botany.

The subject of Aristotelian botany scarcely comes
within the scope of a book on Herbals, but, at the same
time, it cannot be sharply separated from the botany of the
herbalists. It therefore seems desirable to make a brief
reference at this point to its chief sixteenth-century ex-
ponent, the Italian savant, Andrea Cesalpino (1519 — 1603),
and to one or two other writers whose point of view was
similar. We have already shown that, in the Middle Ages,
Albertus Magnus carried on the tradition of Aristotle and
Theophrastus. At the time of the Renaissance, there was
again a revival of this aspect of the study, as well as of the
branch with which we are here more immediately concerned,
that, namely, which deals with plants from the standpoint

Plate XIV

ANDREA CESALPINO (1519—1603).

[Drawn by G. Zocchi and engraved by F. Allegrini, 1765, after an old
portrait in the Museum of the Botanic Garden at Pisa. Print in the
Botany School, Cambridge.]

iv] Aristotelian Botany 117

of medicine and natural history. Cesalpino (Plate XIV),
it is true, was largely concerned, like the herbalists, with
the mere description of plants, but the fame of his great
work, ' De plantis libri XVI* (1583), rests upon the first
book, which contains an account of the theory of botany
on Aristotelian lines.

Cesalpino's strength lay in the fact that he took a
remarkably broad view of the subject, and approached it as
a trained thinker. He had learned the best lesson Greek
thought had to offer to the scientific worker — the knowledge
of how to think. He had, however, the defects of his
qualities, and his reverence for the classics led him into an
inelastic and over literal acceptance of Aristotelian con-
ceptions. The chief tangible contribution, which Cesalpino
made to botanical science, was his insistence on the prime
importance of the organs of fructification. This was the
idea on which he chiefly laid stress in his system of classifi-
cation, to which we shall return in a later chapter.

A botanist who had something in common with
Cesalpino was the Bohemian author, Adam Zaluziansky
von Zaluzian (1558 — 161 3). His most important work was
the ' Methodi herbariae libri tres,' published at Prague in
1592. As a herbal it does not rank high, since Zaluziansky
neither recorded any new plants, nor gave the Bohemian
localities for those already known. But it opens with a
survey of botany in general, which is of interest as showing
an approach to the modern scientific standpoint, in so far
as the author pleads for the treatment of botany as a
separate subject, and not as a mere branch of medicine.
His remarks on this point may be translated as follows : —
" It is customary to connect Medicine with Botany, yet
scientific treatment demands that we should consider each
separately. For the fact is that in every art, theory must
be disconnected and separated from practice, and the two
must be dealt with singly and individually in their proper
order before they are united. And for that reason, in order
that Botany (which is, as it were, a special branch of
Physics) may form a unit by itself before it can be brought
into connection with other sciences, it must be divided and
unyoked from Medicine."

Guy de la Brosse, a French writer of the seventeenth

n8 The Botanical Renaissance [ch. iv

century, discusses the souls of plants and related topics,
quite in the manner of the Aristotelian school. In his
book ' De la Nature, Vertu, et Utilite des Plantes,' dedi-
cated to " Monseigneur le tres-illustre et le tres-reverand
Cardinal Monseigneur le Cardinal de Richelieu," he treats
of variation within single species, the sensitiveness of plants,
their chemistry and properties, and many other topics. His
work is full of interest, but a discussion of it would lead
us beyond the bounds of our present subject.

CHAPTER V

THE EVOLUTION OF THE ART OF PLANT

DESCRIPTION

ROBABLY one of the chief objects,
which the early herbalists had in view
in writing their books, was to enable
the reader to identify various medicinal
plants. Nevertheless, until well into
the sixteenth century, their drawings
were so conventional, and their descrip-
tions left so much to be desired, that it
must have been an almost impossible
task to arrive at the names of plants by their aid alone.
The idea which su ggests itself is that a knowledge of the
actual plants was, ltTpractice, transmitted by word of mouth",
\ and that the herbals were only used as reference books,
to ascertain the reputed qualities of herbs, with whose
appearance the reader was already quite familiar. If this
supposition is correct, it perhaps accounts for the very
primitive state in which the art of plant description remained
during the earlier period of the botanical renaissance.

When we turn to the Aristotelian school, we find that
the writings of Theophrastus include certain plant descrip-
tions, which, although they seem somewhat rudimentary
when judged by modern standards, are greatly in advance
of those contained in the first printed herbals. The mediaeval
philosopher, Albertus Magnus, who, as we have already
pointed out, was a follower of Aristotle and Theophrastus,
also showed marked originality in his descriptions of flowers,
and drew attention to a number of points which appear to
have escaped the notice of many more recent writers. For

120 Plant Description [ch.

instance, in describing the flower of the Borage he dis-
tinguished the green calyx, the corolla with its ligular
outgrowths, the five stamens and the central pistil, though
naturally he failed to understand the function of the latter
organs. He observed that, in the Lily, the calyx was absent,
but that the petals themselves showed transitions from
green to white. He noticed the early fall of the calyx in
the Poppy, and its persistence until the ripening of the
fruit in the Rose. On the subject of floral aestivation, his
observations were surprisingly advanced. He pointed out
that the successive whorls of sepals and petals alternated
with one another, and concluded that this was a device for
the better protection of the flower.

Albertus further classified the various forms of flower
under three types : —

i. Bird-form (e.g. Aquilegia, Viola and Lamium).

2. Pyramid- and Bell-form.

3. Star-form.

When we leave the early Aristotelian botanists, and
turn to those who studied the subject primarily from the
medical point of view, we find a great falling off in the
power of description. The accounts of the plants in the
Materia Medica of Dioscorides, for example, are so brief
and meagre that only those with the most marked character-
istics can be identified with certainty.

The Herbarium of Apuleius Platonicus, the earliest
work to which the term " herbal " is generally applied,
scarcely makes any attempt at describing the plants to
which it refers. Such a paragraph as the following 1 gives
an account of a plant, which, compared with most of the
other descriptions in the herbal, may fairly be called precise
and full.

" This wort, which is named radiolus. by another name
everfern, is like fern ; and it is produced in stony places,
and in old house steads ; and it has on each leaf two rows
of fair spots, and they shine like gold."

The group of late fifteenth-century herbals which we
discussed in Chapter II — the Latin and German Herbarius
and the Hortus Sanitatis — are alike in giving very brief

1 Quoted from Dr O. Cockayne's translation of an Anglo-Saxon manuscript
of the eleventh century. See Appendix II.

Early Herbals

121

and inadequate accounts of the characters of the plants
enumerated, although their descriptions often have a certain
naive charm. It is scarcely worth while to give actual
examples of their methods. It will perhaps suffice to quote
a few specimens from the English ' Grete Herball 1 ,' which
is a work of much the same class. The Wood Sorrel 2 is

Text-fig. 56. " Cardamom urn "=? Solatium dulcamara L.,
Bittersweet [Ortus Sanitatis, Mainz, 1 49 1 ].

dealt with as follows : " This herbe groweth in thre places,
and specyally in hedges, woodes and under walles sydes
and hath leves lyke iii leved grasse and hath a soure smell

1 The descriptions here quoted are from the edition of 1529.

2 The expression "yelowe flowre" is an indication of the Continental origin
of the Grete Herball. The plant intended is obviously not our British Oxalis
acetosella L. ; it may possibly be O. corniculata L.

122 Plant Description [ch.

as sorell, and hath a yelowe flowre." As another example
we may cite the Chicory, which is described as having
" croked and wrythen stalkes, and the floure is of y e colour
of the skye." Of the Waterlilies, we receive a still more
generalised account : " Nenufar is an herbe that groweth
in water, and hath large leves and hath a floure in maner
of a rose, the rote thereof is called treumyan and is
very bygge. It is of two maners. One is whyte, and
another yelowe." Occasionally we meet with a hint of
more detailed observation. For instance, the coloured
central flower in the umbel of the Carrot is mentioned,
though in terms that sound somewhat strange to the modern
botanist. We read that it "hath a large floure and in the
myddle therof a lytell reed prycke."

It is somewhat remarkable that Banckes^ Herbal, though
originally published a year earlier than the first edition of
the Grete Herball, shows a slight but distinct superiority
in the matter of description (see p. 38). Perhaps this is to
be connected with the fact that Banckes' Herbal is without
illustrations. But even if we allow that the descriptions
in Banckes' Herbal occasionally seize on salient features, it
must be admitted that they still leave a great deal to the
imagination. As two typical examples, which are perhaps
as good as any in the book, we may take those of Tutsan 1
and of Shepherd's Purse. Of the first the herbalist writes,
" This herbe hathe leves somdele reed lyke unto ye leves
of Orage. And this herbe hathe senowes on his leves as
hath Plantayne, and it hathe yelowe floures and bereth
blacke berys, and it groweth in dry woodes." Of Shepherd's
Purse he says, " This herbe hathe a small stalke and full
of braunches and ragged leves and a whyte flowre. The
coddes therof be lyke a purse."

The ' Herbarum vivse eicones' of Otto Brunfels (1530)
was the first herbal illustrated with drawings, which are
throughout both beautiful and true to nature. The. de-
scriptions, on the other hand, are quite unworthy of the
figures, being mostly borrowed from earlier writers. The
wonderful excellence of the wood-blocks, with which the
German Fathers of Botany enriched their books, was, in
one sense, an actual hindrance to the development of the

1 Hypericum androscemum L.

German Fathers of Botany

123

art of plant description. Since the pencil of the draughts-
man could represent every subtlety in the characteristic
form of a plant, the botanist might well be excused for
thinking that to take the trouble to set beside the drawing
a precise, verbal description of the plant in question was
a work of supererogation. However, in another sense

PIONfA

Text-fig. 57. "Pionia" = Peony [Arnaldus de Villa Nova,
Tractatus de virtutibus herbarum, 1499]-

the draughtsman indirectly helped the cause of scientific
accuracy in what, for want of a better expression, may be
called word-painting. There is no doubt that constant
critical examination of the artist's work must have tended
to educate the eye of the botanist who supervised his

124 Plant Description [ch.

efforts, and to increase his perception of delicate shades
of difference or similarity of form, which he might never
have noticed, or attempted to express in words, if the
draughtsman had not, as it were, lent him his trained
eyesight.

The next great worker, Hieronymus Bock, differs from
Brunfels in the comparative unimportance of his contri-
butions to plant illustration, and the relatively greater value
of his text. His descriptions of flowers and fruits are
excellent, and the way in which he indicates the general
habit is often masterly. As an example we may quote his
description of Mistletoe plants, which may be translated as
follows : " They grow almost in the shape of a cluster, with
many forks and articulations. The whole plant is light
green, the leaves are fleshy, plump and thick, larger than
those of the Box. They flower in the beginning of spring,
the flowers are however very small and yellow in colour,
from them develop, towards autumn, small, round white
berries very like those on the wild gooseberry. These
berries are full inside of white tough lime, yet each berry
has its small black grain, as if it were the seed, which
however does not grow when sown, for, as I have said
above, the Mistletoe only originates and develops on trees.
In winter missel thrushes seek their food from the Mistletoe,
but in summer they are caught with it, for bird-lime is
commonly made from its bark. Thus the Mistletoes are
both beneficial and harmful to birds."

In ' De historia stirpium,' the great Latin work of
Leonhard Fuchs, the plant descriptions are brief and of
little importance, being frequently taken word for word
from previous writers. This book, however, is notable in
possessing a full glossary of the technical terms used, which
is of importance as being the first contribution of the kind
to botanical literature. We may translate two examples at
random, to show the style of Fuchs' definitions : —

" Stamens are the points [apices] that shoot forth in the
middle of the flower-cup [calyx] : so called because they
spring out like threads from the inmost bosom of the
flower 1 ."

"Pappus, both to the Greeks and to the Latins, is the

1 Stamen = warp or thread.

v] Fuchs and Turner 125

fluff which falls from flowers or fruits. So also certain
woolly hairs which remain on certain plants when they
lose their flowers, and afterwards disappear into the air,
are pappi, as happens in Senecio, Sonchus and several
others."

In the German edition of Fuchs' herbal, the descriptions
are remarkably good for their time, being more methodical
than those of Bock, though sometimes less lively and
picturesque. As an instance of his manner we may cite
his account of the Butterbur, of which his wood-cut is shown
in Text-fig. 58. " The flower of Butterbur," he writes,
" is the first to appear, before the plant or leaves. The
flower is cluster-shaped, with many small, pale pinkish
flowerets, and is like a fine bunch of vine flowers in full
bloom to look at. This large cluster-shaped flower has
a hollow stalk, at times a span high ; it withers and decays
without fruit together with the stalk. Then the round,
gray, ash-coloured leaves appear, which are at first like
Coltsfoot, but afterwards become so large that one leaf
will cover a small, round table. They are light green on
one side, and whitish or gray on the other. Each leaf has
its own brown, hairy and hollow stem, on which it sits like
a wide hat or a mushroom turned over. The root grows
very thick, is white and porous inside, and has a strong,
bitter taste."

Our English herbalist, William Turner, is often fresh
and effective in his descriptions. He compares the Dodder
(Cuscuta) to "a great red harpe strynge," and the seed
vessels of Shepherd's Purse to "a boyes satchel or litle
bagge." Of the Dead Nettle he says, " Lamium hath
leaves like unto a Nettel, but lesse indented about, and
whyter. The downy thynges that are in it like pryckes,
byte not, ye stalk is four-square, the floures are whyte,
and have a stronge savor, and are very like unto litle
coules, or hoodes that stand over bare heades. The sede
is blak and groweth about the stalk, certayn places goyng
betwene, as we se in horehound." ^^

The three / great botanists of the Low Countries,
Dodoens, de l'Ecluse and de l'Obel, were so closely asso-
ciated that it is hardly necessary to consider their style of
plant description individually. Henry Lyte's well-known

126

Plant Description

[CH.

PETA SITES

Text-fig. 58. "Petasites" = Butterbur [Fuchs, De historia stirpium,

1542]. Reduced.

v] Dodoens and de VEcluse 127

herbal of 1578 was a translation of the ' Histoire des
Plantes,' which is itself a version by de l'Ecluse of the
Dutch herbal of Dodoens. We may thus fairly illustrate
the style of plant description of this school by a quotation
from Lyte, since it has the advantage of retaining the
sixteenth-century flavour, which is so easily lost in a
modern translation. As a typical example we may take
a paragraph about the Storksbill (Erodium). It will be
noticed that it does not represent any great advance upon
Fuchs' work.

"The first kinde of Geranion or Storckes bill, his leaves
are cut and iagged in many peeces, like to Crowfoote, his
stalkes be slender, and parted into sundry braunches, upon
which groweth smal floures somwhat like roses, or the
floures of Mallowes, of a light murrey or redde colour :
after them commeth little round heades, with smal long
billes, like Nedels, or like the beakes of Cranes and
Hearons, wherein the seede is contayned : The roote is
thicke, round, shorte, and knobby, with certayne small
strings hanging by it."

In his ' Pemptades' of 1583, Dodoens gave a glossary
of botanical terms. His definitions suffer, however, from
vagueness, and are not calculated greatly to advance the
accurate description of plants. As an example we may
take his account of the flower, which may be translated as
follows : —

" The flower (avOos) we call the joy of trees and plants.
It is the hope of fruits to come, for every growing thing,
according to its nature, produces offspring and fruit after the
flower. But flowers have their own special parts."

The descriptions from the pen of de l'Ecluse are
characterised by greater fulness and closer attention to
flower structure than those of his predecessors. The plant
which he calls Sedum or Sempervivum ma/us, of which his
wood-cut is reproduced in Text-fig. 59, is described as being
"a shrub rather than a herb; occasionally it reaches the
height of two cubits [3 ft] and is as thick as the human
arm, with a quantity of twigs as thick as a man's thumb :
these spread out into numerous rays of the thickness of a
finger. The ends of these terminate in a kind of circle,
which is formed by numerous leaves pressing inwards all

128

Plant Description

[ch.

together and overlapping, just as in Sedum vulgare majus.
These leaves however are fat and full of juice, and shaped
like a tongue, and slightly serrated round the edge, with

Sedum mains.

Text-fig. 59. " Sedum majus " [de l'Ecluse,
Rariorum...per Hispanias, 1576].

a somewhat astringent flavour ; the whole shrub is coated
with a thick, fleshy, sappy bark. The outer membrane

De I* Eel use

129

inclines to a dark colour, and is speckled as in Tithymalus
characia : the speckles are simply the remains of leaves
which have fallen off. Meanwhile a thick pedicel covered

Text-fig. 60. "Battata Virginiana" = Solatium tuberosum L., Potato
[Gerard, The Herball, 1597].

with leaves springs out from the top of the larger branches,
and bears, so to speak, a thyrsus of many yellow flowers,

A. q

130 Plant Description [ch.

scattered about like stars, pleasant to behold. And when
the flowers begin to ripen, and are running to seed (the
seed is very small), the pedicel grows slender. But the
lant is an evergreen."

In Gerard's ' Herball' of 1 597 the descriptions are seldom
sufficiently original to be of much interest. We may quote,
however, his account of the Potato flower (Text-fig. 60),
then so great a novelty that in his portrait (Plate XII) he
is represented holding a spray of it in his hand. It has, he
says, " very faire and pleasant flowers, made of one entire
whole leafe, which is folded or plaited in such strange sort,
that it seemeth to be a flower made of sixe sundrie small
leaves, which cannot be easily perceived, except the same
be pulled open. The colour whereof it is hard to expresse.
The whole flower is of a light purple color, stripped down
the middle of every folde or welt, with a light shew of
yellownes, as though purple and yellow were mixed togither :
in the middle of the flower thrusteth foorth a thicke fat
pointell, yellow as golde, with a small sharpe greene pricke
or point in the middest thereof."

The plant descriptions by Valerius Cordus, which were
published after his death, are among the best produced in
the sixteenth century, but they are too lengthy for quotation
here.

So far as the period with which we deal in this book
is concerned, the zenith of plant description may be said
to be reached in the 'Prodromos' of Gaspard Bauhin (1620),
in which a high level of terseness and accuracy is attained.
As an example we may translate his description of "Beta
Cretica semine aculeato" of which his drawing is reproduced
in Text-fig. 62 : " From a short tapering root, by no means
fibrous, spring several stalks about 18 inches long: they
straggle over the ground, and are cylindrical in shape and
furrowed, becoming gradually white near the root with a
slight coating of down, and spreading out into little sprays.
The plant has but few leaves, similar to those of Beta
nigra, except that they are smaller, and supplied with long
petioles. The flowers are small, and of a greenish yellow.
The fruits one can see growing in large numbers close by
the root, and from that point they spread along the stalk,
at almost every leaf. They are rough and tubercled and

v] Gaspard Bauhin 131

separate into three reflexed points. In their cavity, one
grain of the shape of an Adonis seed is contained ; it is
slightly rounded and ends in a point, and is covered with

2 Plantdgo quinquencruU rofe'a.
Rofe Ribwoorte.

Text-fig. 61. "Rose Ribwoorte " = an abnormal
Plantain [Gerard, The Herball, 1 597]-

a double layer of reddish membrane, the inner one enclosing
a white, farinaceous core."

9—2

132

Plant Description

[CH.

Any great advance on Bauhin's descriptions could hardly
be expected during the period which we are discussing,
since it closed before the nature of the essential parts of the
flower was really understood. It was not until 1682 that
the fact that the stamens are male organs was pointed out
in print by Nehemiah Grew, though he himself attributed

Beta Crctica (ctninc aculcato.

Text-fig. 62. " Beta Cretica semine aculeato " [Bauhin,
Prodromos, 1620].

this discovery to Sir Thomas Millington, a botanist other-
wise unknown. Gerard's account of the stamens and stigma
of the Potato as a " pointell, yellow as golde, with a small

v] Terminology 1 33

sharpe greene pricke or point in the middest thereof,"
vague as it seems to the twentieth-century botanist, is by-
no means to be despised, when we remember that the writer
was handicapped by complete ignorance of the function of
the structures which he saw before him.

A further hindrance to improvement in plant description
was the lack of a methodical terminology. As we have al-
ready shown, both Fuchs and Dodoens attempted glossaries
of botanical terms, but these do not seem to have become
an integral part of the science. It is a common complaint
among non-botanists at the present day, that the subject
has become incomprehensible to the layman, owing to the
excessive use of technical words. There is, no doubt,
some truth in this statement, but, on the other hand,
a study of the writings of the earlier botanists makes it
clear that a description of a plant couched in ordinary
language — in which the botanical meaning of the terms
employed has been subjected to no rigid definition — often
breaks down completely on all critical points.

It is to Joachim Jung and to Linnaeus that we owe the
foundations of the accurate terminology, now at the disposal
of the botanist when he sets out to describe a new plant.
The published work of these two writers belongs, however,
to the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and is thus
outside the scope of the present volume.

CHAPTER VI

THE EVOLUTION OF PLANT
CLASSIFICATION

N the earliest European works on
natural history — those of the Aristo-
telian school — we meet with an attempt
to classify the different varieties of
plants. It was inevitable that the
writers of this school should make such
an attempt, since no mind trained in
Greek philosophy could be content to
leave a science in the condition of a mere chaos of isolated
descriptions. At first the most obvious distinction, that of
size, was used as the chief criterion whereby to separate
the different groups of the vegetable kingdom. In the
1 History of Plants' of Theophrastus, we find Trees, Shrubs,
Bushes and Herbs treated as definite classes, within which,
cultivated and wild plants are distinguished. Other dis-
tinctions of lower value are made between evergreen and
deciduous, fruiting and fruitless, and flowering and flowerless
plants.

Albertus Magnus, who kept alive in the Middle Ages
the spirit of Aristotelian botany, was more advanced than
Theophrastus in his method of classification. It is true
that he divides the vegetable world into Trees, Shrubs,
Undershrubs, Bushes, Herbs and Fungi, but at the same
time he points out that this is an arbitrary scheme, since
these groups cannot always be distinguished from one
another, and also because the same plant may belong to
different classes at different periods of its life. A study
of the writings of Albertus reveals the fact that he had

CH. VI]

Albertus Magnus

135

in mind, though he did not clearly state it, a much more
highly evolved system, which may be diagrammatically
represented as follows. The modern equivalents of his
different groups are shown in square brackets : —

gams].

Text-fig. 63. " Carui " [Ortus Sanitatis,
Mainz, 1491].

I. Leafless plants [Cryptogams in part].
I. Leafy plants [Phanerogams and certain Crypto-

Corticate plants [Monocotyledons].
2. Tunicate plants [Dicotyledons].

(a) Herbaceous.

(b) Woody.

The word tunicate in the above table is used for the

136 Plant Classification [ch.

plants which Albertus describes as growing "ex ligneis
tunicis." It seems clear from this expression that he
realised that there was an anatomical distinction between
Dicotyledons and Monocotyledons.

Considering how much Albertus had achieved, it is
somewhat curious that Cesalpino, who represented Aristo-
telian botany in the sixteenth, as Albertus did in the
thirteenth century, should have produced so inadequate a
system as his own contribution to the subject. We owe to
him one marked advance, the recognition, namely, of the
importance of the seed. On the whole, however, his classi-
fication savours too much of having been thought out in
the study, and it suffers by comparison with other systems
of about the same period, such as those of de l'Obel and
Bauhin, which were arrived at rather by instinct, acting
upon observation, than by a definite and self-conscious
intellectual effort.

Cesalpino makes his main distinction, on the old
Aristotelian plan, between Trees and Shrubs on the one
hand, and Undershrubs and Herbs on the other. He
divides the first of these groups into two, and the second
into thirteen classes, depending chiefly on seed and fruit
characters. Very few of these classes really represent
natural groups, and the chief of all distinctions among
Flowering Plants, that between Dicotyledons and Mono-
cotyledons, which was foreshadowed by Albertus, is almost
lost to sight.

When we turn from the botanical philosophers to the
herbalists proper, we find an altogether different state of
affairs. The Aristotelian botanists were conscious, from
the beginning, of the philosophic necessity for some form
of classification. The medical botanists, on the other hand,
were only interested in plants as individuals, and were
driven to classify them merely because some sort of
arrangement was necessary for convenience in dealing with
a large number of kinds. The first Materia Medica, that
of Dioscorides, shows some attempt at order, but the
arrangement is seldom at all natural. Occasionally the
author groups together plants which are nearly related, as
when he treats of a number of Labiates, or of Umbellifers
successively — but this is rare.

VI]

Theophrastiis and Pliny

137

Pliny was not, strictly speaking, a medical botanist, but
at the same time he may be mentioned in this connection,
since his interest in plants was essentially utilitarian. Like
Theophrastus, he begins his account of plants with the
trees, but his reason for so doing is profoundly different
from that of the Greek writer, and illustrates the divergence
between what we may call the anthropocentric and the

Text-fig. 64.

ossa" [C
z, 1 49 1 J.

"Buglossa" [Ortus Sanitatis,
Mainz,

scientific outlook upon the plant world. Theophrastus
placed trees at the head of the vegetable kingdom, because
he considered their organisation the highest, and most
completely expressive of plant nature ; Pliny, on the other
hand, began with trees because of their great value and

138 Plant Classification [ch.

importance to man. As an example of his ideas of arrange-
ment, we may mention that he places the Myrtle and Laurel
side by side, because the Laurel takes a corresponding place
in triumphs to that accorded to the Myrtle in ovations !

Turning to the herbals themselves, we find that the
earliest show no trace of a natural grouping, the plants
being, as a rule, arranged alphabetically. This is the case,
for instance, in the Latin and German Herbarius, the Ortus
Sanitatis and their derivatives, and even in the herbals
of Brunfels and of Fuchs in the sixteenth century. In
Bock's herbal, on the other hand, the plants are grouped as
herbs, shrubs and trees, according to the classical scheme.
The author evidently made some effort, within these
classes, to arrange them according to their relationships.
In the preface to the third edition he writes — " I have
placed together, yet kept distinct, all plants which are
related and connected, or otherwise resemble one another
and are compared, and have given up the former old rule
or arrangement according to the A. B.C. which is seen in
the old herbals. For the arrangement of plants by the
A. B.C. occasions much disparity and error."

Although the larger classificatory divisions, as now
understood, were not recognised by these early workers,
they had at least a dim understanding of the distinction
between genera and species. This dates back to Theo-
phrastus, who showed, by grouping together different
species of oaks, figs, etc., that he had some conception
of a genus. We owe to Konrad Gesner the first formula-
tion of the idea that genera should be denoted by substan- ;
tive names. He was probably the earliest botanist who
clearly expounded the distinction between a genus and a
species. In one of his letters he writes — "And we may
hold this for certain, that there are scarcely any plants that
constitute a genus which may not be divided into two or
more species. The ancients describe one species of Gentian ;
I know of ten or more."

Very little of Gesner's botanical work was ever published,
and it was left to Fabio Colonna to put before the botanical
world the true nature of genera. He held most enlightened
views on the subject, and, in 161 6, clearly stated in his
1 Ekphrasis ' that genera should not be based on similarities

VI]

Colonna and Banhin

139

of leaf form, since the affinities of plants are indicated not by
the leaf, but by the characters of the flower, the receptacle,
and, especially, the seed 1 . He brought forward instances
to show that previous authors had sometimes placed a plant
in the wrong genus, because they only attended to the
leaves and ignored the structure of the flower.

In the writings of Gaspard Bauhin, at the end of the
sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century,

KENVFAR

Text-fig. 65. "Nenufar" = Waterlily [Arnaldus de Villa Nova,
Tractatus de virtutibus herbarum, 1499].

the binary system of nomenclature is used with a high
degree of consistency, each species bearing a generic and
specific name, though sometimes a third, or even a fourth,
descriptive word is added. These extra words are not,

1 'Minuscognitarumstirpium...EK<t>PA5!IC.' 1616. Pars altera, Cap. xxvn.
p. 62 "tam in hac, quam in aliis plantis, non enim ex foliis, sed ex flore, semi-
nisque, conceptaculo, et ipso potius semine, plantarum afrmitatem dijudicamus."

140 Plant Classification [ch.

however, really essential. In the preface to the 'Phyto-
pinax' (1596) Bauhin states that, for the sake of clearness,
he has applied one name to each plant and added also some
easily recognisable character 1 .

The binomial method was foreshadowed at a very early
date, for in a fifteenth -century manuscript of the old herbal
'Circa instans,' to which we have referred on p. 24, this
system prevails to a remarkable extent.

When we turn to those general schemes of classification
which were evolved by the herbalists of the sixteenth
century, we are at once struck by the great difference
existing between the principles on which these schemes are
based, and those at which we have arrived at the present
day. To classify plants according to their uses and
medicinal properties is obviously the first suggestion that
arises, when the universe is regarded from a simple,
anthropocentric standpoint. In the Grete Herball of 1526
we get a ludicrously clear example of this method, applied
to the special case of the Fungi. " Fungi ben mussherons.
...There be two maners of them, one maner is deedly and
sleeth [slayeth] them that eateth of them and be called tode
stoles, and the other dooth not." This account of the
Fungi occurs also in the earlier manuscript herbal, 'Circa
instans,' mentioned in the last paragraph.

This theory of classification has been shown in more
recent times to contain the germ of something more nearly
approaching a natural system than one would imagine at
first sight. Both Linnaeus and de Jussieu have pointed
out that related plants have similar properties, and, in 1804,
A. P. de Candolle, in his ' Essai sur les proprietes medicales
des Plantes, comparees avec leurs formes exterieures et leur
classification naturelle,' carried the argument much further.
He showed that in no less than twenty-one families of
flowering plants, the same medicinal properties were found
throughout all the members of the order. This is very
remarkable, when we remember that the state of knowledge
at that time was such that de Candolle was obliged to
dismiss a large number of orders with the words "properties
unknown." Quite recently the subject of the differentiation

1 "plerisque nomen imposuimus, perspicuitatis gratia, cuius nomine com-
muniter nota aliqua quae a quolibet in planta observari potest, nomini addita."

vi]

Medicinal Properties

141

Text-fig. 66. " Nenuphar " = Nymphcea alba L., White Waterlily [Brunfcls,
Herbarum vivas eicones, Vol. I. 1530]. Reduced.

142

Plant Classification

[CH.

of groups of plants according to their chemistry has again
come to the fore, and, in the future, chemical characters
will probably be numbered among the recognised criteria
for use in elaborating schemes of classification.

Text-fig. 67. " Gele Plompen" = Nufihar luteum Sm.,
Yellow Waterlily [de FObel, Kruydtbceck, 1581].

In the history of botanical classification, the first
advance from the purely utilitarian standpoint was marked

vi] System of d y A Idchamps 143

by the recognition of the fact that the structure and mode
of life of the plants themselves are of importance. In the
work of writers such as Dodoens and d'Al^champs, to take
i two typical examples, we find the issues curiously confused by
1 the working of three different principles side by side ; that
/ is to say, by the simultaneous insistence (i) on the habitat,
■ (ii) on the "virtues," and (iii) on the structure, as affording
clues to the systematic position of the plant in question.
, The herbalist thus erects his scheme on a basis consisting
\ of a confused medley of ecological, medical, and morpho-
logical principles. An enumeration of the eighteen headings,
under which d'Al^champs, in 1586, described the vegetable
kingdom, so far as it was then known, will show the
perplexities which surrounded the first gropings after
a natural system. His headings may be translated as
follows : —

I. Of trees which grow wild in woods.

II. Of fruits growing wild in thickets and shrub-

beries.

III. Of trees which are cultivated in pleasure gardens

and orchards.

IV. Of cereals and pulse, and the plants which grow

in the field with them.

V. Of garden herbs and pot herbs.
VI. Of umbelliferous plants.

VII. Of plants with beautiful flowers.

VIII. Of fragrant plants.

IX. Of plants growing in marshes.

X. Of plants growing in rough, rocky, sandy and

sunny places.
XI. Of plants growing in shady, wet, marshy and

fertile places.
XII. Of plants growing by the sea, and in the sea

itself.

XIII. Of climbing plants.

XIV. Of thistles and all spiny and prickly plants.

XV. Of plants with bulbs, and succulent and knotty

roots.

XVI. Of cathartic plants.
XVII. Of poisonous plants.

XVIII. Of foreign plants.

144 Plant Classification [ch.

Among these eighteen groups, the only ones which
have any pretension to being natural are VI (Umbellifers)
and XIV (Thistles), and these merely approximate roughly
to related groups of genera. Among the Umbellifers we
meet with Achillea and other genera which do not really
belong to the order, whilst, with the Thistles, there are
grouped other spiny plants, such as Astragalus tragacantha,
which, in a natural system, would occupy a place remote
from the Composites.

In spite of the fact that improved systems of classi-
fication, to which we shall shortly refer, were put forward
in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, we find

Text-fig. 68. "Ninfea" = Waterlily [Durante,
Herbario Nuovo, 1585].

that, as late as 1640, John Parkinson in his well known
herbal, divided all the plants then known into seventeen
classes or tribes — the sequence in which these classes were
placed having, in most cases, no meaning at all. A few
of his tribes are natural, but many are valueless as an
expression of affinities. As an example we may mention
his third class, "Venemous, Sleepy, and Hurtfull Plants,
and their Counterpoysons," and his seventeenth, " Strange
and Outlandish Plants." In Parkinson's classification, we
see Botany reverting once more to the position of a mere
handmaid to Medicine.

vi] Dodoens and de PObel 145

In the first book of Dodoens' 'Pemptades' (1583) the
principles of botany are discussed. The old Aristotelian
classification into Trees, Shrubs, Undershrubs and Herbs
is accepted, but with some reservations. The author
points out that an individual plant may, owing to cultivation,
or from some other cause, pass from one class into another.
He instances Ricinus, which is an herbaceous annual with
us, but a tree in other countries 1 .

The general scheme of classification, which Dodoens
propounded, has much in common with that of d' Ale^champs,
which we have already outlined. Within the larger groups,
he shows a stronger perception of natural grouping than
appears in his arrangement of the larger classes themselves.
He often grouped together genera which we now regard
as members of the same natural order, and species which
we now look upon as belonging to a single genus. For
instance he brought together genera belonging respectively
to the Geraniaceae, Hypericaceae, Plantaginaceae, Cruciferas,
Composite, etc. In some cases, however, he was only
partially successful, as in the Umbelliferae, among which he
described Nigella (Love-in-a-Mist) and a couple of Saxi-
frages. This example shows how little stress was laid on
the flowers and fruit at this time, from the point of view of
classification. The general habit, and the shape of the
leaves were the features that received most attention.

Resemblances and differences between the forms of the
leaves alone must naturally appear to the botanist of the
present day to be a very inadequate basis for a general
system of classification. Nevertheless Mathias de l'Obel
worked out a scheme on these lines whicffhad great merit,
and was a considerable advance on previous efforts. He
put forward his system in his ' Stirpium adversaria' (1570
— 71) and used it also in his later work. It was thus
published much earlier than the very primitive schemes of
d'Ale^champs and Dodoens to which we have just referred.
The best point of his system is that, by reason of their
characteristic differences of leaf structure, he distinguishes
the classes now known to us as Monocotyledons and Dicoty-
ledons. He introduces a useful feature in the shape of

1 " Transit etiam in arborem in quibusdam regionibus Ricinus, alibi annua
stirps."

A. 10

146 Plant Classification [ch.

a synoptic table of species which precedes each more or
less natural group of plants. The superiority of his classifi-
cation to the other arrangements in the field at the time
was immediately realised. We have evidence of this in the
fact that, after his ' Kruydtbceck ' was published, Plantin
brought out an album of the wood-engravings used in the
book, which, although they had also appeared as illustra-
tions to the works of Dodoens and de l'Ecluse, were
now arranged as in the scheme put forward by de l'Obel,
"according to their genus and mutual relationship 1 ."

There seems little doubt that de l'Obel made a more
conscious effort than any of his predecessors to arrive at
a natural classification, and that he realised that such a
classification would reveal a unity in all living beings. In
the preface to his ' Stirpium adversaria nova' of 1570 he
writes — " For thus in an order, than which nothing more
beautiful exists in the heavens or in the mind of a wise man,
things which are far and widely different become, as it were,
one thing."

De rObel's scheme is not expressed in the clear manner
to which we have become accustomed in more modern
systems, because, in common with other botanists of his
time, he did not, as a rule, give names to the groups which
we now call orders, or draw any sharp line of distinction
between them.

De rObel's arrangement, in spite of its good features,
had serious drawbacks. The anomalous Monocotyledons,
such as Arum, Tamus, Aloe and Ruscus, are scattered
among the Dicotyledons, while Drosera (the Sundew)
appears among the Ferns, and so on. Similarities of leaf
form, which are now regarded merely as instances of "homo-
plastic convergence," are responsible for many curious
groupings. For instance in the ■ Kruydtbceck ' we find
the Tway blade (Listerd), the May Lily (Maiantkemum)
and the Plantain (Plantago) described in succession, while,
in another part of the book, various Clovers {Trifolium),
Wood Sorrel {Oxalis) and Anemone hepatica are grouped
together. It is also not surprising that the Marsh Mari-
gold (Caltha), the Waterlilies (Nympk&a and Nuphar),

1 "uti a D. Mathia Lobelio... singular videlicet congeneres ac sibi mutuo
affines, digestae sunt." Dedication to 'Plantarum seu stirpium icones,' 1581.

VI]

Be PObeVs System

Text-fig. 69. " Tussilago "= Tussilago farfara L., Coltsfoot [Fuchs,
De historia stirpium, 1542]. Reduced.

10 — 2

148 Plant Classification [ch.

Limnantkemum and Frogbit {Hydrocharis) should follow
one another, or that de l'Obel should have brought together
the Broomrape (Orobancke), the Toothwort (Lathrcsa), the
Bird's-nest Orchid (Neottia) and a number of Fungi. In
these latter instances the author has really arrived at
genuine biological (though not morphological) groups. He
has recognised, on the one hand, the marked uniformity of
the type of leaf characteristic of " swimming" water-plants,
and, on the other hand, he has observed the leaflessness
and absence of green colour, which are negative features
common to so many saprophytes and parasites.

The perception of natural affinities among plants which,
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, was gradually,
in a dim, instinctive fashion, arising in men's minds, is
perhaps best expressed in the work of Gaspard Bauhin,
especially in his ' Pinax theatri botanici ' (1623). This
work is divided into twelve books, each book being further
sub-divided into sections, comprehending a variable number
of genera. Neither the books nor the sections have, as
a rule, any general heading, but there are certain exceptions.
For instance, Book 11 is called 'de Bulbosis,' and a section
of Book iv, including eighteen genera, is headed ' Um-
belliferae.' Some of the sections represent truly natural
groups. Book in, Section vi, for example, consists of ten
genera of Compositae, while Book in, Section 11 includes
six Crucifers. Other sections contain plants of more than
one family, but yet show a distinct feeling for relationship.
For instance, Book v, Section 1 includes Solatium, Mandra-
gora, Hyoscyamus, Nicotiana, Papaver, Hypecoum and
Argemone — that is to say four genera from the Solanaceae
followed by three from the Papaveracese. The common
character which brings them together here is, no doubt,
their narcotic property, but, although no definite line was
drawn between the plants belonging to these two widely
sundered families, the order in which they are described
shows that their distinctness was recognised. Some of
Bauhin's other groups, however, which, like that just dis-
cussed, are distinguished by their properties, or, in other
words, by their chemical features, have no pretension to
naturalness from a morphological standpoint. This is the
case with the group described in Book xi, Section in

7\/

VI]

Gaspard Bauhiris Syste?n

149

PLANTAGO

MAIOR.

Text-fig. 70. "Plantago major " = Plantain [Fuchs, i)e historia stirpium,

1542]. Reduced.

l 5°

Plant Classification

[CH.

under the name of "Aromata," which consists of a hetero-
geneous assemblage of genera belonging to different orders,
which are only connected by the fact that they all yield
spices useful to man.

There is no doubt that, on the whole, Bauhin was

Text-fig. 71. ''Althaea Thuringica. " = Lavatera thuringiaca L.
[Camerarius, Hortus medicus, 1588].

markedly successful in recognising affinities within small
cycles, but he broke down on the broader question of the
relationships between the groups of genera so constituted.
This is, however, hardly surprising when we remember

vi] Bauhin mid Zaluziansky 151

how much difference of opinion exists among systematic
botanists, even to-day, upon the subject of the relations of
the orders to one another.

Like de l'Obel, Bauhin seems to have believed in the
general principle of a progression from the simpler to the
more highly developed forms. His application of this
principle led him to begin with the Grasses and to conclude
with the Trees. The question as to which groups amon^
the Flowering Plants [Angiosperms] are to be considered
as relatively primitive, is still, at the present day, an open
one, but it would be generally conceded that Bauhin's
arrangement cannot be accepted. There is little doubt,
from the standpoint of modern botany, that the Grasses
are a highly specialised group, while the "tree habit" has
been adopted independently by many plants belonging to
entirely different cycles of affinity, and thus, except in rare
cases, it cannot be used as a criterion of relationship.

On the subject of the relations of the Cryptogams
(flowerless plants) to the Phanerogams (flowering plants),
Bauhin had evidently no clear ideas, but such could hardly
be hoped for in the state of knowledge of that time. We
find, for instance, the Ferns, Mosses, Corals (!), Fungi, Algae,
the Sundew, etc., sandwiched between some Leguminosse,
and a section consisting chiefly of Thistles.

The classification put forward by the Bohemian botanist,
Zaluziansky, in 1592, although in its general features no
better than that of Dodoens, or of d' Alechamps, and certainly
less satisfactory than that of de l'Obel or the later scheme
of Bauhin, is an improvement on all of these in one
particular, namely, that he begins with the Fungi and deals
next with Mosses. After the Mosses he describes the
Grasses, and his classification concludes with the Trees.
He was thus evidently attempting to pass from the simpler
to the more complex, and his arrangement indicates that,
unlike certain other botanists of his time, he looked upon
the Lower Cryptogams as comparatively simple and primi-
tive plants. He was not so clear-sighted, however, on the
subject of the Ferns, for he placed them with the Umbelli-
ferae and some Compositae, no doubt because he was
influenced by the form of the leaf.

It is curious that Cesalpino, who, as we have pointed

152

Plant Classification

[CH.

out, had arrived at the very important principle that the
seed and fruit characters were of major value in classifica-
tion, yet put forward a system which was distinctly inferior
to that of Gaspard Bauhin, although the latter appears
to have been guided by no such general principles.

Text-fig. 72. " Pulsatilla " = Anemone Pulsatilla L.,
Pasque-flower [Cainerarius, De plantis Epi-
tome... Matthioli, 1586].

Probably the reason for this is to be sought in the fact that
no system of classification can represent natural affinities,
unless it takes into account the nature of the plant as

vi] Cesalpinds System 153

a whole. It is true that, compared with the characters
of the reproductive organs, the leaf-form and habit, owing
to their plasticity, have to be used with great discretion as
systematic criteria, but, nevertheless, no system of classifi-
cation can afford to ignore them entirely. Cesalpino based
his scheme too exclusively upon seed characters, to the
neglect even of the structure of the flower, and, curiously
enough, although he laid so much stress upon the nature of -
the seed, he did not grasp the fundamental distinction
between the embryos of the Monocotyledons and the
Dicotyledons, due to the possession of one, and two seed-
leaves respectively. The chief drawback of his scheme,
however, was his failure to realise that living organisms are
too complex to fall into a classification based on any one
feature, important as that feature may prove to be when
used in conjunction with other characters.

Those herbalists, on the other hand, who attacked the
problem of the classification of plants without any pre-
conceived, academic theory, depended, one might almost
say, on the glimmerings of common sense for the recognition
of affinities. This was no doubt a dim and fitful illumination,
but it was at least less partial than the narrow, lime-light
beam of a rigid theory.

CHAPTER VII

THE EVOLUTION OF THE ART OF
BOTANICAL ILLUSTRATION

N the art of botanical illustration,
evolution was by no means a simple
and straightforward process. We do
not find, in Europe, a steady advance
from early illustrations of poor quality
to later ones of a finer character. On
the contrary, among the earliest extant
drawings, of a definitely botanical inten-
tion, we meet with wonderfully good figures, free from
such features as would be now generally regarded as
archaic. The famous Vienna manuscript of Dioscorides (see
pp. 8 and 85) is a remarkable example of the excellence of
some of the very early work. It dates back to the end of
the fifth, or the beginning of the sixth century of the
Christian era. It is illustrated with brush drawings on
a large scale, which in many cases are notably naturalistic,
and often quite modern in appearance (Plates I, II, XV).
The general habit of the plant is admirably expressed,
and occasionally, as in the case of the Bean (Plate XV),
the characters of the flowers and seed-vessels are well
indicated. In this drawing, also, the leaves are effectively
foreshortened.

There are a number of other manuscript herbals in
existence, illustrated with interesting figures. The Library
of the University of Leyden possesses a particularly fine
example 1 , which is ascribed to the seventh century a.d.

1 Codex Vossianus Latinus in Quarto No. 9.

n.ilr XI

'Phasiolos'= Bean [Dioscorides, Codex Aniciae Julianaej circa A.D. 500J. Reduced.

ch. vii] The ' Herbarium ' of Apideius 1 55

This work contains coloured drawings of exceptional beauty,
which are smaller than those in the Vienna manuscript,
but quite equally realistic.

It is however with the history of botanical figures since
the invention of the printing press that we are here more
especially concerned. From this epoch onwards, the history
of botanical illustration is intimately bound up with the
history of wood-engraving, until, at the extreme end of
the sixteenth century, engraving on metal first came into
use to illustrate herbals. During the seventeenth century,
metal-engravings and wood-cuts existed side by side, but
wood-engraving gradually declined, and was in great
measure superseded by engraving on metal. The finest
period of plant illustration was during the sixteenth century,
when wood-engraving was at its zenith.

Botanical wood-engravings may be regarded as belonging
to two schools, but it should be understood that the distinc-
tion between them is somewhat arbitrary and must not be
pressed very far. One of these may perhaps be regarded
as representing the last, decadent expression of that school
of late classical art which, a thousand years earlier, had
given rise to the drawings in the Vienna manuscript.
Probably no original wood-cuts of this school were pro-
duced after the close of the fifteenth century. In the
second phase, on the other hand, which culminated, artis-
tically, if not scientifically, in the sixteenth century, we
find a renaissance of the art, due to a more direct study
of nature.

The first school, of which we may take the cuts in the
Roman edition of the ' Herbarium' of Apuleius Platonicus
(? 1484) as typical examples, has, as Dr Payne has pointed
out, certain very well-marked characteristics. The figures
of the plants (see Plates IV, V, XVI, and Text-figs. 1
and 2), which occupy square or oblong spaces, are very
formal and are often represented with complete bilateral
symmetry. They show no sign of having been drawn
directly from nature, but look as if they were founded on
previous work. They have a decorative rather than a
naturalistic appearance ; it seems, indeed, as if the principle
of decorative symmetry controlled the artist almost against
his will. These drawings are somewhat of the nature of

156 Botanical Illustration [ch.

diagrams by a draughtsman "who generalized his know-
ledge of the object." In Dr Payne's own words, " Such
figures, passing through the hands of a hundred copyists,
became more and more conventional, till they reached their
last and most degraded form in the rude cuts of the Roman
Herbarium, which represent not the infancy, but the old
age of art. Uncouth as they are, we may regard them
with some respect, both as being the images of flowers
that bloomed many centuries ago, and also as the last
ripple of the receding tide of Classical Art."

The illustrations of the ' Herbarium' of Apuleius were
copied from pre-existing manuscripts, and the age of the
originals is no doubt much greater than that of the printed
work. Those here reproduced are taken from a copy in
the British Museum, in which the pictures were coloured,
probably at the time when the book was published.

Colouring of the figures was characteristic of many of
the earliest works in which wood-engraving was employed.
In cases where uncoloured copies of such books exist, there
are often blank spaces in the wood-cuts, which were left in
order that certain details might afterwards be added in
colour. The origin of wood-engraving is closely connected
with the early history of playing-card manufacture. Playing-
cards were at first coloured by means of stencil plates, and
the same method, very naturally, came to be employed in
connection with the wood-blocks used for book illustration.

The engravings in the 'Herbarium' of Apuleius are
executed in black, in very crude outline. At least two
colours, now much faded, were also employed by means
of stencilling. The work was coarsely done, and the
colours only "register" very roughly. Brown appears
to have been used for the animals, roots and flowers, and
green for the leaves. The drawings show some rather
curious mannerisms. For instance, in the first cut labelled
" Vettonia," each of the lanceolate leaves is outlined con-
tinuously on the one side, but with a broken line on the
other. It has been suggested that the illustrations in the
'Herbarium' are possibly not wood-engravings, but rude
cuts in metal, excavated after the manner of a wood-block.

We have already referred to the imaginative portrait
of the Mandrake (Plate V). Figures of the animals whose

Plate XVI

' -•'■WW.

HLRBA DRACONl tA.f.
I'ROSfclU'lNALE.

'Dracontea' [Herbarium Apuleii Platonici, ? 1484].
The tint represents colouring, which was probably contemporary.

vii] ' The Book of Nature" 157

bites or stings were supposed to be cured by the use of
a particular herb, were often introduced into the drawing,
as in the case of the Plantain (Text-fig. 1) which is accom-
panied by a serpent and a scorpion. In this figure the
cross-hatching of white lines on black — the simplest possible
device from the point of view of the wood-engraver —
is employed with good effect. Sometimes the essential
character of the plant is seized, but the way in which it is
expressed is curiously lacking in a sense of proportion, as
in the case of "Dracontea" (Plate XVI), one of the Arum
family.

The figures in the ' Herbarium ' are characterised by an
excellent trait, which is common to most of the older herbals,
namely the habit of portraying the plant as a whole, in-
cluding its roots. This came about naturally because the
root was often of special value from the druggist's point
of view. It is to be regretted that, in modern botanical
drawings, the recognition of the paramount importance of
the flower and fruit in classification has led to a comparative
neglect of the organs of vegetation, especially those which
exist underground.

We now come to a series of illustrations, which may be
regarded as occupying an intermediate position between
the classical tradition of the ' Herbarium' of Apuleius, and
the renaissance of botanical drawing, which took place early
in the sixteenth century. These include the illustrations
to the ' Book of Nature,' and to the Latin and German
' Herbarius,' the ' Ortus Sanitatis,' and their derivatives,
which were discussed in Chapters II and III.

'Das puch der natur' of Konrad von Megenberg
occupies a unique position in the history of botany, for
it is the first work in which a wood-cut representing plants
was used with the definite intention of illustrating the text,
and not merely for a decorative purpose. It was first
printed in Augsburg in 1475, and is thus several years
older than the earliest printed edition of the ' Herbarium '
of Apuleius Platonicus which we have just discussed. The
single plant drawing, which illustrates it, is probably not
of such great antiquity, however, as those of the ' Her-
barium,' for its appearance suggests that it was probably
executed from nature for this book, and not copied and

158

Botanical Illustration

[CH.

recopied from one manuscript to another before it was
engraved. The illustration in question is a full-page wood-
cut, showing a number of plants, growing in situ (Plate
III). Several species (e.g. Ranunculus acris, the Meadow
Buttercup, Viola odorata, the Sweet Violet, and Convallaria
majalis, the Lily-of-the- Valley) are distinctly recognisable.
It is noticeable that, in two cases in which a rosette of
radical leaves is represented, the centre of the rosette is
filled in in black, upon which the leaf-stalks appear in white.

Text-fig. 73. "Brionia" [Herbarius Moguntinus, 1484].

This use of the black background, which gives a rich and
solid effect, was carried much further in later books, such
as the ' Ortus Sanitatis.'

A wood-cut, somewhat similar in style to that just
described, but more primitive, occurs in Trevisa's version
of the mediaeval encyclopaedia of Bartholomaeus Anglicus,
which was printed by Wynkyn de Worde before the end
of the fifteenth century. It is probably the first botanical

VII]

The Latin ' Herbarius*

159

figure illustrating an English book. It is reproduced in
Text-fig. 19.

The illustrations to the Latin 'Herbarius' or 'Herbarius
Moguntinus,' published at Mainz in 1484 (Text- figs. 3, 4,
5, 73), form the next group of botanical wood-cuts. The
figures are much better than those of the ' Herbarium ' of
Apuleius, but at the same time they are, as a rule, formal

IREOS VEL IRIS

Text-fig. 74. " Ireos vel Iris" [Arnaldus de Villa Nova, Tractatus de

virtutibus herbarum, 1499].

and conventional, and often quite unrecognisable. The
want of realism is very conspicuous in such a drawing as
that of the Lily (Text-fig. 3), in which the leaves are repre-
sented as if they had no organic continuity with the stem.
Some of the figures are wonderfully charming, and in their

i6o

Botanical Illustration

[CH.

decorative effect recall the plant designs so often used in
the Middle Ages to enrich the borders of illuminated manu-
scripts. This is particularly noticeable in the case of the
Briony (Text-fig. 73). The conventional form of tendril
here employed is also seen in other early work, such as
the roof-painting of a Vine in the Chapel of St Andrew,

Text-fig. 75. " Capillus Veneris " = Maidenhair Fern [Arnaldus de Villa
Nova, Tractatus de virtutibus herbarum, 1499].

Canterbury Cathedral, and some "Decorated" stained glass
at Wells, both of which are considerably earlier in date
than the ' Herbarius Moguntinus.'

A more interesting series of figures, also illustrating the
text of the Latin ' Herbarius,' was published in Italy a little
later. The wood-cuts are believed to be mostly derived
from German originals. Text-figs. 6, 57, 65, 74, 75 and 76

VII]

The Latin ' Herbarius '

161

are taken from a Venetian edition of 1499. These draw-
ings are more ambitious than those in the original German
issue, and, on the whole, the results are more naturalistic.
The fern called " Capillus Veneris," which is probably in-
tended for the Maidenhair, is represented hanging from
rocks over water, just as it does in Devonshire caves to-day
(Text-fig. 75). Another delightful wood-cut, almost in the

CVSCVTA

Text-fig. 76. "Cuscuta" = Dodder [Arnaldus de Villa Nova,
Tractatus de virtutibus herbarum, 1499].

Japanese style, is that of an Iris growing at the margin of
a stream, from which a graceful bird is drinking (Text-fig.

74)-

In the very symmetrical drawing of the Peony (Text-
fig. 57) there is an attempt to represent the tuberous roots,
which are indicated in solid black. The no less symmetrical

1 62 Botanical Illustration [ch.

Waterlily (Text-fig. 65) is remarkable for its rhizome, on
which the scars of the leaf bases are faithfully represented.
This drawing is of interest, also, on account of its frank
disregard of proportion. The flower stalks are drawn not
more than twice as long as the breadth of the leaf! We
may, I think, safely conclude that the draughtsman knew
quite well that he was not representing the plant as it was,
and that he intentionally gave a conventional rendering,
which did not profess to be more than an indication of
certain distinctive features of the plant. This attitude of the
artist to his work, which is so different from that of the
scientific draughtsman of the present day, is seen with great
clearness in many of the drawings in mediaeval manuscripts.
For instance, a plant such as the Houseleek may be
represented growing on the roof of a house — the plant
being about three times the size of the building. No one
would imagine that the artist was under the delusion that
these proportions held good in nature. The little house was
merely introduced in order to convey graphic information
as to the habitat of the plant concerned, and the scale on
which it was depicted was simply a matter of convenience.
Before an art can be appreciated, its conventions must be
accepted. It would be as absurd to quarrel with the illus-
trations we have just described, on account of their lack
of proportion, as to condemn grand opera because, in real
life, men and women do not converse in song. The idea
of naturalistic drawings, in which the size of the parts
should be shown in their true relations, was of compara-
tively late growth.

In 1485, the year following the first appearance of the
Latin ' Herbarius,' the very important work known as the
German ' Herbarius,' or ' Herbarius zu Teutsch,' made its
appearance at Mainz. As we pointed out in Chapter II,
its illustrations, which are executed on a large scale, are
often of remarkable beauty. Dr Payne considered some
of them comparable to those of Brunfels in fidelity of
drawing, though very inferior in wood-cutting. They are
distinctly more realistic than even those of the Venetian
edition of the Latin ' Herbarius,' to which we have just
referred. It is interesting, for instance, to compare the
drawings of the Dodder (Text-figs. 76 and yy) in the two

VII]

The German ' Herbarius"

163

Text-fig. 77. "Cuscuta" = Dodder [Herbarius zu Teutsch,

Mainz, 1485].

11 — 2

1 64

Botanical Illustration

[CH.

Text-fie 78 "Alkekengi"=i°>ly j ' l/ "» winter Cherry [Herbarius zu Teutsch,
5 ' ' Mainz, 1485].

VII]

The ■ Ortus Sanitatis '

165

works. Other excellent drawings are those of the Winter
Cherry (Text-fig. 78), Iris (Text-fig. 7), Lily, Chicory,
Comfrey and Peony.

A pirated second edition of the ' Herbarius zu Teutsch '
appeared at Augsburg only a few months after the publica-
tion of the first at Mainz. The figures, which are roughly
copied from those of the original edition, are very inferior

Text-fig. 79. "Alkekengi " = Physatis, Winter Cherry
[Ortus Sanitatis, Mainz, 1491].

to them. In fact, the Mainz wood-cuts of 1485 excel those
of all subsequent issues.

In the 'Ortus Sanitatis' of 149 1, about two-thirds of
the drawings of plants are copied from the ' Herbarius zu
Teutsch.' They are often much spoiled in the process,
and it is evident that the copyist frequently failed to grasp

1 66

Botanical Illustration

[ch.

the intention of the original artist. The wood-cut of the
Dodder (Text- fig". 80), for instance, is lamentably inferior
to that in the 'Herbarius zu Teutsch' (Text-fig. yy). There
is often a tendency, in the later work, to make the figures
occupy the space in a more decorative fashion ; for instance,
where the stalk in the original drawing is simply cut across
obliquely at the base, we find in the ' Ortus Sanitatis ' that

Text-fig. 80. "Cuscuta" = Dodder [Ortus Sanitatis,
Mainz, 1491].

its pointed end is continued into a conventional flourish
(cf. the figures of the Winter Cherry in the two works,
Text-figs. 78 and 79). Among the original figures many,
as we have already indicated, represent purely mythical
subjects (e.g. Text-figs. 13 and 17).

The use of a black background, against which the stalks

VII]

The ' Ortus Sanitatis '

167

and leaves form a contrast in white, which we noticed in
the ' Book of Nature/ is carried further in the ' Ortus
Sanitatis.' This is shown particularly well in the Tree of
Paradise (Text-fig. 12) and also in Text-figs. 10 and 81.
No consistent method is followed in the coarse shading
which is employed. In some cases there seems to have
been an attempt at the convention, used so successfully

Text-fig. 81. "Botris" [Ortus Sanitatis,
Mainz, 1491].

by the Japanese, of darkening the underside of the leaf, but,
sometimes, in the same figure, certain leaves are treated in
this way, and others not. In some of the genre pictures,
Noah's Ark trees are introduced, with crowns consisting
entirely of parallel horizontal lines, decreasing in length
from below upwards, so as to give a triangular form.
An edition of the 'Ortus Sanitatis,' which was published

1 68 Botanical Illustration [ch.

in Venice in 1 5 1 1 , is illustrated in great part with wood-
cuts based on the original figures. They have, however,
a very different appearance, since a great deal of shading is
introduced, and in some cases parallel lines are laid in with
considerable dexterity.

'The Grete Herball' and a number of works of the
early sixteenth century derived from the ' Herbarius zu
Teutsch,' the ' Ortus Sanitatis,' and similar sources, are of
no importance in the history of botanical illustration, since
scarcely any of their figures are original. The oft-repeated
set of wood-cuts, ultimately derived from the ' Herbarius
zu Teutsch,' were also used to illustrate Hieronymus Braun-
schweig's Distillation Book (Liber de arte distillandi de
Simplicibus, 1500). That the conventional figures of the
period did not satisfy the botanist is shown by some
interesting remarks by Hieronymus at the conclusion of
his work. He tells the reader that he must attend to the
text rather than the figures, "for the figures are nothing
more than a feast for the eyes, and for the information of
those who cannot read or write 1 ."

During the first three decades of the sixteenth century,
the art of botanical illustration was practically in abeyance
in Europe. Such books as were published were chiefly
supplied with mere copies of older wood-cuts. But, in 1530,
an entirely new era was inaugurated with the appearance
of Brunfels' great work, the ' Herbarum vivse eicones,' in
which a number of plants native to Germany, or commonly
cultivated there, were drawn with a beauty and fidelity
which have rarely been surpassed (Text-figs. 22, 23, 24, 25,
66, 82, 83, 84). It is interesting to recall that the date
1530 is often taken, in the study of other arts (e.g. stained
glass), as the limit of the "Gothic" period, and the beginning
of the " Renaissance."

Brunfels' illustrations represent a notable advance on
any previous botanical wood-cuts, so much so, indeed, that
the suddenness of the improvement seems to call for some
special explanation. On taking a broader view of the
subject, we find that, at the beginning of the sixteenth
century, there was a marked advance in all the branches of

1 "wan die figuren nit anders synd dann ein ougenweid und ein an
zeigung geben ist die weder schriben noch lesen kundent."

Plate XVII

Study of Aquilegia vulgaris L., Columbine [Albrecht Diirer, 1526.
Drawing in the Albertina, Vienna]. Reduced,

VII]

The ' Eicones ' of Brunfels

169

book illustration, and not merely in the botanical side with
which we are here concerned. This impetus seems to

have been due to the fact that many of the best artists,
above all Albrecht Diirer, began at that period to draw
for wood-engraving, whereas in the fifteenth century the

170 Botanical Illustration [ch.

ablest men had shown a tendency to despise the craft and
to hold aloof from it.

The engravings in Brunfels' herbal and the fine books
which succeeded it, should not be considered as if they were
an isolated manifestation, but should be viewed in relation
to other contemporary and even earlier plant drawings, which
were not intended for book illustrations. Some of the
most remarkable are those by Albrecht Diirer, which were
produced before the appearance of Brunfels' herbal, during
the first thirty years of the sixteenth century. In each
of his coloured drawings of sods of turf, known as " das
grosse Rasenstiick," and "das kleine Rasensttick," a tangled
group of growing plants is portrayed exactly as it occurred
in nature, with a marvellous combination of artistic charm
and scientific accuracy. Prof. Killermann has been at pains
to identify the genus and species of almost every plant
represented, and has described the drawings as "das erste
Denkmal der Pflanzenokologie." In 1526, Diirer carried
out a beautiful series of plant drawings, among the most
famous of which are those of the Columbine, and the
Greater Celandine. The former is reproduced on a small
scale in Plate XVII ; it is scarcely possible to imagine a
more perfect "habit drawing" of a plant.

In Italy, Leonardo da Vinci's exquisite studies of plants,
of which Plate XVIII is an example, must also have pointed
the way to a better era of herbal illustration. In his work,
the artistic interest predominates over the botanical to a
greater extent than is the case with Diirer' s drawings. It
is strange to think that numerous editions of the ' Ortus
Sanitatis ' and similar books, with their crude and primitive
wood-cuts, should have been published while such an artist
as Leonardo da Vinci was at the zenith of his powers.
If internal evidence alone were available, it might plausibly
be maintained that the engravings in the ' Ortus Sanitatis '
and the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci were centuries
apart.

We are thus led to the conclusion that, though the
engravings in Brunfels' herbal are separated from previous
botanical figures by an almost impassable gulf, they should
not be regarded as a sudden and inexplicable develop-
ment. The art of naturalistic plant drawing had arrived

Plate XVIII

.Of, ■*»

«:

Study of Ornithogalum umbellatum L., Star of Bethlehem, and other plants
[Leonardo da Vinci, 1452— 15 19. Drawing in the Royal Library, Windsor].

VII]

Hans Weiditz

171

independently at what was perhaps its high-water mark of ex-
cellence, but it is in Brunfels' great work that we find it, for
the first time, applied to the illustration of a botanical book.

Text-fig. 83. "Kucher\sche\\' = Anemone Pulsatilla L., Pasque-flower
[Brunfels, Herbarum vivae eicones, Vol. I. 1530]. Reduced.

The illustrations in Brunfels' herbal were engraved,
and probably drawn also, by Hans Weiditz, or Guiditius,
some of whose work has been ascribed to Albrecht Diirer.

172 Botanical Illustration [ch.

The title ■ Herbarum vivae eicones ' — ' Living Pictures of
Plants ' — indicates the most distinctive feature of the book,
namely that the artist went direct to nature, instead of
regarding the plant world through the eyes of previous
draughtsmen. This characteristic is best appreciated on
comparing Brunfels' figures with those of his predecessors.
His picture of the Waterlily (Text-fig. 66), for example,
contrasts notably with that of the same subject from the
Venetian 'Herbarius' (Text-fig. 65). In the former the
artist has caught the exact look of the leaves and stalks,
buoyed up by the water. Throughout the work, the draw-
ing seems to be of a slightly higher quality than the actual
engraving; the lines are, to use the technical term, occasion-
ally somewhat " rotten " or even broken.

In one respect the welcome reaction from the con-
ventional and generalised early drawings went almost too
far. Many of Brunfels' wood-cuts were done from imperfect
specimens, in which, for example, the leaves had withered
or had been damaged by insects. This is clearly shown in
Text-fig. 84. The artist's ambition was evidently limited
to representing the specimen he had before him, whether
it was typical or not. The notion had not then been
grasped that the ideal botanical drawing avoids the pecu-
liarities of any individual specimen, and seeks to portray the
characters really typical of the species. These characters
can sometimes only be arrived at by a comparison of
numerous specimens.

From the figures here reproduced a good idea of the
style of Weiditz can be obtained. His line is usually firm
and broad, and but little shading is employed. The chief
merit of the drawings lies in their crisp and virile outlines.

Regarded from the point of view of decorative book
illustration, the beautiful drawings of the period under
consideration sometimes failed to reach the standard set
by earlier work. The very strong, black, velvety line of
many of the fifteenth-century wood-engravings, and the
occasional use of solid black backgrounds (cf. Text-fig. 81)
give a great sense of richness, especially in combination
with the black letter type, with which they harmonise so
admirably. A page bearing such illustrations is often more
satisfying to the eye than one in which the desire to express

VII]

Otto Brunfels

173

&!&*

Text-fig. 84. " Lappa " = Arctium, Burdock [Brunfels, Herbarum
vivae eicones, Vol. II. 1531]. Reduced.

x 74

Botanical Illustration

[CH.

the subtleties of plant form, in realistic fashion, has led to
the use of a more delicate line. However, the primary-
object of the herbal illustrations was, after all, a scientific
and not a decorative one, and, from this point of view, the
gain in realism more than compensates for the loss in
the harmonious balance of black and white.

Our chronological survey of the chief botanical wood-
cuts brings us next to those published by Egenolph in
1 533, to illustrate Rhodion's ' Kreutterbuch.' These have

Scolopendria. Lingua cerut*

Text-fig. 85. "Scolopendria" = Hart's-tongue Fern
[Rhodion, Kreutterbflch, 1533].

sometimes been regarded as of considerable importance,
almost comparable, in fact, with those of Brunfels. A
careful examination of these wood-engravings leads, how-
ever, to the conclusion that practically all the chief figures
in Egenolph's book have been copied from those of
Brunfels, but on a smaller scale, and reversed. It is true
that the style of engraving is different, and that, as Hatton
has pointed out, Egenolph's flowing, easy, almost brush-like
line is very distinct from that of Weiditz. But the fact of

vii] Egenolph and Fucks 175

the plagiarism remains. The two figures here reproduced
— the Lesser Celandine (Text-fig. 33) and the Hart's-
tongue Fern (Text-fig. 85) — are reduced copies from
Brunfels.

It is interesting to notice that, as the third part of
Brunfels' great work had not appeared when Egenolph's
book was published, the latter must have been at a loss for
figures of the plants which Brunfels had reserved for his
third volume. We find that in the case of one such plant,
the Asparagus, he solved the problem by going back to
the old familiar wood-cut which had done duty in the
' Ortus Sanitatis' and the ' Herbarius zu Teutsch.'

In the third volume of Brunfels' herbal (which appeared
after his death) there is a small figure, that of "Auricula
muris," which differs conspicuously in style from the other
engravings, and which appears to represent a case in which
the tables were turned, and a figure was borrowed from
Egenolph.

In his later books, Egenolph used wood-cuts pirated
from those of Fuchs and Bock, which we must now
consider.

In the work of Leonhard Fuchs (Frontispiece) plant
drawing, as an art, may be said to have reached its cul-
minating point. It is true that, at a later period, when the
botanical importance of the detailed structure of the flower
and fruit was recognised, figures were produced which
conveyed exacter and more copious information on these
points than did those of Fuchs. Nevertheless, at least
in the opinion of the present writer, the illustrations to
Fuchs* herbals (' De historia stirpium,' 1542, and 'New
Kreiiterbuch,' 1543) represent the high-water mark of that
type of botanical drawing which seeks to express the
individual character and habit of each species, treating
the plant broadly as a whole, and not laying more stress
upon the reproductive than the vegetative organs.

Fuchs' figures are on so large a scale that the plant
frequently had to be represented as curved, in order to fit
it into the folio page. The illustrations here reproduced
(Text-figs. 30, 31, 32, 58, 69, 70, 86, 87, 88) do not give an
entirely just idea of their beauty, since the line employed in
the original is so thin that it is ill-adapted to the reduction

176

Botanical Illustration

[ch

DIPSACVS

ALBVS.

Text-fig. 86. "Dipsacus albus"=Teasle [Fuchs, De historia
stirpium, 1542]. Reduced.

vii] Leonhard Fucks 177

necessary here. If the drawings have any fault, it is
perhaps to be found in the somewhat blank and unfinished
look, occasionally produced when unshaded outline drawings
are used on so large a scale. This is the case for instance
in the figure of the Aloe. It may be that Fuchs had in mind
the possibility that the purchaser might wish to colour the
work, and to fill in a certain amount of detail for himself.
The existing copies of this and other old herbals often have
the figures painted, generally in a distressingly crude and
heavy fashion. The colouring in many cases appears to
have been done at a very early date. In the octavo edition
of Fuchs' herbal published in 1545, small versions of the
large wood-cuts appeared. It is perhaps invidious to draw
distinctions between the work of Fuchs and that of Brunfels,
since they are both of such exquisite quality. However,
merely as an expression of personal opinion, the present
writer must confess to feeling that there is a finer sense of
power and freedom of handling about the illustrations in
Fuchs' herbal than those of Brunfels.

Sometimes in Fuchs' figures a wonderfully decorative
spirit is shown, as in the case of the Earth-nut Pea (Text-
fig. 87) which fills the rectangular space almost in the
manner of an "all-over" wall-paper pattern. It must not
be forgotten, when discussing wood-cuts, that the artist,
who drew upon the block for the engraver, was working
under peculiar conditions. It was impossible for him to
be unmindful of the boundaries of the block, when these
took the form, as it were, of miniature precipices under his
hand. These boundaries marked out the exact limit of
space which the figure could occupy. It is not surprising,
under these circumstances, that the artist who drew upon
the block should often seem to have been obsessed by its
rectangularity, and should have accommodated his drawing
to its form in a way that was unnecessary and far from
realistic, though sometimes very decorative. This is
exemplified in the figure of the Earth-nut Pea, to which
we have just referred and also in Text-figs. 41, 44, 62,
92, 95, 1 01, etc. The writer has been told by an artist
accustomed, in former years, to draw upon the wood
tor the engraver, that to avoid a rectangular effect re-
quired a distinct effort of will. At the present day, when

A. 12

1 7 8

Botanical Illustration

[ch.

Text-fig. 87. "Apios" =Lalhyrus tuberosus L., Earth-nut Pea [Fuchs,
De historia stirpium, 1542]. Reduced.

VII]

Leotihard Fuchs

179

ARVM

Text-fig. 88. " Arum" = Arum maculatum L., Wild Arum [Fuchs, De historia

stirpium, 1542]. Reduced.

12 — 2

180 Botanical Illustration [ch.

photographic methods of reproduction are almost exclusively
used, the artist is no longer oppressively conscious of
the exact outline of the space which his figure will
occupy.

The figures here reproduced show how great a variety
of subjects were successfully dealt with in Fuchs' work.
The Cabbage (Text-fig. 30) is realised in a way that
brings home to us the intrinsic beauty of this somewhat
prosaic subject. In the Wild Arum (Text-fig. 88) the fruit
and a dissection of the inflorescence are represented, so
that, botanically, the drawing reaches a high level. Fuchs'
wood-cuts are nearly all original, but that of the White
Waterlily appears to have been founded upon Brunfels'
figure.

We have so far spoken, for the sake of brevity, as if
Fuchs actually executed the figures himself. This, how-
ever, was not the case. He employed two draughtsmen,
Heinrich Fullmaurer, who drew the plants from nature, and
Albrecht Meyer, who copied the drawings on to the wood,
and also an engraver, Veit Rudolf Speckle, who actually
cut the blocks. Fuchs evidently delighted to honour his
colleagues, for at the end of the book there are portraits of
all three at work (Text-fig. 89). The artist is drawing a
plant with a brush fixed in a quill.

The drawing and painting of flowers is sometimes
dismissed almost contemptuously, as though it were a
humble art in which an inferior artist, incapable of the
more exacting work of drawing "from the life," might be
able to excel. The falsity of this view is shown by the
fact that the greatest of flower painters have generally
been men who also did admirable figure work. Fantin-
Latour is a striking modern instance, and one has but to
glance at the studies of Leonardo da Vinci (e.g. Plate XVIII)
and Albrecht Durer(e.g. Plate XVI I) to feel that the finest
plant drawings can only be produced by a master hand,
capable of achieving success on more ambitious lines.
The wood-engravings in Fuchs' herbal are a case in point.
The portraits which also illustrate the book (Frontispiece
and Text-fig. 89) show that the talents of the artists whom
he employed were not confined to plant drawing, but were
also strong in the direction of vigorous and able portraiture.

VII]

Leonhard Fuchs

181

P ICTOR ES

OPERI S,

SC VLPTOR

Text-fig. 89. The Draughtsmen and the Engraver employed by Leonhard
Fuchs [De historia stirpium, 1542]. Reduced.

1 82

Botanical Illustration

[ch.

Fuchs' gratitude to his assistants is expressed in the
preface to ' De historia stirpium,' where he makes some

$>0ti$Btncer&nVi*

Text-fig. 90. " Wintergrun" = /yr<?/<z, Wintergreen [Bock,
Kreuter Buch, 1546].

VII]

Leonhard Fucks

•8 3

remarks upon the illustrations, w
follows : —

"As far as concerns the
pictures themselves, each of
which is positively delineated
according to the features and
likeness of the living plants, we
have taken peculiar care that
they should be most perfect,
and, moreover, we have devoted
the greatest diligence to secure
that every plant should be de-
picted with its own roots, stalks,
leaves, flowers, seeds and fruits.
Furthermore we have purposely
and deliberately avoided the
obliteration of the natural form
of the plants by shadows, and
other less necessary things, by
which the delineators sometimes
try to win artistic glory : and we
have not allowed the craftsmen
so to indulge their whims as to
cause the drawing not to cor-
respond accurately to the truth.
Vitus Rudolphus Specklin.byfar
the best engraver of Strasburg,
has admirably copied the won-
derful industry of the draughts-
men, and has with such excellent
craft expressed in his engraving
the features of each drawing,
that he seems to have contended
with the draughtsman for glory
and victory."

How dull and colourless the
phrases of modern scientific
writers appear, beside the hot-
blooded, arrogant enthusiasm
of the sixteenth century !

Fuchs' wood - cuts were

hich may be translated as

Text-fig. 91. "Rautten" = i?0/>j-
chium, Moonwort[Bock, Kreuter
Buch, 1546].

1 84

Botanical Illustration

[CH.

extensively pirated, especially those on a reduced scale, which
were published in his edition of 1545. As we have men-

Text-fig. 92. "Castanum nuss"=Castanea, Chestnut [Bock, Kreuter

Buch, 1546].

tioned on p. 55, Hieronymus Bock [or Tragus] undoubtedly
made use of them in the second edition of his 'Kreuter Buch'

VII]

Hieronymus Bock

185

(1546) which was the next important, illustrated botanical
work to appear after Fuchs' herbal. An examination of the
wood-cuts in Bock's herbal seems, however, to show that
his illustrations have more claim to originality than is
often supposed. The figures of Wintergreen (Text-fig. 90),
Moonwort (Text-fig. 91), and Strawberry (Text-fig. 27),
here reproduced, are markedly different from those of
Fuchs, although, in the case of the first, Fuchs' wood-cut
may have been used to some extent. The artist employed
by Bock, as he himself tells us, was David Kandel, a young
lad, the son of a burgher of Strasburg. His drawings are
often of interest, apart from their botanical aspect. For
instance, the picture of an Oak tree includes, appropriately

Text-fig. 93. " Fungi " = Toadstools [Mattioli, Commentarii, 1560]. Reduced.

enough, a swine-herd with his swine, the Chestnut tree
gives occasion for a hedgehog (Text-fig. 92) and, in another
case, a monkey and several rabbits are introduced, one
of the latter holding a shield bearing the artist's initials.
The wood-cut of Trapa, the Bull-nut (Text-fig. 29), is
a highly imaginative production which clearly shows that
neither the artist nor the author had ever seen the plant
in question.

In general character, Bock's illustrations are neater and
more conventional than those of Brunfels or Fuchs. The
crowns of the trees are often made practically square so as

1 86

Botanical Illustration

[ch.

to fit the block (Text-fig. 92). The figures in earlier works,
such as the ' Ortus Sanitatis,' are recalled in Kandel's dis-
regard of the proportion between the size of the tree, and
that of the leaves and fruits.

ROSACEVM

Text-fig. 94. "Rosaceum" [Mattioli, Commentarii,
1560]. Reduced.

In point of time, the illustrations to the early editions
of Mattioli's Commentaries on the Six Books of Dioscorides
follow fairly closely on those of Fuchs, but they are

VII]

Mattiotis ' Commentarii

.87

extremely different in style (Text-figs. 41, 42, 93, 94).
Details such as the veins and hairs of the leaves are often
elaborately worked out, while shading is much used, a
considerable mastery of parallel lines being shown. The

Text-fig. 95. "Suber Primus" [Mattioli, Commentarii, 1565].

Reduced.

general effect is occasionally somewhat flat and dull. Some
of the drawings suggest that they may have been
done from dried plants, and in others the treatment is

1 88

Botanical Illustration

[CH.

over-crowded. But, in spite of these defects, they form
a markedly individual contribution, which is of great im-
portance in the history of botanical illustration.

Numerous editions of Mattioli's work appeared in

Text-fig. 96. "Tragorchis" = (9;r/*/.y hircina L.,
Lizard Orchis [Dodoens, Pemptades, 1583].

various languages. In its earlier form the book had only
small figures (e.g. Text-figs. 41, 42, 93, 94), but in some
later editions, notably that which appeared at Venice in

VII]

Mattiolis * Commentarir

189

1565, there are large illustrations which are reproduced on
a reduced scale in Text-figs. 43, 44, 95. These wood-cuts
resemble the smaller ones in character, but are more
decorative in effect, and often remarkably fine. Whereas

Aconirum luteum minus.

Text-fig. 97. "Aconitum luteum minus " = Eranthis hiemalis L.,
Winter Aconite [Dodoens, Pemptades, 1583].

in the work of Brunfels and Fuchs, the beautiful line of
a single stalk is often the key-note of the whole drawing,

190 Botanical Illustration [ch.

in the work of Mattioli, the eye most frequently finds its
satisfaction in the rich massing of foliage, fruit and flowers,
suggestive of southern luxuriance. Many of his figures
would require little modification to form the basis of a
tapestry pattern.

Another remarkable group of wood-engravings consists
of those published by Plantin in connection with the work
of the three Low Country herbalists, Dodoens, de 1'Ecluse
and de l'Obel. In the original edition of DodoeTrsTTierEar
(' Cruydeboeck,' published by Vanderloe in 1554), more
than half the illustrations were taken from Fuchs' octavo
edition of 1545. But eventually, as we have pointed out
in Chapter IV, Vanderloe parted with Fuchs' blocks.
After this, Plantin took over the publication of Dodoens'
books, and in his final collected works ('Stirpium historian
pemptades sex,' 1583) the majority of the illustrations were
original, and were carried out under the author's eye (Text-
figs, ^y, 38, 96, 97). A few (namely those marked in the
Pemptades, "Ex Codice Csesareo") are copied from Juliana
Anicia's manuscript of Dioscorides to which we have more
than once referred. Some are also borrowed from the
works of de 1'Ecluse and de l'Obel, since Plantin was
publisher to all three botanists, and the wood-blocks
engraved for them were regarded as, to some extent,
forming a common stock. In fact it is often difficult to
decide to which author any given figure originally belonged.
This difficulty is enhanced by the fact that some were
actually made for one and then used for another, before
the work for which they had been originally destined was
published.

There is little to be said about de l'Obel's figures,
which partook of the character of the rest of the wood-cuts
for which Plantin made himself responsible. The Yellow
Waterlily (Text-fig. 67) is given here as an example.

The wood-cuts illustrating the comparatively small
books of de 1'Ecluse are perhaps the most interesting of
the figures associated with this trio of botanists. The
Dragon Tree (Text-fig. 98), " Sedum majus" (Text-fig. 59)
and Job's Tears (Text-fig. 39) are examples from his book
on the plants of Spain, which appeared in 1576.

The popularity of the large collection of blocks got

vii] Plantiris Wood-blocks 191

together by the publishing house of Plantin is shown
by the frequency with which they were copied. Dr B.
Daydon Jackson has pointed out that the wood-cut of the

praco arbor.

Text-fig. 98. "Draco arbor" = Draccena, Dragon Tree [de l'Ecluse,
Rariorum...per Hispanias, 1576].

Clematis, which first appeared in Dodoens' ' Pemptades '
of 1583, reappears, either in identical form, or more or

192

Botanical Illustration

[CH.

less accurately copied, in works by de l'Obel, de l'Ecluse,
Gerard, Parkinson, Jean Bauhin, Chabrseus and Petiver.
The actual blocks themselves appear to have been used for
the last time when Johnson's edition of Gerard's herbal
made its final appearance in London in 1636.

Text-fig. 99. " Cyclaminus " [Camerarius, De plantis
Epitome. ..Matthioli, 1586].

Another school of plant illustration is represented in
the work of Gesner and Camerarius. As we mentioned
on p. 92, Gesner's drawings were not published during
his life-time, but some of them were eventually produced

VII]

Gesner and Camerarius

193

by Camerarius, with the addition of figures of his own, to
illustrate his ' Epitome Matthioli' of 1586 (Text-figs. 72 and
99) and also his later work. In 1751, C. J. Trew published
a collection of Gesner's drawings, many of which had never
been seen before ; but even then, it proved impossible
to separate the work of the two botanists with any com-
pleteness, since Gesner's drawings and blocks had passed

Text-fig. 100. "Rosa Hierichuntica"= A uastatica
hierochnntica L., Rose of Jericho [Camerarius,
Hortus medicus, 1588].

through the hands of Camerarius, who had incorporated his
own with them. A few wood-cuts however, which appeared
as an appendix to Simler's Life of Gesner, are undoubtedly
Gesner's own work. One of these is reproduced in Text-
fig. 48.

194

Botanical Illustration

[ch.

Professor Treviranus, whose work on the use of wood-
engravings as botanical illustrations is so well known,
considered that some of the drawings published by
Camerarius in connection with his last work (' Hortus
medicus et philosophicus,' 1588) were among the best ever
produced. Examples are shown in Text-figs. 34, 35, 71,

Text-fig. 101. "Piper Nigrum'^ Pepper [d'Ale'champs
Historia generalis plantarum, Vol. II. 1587].

100. Treviranus pointed out that one of their great merits
lay in the selection of good, typical specimens as models.
These figures are very much more botanical than those of
any previous author ; in fact — as Hatton has pointed out

VII]

Gesner and Camerarius

195

in ' The Craftsman's Plant-Book ' — they are beginning to
become too botanical for the artist ! Camerarius often gives

Text-fig. 102. "Cedrus" = Cedar [Belon, De arboribus,

1553]-

detailed analyses of the flowers and fruit on an enlarged

13—2

196 Botanical Illustration [ch.

scale (Text-fig. 99). Among the illustrations here repro-
duced will be seen one (Text-fig. 100) in which the seedling
of the Rose of Jericho is drawn side by side with the mature
plant, and another (Text-fig. 35) in which the structure of
a germinating Date is shown with great clearness. This
interest in seedlings gives a modern touch to the work of
Camerarius.

A number of wood-blocks were cut at Lyons to illus-
trate d'Alechamps' great work, the ' Historia generalis
plantarum,' 1586 — 7. Many of these figures were taken
from the herbals of Fuchs, Mattioli and Dodoens, but they
were often embellished with representations of insects, and
detached leaves and flowers, scattered over the block with
no apparent object except to fill the space. This pecu-
liarity, which is shown in the engraving of Ornithogalum
reproduced in Text-fig. 5 1 , appears also in the illustrations
of a book on Simples, by Joannes Mesua, published in
Venice in 158 1. In certain other wood-cuts in d'Alechamps'
herbal, solid black is used in an effective fashion. This
is the case for instance in Text-fig. 101, which is also
interesting since two of the leaves bear the initials "M"
and "H," which were possibly those of the artist.

Among less important botanical wood-engravings of the
sixteenth century we may mention those in the works of
Pierre Belon, such as ' De arboribus' (1553). In this book
there are some graceful wood-cuts of trees, one of which is
reproduced in Text-fig. 102. The initial letters used in the
present volume are taken from another of Belon's books 1 .

Some specimens of the quaint little illustrations to
Castor Durante's 'Herbario Nuovo' of 1585 are shown
in Text-figs. 45, 68 and 103. It is interesting to compare
his drawing of the Waterlily (Text-fig. 68) with those of
the Venetian edition of the Latin 'Herbarius' of 1499
(Text-fig. 65), 'The Grete Herball' (Text-fig. 21), Brunfels'
' Herbarum vivae eicones' of 1530 (Text-fig. 66) and de
l'Obel's ■ Kruydtbceck' of 1581 (Text-fig. 67).

The engravings in Porta's ' Phytognomonica ' (1588)
and in Prospero Alpino's little book on Egyptian plants
(1592) are of good quality. Some curious examples of the

1 Pierre Belon, Les Observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses me-
morables.... Paris, 1553.

VII]

Bauhin and Parkinson

197

former, which will be discussed at greater length in the
next chapter, are shown in Text-figs. 109 and no, and
the Glasswort, one of the best wood-cuts among the latter,
is reproduced in Text-fig. 47.

Passing on to the seventeenth century, we find that
the 'Prodromes' of Gaspard Bauhin (1620) contains a
number of original illustrations, but they are not very-
remarkable, and often have rather the appearance of having
been drawn from pressed specimens. Two examples of
these wood-cuts will be found in Text-figs. 49 and 62. The
former is interesting as being an early representation of the
Potato.

Text-fig. 103. "Lentisco del Peru" = Pistacia lentiscus L.,
Mastic Tree [Durante, Herbario Nuovo, 1585].

Parkinson's ' Paradisus Terrestris' of 1629 contains a
considerable proportion of original figures, besides others
borrowed from previous writers. The engravings were
made in England by Switzer. They are poor in quality,
and the innovation of representing a number of species
in one large wood-cut is not very successful. Text-fig. 55
shows a twig of Barberry, which is but a single item in one
of these large illustrations.

198

Botanical Illustration

[CH.

Among still later wood-engravings, we may mention
the large, rather coarse cuts in Aldrovandi's ' Dendrologia '
of 1667, one of which, the figure of the Orange, or rt Mala

Text-fig. 104. "Mala Aurantia Chinensia" = Orange
[Aldrovandi, Dendrologia, 1667]. Reduced.

Aurantia Chinensia," is reproduced in Text-fig. 104, on a
greatly reduced scale.

vii] Wood-cuts and Copper-plates 199

In the present chapter no attempt has been made to
discuss the illustrations of those herbals (e.g. the works of
Turner, Tabernaemontanus, Gerard, etc.) in which most
of the wood-cuts are copied from previous books. In the
majority of such cases, the source of the figures has already
been indicated in Chapter IV.

This brief review of the history of botanical wood-cuts
leads us to the conclusion that between 1530 and 1630, that
is to say during the hundred years when the herbal was at
its zenith, the number of sets of wood-engravings which
were pre-eminent — either on account of their intrinsic quali-
ties, or because they were repeatedly copied from book to
book — was strictly limited. We might almost say that
there were only five collections of wood-cuts of plants of
really first-rate importance — those, namely, of Brunfels,
Fuchs, Mattioli, and Plantin, with those of Gesner and
Camerarius, all of which were published in the sixty years
between 1530 and 1590. The wood-blocks of the two
botanists last mentioned cannot be considered apart from
one another ; from the scientific point of view they show a
marked advance, in the introduction of enlarged sketches
of the flowers and fruit, in addition to the habit drawings.
Plantin's set included those blocks which were engraved for
the herbals of de l'Obel, de l'Ecluse, and the later works
of Dodoens.

At the close of the sixteenth century, wood cutting on
the Continent was distinctly on the wane, and had begun
to be superseded by engraving on metal. The earliest
botanical work, in which copper-plate etchings were used as
illustrations, is said to be Fabio Colonna's ' Phytobasanos '
of 1592. These etchings, two of which are shown in Text-
figs. 46 and 105, are on a small scale, but are extremely
beautiful and accurate. The details of the flowers and
fruit are often shown separately, the figures, in this respect,
being comparable with those of Gesner and Camerarius,
though, owing to their small size, they do not convey so
much botanical information. In a later book of Colonna's,
the ' Ekphrasis,' analyses of the floral parts are given in
even greater detail than in the 'Phytobasanos.' Colonna
expressly mentions that he used wild plants as models
wherever possible, because cultivation is apt to produce

2oo Botanical Illustration [ch.

alterations in the form. The decorative border, surrounding
each of the figures reproduced, was not printed from the
copper.

In the seventeenth century, a large number of botanical
books, illustrated by means of copper-plates, were produced.
The majority of these were published late in the century,
and thus scarcely come within our purview. A few of the
earlier ones may, however, be referred to at this point. In
1611 Paul Renaulme's 'Specimen Historian Plantarum ' was
published in Paris, but though this work was illustrated
with good copper-plates, the effect was somewhat spoilt by
the transparency of the paper. Two years later appeared
the ' Hortus Eystettensis,' by Basil Besler, an apothecary of
Nuremberg. It is a large work with enormous illustrations,
mostly of mediocre quality. In the succeeding year, 1614,
a book was published which has been described, probably
with justice, as containing some of the best copper-plate
figures of plants ever produced. This was the ' Hortus
Floridus' of Crispian de Passe, a member of a famous
family of engravers. Like Parkinson's ' Paradisus Terres-
tris,' into which some of the figures are copied, it is more
of the nature of a garden book than a herbal.

In 161 5 an English edition of Crispian de Passe's work
was published at Utrecht, under the title of 'A Garden of
Flowers.' The plates are the same as those in the original
work. The artist is particularly successful with the bulbous
and tuberous plants, the cultivation of which has long been
such a specialty of Holland. Plate XIX is a characteristic
example, but only part of the original picture is here re-
produced. The soil on which the plants grow is often
shown, and the horizon is placed very low, so that they
stand up against the sky. This convention seems to have
been characteristic, not only of the plant drawings of the
Dutch artists, but also of their landscapes. In the paintings
of Cuyp and Paul Potter, the sky-line is sometimes so low
that it is seen between the legs of the cows and horses.
This treatment was no doubt suggested by life in a flat
country, but it was carried to such an extreme that the
artist's eye-level must have been almost on the ground !

The purchaser of ' The Garden of Flowers ' receives
detailed directions for the painting of the figures, which he

VII]

Copper-plates

20 1

is expected to carry out himself. The book is divided into
four parts, appropriate to the four seasons, and each part

ife9g&B»&®8g&^g

Text-fig. 105. " Chondrilla " [Colonna, Phytobasanos, 1592].

is preceded by an encouraging verse intended to keep alive

202 Botanical Illustration [ch.

the owner's enthusiasm for his task. The stanza at the
beginning of the last section seems to show some anxiety on
the part of the author, lest the reader should have begun to
weary over the lengthy occupation of colouring the plates.
It reads as follows : —

"If hethertoe (my frende) you have,
Performde the taske in hand :
With ioy proceede, this last will be
The best, when all is scande."

As we have already mentioned, it is not our intention
to deal with the books published in the latter part of the
seventeenth century. We may, however, for the sake of
completeness, mention two or three examples in order to
show the kind of work that was then being done. Paolo
Boccone's ' Icones et Descriptiones ' of 1674 was illustrated
with copper-plates, some of which were remarkably subtle
and delicate, while others were rather carelessly executed.
Among slightly later works, we may refer to a quaint little
Dutch herbal by Stephen Blankaart, and to the ' Para-
disus Batavus ' of Paul Hermann, both of which belong to
the last decade of the century. The latter, which is an
"Elzevir" with very good copper-plates, was published
after the author's death, and dedicated, by his widow, to
Henry Compton, Bishop of London.

In the plates which illustrate Blankaart's herbal, a
landscape and figures are often introduced to form a back-
ground, and the low horizon, to which we referred in
speaking of the ' Hortus Floridus,' is a very conspicuous
feature. The picture of the Winter Cherry is here re-
produced as an example (Text-fig. 106). As showing the
complete revolution in the style of plant illustration in two
hundred years, it is interesting to compare this drawing
with that of the same subject in the German 'Herbarius'
of 1485 (Text-fig. 78). It must be confessed that the
fifteenth-century wood-cut, though far less detailed and
painstaking, seizes the general character of the plant in
a way that the seventeenth-century copper-plate somewhat
misses.

Etching and engraving on metal are well adapted to
very delicate and detailed work, but from the point of
view of book-illustration, wood-engraving is generally more
effective. In the latter the lines are raised, and the

«,

.— o

3
U

U <u

c a
rt 'a.

c u

ffl

o
U

VII]

Raised and Incised Lines

203

method of printing is thus exactly the same as in the case
of type, while in the former the process is reversed and the
lines are incised. As a result, there is a harmony about
a book illustrated with wood-cuts which cannot, in the

HALICACABUM

sox,A:KrirM:
vxsicarivm: .

Text-fig. 106. " Alkekengi " = Physalis, Winter Cherry
[Blankaart, Neder-landschen Herbarius, 1698].

nature of things, be attained, when such different processes
as printing from raised type, and from incised metal, are
brought together in the same volume.

CHAPTER VIII

THE DOCTRINE OF SIGNATURES AND
ASTROLOGICAL BOTANY

URING the preceding chapters, we
have restricted our discussion to those
writings which may be credited with
having taken some part, however slight,
in advancing the knowledge of plants.
We have, as it were, confined our
attention to the main stream of botani-
cal progress, and its tributaries. But
before concluding, it may be well to call to mind the
existence of more than one backwater, connected indeed
with the main channel, but leading nowhere.

The subject of the superstitions, with which herb
collecting has been hedged about at different periods, is
far too wide to be dealt with in detail in the present book.
We have referred in earlier chapters to the observances
with which the Greek herb-gatherers surrounded their
calling (p. 7) and to the mysterious dangers which are
described in the 'Herbarium' of Apuleius as attending the
uprooting of the Mandrake (p. 36). There is com-
paratively little reference to such matters in the works of
the German Fathers of Botany or those of the greatest of
their successors ; indeed, as we have previously mentioned
(pp. 55 — 58, 103, 104), Bock's famous ' Kreuter Buch'
and William Turner's herbal contain definite refutations
of various superstitions.

Contemporaneously, however, with the fine series of
herbals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there
appeared a succession of books about plants, which had as

CH. VIII]

Paracelsus

205

their subjects one or both of two topics — the "doctrine of
signatures," and "astrological botany." These works cannot
be said to have furthered the science to any appreciable
extent, but they have considerable interest, rather on
account of the curious light which they throw upon the
attitude of mind of their writers (and presumably their
readers also) than from any intrinsic merit. One of these
authors, in his preface, speaks of the " Notions" and "Ob-
servations " contained in his work, " most of which I am
confident are true, and if there be any that are not so,
yet they are pleasant." The excuse that the " Notions,"
cherished by the botanical mystics of the sixteenth and

Text-fig. 107. Mandrake [Brunfels, Contrafayt
Kreuterbuch, Ander Teyl, 1537].

seventeenth centuries, were " pleasant," even if untrue, may
perhaps be offered in extenuation of the very brief discussion
of their salient points, which we propose to undertake in the
present chapter.

The most famous of those mystical writers who turned
their attention to botany was undoubtedly Philippus
Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus of Hohenheim, better
known by the name of Paracelsus (1493 — 154 1 )- His
portrait is shown in Text-fig. 108. He was a doctor, as

206

Signatures and Astrology

[CH.

his father had been before him, and in 1527 he became
professor at Basle. Here he gave great offence by lecturing
in the vulgar tongue, burning the writings of Avicenna and
Galen, and interpreting his own works instead of those of
the ancients. His disregard of cherished traditions, and
his personal peculiarities led to difficulties with his colleagues,
and he only held his post for a very short time. For the
rest of his life he was a wanderer on the face of the earth,
and he died in comparative poverty at Salzburg in 1541.

Text-fig. 108. Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called
Paracelsus (1493 — 1541) [From a medal, see
F. P. Weber, Appendix II].

The character and writings of Paracelsus are full of
the strangest contradictions. Browning's poem perhaps
gives a better idea of his career than any prose account
aiming at historical accuracy. His life was so strange that
the imagination of a poet is needed to revitalise it for us
to-day. His almost incredible boastfulness is the main
characteristic that everyone remembers — the word " bom-
bast " being, in all probability, coined from his name. In

viii] Doctrine of Signatures 207

one of his works, after contemptuously dismissing all the
great physicians who had preceded him — Galen, Avicenna
and others — he remarks, "I shall be the Monarch and mine
shall the monarchy be 1 ." The conclusion that he was
something of a quack can hardly be avoided, but at the
same time it must be confessed that his writings were
occasionally illumined with real scientific insight, and that
he infused new life into chemistry and medicine.

Paracelsus' actual knowledge of botany appears to have
been meagre, for not more than a couple of dozen plant
names are found in his works. To understand his views
on the properties of plants it is necessary to turn for a
moment to his chemical theories. He regarded "sulphur,"
"salt," and "mercury" as the three fundamental principles
of all bodies. The sense in which he uses these terms is
symbolic, and thus differs entirely from that in which they
are employed to-day. " Sulphur " appears to embody the
ideas of change, combustibility, volatilisation and growth ;
"salt," those of stability and non-inflammability; "mercury,"
that of fluidity. The "virtues" of plants depend, according
to Paracelsus, upon the proportions in which they contain
these three principles.

The medicinal properties of plants are thus the outcome
of qualities that are not obvious at sight. How, then, is
the physician to be guided in selecting herbal remedies to
cure the several ailments of his patients ? The answer to
this question given by Paracelsus is summed up in what is
known as the Doctrine of Signatures.

According to this doctrine, many medicinal herbs are
stamped, as it were, with some clear indication of their
uses. This may perhaps be best understood by means
of a quotation from Paracelsus himself (in the words of
a seventeenth-century English translation). " I have oft-
times declared, how by the outward shapes and qualities of
things we may know their inward Vertues, which God hath
put in them for the good of man. So in St Johns wort,
we may take notice of the form of the leaves and flowers,
the porosity of the leaves, the Veins. 1. The porositie or

1 " Ich wirdt Monarcha, unnd mein wird die Monaichey sein." Vorred in
das Buch Paragranum. [Theophrastus Paracelsus, 'Das Buch Paragranum,'
Herausgegeben...von Dr phil. Fr. Strunz, Leipzig, 1903.]

208 Signatures and Astrology [ch.

holes in the leaves, signifie to us, that this herb helps both

inward and outward holes or cuts in the skin 2. The

flowers of Saint Johns wort, when they are putrified they
are like blood ; which teacheth us, that this herb is good
for wounds, to close them and fill them up " etc.

It is sometimes held that the real originator of the theory
of signatures, in any approximation to a scientific form, was
Giambattista Porta, who was probably born at Naples
shortly before the death of Paracelsus. He wrote a book
about human physiognomy, in which he endeavoured to
find, in the bodily form of man, indications as to his character
and spiritual qualities. This study suggested to him the
idea that the inner qualities, and the healing powers of the
herbs might also be revealed by external signs, and thus
led to his famous work, the ' Phytognomonica,' which was
first published at Naples in 1588.

Porta developed his theory in detail, and pushed it to
great lengths. He supposed, for example, that long-lived
plants would lengthen a man's life, while short-lived plants
would abbreviate it. He held that herbs with a yellow sap
would cure jaundice, while those whose surface was rough
to the touch would heal those diseases that destroy the
natural smoothness of the skin. The resemblance of certain
plants to certain animals opened to Porta a vast field of
dogmatism on a basis of conjecture. Plants with flowers
shaped like butterflies would, he supposed, cure the bites
of insects, while those whose roots or fruits had a jointed
appearance, and thus remotely suggested a scorpion, must
necessarily be sovereign remedies for the sting of that
creature. Porta also detected many obscure points of
resemblance between the flowers and fruits of certain plants,
and the limbs and organs of certain animals. In such cases
of resemblance he held that an investigation of the tem-
perament of the animal in question would determine what
kind of disease the plant was intended to cure. It will be
recognised from these examples that the doctrine of signa-
tures was remarkably elastic, and was not fettered by any
rigid consistency.

The illustrations of the ' Phytognomonica ' are of great
interest as interpreting Porta's point of view. The part of
man's body which is healed by a particular herb, or the

VIII]

Doctrine of Signatures

209

animal whose bites or stings can be cured by it, are repre-
sented in the same wood-cut as the herb. For example,
the back view of a human head with a thick crop of hair is
introduced into the block with the Maidenhair Fern, which

Text-fig. 109. Herbs of the Scorpion [Porta, Phytognomonica, 1591].

is an ancient specific for baldness ; a Pomegranate with its
seeds exposed, and a plant of " Toothwort," with its hard,
white scale-leaves, are represented in the same figure as
a set of human teeth ; a drawing of a scorpion accom-
panies some pictures of plants with articulated seed-vessels

210 Signatures and Astrology [ch.

(Text-fig. 109) and an adder's head is introduced below
the drawing of the plant known as the " Adder's tongue."

It would serve little purpose to deal in detail with the
various exponents of the doctrine of signatures, such, for
example, as Johann Popp, who in 1625 published a herbal
written from this standpoint, and containing also some
astrological botany. We will only now refer to one of
the later champions of the signatures of plants, an English
herbalist of the seventeenth century, who made the subject
peculiarly his own. This was William Cole 1 , a Fellow of
New College, Oxford, who lived and botanised at Putney
in Surrey. He seems to have been a person of much
character, and his vigorous arguments would often be very
telling, were it possible to admit the soundness of his
premisses.

William Cole carried the doctrine of signatures to as
extreme a point as can well be imagined. His account of
the Walnut, from his work 'Adam in Eden,' 1657, may be
quoted as an illustration : " Wall-nuts have the perfect
Signature of the Head: The outer husk or green Covering,
represent the Pericranium, or outward skin of the skull,
whereon the hair groweth, and therefore salt made of those
husks or barks, are exceeding good for wounds in the head.
The inner wooddy shell hath the Signature of the Skull,
and the little yellow skin, or Peel, that covereth the Kernell
of the hard Meninga and Pia-mater, which are the thin
scarfes that envelope the brain. The Kernel hath the very
figure of the Brain, and therefore it is very profitable for
the Brain, and resists poysons; For if the Kernel be bruised,
and moystned with the quintessence of Wine, and laid upon
the Crown of the Head, it comforts the brain and head
mightily."

In Cole's writings we meet with instances of a curious
confusion of thought, which characterised the doctrine of
signatures. The signature in some cases represents an
animal injurious to man, and is taken to denote that the
plant in question will cure its bites or stings. For instance,
"That Plant that is called Adders tongue, because the stalke
of it represents one, is a soveraigne wound Herbe to cure the

1 The name of this botanist is spelt " Coles " on the title-pages of his works,
but the spelling " Cole " appears to be more correct.

vni] Doctrine of Signatures 2 1 1

biting of an Adder." In other cases, the signature represents
one of the organs of the human body, and indicates that the
plant will cure diseases of that organ. For example, "Heart
Trefoyle is so called, not onely because the Leafe is Tri-
angular like the Heart of a Man, but also because each
Leafe containesthe perfect Icon of an Heart, and that in its
proper colour, viz. a flesh colour. It defendeth the Heart
against the noisome vapour of the Spleen."

Cole seems to have possessed a philosophic mind, and to
have endeavoured to follow his theories to their logical con-
clusion. He was much exercised because a large propor-
tion of the plants with undoubted medicinal virtues have no
obvious signatures. He concluded that a certain number
were endowed with signatures, in order to set man on the
right track in his search for herbal remedies ; the remainder
were purposely left blank, in order to encourage his skill
and resource in discovering their properties for himself.
A further ingenious argument is that a number of plants are
left without signatures, because if all were signed, "the
rarity of it, which is the delight, would be taken away by
too much harping upon one string."

Our author was evidently a keen and enthusiastic collector
of herbs. In his book 'The Art of Simpling' (1656) he
complains bitterly that physicians leave the gathering of
herbs to the apothecaries, and the latter "rely commonly upon
the words of the silly Hearb-women, who many times bring
them Quidior Quo, then which nothing can be more sad."

Another strong supporter in this country of the doctrine
of signatures was the astrological botanist, Robert Turner.
He definitely states that " God hath imprinted upon the
Plants, Herbs, and Flowers, as it were in Hieroglyphicks,
the very signature of their Vertues."

It is interesting to find that the doctrine of signatures
was repudiated by the best of the sixteenth -century
herbalists. Dodoens, for instance, wrote in 1583 that "the
doctrine of the Signatures of Plants has received the
authority of no ancient writer who is held in any esteem :
moreover it is so changeable and uncertain that, as far as
science or learning is concerned, it seems absolutely un-
worthy of acceptance 1 ."

1 " Doctrina verd de signaturis stirpium, a nullo alicuius aestimationis

14—2

212 Signatures and Astrology [ch.

A later writer, Guy de la Brosse, criticised the theory
very acutely, pointing out that it was quite easy to imagine
any resemblance between a plant and an animal that
happened to be convenient. "C'est comme des nuees," he
writes, " que Ton fait ressembler a tout ce que la fantaisie
se represente, a une Grue, a une Grenoiiille, a un homme,
a une armee, et autres semblables visions 1 ."

Both Paracelsus and Porta deprecate the use of foreign
drugs, on the ground that in the country where a disease
arises, there nature produces means to overcome it. This
idea is one which constantly recurs in the herbals. In
1664 Robert Turner wrote, "For what Climate soever is
subject to any particular Disease, in the same Place there
grows a Cure." There is ample evidence of the survival
of this theory even in the nineteenth century ; for instance,
in the preface to Thomas Green's • Universal Herbal ' of
1 8 16 we find the remark, " Nature has, in this country, as
well as in all others, provided, in the herbs of its own
growth, the remedies for the several diseases to which it is
most subject." The notion persists indeed to the present
day ; there is a wide-spread belief among children, for
example, that Docks always grow in the neighbourhood of
Stinging Nettles, in order to provide a cure in situ !
Whether this view contains any grain of truth or not, it
certainly deserves our gratitude, since it led to Dr Mac-
lagan's discovery of Salicin as a cure for rheumatic fever.
On the ground that in the case of malarial diseases "the
poisons which cause them and the remedy which cures
them are naturally produced under similar climatic con-
ditions," Maclagan sought and found, in the bark of the
Willow, which inhabits low-lying, damp situations, this
drug, which has proved so valuable in the treatment of
rheumatism 2 .

The doctrine of signatures is not the only piece of
botanical mysticism associated with the name of Paracelsus.
He was also a firm believer in the influence of the heavenly

veterum testimonium accepit : deinde tarn fluxa et incerta est, ut pro scientia
aut doctrina nullatenus habenda videatur." ' Pemptades,' Book 1. Cap. xi.
1583.

1 'De la nature, vertu, et utilite" des plantes,' p. 278, 1628.

2 Maclagan, T. J. ' Influenza and Salicin,' The Nineteenth Century, Vol.
xxxi. p. 337, 1892.

VIII]

Astrological Botany

213

bodies upon the vegetable world, or, in other words, in
botanical astrology. He considered that each plant was
under the influence of some particular star, and that it was this
influence which drew the plant out of the earth when the
seed germinated. He held each plant to be a terrestrial
star, and each star, a spiritualised plant. Giambattista

Text-fig. no. Lunar Herbs [Porta, Phytognomonica, 1591].

Porta also believed in a relation between certain plants and
corresponding stars or planets. A figure in his ' Phyto-
gnomonica' here reproduced (Text-fig. 1 10) shows a number
of " lunar plants."

In order to appreciate the attitude in which Paracelsus

214 Signatures and Astrology [ch.

and his followers approached the subject of the relation
between plants and stars, it is necessary to realise the position
which Astrology had come to occupy in the Middle Ages 1 .

It was in ancient Babylon that this pseudo-science
mainly took its rise. Here the five planets which we
now call Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Mercury, and
also the Sun and Moon, were identified, in certain senses,
with seven great Gods. The movements of these heavenly
bodies were supposed to represent in symbolic fashion the
deeds of these Gods. It was thought possible to interpret
the movements and relative positions of the planets and the
sun and moon, in a way that threw light upon the fate of
mankind, in so far as it depended upon the Gods in
question.

Some centuries before the Christian era, Babvlonian
astrology began to influence the nations farther to the West.
In Greece, the subject took a more personal turn and it was
believed that the fate, not only of nations but of individuals,
was determined in the skies, and could be foretold from the
position of the planets at the time of a man's birth. At a
later period, speculation on the subject was carried further
and further, until finally not only men, but all animals,
vegetables and minerals were associated, either with par-
ticular planets, or with the constellations of the Zodiac.

That a belief in the influence of the moon upon plants
dates back to very early times in western Europe, is shown
by the statement, in Pliny's ' Natural History,' that the
Druids in Britain gathered the Mistletoe for medical
purposes, with many rites and ceremonies, when the moon
was six days old. To trace the history of astrology in
detail is altogether beyond our province, but, as an example
of its universal acceptance, we may recall the reference to
the supreme influence of the stars in the preface of the
Herbarius zu Teutsch of 1485 (see p. 19). Astrological
ideas were familiar in Elizabethan England, and are reflected
in many passages in Shakespeare's plays, never perhaps
more charmingly than in Beatrice's laughing words — " there
was a star danced, and under that I was born."

Paracelsus, though his name is so well known in this

1 See article on 'Astrology,' The Encyclopaedia Britannica, eleventh edn.
Cambridge, 19 10.

vin] Astrological Botany 215

connection, was by no means the first writer on botanical
astrology. A book called 'De virtutibus herbarum,' errone-
ously attributed to Albertus Magnus, had a wide circulation
from early times, being first printed in the fifteenth century.
It was translated into many languages, one English version
appearing about 1560 under the title ' The boke of secretes
of Albartus Magnus, of the vertues of Herbes, stones and
certaine beastes.' It does not contain very much informa-
tion about plants, being mostly occupied with animals and
minerals, but there are very definite references to astrology.
For instance we are told that if the Marigold "be gathered,
the Sunne beynge in the sygne Leo, in August, and be
wrapped in the leafe of a Laurell, or baye tree, and a wolves
tothe be added therto, no man shal be able to have a word to
speake agaynst the bearer therof, but woordes of peace."
Concerning the Plantain we read, "The rote of this herbe is
mervalous good agaynst the payne of the headde, because
the signe of the Ramme is supposed to be the house of
the planete Mars, which is the head of the whole worlde."

The herbal of Bartholomaeus Carrichter (1575), in which
the plants are arranged according to the signs of the Zodiac,
is considerably more complete and elaborate than the book
to which we have just referred. It seems however impossible
to discover the principle, if any, which guided the author
in connecting any given herb with one sign of the Zodiac
rather than another.

Much stress is laid in this herbal on the hour at which
the herbs ought to be gathered, great importance being
ascribed to the state of the moon at the time. We are
reminded of a passage in 'The Merchant of Venice' where
Jessica says of a bright moonlight evening —

" In such a night
Medea gather'd the enchanted herbs
That did renew old /Eson."

This aspect of the subject is emphasised in a curious
little book published in 1571, Nicolaus Winckler's 'Chronica
herbarum,' which is an astrological calendar giving informa-
tion as to the appropriate times for gathering different roots
and herbs.

Almost contemporaneously with Carrichter's ' Kreutter-
buch,' the first part of a work on astrological botany was

216 Signatures and Astrology [ch.

published by Leonhardt Thurneisser zum Thurn. This
writer, who was possessed of undoubted talent, was also an
adventurer and charlatan of the first order. He was born
at Basle in 1530. He learned his father's craft, that of a
goldsmith, and is said to have also helped a local doctor to
collect and prepare herbs, and to have been employed to
read aloud to him from the works of Paracelsus. His
career in Basle came to an untimely end, for he seems to
have tried to retaliate on some customers who treated him
badly, by selling them gilded lead as a substitute for gold,
and consequently had to flee the country when the fraud
was discovered. He travelled widely, making an especial
study of mining. He had an adventurous and varied life,
sometimes in poverty and obscurity, sometimes in wealth
and renown.

During Thurneisser's most influential period he lived in
Berlin, practising medicine, making amulets, talismans, and
secret remedies which yielded large profits. He also
published astrological calendars, cast nativities, and supple-
mented his income by the practice of usury. At this time
he owned a printing press, and employed a large staff which
included artists and engravers. Later on, he was pursued
by a succession of misfortunes, including accusations
of magic and witchcraft, which compelled him to leave
Germany. Little is known of the latter part of his life ; he
died in the last decade of the sixteenth century.

Leonhardt Thurneisser projected a great botanical work
in ten books. The first was published in Berlin in 1578, but
the others never appeared. The title was 'Historia unnd
Beschreibung Influentischer, Elementischer und Natiir-
licher Wirckungen, Aller fremden unnd heimischen Erdge-
wechssen.' A Latin version of this book, under the name,
' Historia sive descriptio plantarum,' was published in the
same year. This first instalment deals only with the Um-
bellifers, which were regarded as under the dominion of the
Sun and Mars. The nomenclature and the figures are not
clear enough to allow individual species to be recognised.
Each is drawn in an ellipse surrounded by an ornamental
border, which contains mystical inscriptions denoting the
properties of the plant (e.g. Plate XX). In some cases
diagrams are given, snowing the conjunction of the

Plate XX

Cervaria foemina' [Thurneisser, Historia sive descriptio
plantarum, 1587].

VIII]

Astrological Botany

217

stars under which the herb should be gathered (Text-fig.
in).

After the manner of the ancients, Thurneisser describes
plants, according to their qualities, as either male or female.
He also adds a third class, typified by a child, to symbolise
those whose qualities are feeble. It may perhaps be worth

co&srsmrio vzcruARtSk

VLjUTTA k*< **mi lj-»3 c$!U8* ejf, a D,TriJeric» Strew-
vtre Mtdif & Tbyftt excelUmtt: (f frtter Stret cemmemortt**
sit am aijtmmltu flic re deprekemfs iR. Tempore smttm fofiten*
1 Hi M4, Csimm ftjitm Planet Arum ©- Sijmtrmm ($t Ft* ft r a Mpfrft*
tjicmrftt) t^lcm fere ftuitm ohtmtfit %

Text-fig. in. Astrological Diagram relating to the gathering
of "Cervaria fcemina" [Thurneisser, Historia sive Descriptio
Plantarum, 1587].

while to translate here a few sentences of the first chapter
of the 'Historia 1 ,' to show how far such writers as Leonhardt
Thurneisser had departed from the pursuit of the subject
upon legitimate lines. When discussing the planting of

1 The edition of 1587 was used in making this translation.

218 Signatures and Astrology [ch.

roots and herbs and the gathering of seeds, he declares
that "it is absolutely essential that these operations should
be performed so as to correspond with the stations and
positions of the planets and heavenly bodies, to whose control
diseases are properly subject. And against disease we
have to employ herbs, with due regard of course to the sex,
whichever it be, of human beings ; and so herbs intended
to benefit the male sex should be procured when the Sun or
Moon is in some male sign [of the Zodiac], e.g. Sagittarius
or Aquarius, or if this is impossible, at least when they are
in Leo. Similarly herbs intended to benefit women should
be gathered under some female sign, Virgo, of course, or,
if that is impossible, in Taurus or Cancer."

In the seventeenth century, England became strongly
infected with astrological botany. The most notorious
exponent of the subject was Nicholas Culpeper (1616 —
1654), who, about 1640, set up as an astrologer and physician
in Spitalfields. His portrait is reproduced in Plate XXI.
He created great indignation among the medical profession
by publishing, under the name of ' A Physicall Directory,'
an unauthorised English translation of the Pharmacopoeia,
which had been issued by the College of Physicians. That
Culpeper was unpopular with orthodox medical practitioners
is hardly surprising, when we consider the way in which
he speaks of them in this book, as "a company of proud,
insulting, domineering Doctors, whose wits were born above
five hundred years before themselves." He goes on to ask
— " Is it handsom and wel-beseeming a Common-wealth to
see a Doctor ride in State, in Plush with a footcloath, and
not a grain of Wit but what was in print before he was
born ? "

Many editions of the ' Physicall Directory ' were issued
under different names. As ' The English Physician en-
larged,' it enjoyed great popularity, and was reprinted as
late as the nineteenth century. The edition of 1653 is
described on the title-page as "Being an Astrologo- Physical
Discourse of the Vulgar Herbs of this Nation : Containing
a Compleat Method of Physick, whereby a man may pre-
serve his Body in Health ; or Cure himself, being Sick, for
three pence Charge, with such things only as grow in
England, they being most fit for English Bodies."

Plate XXI

J n tjf-iun -ni . cJS Ic bo lat C tt ipe p&r-> Cs u ' ' ■£

The jfiacCdhw of tfcat Bocfv feer you- fincC-
Which ferues but as a .case to hotel Jtis' mind ,
Jib LhteflecttuUC part Si pfcasVf to lookt-
On live i y fin e s cfefc ri fe ci in the £ coke . c ^ ft t ■ u /, .

NICHOLAS CULPEPER (1616—1654).
[A Physicall Directory, 1649. Engraving by Cross.]

vin] Nicholas Culpeper 219

Culpeper describes certain herbs as being under the
dominion of the sun, the moon, or a planet, and others
as under a planet and also one of the constellations of
the Zodiac. His reasons for connecting a particular herb
with a particular heavenly body are curiously inconsequent.
He states, for example, that "Wormwood is an Herb of
Mars,... I prove it thus; What delights in Martial places,
is a Martial Herb ; but Wormwood delights in Martial
places (for about Forges and Iron Works you may gather
a Cart load of it) Ergo it is a Martial Herb."

The author explains that each disease is caused by a
planet. One way of curing the ailment is by the use of
herbs belonging to an opposing planet — e.g. diseases pro-
duced by Jupiter are healed by the herbs of Mercury. On
the other hand, the illness may be cured "by sympathy,"
that is by the use of herbs belonging to the planet which
is responsible for the disease.

Culpeper indulges in a strange maze of similar reasons
to justify the use of Wormwood for affections of the eyes.
"The Eyes are under the Luminaries; the right Eye of a
Man, and the left Eye of a Woman the Sun claims Dominion
over : The left Eye of a Man, and the right Eye of a
Woman, are the priviledg of the Moon, Wormwood an
Herb of Mars cures both 1 ; what belongs to the Sun by
Sympathy, because he is exalted in his House ; but what
belongs to the Moon by Antipathy, becaus he hath his
Fal in hers."

It is somewhat surprising to find that, in his preface,
Culpeper claims that he surpasses all his predecessors in
being alone guided by reason, whereas all previous writers
are " as full of nonsense and contradictions as an Egg is
ful of meat."

Culpeper met with considerable opposition and criticism
from his contemporaries. Shortly after his death, William
Cole in his 'Art of Simpling' wrote scornfully of astrological
botanists, "Amongst which Master Culpeper (a man now
dead, and therefore I shall speak of him as modestly as I can,
for were he alive I should be more plain with him) was a
great Stickler ; And he, forsooth, judgeth all men unfit to

1 Printed "hoth" in the edition of 1653 from which these quotations are
taken.

220 Signatures and Astrology [ch. viii

be Physitians, who are not Artists in Astrology, as if he
and some other Figure-flingers his companions, had been the
onely Physitians in England, whereas for ought I can
gather, either by his Books, or learne from the report of
others, he was a man very ignorant in the forme of
Simples."

It is interesting to notice that Cole, though he seems to
the modern reader very credulous on the subject of the
signatures of plants, was completely sceptical as to the
association of astrology and botany. The main argument
by which he tries to discredit it is an ingenious one. The
knowledge of herbs is, he says, "a subject as antient as the
Creation (as the Scriptures witnesse) yea more antient then
the Sunne, or Moon, or Starres, they being created on the
fourth day, whereas Plants were the third. Thus did God
even at first confute the folly of those Astrologers, who goe
about to maintaine that all vegitables in their growth, are
enslaved to a necessary and unavoidable dependance on the
influences of the Starres ; Whereas Plants were, even
when Planets were not."

CHAPTER IX

CONCLUSIONS

GENERAL review of the subjects
discussed in the foregoing chapters
brings home to us several results of
some interest. Perhaps the most
obvious of these is the incalculable
debt which Botany owes to Medicine. \
An overwhelming majority of the
L herbalists were physicians, who were
led to the study of botany on account
of its connection with the arts of healing. As we have
already pointed out, medicine gave the original impulse, not
only to Systematic Botany, but also to the study of the
Anatomy of Plants.

However, as the evolution of the herbal proceeded, we
have shown that botany rose from being a mere hand-maid
of medicine To a position of comparative independence.
This is well exemplified in the history of plant classification.
When the early medical botanists attempted any arrange-
ment of their material, it was on a purely utilitarian basis ;
the herbs were merely classified according to the qualities
which made them of value to man. But as the science
grew, the need of a more systematic classification began
to make itself felt, and in some of the works published in
the latter half of the period we are considering, there is a
distinct, if only partially successful, attempt to group the
plants according to the affinities which they present when
considered in themselves, and not in relation to man. The
ideal of a natural system in the Vegetable Kingdom, in

222 Conclusions [ch.

which each plant should find its inevitable place, must
have been clear for instance to de l'Obel, when he wrote in
the ' Adversaria,' of "an order, than which nothing more
beautiful exists in the heavens, or in the mind of a wise
man 1 .

Second only to the debt of botany to medicine is its debt
to certain branches of the fine arts, more especially wood-
engraving. The draughtsman and engraver not only dis-
seminated the knowledge of plants, but their work must
often have revealed to the botanist features which had
escaped his less highly educated and subtle eye.

As we have already pointed out, the art of plant
description lagged conspicuously behind that of plant illus-
tration. The vague and crude, but often picturesque,
accounts, given by the early herbalists of the plants which
they observed, contrast curiously with the technically
accurate, but colourless and impersonal descriptions from
the pens of modern botanists.

The rapid rise of botany, in the two centuries which we
have reviewed, must have been greatly stimulated by the
cosmopolitanism of the savants of the renaissance. Periods
of study at a succession of different universities, and wide
European travel, including visits to scientific men of various
countries, seem to have formed part of the recognised
equipment of the botanical student. Possibly the zeal for
travel was not altogether spontaneous, but was artificially
stimulated by the religious disturbances so common at the
period of the Reformation and later, which often drove into
exile the adherents of the Reformed Faith, among whom
many botanists were numbered. This is ^exemplified in
the cases of William Turner, Charles de l'Ecluse, and the
Bauhins.

It is interesting to notice that, in the works of the best
herbalists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, such
for instance as Bock, Turner, Dodoens and Gaspard Bauhin,
we find, comparatively speaking, little belief in any kind of
superstition connected with plants, such as the doctrine of
signatures, or astrology. A number of books dealing with
such topics appeared during the period we have considered,

1 "Sic enim ordine, quo nihil pulchrius in ccelo, aut in Sapientis animo,..."

IX]

Evolution of the Herbal

223

but their writers form a class apart, and must not be con-
fused with the herbalists proper, whose attitude was, on the
whole, marked by a healthy scepticism which was in advance
of their time. It would, naturally, be far from true to say
that they were all quite free from superstition, but, con-
sidering the intellectual atmosphere of the period, their
enlightenment was quite remarkable.

When we come to consider the origin of the herbal, we
find that it is impossible to assign any date for its beginning.

Text-fig. 112. Wood-cut from the title-page of the Grete Herball, 1526.

Reduced.

In manuscript form, herbals have existed from very early
times, but, in the present book, those prior to the inven-
tion of printing have been scarcely touched upon. Our
subject has been limited to the most active life-period of the
printed herbal, which may be reckoned as beginning in the
last quarter of the fifteenth century, with the ' Book of Nature,'
the ' Herbarium ' of Apuleius, and the Latin and German
1 Herbarius.' When this active period ended is less easily
decided, but in some senses it may fairly be taken as

224 Conclusions [ch.

covering only the comparatively short space of two hundred
years. There are, of course, a very large number of later
herbals, belonging to the end of the seventeenth, the
eighteenth, and even the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,
but their importance in the history of botany appears to the
present writer to be relatively small, and hence, in this
volume, attention has been almost entirely confined to works
which appeared before 1670.

After this period, botany rapidly became more scientific ;
the discovery of the function of the stamens, which was
first announced in 1682, marking a very definite step in
advance. As time went on, the herbal, with its character-
istic mixture of medical and botanical lore, gave way before
the exclusively medical pharmacopoeia on the one hand, and
the exclusively botanical flora on the other. As the use of
home-made remedies declined, and the chemist's shop took
the place of the housewife's herb-garden and still-room, the
practical value of the herbal diminished almost to vanishing
point.

The best epoch in the history of the herbal, from the
point of view of book-illustration, is confined within much
narrower limits than the two centuries we have been con-
sidering. The suggestion has been made, and seems
thoroughly justified, that the finest period should be reckoned
as falling between 1530 and 16 14, that is, between the
wood-cuts of Hans Weiditz in Brunfels' ' Herbarum vivae
eicones,' and the copper-plates of Crispian de Passe in the
' Hortus Floridus.' This good period thus lasted less than
one hundred years, and belongs chiefly to the sixteenth
century. From the artistic point of view, its zenith is
perhaps reached in the wood-engravings which illustrate
Fuchs' great work, ' De historia stirpium' (1542), though,
from a more strictly scientific standpoint, the drawings by
Camerarius and Gesner, which appeared in 1586 and 1588,
may be said to bear the palm.

As far as the text is concerned, the culmination of the
botanical works of the period under consideration may be
regarded as foreshadowed in the ' Stirpium Adversaria
Nova' of Pena and de l'Obel (1570 — 71) and attained
in the ' Prodromos ' (1620) and the 'Pinax' (1623) of
Gaspard Bauhin. In the works of the latter author,

IX]

Conclusions

225

c
'C

9
-

4>
O

W bo

1 — '3

C/3

—
c

S <L)

i-c

■5

226 Conclusions [ch. ix

classification, nomenclature and description reach their high-
water mark, though it is to de 1'Obel, and to his precursor,
Bock, one of the " German Fathers of Botany," that we
owe the first definite efforts after a natural system. It is
pleasant to remember that Jean Bauhin, to whom his
younger brother Gaspard probably owed his first botanical
inspiration, was a pupil of Leonhard Fuchs at Tubingen, so
that the latter has a double claim to be associated with
* the results of the " herbal period " at its best. We began
this book with a portrait of Leonhard Fuchs, and we may
well conclude with his name — that of the greatest and
most typical of sixteenth-century herbalists.

APPENDIX I

A CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL HERBALS AND
RELATED BOTANICAL WORKS PUBLISHED BETWEEN 1470
AND 1670.

This list, which is intended for the botanist rather than the
bibliographer, is far from being exhaustive, especially as regards
works published in the seventeenth century. In most cases
reference is made to first editions only. Subsequent editions and
translations, though often numerous and important, are usually, not
cited unless special mention has been made of them in the text.
In cases where such editions are quoted, their titles are placed
beneath that of the first edition (i.e. under the date of the first
edition). Independent works by the same author are, however,
arranged chronologically, so that, in this list, all the works of any
given author are not placed together, but must be looked for under
their respective dates. These dates can generally be ascertained
by reference to the text. The author's name, or, in the case of
anonymous works, the title most commonly used, is printed in
heavy type. All the works enumerated have been examined
personally by the author, except those of which the dates are
marked with an asterisk.

?i47o

Bartholomreus Anglicus [Glanville, Bartholomew de]. Liber de pro-
prietatibus rerum. Begins : Incipit prohemium de proprietatibus rerum fratris
bartholomei anglici de ordine fratrum minorum. [PCologne, ?i47o.] [A
general work containing one section dealing with plants]

{Another Edition). Liber de proprietatibus rerum. [? Westminster,

?!495-] [A translation by Trevisa printed by Wynkyn de IVorde.]

1475
Konrad von Megenberg [Cunrat]. Begins : Hye nach volget das puch
der natur.... Harms Bamler. Augspurg, -75 [=1475]. \A general work
containing a section dealing with plants]

15— 2

228 Appendix I

1478

Albertus Magnus [erroneously attributed to]. Liber aggregationis
seu liber secretorum Alberti magni de virtutibus herbarum... [Colophon:)
per Johannem de Annunciata de Augusta. 1478.

{Another Edition). De virtutibus herbarum. De virtutibus lapidum.

De virtutibus animalium et mirabilibus mundi. Thomas Laisne, Rouen. [? 1 500.]

{Another Edition). The boke of secretes of Albartus Magnus, of the

vertues of Herbes, stones and certaine beastes. Also a boke of the same
author, of the marvaylous thinges of the world.... London. Wyllyam Copland.
[?i 5 6o.]

?I484

Apuleius Platonicus. Begins : Incipit Herbarium Apulei Platonici
ad Marcum Agrippam. Q. P. de Lignamine. Rome, ?I484.]

I484

The Latin Herbarius [referred to by various authors as Herbarius in
Latino, Aggregator de Simplicibus, Herbarius Moguntinus, Herbarius Patavinus,
etc.]. Herbarius Maguntia? impressus. [Peter Schoffer. Mainz.] 1484.

{Another Edition). Begins : Dye prologhe de oversetters uyt den

latyn in dyetsche. [Veldener, Kuilenborg.] 1484. [A Flemish translation^

{Another Edition). Begins: Incipit Tractatus de virtutibus herbarum.

{Colophon :) Impressum Venetiis per Simonem Papiensem dictum Bivilaquam....
1499. [Sometimes called ' Herbarius Arnoldi de nova villa Avicenna.']

1485
The German Herbarius [referred to by various authors as the Herbarius
zu Teutsch, the German Ortus Sanitatis, the smaller Ortus, Johann von Cube's
Herbal, etc.]. Begins : Offt und vil habe ich. [Peter Schoffer.] Mencz, 1485.

{Another Edition). Begins: Offt und vil hab ich. [Sorg.] Augs-

purg, 1485.

1491

Ortus Sanitatis [Hortus Sanitatis.] Prohemium begins : Omni-
potentis eternique dei.... {Colophon :) Jacobus Meydenbach. Moguntia, 1491.

{Another Edition). {Colophon :) Impressum Venetiis per Bernardinum

Benalium : Et Joannem de Cereto de Tridino alias Tacuinum. 151 1.

{Another Edition). Ortus sanitatis translate de latin en francois.

Anthoine Verard. Paris, n.d. [?i5oi].

{Another Edition). Le jardin de sante translate de latin en francoys

nouvellement Imprime a Paris. On les vend a Paris en la rue sainct Jacques
a lenseigne de la Rose blanche couronnee. {Colophon :) Imprime a Paris par
Philippe le noir. [? I539-]

Appendix I 229

?i5oo

Macer, JBmilius [Odo]. Macer floridus Ue viribus herbarum. [? Paris,
?i5oo circa.]

{Another Edition). Herbarum varias q v i s cognoscere vires Macer

adest : disce quo duce doct' eris. {Colophon :) Impressus Parisius per Magistrum
Johannem Seurre. Pro Magistro Petro Bacquelier. 1506.

{Another Edition). Les fleurs du livre des vertus des herbes, compose"

jadis en vers Latins par Macer Floride :...Le tout mis en Francois par M. Lucas
Tremblay, Parisien.... Rouen. Martin et Honore' Mallard. 1588.

{Another Edition). De viribus herbarum... secundum codices manu-

scriptos...recensuit...Ludovicus Choulant.... Lipsiae, 1832.

1500

Braunschweig, Hieronymus [Jerome of Brunswick]. Liber de arte
distillandi. de Simplicibus. Johannes Griieninger. Strassburg, 1500.

{Another Edition). The vertuose boke of Distyllacyon of the waters

of all maner of Herbes. ..Laurens Andrewe. London, 1427 [=1527].

I5I6

Ruellius, Johannes [Ruel, Jean]. Pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbei de
medicinali materia libri quinque...Impressum est in...Parrhisiorum Gymnasio...
in officina Henrici Stephani. 15 16.

1517

Ozerny, Johann [Johannes Niger de Praga]. Knieha lekarska kteraz
slowe herbarz ( = Arzneibuch, welches heisst Herbarium) Hieronymus Holtzel.
Niirnberg, 15 17*.

1525

Herball. Here begynneth a newe mater, the whiche sheweth and treateth
of ye vertues and proprytes of herbes, the whiche is called an Herball. Rycharde
Banckes. London, 1525.

{Another Edition). Macers Herbal. Practysyd by Docter Lynacro.

Robert Wyer. n.d. [London, ?i53o.]

{Another Edition). A new Herball of Macer, Translated out of Laten

in to Englysshe. Robert Wyer. in saint Martyns paryshc.besyde Charynge
Crosse, n.d. London. [? 1 535-]

{Another Edition). A boke of the propreties of Herbes called an

herball, wherunto is added the tyme ye herbes, Floures and Sedes shoulde be
gathered... by W. C. 1 Wyllyam Copland, n.d. London. [1550.]

{Another Edition). A litle Herball of the properties of Herbes. ..wyth

certayne Additions at the ende of the boke, declaring what Herbes hath influence
of certain Sterres... Anthony Askham, Physycyon. Jhon Kynge. London, 1550.

1 The initials " W. C." may refer either to William Copland or to Walter Cary.

230 Appendix I

Before 1526

Grand Herbier. Le grand Herbier en Francoys : contenant les qualites,
vertus et proprietes des herbes, arbres, gommes.... Pierre Sergent. Paris,
n.d.

{Another Edition). The grete herball whiche geveth parfyt knowlege

and understandyng of all maner of herbes and there gracyous vertues....
{Colophon:) Peter Treveris. London, 1526.

{Another Edition). The grete herball... {Colophon:) Imprynted

at London... by me Peter Treveris.... 1529.

1529

Theophrastus. Theophrasti de historia, et causis plantarum, Libri Quin-
decim. Theodoro Gaza interprete... {Colophon :) Excussum Lutecias, in aedibus
Christiani Wechel.... 1529.

1530

Bmnfelsius, Otho [Brunfels, Otto von]. Herbarum viva? eicones...
Argentorati apud Joannem Schottum. 1530, 1531, 1536.

{Another Edition). Contrafayt Kreiiterbuch...zu Strasszburg bey Hans

Schotten. 1532, 1537.

1533

Rhodion, D. Eucharius. Kreutterbuch...Anfenglich von Doctor Johan
Cuba zusamen bracht, jetzt widerum new Corrigirt...Mit warer Abconterfeitung
aller Kreuter. Zu Franckfurt am Meyn, Bei Christian Egenolph. 1533. [A
large number of editions of this work appeared, edited by Dorstenius, Lonicer
and others. ,]

1536

Amatus Lusitanus [Castello Branco, J. R. de]. Index Dioscoridis...Ex-
cudebat Antverpiae Vidua Martini Caesaris. 1536.

Ruellius, Johannes [Ruel, Jean]. De Natura stirpium libri tres.
Parisiis. 1536.

1538

Turner, William. Libellus de re herbaria novus, in quo herbarum
aliquot nomina greca, latina, et Anglica habes, una cum nominibus officinarum....
Londini apud Joannem Byddellum. 1538.

{Another Edition). Libellus de re herbaria novus... reprinted in fac-
simile, with notes, modern names, and a life of the author, by Benjamin
Daydon Jackson. London, 1877.

1543-

{Another Edition). New Kreiiterbuch. Michael Isingrin. Basell,

(Another Edition). Leonharti Fuchsii medici, primi de stirpium his-

toria commentariorum tomi vivae imagines, in exiguam...formam contracts... .
Isingrin. Basileae, 1545.

Gesnerus, Conradus [Gesner, Konrad]. Catalogus plantarum Latine,
graece, Germanice, et Gallice.... Tiguri apud Christoph. Froschouerum,
1542.

1544

Matthiolus, Petrus Andreas [Mattioli, Pierandrea]. Di Pedacio
Dioscoride Anazarbeo libri cinque della historia et materia medicinale tradotta
in lingua volgare italiana.... Venetia, per Nicolo de Bascarina da Pavone di
Brescia, 1544*.

Commentarii, in libros sex Pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbei, de medica

materia.... Venetiis...apud Vincentium Valgrisium. 1554.

(Another Edition). Commentarii in sex libros Pedacii Dioscoridis

Anazarbei de Medica materia,... Veneliis, Ex Officina Valgrisiana. 1565.

1548

Turner, William. The names of herbes in Greke, Latin, Englishe
Duche and Frenche wyth the commune names that Herbaries and Apotecaries
use. John Day and Wyllyam Setes. London, 1548.

(Another Edition). The Names of Herbes, a.d. 1548. Edited by

James Britten. London, 1881.

Appendix I 231

1539

Tragus, Hieronymus [Bock, Hieronymus]. New Kreutterbuch von
underscheydt, wiirckung und namen der kreutter,...gedruckt zu Strassburg,
durch Wendel Rihel. 1539*.

(Another Edition). Kreuter Buch. Wendel Rihel. Strasburg, 1546.

(Another Edition). De stirpium, maxime earum, quae in Germania

nostra nascuntur...nunc in Latinam conversi, Interprete Davide Kybero...
(Colophon-?) Argentorati Excudebat Wendelinus Rihelius... 1552.

1542

Fuchsius, Leonhardus [Fuchs, Leonhard]. De historia stirpium...
Basileae, in officina Isingriniana.... 1542.

232 Appendix I

1551

Turner, William. A new Herball. Steven Mierdman. London, 155 1.

The seconde parte of Vuilliam Turners herball. Arnold Birckman.

Collen, 1562.

The first and seconde partes of the Herbal of William Turner. ..with

the Third parte, lately gathered.... Arnold Birckman. Collen. 1568.

1553

Amatus, Lusitanus [Castello Branco, J. R. de]. In Dioscoridis Ana-
zarbei de medica materia libros quinque enarrationes...Venetiis, 1553. {Colo-
phon :) apud Gualterum scotum.

Bellonius, Petrus [Belon, Pierre]. De arboribus coniferis, resiniferis,
aliis quoque nonnullis sempiterna fronde virentibus,... Parisiis Apud Gulielmum
Cavellat,... 1553.

Les Observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables,

trouve*es en Grece, Asie, Judee, Egypte, Arabie, et autres pays estranges,....
{Colophon^ Imprime - a Paris par Benoist Prevost.... 1553.

1554
Dodonaeus, Rembertus [Dodoens, Rembert]. Cruydeboeck. {Colo-
phon :) Ghedruckt Tantwerpen by Jan vander Loe.... 1554.

{Another Edition). Histoire des plantes,... Nouvellement traduitc.en

Francois par Charles de l'Escluse. Jean Loe. Anvers. 1557. [In the British
Museum there is a copy of this booh, annotated in manuscript by Henry Lyte.]

{Another Edition). A Nievve Herball, or Historie of Plantes :...nowe

first translated out of French into English, by Henry Lyte Esquyer. At London
by me Gerard Dewes.,.. 1578.

1559

Maranta, Bartholomaeus. Methodi cognoscendorum simplicium libri
tres. Venetiis, Ex officina Erasmiana Vincentii. Valgrisii, 1559.

I56l

- Cordus, Valerius. In hoc volumine continentur Valerii Cordi... Annota-
tions in Pedacii Dioscoridis... de Medica materia.. . eiusdem Val. Cordi historian
stirpium lib. nil.... Omnia. ..Conr. Gesneri...collecta, et prsfationibus illustrata.
{Colophon :) Argentorati excudebat Josias Rihelius. 1561.

1565

Mizaldus, Antonius [Mizauld, Antoine]. Alexikepus, seu auxiliaris
hortus,... Lutetise, Apud Federicum Morellum.... 1565.

{Another Edition). Artztgarten. ...neuwlich verteutschet durch Georgen

Benisch von Bartfeld...zu Basel bey Peter Perna. 1575.

Appendix I 233

1566

Dodonaeus, Rembertus [Dodoens, Rembert]. Frumentorum, legu-
minum, palustrium et aquatilium herbarum...historia. Antverpiae, Ex officina
Christophori Plantini. 1566 1 .

1568

Dodonaeus, Rembertus [Dodoens, Rembert]. Florum, et coronariarum
odoratarumque nonnullarum herbarum historia, Antverpiae, Ex officina Christo-
phori Plantini. 1568.

1569

Monardes, Nicolas. Dos libros, el veno que trat a de tod as las cosas
que traen de nuestras Indias Occidentales...Impressos en Sevilla en casa de
Hernando Diaz.... 1569.

Segunda parte del libro, de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias

Occidentales.... En sevilla En casa Alonso Escrivano. 1 57 1.

{Another Edition). Joyfull newes out of the newe founde worlde,

wherein is declared the rare and singuler vertues of diverse. ..Hearbes....
Englished by Jhon Frampton. London, W. Norton, 1577.

1570

Bombast von Hohenheim (Paracelsus). Ettliche Tractatus des hocher-
farnen unnd berambtesten Philippi Theophrasti Paracelsi.... I. Von Natiirlichen
dingen. II. Beschreibung etilcher kreiitter. III. Von Metallen. IV. Von
Mineralen. V. Von Edlen Gesteinen. Strassburg. Christian Midlers Erben.
1570.

1570— 1571

Lobelius, Mathias [de l'Obel or de Lobel, Mathias] and Pena, Petrus
[Pena, Pierre]. Stirpium adversaria nova. Londini. 157°- (Colophon:) Londini,
1 571. ...excudebat prelum Thomae Purfcetii.

(Another Edition). Nova stirpium adversaria,... Antverpiae Apud

Christophorum Plantinum. 1576. (Colophon:) Londini, excudebat prelum
Thomae Purfcetii.

(Another Edition). Plantarum seu stirpium historia,... Cui annexum

est Adversariorum volumen. Antverpiae, Ex officina Christophori Plantini.
1576.

(Another Edition). Kruydtbceck. T'Antvverpen. By Christoffel Plantyn.

1581.

1 E. H. F. Meyer (Geschichte der Botanik, Vol. 4, 1857, p. 344) refers to an edition
of this work published in 1565, but I have not been able to verify this date.

234 Appendix I

1571

Matthiolus, Petrus Andreas [Mattioli, Pierandrea]. Compendium De
Plantis omnibus,. ..de quibus scripsit suis in commentariis in Dioscoridem
editis.... Accessit praeterea ad calcem Opusculum de itinere, quo e Verona
in Baldum montem Plantarum refertissimum itur... Francisco Calceolario...
Venetiis, In Officina Valgrisiana. 1571.

Winckler, Nicolaus. Chronica herbarum, florum, seminum,... Augustae
Vindelicorum in officina Typographica Michaelis Mangeri. 1 571.

1574

Dodonseus, Rembertus [Dodoens, Rembert]. Purgantium aliarumque
eo facientum, turn et Radicum, Convolvulorum ac deleteriarum herbarum
historiae libri iiii. Antverpiae, Ex officina Christophori Plantini, 1574-

1575

Carrichter, Bartholomeeus. Kreutterbuch...Gedruckt zu Strassburg...
bey Christian Miiller. 1575.

1576

\^ Clusus, Carolus [l'Ecluse or l'Escluse, Charles de]. Caroli Clusii atrebat.
Rariorum aliquot stirpium per Hispanias obseryatarum Historia,... Antverpiae,
Ex officina Christophori Plantini,... 1576.

1578

Thurneisserus, Leonhardus [Thurneisser zum Thurn, Leonhardt].
Historia sive descriptio plantarum.... {Colophon-) Berlini Excudebat Michael
Hentzske. 1578.

{Another Edition). Historia unnd Beschreibung Influentischer, Ele-

mentischer und Natiirlicher Wirckungen, Aller fremden unnd Heimischen
Erdgewechssen.... {Colophon:) Gedruckt zu Berlin, bey Michael Hentzsken.
1578.

{Another Edition). Historia sive descriptio plantarum... Coloniae Agrip-

pinae, apud Joannem Gymnicum,... 1587.

1580

Dodonseus, Rembertus [Dodoens, Rembert]. Historia vitis vinique
et stirpium nonnullarum aliarum. Coloniae Apud Maternum Cholinum. 1580.

Appendix I 235

1581

Lobelius, Mathias [de l'Obel or de Lobel, Mathias]. Plantarum seu
stirpium icones. Antverpiae, Ex officina Christophori Plantini. 1581. [The
figures of Clusus, Lobelius and Dodonceus arranged according to the scheme of
Lobelius.]

1582— 1583

Rauwolff, Leonhard. Leonharti Rauwolfen,...Aigentliche beschreibung
der Raiss, so er vor diser zeit gegen Auffgang inn die Morgenlander,... {Colo-
phon-) Getruckt zu Laugingen, durch Leonhart Reinmichel. 1582, 1583. [This
is a book of travel, but the fourth part, which has a separate title-page, dated
1583, contains a number of wood-cuts of foreign plants^]

1583

Csesalpinus, Andreas [Cesalpino, Andrea]. De plantis libri xvi....
Florentiae, Apud Georgium Marescottum. 1583.

Clusius, Carolus [l'Ecluse or 1'Escluse, Charles de]. Car. Clusii atrebatis
Rariorum aliquot Stirpium, per Pannoniam, Austriam, et vicinas...Historia...
Antverpiae Ex officina Christophori Plantini. 1583.

Dodonaeus, Rembertus [Dodoens, Rembert]. Stirpium historian pemp- V
tades sex sive libri xxx. Antverpiae, Ex officina Christophori Plantini. 1583.

1584

Linocier, Geofroy. L'histoire des plantes, traduicte de latin en frangois :
...a Paris, Chez Charles Mace.... 1584.

1585
Durante, Castor. Herbario Nuovo.... Roma, Per Iacomo Bericchia, e
Iacomo Turnierii, 1585.

1586

Matthiolus, Petrus Andreas [Mattioli, Pierandrea]. De plantis Epi-
tome utilissima...aucta et locupletata, a D. Joachimo Camerario,...accessit,...
liber singularis de itinerc.in Baldum montem...auctore Francisco Calceolario
Francofurti ad Moenum. 1586.

1586— 1587

Dalechampius, Jacobus [d'Ale'champs or Dale'champs, Jacques]. His-
toria generalis plantarum,... Lugduni, apud Gulielmum Rovillium. 1586, 1587.

236 Appendix I

1588

Camerarius, Joachim. Hortus medicus et philosophicus:... Francofurti
ad Mcenum. 1588.

Icones accurate... delineatae praecipuarum stirpium, quarum descrip-

tiones tarn in Horto.... Impressum Francofurti ad Mcenum. 1588. [These
figtires are generally bound up with the ' Hortus medicus.']

Porta, Johannes Baptista [Porta, Giambattista]. Phytognomonica....
Neapoli, Apud Horatium Saluianum. 1588.

1588— 1591

Theodoras, Jacobus [Theodor, Jacob, or Tabernaemontanus, Jacobus
Theodorus]. Neuw Kreuterbuch,... [Nicolaus Bassaeus] Franckfurt am Mayn.
1588, 1591.

(Another Edition). Eicones plantarum seu stirpium. Nicolaus

Bassaeus, Francofurti ad Moenum, 1590. [This edition contains the figures
only.]

(Another Edition). Neuw vollkommentlich Kreuterbuch,... gemehret,

Durch Casparum Bauhinum.... Franckfurt am Mayn, Durch Nicolaum Hoff-
man, In verlegung Johannis Bassaei und Johann Dreutels. 161 3.

1590

Matthiolus, Petrus Andreas [Mattioli, Pierandrea]. Kreuterbuch...
gemehrt und gefertigt durch Joachimum Camerarium,... Frankfurt a/M., ge-
druckt bei Johann Feyerabend. 1590*.

(Another Edition). Kreutterbuch... gemehret, unnd verfertigt, Durch

Joachimum Camerarium. ..Gedruckt zu Franckfurt am Mayn. 1600.

1592

Alpinus, Prosper [Alpino, Prospero]. De plantis /Egypti.... Venetiis...
Apud Franciscum de Franciscis Senensem. 1592.

Oolumna, Pabius [Colonna, Fabio]. 4>YT0BAIAN0C sive plantarum
aliquot historia...Ex Officina Horatii Saluiani. Neapoli, 1592. Apud Io.
Jacobum Carlinum, et Antonium Pacem.

Zaluzian, Adam Zaluziansky von. Methodi herbariae, libri tres.
Pragae, in officina Georgii Dacziceni. 1592.

1596

Bauhinus, Caspar [Bauhin, Gaspard]. 0YTOTTINAE seu enumeratio
plantarum.... Basileae, per Sebastianum Henricpetri. 1596.

Appendix I 237

1597

Gerard, John [Gerarde, John]. The Herball or Generall Historic of
Plantes.... Imprinted at London by John Norton. 1597.

{Another Edition). The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes....

Very much Enlarged and Amended by Thomas Johnson Citizen and Apothe-
carye of London. London, Printed by Adam Islip, Joice Norton and Richard
Whitakers. 1633. {Reprinted 1636.]

I60I

Bauhinus, Caspar [Bauhin, Gaspard]. Animadversiones in historiam
generalem plantarum Lugduni editam.... Francoforti, Excudebat Melchior
Hartmann, Impensis Nicolai Bassasi... 1601.

Clusius, Carolus [l'Eduse or PEscluse, Charles de]. Caroli Clusii atre-
batis,...rariorum plantarum historia.... Antverpiaa Ex omcina Plantiniana Apud
Joannem Moretum. 1601.

I606

Columna, Fabius [Colonna, Fabio]. Minus cognitarum stirpium aliquot,
EK<t>PAZIC... Romae. Apud Guilielmum Facciottum. 1606.
Pars altera. Romae. Apud Jacobum Mascardum. 1616.

Spigelius, Adrianus. Isagoges in rem herbariam Libri Duo.... Patavii,
Apud Paulum Meiettum. Ex Typographia Laurentii Pasquati. 1606.

l609

Durante, Castor. Hortulus Sanitatis, Das ist, Ein...Gahrtlin der Ge-
sundtheit...in unsere hoch Teutsche Sprach versetzt, Durch Petrum Uffen-
bachium,...Getruckt zu Franckfort am Mayn, durch Nicolaum Hoffmann....
1609.

l6ll

Renealmus, Paulus [Reneaulme, Paul]. Specimen Historian Plantarum.
Parisiis, Apud Hadrianum Beys... 161 1.

I6I3

Beslerus, Basilius [Besler, Basil]. Hortus Eystettensis...[Eichstadt].
1613.

l6l4

Passseus, Crispian [Passe, Crispin de or Crispian de]. Hortus floridus
...Extant Arnhemii Apud Ioannem Ianssonium... 1614.

{Another Edition). A Garden of Flowers.... Printed at Utrecht By

Salomon de Roy. 1615.

238 Appendix I

1616

Olorinus, Johannes [Sommer, Johann, aus Zwickau]. Centuria Her-
barum Mirabilium Das ist : Hundert Wunderkrauter.... Magdeburgk, Bey
Levin Braunss.... 1616.

Centuria Arborum Mirabilium Das ist: Hundert Wunderbaume....

Magdeburgk, Bey Levin Braunss.... 161 6.

l6l9

Bauhinus, Joannes [Bauhin, Jean] and Cherlerus, J. H. [Cherler, J. H.].
J. B....et J. H. C... .historian plantarum generalis...prodromus.... Ebroduni, Ex
Typographia Societatis Caldorian?e. 1619.

{Another Edition). Historia plantarum universalis.. .Quam recensuit

et auxit...Chabraeus...publici fecit, Fr. Lud. a Graffenried.... Ebroduni,
1650, 51.

1620

Bauhinus, Caspar [Bauhin, Gaspard]. TTPOAPOMOS Theatri bota-
nici.... Francofurti ad Mcenum, Typis Pauli Jacobi, impensis Joannis Treudelii.
1620.

1623

Bauhinus, Caspar [Bauhin, Gaspard]. TTINAE theatri botanici....
Basileas Helvet. Sumptibus et typis Ludovici Regis. 1623.

1625

Popp, Johann [Poppe, Johann]. Krauter Buch...nach rechter art der
Signaturen der himlischen Einfliessung nicht allein beschrieben,... Leipzig, In
Verlegung Zacharia? Schiirers, und Matthiae Gotzen... 1625.

1628

Brosse, Guy de la. De la nature, vertu, et utilite des plantes.... A Paris,
Chez Rollin Baragnes... 1628.

I629

Johnson, Thomas. Descriptio itineris plantarum investigationis...in
agrum Cantianum.... (London, 1629.)*

{Afiother Edition). Descriptio Itineris Plantarum.. .in Agrum Can-
tianum... et Enumeratio Plantarum in Ericeto Hampstediano locisque vicinis
Crescentium.... Excudebat, Tho. Cotes. [London] 1632.

Appendix I 239

Parkinson, John. Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris. A Garden
of all sorts of pleasant flowers which our English ayre will permitt to be noursed
up:... {Colophon:) London, Printed by Humfrey Lownes and Robert Young
at the signe of the Starre on Bread-street hill. 1629.

{Another Edition). Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris... Faithfully

Reprinted from the Edition of 1629. Methuen & Co. London, 1904.

163I

Donati, Antonio. Trattato de semplici,... in Venetia,...Appresso Pietro
Maria Bertano. 1631.

1634

Johnson, Thomas. Mercurius Botanicus :... Londini, Excudebat Thom.
Cotes. 1634.

164O

Parkinson, John. Theatrum botanicum : The Theater of Plants. Or,
an Herball of a Large Extent.... London, Printed by Tho. Cotes. 1640.

I649

Oulpeper, Nicholas. A Physicall Directory or A translation of the
London Dispensatory Made by the Colledge of Physicians in London... with
many hundred additions.... London, Printed for Peter Cole... 1649.

{Another Edition). The English Physitian enlarged.... London,

Printed by Peter Cole... 1653.

1650

How, William. Phytologia Britannica, natales exhibens Indigenarum
Stirpium sponte Emergentium. Londoni, Typis Ric. Cotes, Impensis, Octaviani
Pulleyn. 1650.

I656

Bombast von Hohenheim [Paracelsus]. Paracelsus his Dispensatory
and Chirurgery.... Faithfully Englished, by W. D., London: Printed by T. M.
for Philip Chetwind.... 1656.

Cole, "William [Coles, William]. The Art of Simpling. London, Printed
by J. G. for Nath : Brook. 1656.

1657

Cole, William [Coles, William]. Adam in Eden : or, Natures Paradise....
London, Printed by J. Streater, for Nathaniel Brooke.... 1657.

240 Appendix I

1658

Bauhinus, Caspar [Bauhin, Gaspard]. Caspari Bauhini...Theatri botanici
sive historian plantarum... liber primus editus opera et cura Io. Casp. Bauhini.
Basileae. Apud Joannem Konig. 1658.

1659

Lovell, Robert. TTAMBOTANOAOriA, sive Enchiridion botanicum,
or a compleat Herball.... Oxford, Printed by William Hall, for Ric. Davis....
1659.

1662

Jonstonus, Johannes [Jonston or Johnstone, John]. Dendrographias
Sive Historiae Naturalis de Arboribus et Fruticibus...libri decern.... Franco-
furti ad Moenum. Typis Hieronymi Polichii. Sumptibus Haeredum Matthaei
Meriani. 1662.

I664

Turner, Robert. BOTANOA6riA. The Brittish Physician: or, The
Nature and Vertues of English Plants. London, Printed by R. Wood for Nath.
Brook. 1664.

1666

Chabraeus, Dominicus. Stirpium icones et sciagraphia.... Genevae,
Typis Phil. Gamoneti et lac. de la Pierre. 1666.

I667

Aldrovandus, Ulysses [Aldrovandi, Ulissej. Ulyssis Aldrovandi...
Dendrologiae naturalis scilicet arborum historiae libri duo.... Bononiae typis
Jo. Baptistae Ferronii. 1667.

1670

Nylandt, Petrus. De Nederlandtse Herbarius of Kruydt-Boeck,...t' Am-
sterdam, voor Marcus Doornick,...i67o.

APPENDIX II

A LIST, IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER, OF THE PRINCIPAL
CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL WORKS DEALING WITH
THE SUBJECTS DISCUSSED IN THIS BOOK.

Albertus Magnus. See Fellner, S. ; Meyer, E. and Jessen, C. ; Pouchet,
F. A.

Alcock, Randal H. Botanical Names for English Readers. London, 1876.

Amherst, the Hon. Alicia [The Hon. Mrs Evelyn Cecil]. Bibliography of
Works on Gardening. Reprinted from the Second Edition of 'A History
of Gardening in England.' London, 1897.

Apuleius Platonicus. See Cockayne, O. ; Payne, J. F. (1903).

Arber, A. See Robertson, A.

Avoine, P. J. d'. See Morren, C.

Bauhin, Gaspard. See Hess, J. W.

Blades, W. The Plantin Museum. Macmillan's Magazine. Vol. 38, p. 282.
London and New York, 1878.

Breitkopf, J. G. I. Versuch den Ursprung der Spielkarten,...und den Anfang
der Holzschneidekunst in Europa zu erforschen. Vol. II. Leipzig, 1801.

Britten, James. The Names of Herbes, by William Turner, A.D. 1548.
Edited by James Britten. London, 1881,

Busbecq, A.-G. See Kickx, J.

Camerarius, J. See Irmisch, T. H.

Camus, Giulio. L'Opera Salernitana 'Circa Instans' ed il testo primitivo
del 'Grant Herbier en Francoys.' Memorie della Reglia Accademia di Scienze,
Lettere ed Arti in Modena. Ser. II. Vol. IV. Mem. della Sezione di Lettere,
p. 49. 1886.

Choulant, Ludwig. Botanische und anatomische Abbildungen des Mittel-
alters. Archiv fur die zeichenden Kunste. Jahrg. III. p. 188. Leipzig,
1857.

A. l6

242 Appendix II

Choulant, Ludwig. Handbuch der Biicherkunde fur die aeltere Medicin.
Leipzig, 1828.

Choulant, Ludwig. Macer Floridus de viribus herbarum... secundum codices
manuscriptos...recensuit...Ludovicus Choulant.... Lipsiae, 1832.

Clusius, Carolus. See Istvanffi, Gy. de ; Legre*, Ludovic ; Roze, E ;
Morren, E.

Cockayne, O. Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England.
Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages.
Rolls Series, Vol. 1. 1864. [Translation of Herbarittm of Apuleius Pla-
tonicus.]

Colvin, Sir Sidney. Early Engraving and Engravers in England [1545 —
1695]. London, 1905.

Conrad von Megenberg. See Pfeiffer, Fr.

Copinger, W. A. Supplement to Hain's Repertorium Bibliographicum.
London, 1895, 1898, 1902.

Cordus, V. See Irmisch, T. H.

Czerny, J. See Maiwald, V.

Daubeny, Charles. Lectures on Roman Husbandry. Oxford, 1857.

Degeorge, Le*on. La Maison Plantin a Anvers. Deuxieme edition.
Bruxelles, 1878.

Dioscorides. Codex Aniciae Julianae picturis illustratus, nunc Vindobonensis
Med. Gr. I. phototypice editus. Moderante Josepho de Karabacek. Lugduni
Batavorum, 1906.

Dodoens, Rembert. See Dodonaeus, Rembertus.

Dodonaeus, Rembertus. See Meerbeck, P. J. van ; Morren, C. and d'Avoine,
P.J.

Duff, E. Gordon. Early Printed Books. [Books about Books, edited by
A. W. Pollard.] London, 1893.

Fellner, Stephan. Albertus Magnus als Botaniker. Jahres-Ber. des kais.
kon. Ober-Gymnasiums zu den Schotten in Wien. Wien, 1881.

Gerard, J. See Jackson, B. D.

Gesner, Konrad. See Jardine, Sir W. ; Simler, Josias ; Trew, C. J.

Giacosa, Piero. Magistri Salernitani nondum editi. Catalogo ragionato
della esposizione di storia della medicina aperta in Torino nel 1898. Torino,
1 90 1. [In 2 parts, text and atlas, ,]

Green, E. L. Landmarks of Botanical History. A study of Certain Epochs
in the Development of the science of Botany. Pt. 1. Prior to 1562 A.D. Smith-
sonian Misc. Coll. No. 1870. Pt. of Vol. 54, Washington, 1909.

Hain, Ludwig. Repertorium Bibliographicum. Stuttgart, Tubingen and
Paris, 1826, 1827, 1831, 1838.

Appendix II 243

Haller, Albertus von [Haller, Albrecht von]. Bibliotheca botanica. Tiguri,
1771, 1772.

Hartmann, Franz. The Life of Philippus Theophrastus Bombast of Hohen-
heim known by the name of Paracelsus. 2nd ed. London, 1896.

Hatton, Richard G. The Craftsman's Plant-Book. London, 1909.

Henslow, G. Medical Works of the Fourteenth Century together with a
List of Plants Recorded in Contemporary Writings, with their Identifications.
London, 1899.

Hess, J. W. Kaspar Bauhin's,...Leben und Charakter. Basel, i860.

Irmisch, T. H. Ueber einige Botaniker des 16. Jahrhunderts. Off. Priifung
des f. Schwartzburg. Gymnasiums zu Sondershausen. Sondershausen, 1862.
[This memoir includes an account of Valerius Cordus and Joachim Camerarius
the younger.']

Istvanffi, Gy. de. Caroli Clusii Atrebatis Icones Fungorum in Pannonis
Observatorum sive Codex Clusii Lugduno Batavensis...cura et sumptibus Di^
Gy. de Istvanffi. Budapestini, 1898 — 1900. [The part issued in 1900 includes
a biography.]

Jackson, B. Daydon. A Catalogue of Plants cultivated in the Garden of
John Gerard, In the years 1596 — 1599- Edited. ..by B. D. Jackson. London,
1876. [This work includes a life of Gerard.]

Jackson, B. Daydon. Guide to the Literature of Botany. London,
1881.

Jackson, B. Daydon. Libellus de re herbaria novus, by William Turner,
originally published in 1538, reprinted in facsimile, with notes, modern names,
and a life of the author by B. D. J. London, 1877.

Jackson, B. Daydon. The History of Botanic Illustration. Trans. Hert-
fordshire Nat. Hist. Soc. Vol. XII. p. 145, 1906 (for 1903 — 1905).

Jackson, J., and Chatto, W. A. A treatise on Wood Engraving, 2nd ed.
London, 1861.

Jardine, Sir W. The Naturalist's Library. Edited by Sir William Jardine.
Vol. xii. Memoir of Gesner. Edinburgh, 1843.

Kickx, J. Esquisses sur les ouvrages de quelques anciens naturalistes
beiges. Bull, de l'acad. royale des sciences et belles-lettres de Bruxelles. Vol.
V. p. 202, 1838. [This memoir deals with Auger-Gislain Busbecq.]

Killermann, Seb. Zur ersten Einfuhrung amerikanischer Pflanzen im 16.
Jahrhundert. Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift. Neue Folge, Bd. VIII.
p. 193, 1909.

Killermann, Seb. A. Durers Pflanzen- und Tierzeichnungen und ihre Bedeu-
tung fur die Naturgeschichte. Studien zur deutschen Kunstgeschichte. 119
Heft. Strassburg, 19 10.

Konrad von Megenberg. See Pfeiffer, Fr.

16 — 2

244 Appendix II

l'Ecluse or l'Escluse, Charles de. See Clusius, Carolus.

Legre", Ludovic. La Botanique en Provence au xvi e siecle. Pierre Pena et
Mathias de Lobel. Marseille, 1899. Louis Anguillara, Pierre Belon, Charles
de l'Escluse, Antoine Constantin. Marseille, 1901.

L'Obel or Lobel, Mathias de. See Lobelius, Mathias.

Lobelius, Mathias. See Morren, E.

Macer Floridus. See Choulant, Ludwig.

Macfarlane, John. Antoine Ve'rard. Bibliographical Society. Illustrated
Monographs, No. 7. London, 1900 [for 1899].

Maiwald, V. Geschichte der Botanik in Bohmen. Wien und Leipzig,
1904. [This book contains an account of the work of Czerny and Zalu2iansky.]

Meerbeeck, P. J. van. Recherches historiques et critiques sur la vie et les
ouvrages de Rembert Dodoens (Dodonaeus). Malines, 1841.

Meyer, E. H. F. Geschichte der Botanik. Konigsberg, 1854 — 1857. [The
standard work on the history of botany to the end of the 16th century.]

Meyer, E. H. F., and Jessen, C. Alberti Magni ex ordine praedicatorum de
vegetabilibus libri vn,...editionem criticam ab Ernesto Meyero coeptam absolvit
Carolus Jessen. Berolini, 1867.

Morren, E. Charles de l'Escluse, sa vie et ses ceuvres, 1526 — 1609. Lie'ge,
1875. [There are some original notes in a review of this work by B. D. Jackson,
Journal of Botany, Vol. XIII. {New Series, Vol. IV.) 1875,/. 345-]

Morren, E. Matthias de l'Obel, sa vie et ses ceuvres, 1538 — 1616. Extrait
du Bull, de la Fed. des Soc. d'hort. de Belgique. Liege, 1875.

Morren, C, et d'Avoine, P. J. Eloge de Rembert Dodoens,. ..suivi de la
Concordance des especes ve'ge'tales decrites et figurees par Rembert Dodoens
avec les noms que Linne" et les auteurs modernes leur ont donnas. Malines,
1850.

Muther, Richard. Die deutsche Biicherillustration der Gothik und Fruhre-
naissance (1460— 1530). Miinchen und Leipzig, 1884.

Netter, William. See Peters, Hermann.

Paracelsus. See Hartmann, Franz ; Strunz, Franz; Weber, F. P.

Payne, J. F. English Herbals. Trans. Bibl. Soc. Vol. IX. p. 120, 1908 (for
1906 — 1908) [summary of a paper].

Payne, J. F. English Herbals. Trans. Bibl. Soc. Vol. XL p. 299, 19 12 (for
1910 — 191 1 ). [This article is a reprint of the earlier paper of the same title,
with figures.]

Payne, J. F. Old Herbals : German and Italian. The Magazine of Art.
Vol. viil. p. 362, 1885.

Payne, J. F. On the 'Herbarius' and ' Hortus Sanitatis.' Trans. Bibl.
Soc. Vol. VI. p. 63, 1903 (for 1900— 1902).

Appendix II 245

Peters, Hermann. Pictorial History of Ancient Pharmacy... Translated by
Dr William Netter. Chicago, 1889.

Pfeiffer, Franz. Das Buch der Natur von Konrad von Megenberg...heraus-
gegeben von Dr Franz Pfeiffer. Stuttgart, 1861.

Pitton Tournefort, Josephus. Institutiones rei herbaria?. Ed. altera. Tomus
primus. Parisiis, 1700. [Pp. 1—75 of this work are concerned with the history
of botany .]

Plantin, C. See Blades, W. ; Degeorge, L. ; Rooses, M.

Pouchet, F. A. Histoire des sciences naturelles au moyen age ou Albert le
Grand et son dpoque, considers comme point de depart de Pe'cole experimentale.
Paris, 1853.

Pritzel, G. A. Thesaurus literaturae botanicse...editionem novam reforma-
tam.... Lipsiae, 1872.

Pulteney, Richard. Historical and Biographical Sketches of the Progress of
Botany in England, from its Origin to the Introduction of the Linnean System.
London, 1790.

Robertson, A. [Arber, A.]. English Herbals. Popular Science Monthly.
Vol. LXV. p. 65, 1904.

Rooses, Max. Christophe Plantin imprimeur anversois. [2nd ed.] Anvers,
1890. *

Roth, F. W. E. Jacob Theodor aus Bergzabern, genannt Tabernaemon-
tanus. Botanische Zeitung. Jahrg. 57, Abth 1. p. 105, 1899.

Roze, Ernest. Charles de l'Escluse d' Arras le propagateur de la pomme de
terre au xvi e siecle. Sa biographie et sa correspondance. Paris, 1899.

Sachs, Julius von. History of Botany [1530 — 1860]. Transl. by H. E. F.
Garnsey. Oxford, 1890.

Schelenz, Hermann. Geschichte der Pharmazie. Berlin, 1904.

Simler, Josias. Vita...Conradi Gesneri...Tiguri excudebat Froschouerus.
1566.

Sprengel, K. P. J. Geschichte der Botanik. Altenburg und Leipzig. 1817,
18.

Sprengel, K. P. J. Theophrast's Naturgeschichte der Gewachse. Ueber-
setzt und erlautert von K. Sprengel. Altona, 1822.

Strunz, Franz. Theophrastus Paracelsus. Das Buch Paragranum. Heraus-
gegeben und eingeleitet von D. phil. Franz Strunz. Leipzig, 1903.

Tabernaemontanus, Jacobus Theodorus. See Theodor, Jacob.

Theodor, Jacob. See Roth, F. W. E.

Theophrastus. See Sprengel, K. P. J.

Treviranus, L. C. Die Anwendung des Holzschnittes zur bildlichen Dar-
stellung von Pflanzen. Leipzig, 1855.

Trew, C. J. Librorum botanicorum catalogi duo.... Norimbergae Stanno
Fleischmanniano. 1752.

246 Appendix II

Trew, C. J. Opera botanica per duo saecula desiderata... ex bibliotheca
D. Christophori Jacobi Trew. Norimbergae impensis Jo. Mich. Seligmanni.
Typis Jo. Josephi Fleischmanni, 175 1.

Turner, William. See Britten, James ; Jackson, B. D.

Vdrard, A. See Macfarlane, J.

Weber, F. P. A Portrait Medal of Paracelsus on his Death in 1541. Re-
printed from the Numismatic Chronicle. Vol. xm. 3rd ser., pp. 60—71.
London, 1893.

Winckler, Emil. Geschichte der Botanik. Frankfurt a. M. 1854.

Wootton, A. C. Chronicles of Pharmacy. London, 1910.

Zaluziansky, A. See Maiwald, V.

INDEX

Achillea 144

Adam in Eden of Cole 210

Adder's-tongue Fern 210, 211

"Adversaria," Definition of the word 78

^Emilius Macer 40

/Esculapius 7, 36

Aggregator de Simplicibus, see Herbarius,

The Latin
Albartus Magnus, see Albertus Magnus
Albert, Bishop of Ratisbon, see Albertus

Magnus
Albert of Bollstadt, see Albertus Magnus
Albertus Magnus 3 — 5, 7, 116, 119, 120,

134—136

Albertus Magnus, Work erroneously attri-
buted to 5, 215

Aldrovandi, U. 198

Alechamps, J. d' 74, 93, 97 — 99, 112, 143,
145, 151, 196

Alfred, King 35

Algae 151

"Alleluya" 45

Aloe 146, 177

Alpino, Prospero 88 — 90, 196, 197

Alpinus, P., see Alpino, P.

Amatus Lusitanus 9, 62

Amber 30, 31

American plants, described by Monardes
104 — 106

American plants, figured by Fuchs 62

Anatomy of Plants 7, 116, 221

Andrew, L. 45, 46

Andrewe, L., see Andrew, L.

Anemone hepatica 146

Angiosperms 151

Annotationes...Dioscoridis of Cordus 66

Antony (Marcus Antonius) 8

Antwerp, Printing at 70 — 72

Apollo 36

Apothecaries' Company, A botanical ex-
cursion of the 113

Apuleius Platonicus 11 — 12

Apuleius Platonicus, The Herbarium of
11—15, 16, 28, 35—37, 155— 157, 159,
204, 223

Aquilegia 120

Arab physicians 3

A r bo lay re 24

"Arbor trislis" 85, 86

Arboribus, De of Belon 196

Argemone 148

Aristolochia 43

Aristotelian botany 2 — 5, 116 — 118

Aristotle 2 — 4, 6, 19, 116, 119

Arnaldus, see Arnold de Nova Villa

Arnold de Nova Villa 17, 18

Art of Simpling, The of Cole 211, 219

Artemisia (Wormwood or Mugwort) 36,

43. 45. 57. 58, 219
Aru?n 146, 157, 180
Askham, Anthony 39
Ashham's Herbal 39, 40
Asparagus 175
Aspen 5

Astragalus tragacantha 144
Astrology 214

Astrology, Botanical 39, 212 — 220
Augsburg, Books printed at 11, 14, 19.

i57> 165
"Auricula muns" 175
Avicenna 21, 206, 207

Bamler, H. n

Banckes, R. 38, 40

Banckes" 1 Herbal 38 — 40, 122

Barberry 197

"Barnakle Tree" 109— 113

Bartholomaeus Anglicus 10, n, 38, 158

Bartholomew de Glanville, see Bartholo-

masus Anglicus
Basilisk, 32

Basing House, Siege of 113
Basle, Books printed at 60, no
Basle, University of 90, 93, 94
Bassceus, N. 68

Batthyany, Baron Boldizsar de 77, 78
Bauhin, Caspar, see Bauhin, Gaspard
Bauhin, Gaspard 80, 88, 93, 94—96, 98,

115, 130—132, 136, 139, 140, 148, I5°»

151, 152, 222, 224, 226
Bauhin, Jean 74, 93, 94, 96, 98, 99, 192,

222, 226
Bauhinus, see Bauhin
"Bausor" 29
Bay Tree 215
Bean 3, 154
Beech 5
Bellonius, P., see Belon, P.

248

Index

Belon, P. 196

" Bernicles," Gyraldus and Octavian on

112
Besler, B. 200

"Beta Cretica semine aculeato" 130
"Beta nigra" 130
Bird's-nest Orchid 148
Blankaart, S. 202
Boccone, P. 202
Bock, H. (Tragus, H.) 35, 47, 50 — 58, 60,

64, 67, 68, 103, 124, 125, 138, 175, 184,

185, 222, 226
Bodleian Library, Oxford 35
Boece, H., see Boethius, H.
Boethius, H. in, 112
Boke of Secretes of Albartus Magnus, The

215
Bologna, University of 68, 101
Bombastus von Hohenheim, see Para-
celsus
Book of Nature, The, of Konrad von

Megenberg 10, 11, 157, 158, 167, 223
Borage 120
Braunschweig, Hieronymus 24, 45, 46,

168
Bred well, S. 109
Brimen, Marie de 78
British Museum, The 33, 65, 106
Broomrape 104, 148
Brosse, G. de la 117, 118, 212
Brunfels, O. 22, 47 — 50, 60, 64, 67, 122,

124, i3 8 . 162,168—174, 175, 177, 180,

185, 189, 199
Brunfelsius, 0., see Brunfels, O.
Bugloss 43
Bull-nut 185
Burleigh, Lord 108
Busbecq, A. G. 84, 85
Butterbur, 125
Buttercup, Meadow 158

Cabbage 180

Csesalpinus, A., see Cesalpino, A.

Caltha 146

Camerarius, J., the younger 68, 69, 88, 92,

192—196, 199, 224
Camus, G. 24
Candolle, A. P. de 140
" Capillus Veneris" 38, 161
Carrichter, B. 215
Carrot 122
Cary, W. 39
Cary's Herbal 39
Celandine, The Greater 170
Celandine, The Lesser 175
Centaurea rhaponticum 107
Centaurs 45
Cesalpino, A. 5, 68, 101, 116 — 117, 136,

151. 152, 153
Chabroeus, D. 192
Cherler, J. H. 93
Chestnut Tree 185
Chicory 122, 165
Chimay, Princesse de 78

Chiron 36

Choulant, Dr L. 15, 24

Chronica herbarum of Winckler 215

Circa instans 24, 140

Clematis 191

Cleopatra 8

Clover 146

Clusius, C., see l'Ecluse, C. de

Cockayne, Dr O. 35

Codex Anicice Juliana, see Dioscorides

Codex Vossianus, Leyden Library 154

Coffee plant 90

Cole, W. 210 — 211, 219, 220

Coles, W., see Cole, W.

Cologne, Books printed at 102

Colonna, F. 86 — 88, 112, 113, 138, 139,

199
Columbine 170

Columna, F., see Colonna, F.
Comfrey 165
Conimentarii...Dioscoridis of Mattioli 81 —

85, 94, 186 — 190
Composites (Composite) 144, 145, 151
Compton, H., Bishop of London 202
Convallaria . majalfc (Lily-of-the- Valley)

3 6 . 158
Copland, W. 39
Copland's Herbal 39, 40
Coral 43, 151
Cordus, E. 65
Cordus, V. 47, 65 — 67, 130
Cosmographia of Sebastian Muenster no
Craftsman's Plant-Book, The, of Hatton

"Crowfoote" 127

Cruciferoe 145

Cruydeboeck of Dodoens 62, 72, 106, 190

Cryptogams 135, 151

Cuba, Dr J. von, see Cube, Dr J. von

Cube, Dr J. von 18

Cube's Herbal, see Herbarius, The German

Cuckoo-pint 45

Cucurbita maxima 61

" Cukowes Meate" 45

Culpeper, N. 218—220

Cuscuta (Dodder) 22, 125, 162

Cuvier, G. L. C. F. D. 76

Cuyp, A. 200

Dalechampius, J., see Alechamps, J. d'

Dalechamps, J., see Alechamps, J. d'

Date seedling 196

Dead Nettle 125

Dendrologia of Aldrovandi 198

Desmoulins, J. 98, 99

"Devylles Bytte" 45

Diana 36, 45

Dicotyledons 79, 135, 136, 145, 146, 153

Dioscorides 8 — 9, n, 21, 50, 62, 64, 66,

74, 82, 85, 88, 98, 104, 120, 136
Dioscorides, the Vienna manuscript of

{Codex Anicice Juliana) 8, 85, 154, 155,

190
Dispensatorium, The Nuremberg 66

Index

249

Distillation Book of Hieronymus Braun-
schweig 45, 46, 168

Dodder 22, 125, 162

Dodoens, R. 64, 68, 72—74, 76, 79, 103,
106, 108, 109, 125, 127, 133, 143, 145,
146, 190, 196, 199, 211, 222

Dodonreus, R., see Dodoens, R.

" Dracontea" 157

Dragon Tree 190

Drake, Sir Francis 76

Drosera (Sundew) 146, 151

Duckweed 45

Durante, C. 85, 86, 196

Diirer, A. 169, 170, 180

Earth-nut Pea 177
Edward VI, King 100, 101
Egenolph, C. 62, 64 — 65, 70, 174, 175
Eicones plantartim of Theodor (Tabernse-

montanus) 68, 109
Ekphrasis of Colonna 88, 138, 139, 199
"Elebore," see Hellebore
"Elements," The four 19, 20, 41
Elizabeth, Queen 78, 100, 102
Emo, G. 90
Encyclopedia of Bartholomseus Anglicus

10, ir, 38, 158, 159
English Physician enlarged, The, of

Culpeper 218
Epitome... Matthioli of Camerarius 68, 193
Erasmus, D. 93
Erfurt, University of 58
Erodium \ii
"Everfern" 120

Fantin-Latour, H. 180

"Father of British Botany, The" 100

Ferdinand, Archduke 81

Fern 38, 55, 146, 151

Fern, Royal 55

Ferrara, Books printed at 24

Ferrara, University of 101

Flavius Anicius, The Emperor 8

" Flower, The," Dodoens' definition of 127

Frankfort, Books published at 64, 68

Frederick III, Count Palatine 68

Frogbit 148

"Frogges Fote" 45

Fuchs, L. 47, 55, 58 — 64, 66, 68, 72, 80,
9 2 > 93. 94. 9 8 » 101, 102, 103, 106, 124,
"5, I33> 138, 175—185, 186, 189, 190,
196, 199, 224, 226

Fuchsius, L., see Fuchs, L.

Fullmaurer, H. 180

Fungi 31, 77, 134, 140, 148

Gaius Plinius Secundus, see Pliny, the

Elder
Galen 21, 42, 206, 207
Garden, Botanical, at Padua 90
Garden at Hackney, Lord Zouche's 78
Garden at Nuremberg, Camerarius' 68
Garden in Holborn, Gerard's 108, 1 13
Garden in Long Acre, Parkinson's 113

Garden on Snow Hill, Johnson's 113

Gardens, Lord Burleigh's 108

Gardyn of helth 33

Gart der Gesuntheit 32

Gart d'gesuntheyt 21

Gentian 138

"Genus," meaning of the term 138 — 140

Geraniaceae 145

"Geranion" 127

Gerard, J. 64, 68, 103, 108—110, 113,

116, 130, 192, 199
Gerarde, J., see Gerard, J.
German Fathers of Botany, The 47, 58,

65, 67, 122, 204
Gesner, K. 68, 80, 88, 90 — 93, 101, 104,

138, 192, 193, 199, 224
Ghini, L. 84, 101
Glasswort 90, 197
"Goose Tree" 109 — 113
Grant Herbier, Le 24, 40
Grasses 151
Green, T. 212
Grete Herball, The 24, 34, 38, 40 — 45,

103, 121, 122, 140, 168, 196
Grew, N. 7, 100, 116, 132
Guiditius, H., see Weiditz, H.
Gyraldus on "Bernicles" 112

Hackney, Lord Zouche's garden at 78
Harpy 32

Hart's-tongue Fern 175
Hatton, R. G. 174, 194
"Heart Trefoyle" 211
Hellebore ("Elebore") 8, 44
Henbane (Hyoscyamus) 45, 148
Henrietta Maria, Queen 114
Henry VII, King 33, 65
Henry VIII, King 100, 106
"Herbal," Definition of the term 11
Herball, The Grete 24, 34, 38, 40 — 45,

103, 121, 122, 140, 168, 196
Herball, The, of Gerard 64, 68, 108—110,

«3> 130

Herbario Nuovo of Durante 85, 196
Herbarium of Apuleius Platonicus 11 —

13, 14, 16, 28, 35—37, 120, 155—157,

159, 204, 223
Herbarius in Latino, see Herbarius, The

Latin
Herbarius Moguntinus, see Herbarius, T7ie

Latin
Herbarius Patavinus, see Herbarius, The

Latin
Herbarius, The German 13, 14, 15, 18—

23, 24, 25, 28, 40, 41, 64, 120, i>S, 157,

162 — 165, 166, 168, 175, 202, 214, 223
Herbarius, The Latin 13, 14, 15, 16 — 18,

22, 120, 138, 157, 159, 160, 161, 162,

223
Herbarius, The Latin, Venetian edition

called Arnold de Villa Noi'ols herbal

17, 18, 161, 162, 172, 196
Herbarius zu Teutsch, see Herbarius, The

German

250

Index

Herbarum vivce eicones of Brunfels 22, 50,

122, 168 — 172, 196, 224
Herbier, Le Grant 24, 40
Hercules 7
Here begynneth a newe mater, see Banches'

Herbal
Hermann, P. 202
Heron, J. 33

Histoire des plantes, L\ of Linocier 98
Histpire des plantes of Dodoens and de

l'Ecluse 72, 127
Histoire universelle des plantes of Jean

Bauhin 93
Historia animalium of Gesner 91, 104
Historia...Erdgezvechssen of Thurneisser

216
Historia generalis plantarum of d' Ale-
champs 62, 94, 98 — 99, 143, 196
Historia naturalis of Jonston no
Historia plantarum Lugdunensis, see

Historia generalis plantarum of d'Ale-

champs
Historia... plantarum of Thurneisser 216 —

218
Historia plantaru?n universalis of Jean

Bauhin and Cherler 62, 93
Historia stirpium, De, of Fuchs 55, 58 —

64, 124, 125, 175—183, 185, 224
Historia stirpium of Cordus 66
History of Plants of Theophrastus 2
Hohenheim, von, see Paracelsus
Holborn, Gerard's garden in 108, 113
Hortulus Sanitatis of Durante 85
Hortus Eystetlensis of Besler 200
Hortus Floridus of de Passe 200, 202, 224
Hortus medicus et philosophicus of Came-

rarius 68, 69, 194
Hortus Sanitatis, see Ortus Sanitatis
Hydra 31
Hydrocharis 148
Hyoscyamus (Henbane) 45, 148
Hypecoum 148
Hypericacese 145
Hystory & croniklis of Scotland of Boe-

thius in, 112

/cones et Descriptiones of Boccone 202

"Incunabula" 10

Indian Corn 62

Inflorescences, Theophrastus on 2

Ingolstadt, University of 58

Iris 161, 165

Iris fstidissima 8

Isaac Judaeus 42

Isengrin, M., see Isingrin, M.

Isidor of Seville 3

Isingrin, M. 60

Ivy 5

Jackson, Dr B. Daydon 191
James I 78

fardin de Sante", Le 33
Jerome of Brunswick, see Braunschweig,
Hieronymus

Job's Tears 190

Johnson, T. 113, 192

Jonston, J. no

Joyfull newes of Monardes 105 — 106

Juliana Anicia 8

Juliana Anicia's Manuscript of Dioscorides,

see Dioscorides
Jung, J. 133
Jussieu, A. L. de 140
Justinian 8

Kammermeister, see Camerarius
Kandel, D. 55, 185, 186
Killermann, Prof. S. 170
Konrad von Megenberg, 10, 157
Kreuterbuch, Neuw, of Tabernsemontanus,

see Kreuterbuch, Neuw, of Theodor
Kreuterbuch, Neuw, of Theodor 62, 68
Kreuter Buck of Bock 55—58, 62, 138,

184 — 186, 204
Kreutterbuch, New, of Bock 55
Kreutterbuch of Carrichter 215
Kreutterbuch of Rhodion 64, 174
Kruydtbceck of de l'Obel 79, 146, 196
Kynge, J. 39, 40

Labiates 136

Lambeth, Tradescant's garden at 113

Lamium 120, 125

Lathrcea (Tooth wort) 148, 209

Latimer, H. roo

Laurel 138, 215

l'Ecluse, C. de 68, 72, 74—78, 79, 88, 93,

95, 106, 115, 125, 127, 146, 190, 192,

199, 222
Legre, L. 78
LeguminosEe 151
le Noir, Philippe 33
" Lentylles of the water " 45
PEscluse, C. de, see l'Ecluse, C. de
Leyden, University of 72, 74, 76, 77,

154

Libellus de re herbaria of Turner 101,

102
Liber de arte distillandi of Hieronymus

Braunschweig 24, 45, 46, 168
Liber de proprietatibus rerum of Bartholo-

mseus Anglicus 10, 11, 38
Liebhard, see Camerarius
Lignamine, J. P. de 11
Lily 120, 159
Lily-of-the- Valley 36, 158
Litnnanthemum 146, 147
Linnaeus 133, 140
Linocier, G. 98
Listera 146
Litle Herball of the properties of Herbes, A

39
l'Obel, M. de 68, 74, 78—79, 106, 109,

112, 115, 125, 136, 145, 146, 151, 190,

192, 199, 222, 226
Lobel, M. de, see l'Obel, M. de
Lobelius, M., see l'Obel, M. de
Lodestone 43, 44

Index

251

Loe, J., see Vanderloe, J.

London, Books published at 46, 102

Long Acre, Parkinson's garden in 113

Lonicer, A. 64

Louvain, University of 72, 74

Love-in-a-Mist 145

Lucian 7

Ludwig, Count Palatine 50

Luther, Martin 58

Lyte, H. 72, 73, 106—108, 125, 127

Macer, A newe Herbal! of 40

Macer, /Emilius 40

Macer Florid us 40

Maclagan, Dr T. J. 212

Maianthemum 146

Maidenhair Fern 38, 161

Mainz, Books printed at 13, 14, 16, 18,

25, 159, 165
Maison Plantin 70 — 72
" Mala Aurantia Chinensia " 198
" Mallowes" 127
Malpighi, M. 116
Manardus, J. 50
" Mandrag," see Mandrake
Mandragora, see Mandrake
Mandrake {Mandragora) 24, 34, 36, 37,

38, 103, 148, 156, 204
Marburg, University of 65
Marsh Marigold 146
Mary, Duchess of Suffolk 65
Mary, Queen xoo, 102
Materia Medica of Dioscorides 8, 120,

136
Matthiolus, P. A., see Mattioli, P. A.
Mattioli, P. A. 9, 68, 79 — 85, 92, 98, 103,

104, 186 — 190, 196, 199
Maximilian II, The Emperor 72, 81
May Lily 146
"Mayden heere" 38
Melanchthon, P. 68, 75
Mesua, J.* 196

Methodi herbaria of Zaluziansky 117
Meydenbach, J. 25
Meyer, A. 180
Millington, Sir T. 132
Mistletoe 46, 124, 214
Modena Library 24
Molinaus, J., see Desmoulins, J.
Monardes, N. 104 — 106
Monocotyledons 79, 135, 145, 153
Montpelier, University of 74, 78, 93, 94
Moon wort 185
Moretus, E. J. H. 70
Moretus, J. 70
Morison, R. 96, 116
Mosses 151

Muenster, Sebastian no
Mugwort, see Artemisia
Munich Library, The 11
Musee Cluny 31
Musee Plantin-Moretus 70
" Mussherons " 140
Myrtle 138

Narcissus 29

Natura slirpium, De, of Ruel 98
Natural History of Pliny 9, 214
Nature, Vertu et UtiliU des Plantes, De la,

of de la Brosse 118
"Nenufar" 122
Neottia 148
Nero 8
Neuw Kreuterbuch of Tabernaimontanus,

see Neuw Kreuterbuch of Theodor
Neuw Kreuterbuch of Theodor 62, 68
New Herball, A, of Turner 62, 102—104
New Kreuterbuch of Fuchs 60 — 64, 175
New Kreutterbuch of Bock 55
Newe Herball of Macer, A, 40
Nicolaus Damascenus 3, 4
Nicotiana (Tobacco) 105, 106, 148
Niewe Herball, A, of Lyte 62, 64, 72, 73,

106 — 108, 125, 126
Nigel I a 145

Norton, J. 68, 108, 109
Nuphar 146

Nuremberg Dispensatorium, The 66
Nuremberg, Garden of Camerarius at 68
Nymphaa 146

Oak 5, 138

Observations de plusieurs singularitez, Les,

of Belon 196
Octavian on "Bernicles" 112
Odo 40
"Orage" 122
Orange 198

Orchid, Bird's-nest 148
Omithogalum 196
Orobanche 104, 148
Ortus Sanitatis 14, 15, 18, 24, 25—33, 40,

120, 138, 157, 158, 165—168, 170, 175,

186
Ortus Sanitatis, The German, see Her-

barius, The German
Ortus Sanitatis, The Smaller, see Her'

barius, The German
Osmunda 55
Oxalis 121, 146

Padua, Botanical Garden at 90
Padua, University of 90, 94
Pandectarius 21
Papaver 148
Papaveracea; 148

"Pappus," Fuchs' definition of 124 — 125
Paracelsus 205 — 208, 212, 213, 2(4
Paradisus Batavus of Hermann 202
Paradisus Terrestris of Parkinson 113 —

115, 197, 200
Paris, Books published at 33, 98
Paris, University of 90, 94, 98
Parkinson, J. 113—116, 144, 192, 197,

200
Payne, Dr J. F. 12, 15, 22, 24, 38, 155,

156, 162
Pearls 43
Pegasus 32

252

Index

Pembroke College, Cambridge ioo, 102,

103
Pemptades, see Stirpium... pemptades sex

of Dodoens
Pena, P. 74, 78, 79
Peony 7, 161, 165
"Petal," Introduction of term 88
Petiver, J. 192
Phanerogams 135, 151
Pharmacopoeia, Culpeper's translation of

the 218
Pharmacopoeia, The first government 67
Philip, Count of Nassau 53
Phoenix 31

Physic all Directory, A, of Culpeper 218
Phytobasanos of Colonna 88, 113, 199
Phytognomonica of Porta 196, 208 — 210
Phytopinax of Gaspard Bauhin 96,

140
Pinax theatri botanici of Gaspard Bauhin

96, 115, 148—151, 224
Pisa, University of 58
Pitton Tournefort, J. 96
Plague, The 58, 80, 90
Plant Anatomy 7, no, 221
Plantaginaceas 145
Plantago (Plantain) 122, 146, 157
Plantain 122, 146, 157
Plantarum seu stirpiiim historia of de

l'Obel 79
Plantin, C. 70—74, 79, 98, 113, 146, 190,

191, 199
Plantis &gypti, De, of Alpino 88—90,

196, 197
Plantis, De, of Cesalpino 117
Platearius 21
Plato 2

Playing-card manufacture 156
Pliny, the Elder 3, 9, n, 137, 138,

214
Pomegranate 209
Pope Sixtus IV n
Poplar 5
Poppy 120

Porta, J. B. 196, 208—210, 212
Potato 95, 109, 130, 132, 197
Potter, Paul 200
Prague, Books published at 117
"Prestes Hode" 45
Priest, Dr 108, 109
Primrose 45

"Principles," The four 19
"Principles," The three, according to

Paracelsus 207
Prodromos theatri botanici of Gaspard

Bauhin 95, 130, 197, 224
Proprietatibus reriwi, Liber de, of Bartho-

lomaeus Anglicus 10, n, 38, 158, 159
"Prymerolles" 45
Puck der natur, Das, of Konrad von

Megenberg, see Book of Nature, The
Pumpkin, The Great 62

Quakelbeen, W. 84

"Radiolus" 120

Ranunculus acris 158 ,

Rariorum plantarum historia of de l'Ecluse

76
Rariorum... stirpium per Hispanias of de

l'Ecluse 76
Ray, J. 96, 116
Renaulme, P. 200
Rhabanus Magnentius Maurus 3
Rhodion, E. 64, 174
Richelieu, Cardinal 118
Ricinus 145
Ridley, N. 100
Rihel, W. 55
Riviere, J. 70

Rome, Books printed at II, 85
Rondelet, G. 74, 76, 78
Rose 43, 120
Rose of Jericho 196
Rosemary 38, 39
Royal Fern 55

Rudolph II, The Emperor 72
Ruel, J. 9, 62, 98
Ruellius, J., see Ruel, J.
Rusctis 146

Sachs, J. von 96

Saint Catherine 21

Saint John's Wort 207

Saint Thomas Aquinas 3

Salicin 212

Salicomia (Glasswort) 90, 197

Savoy and Piedmont, Duke of 70

Saxifrage 145

" Saynt Peterworte " 45

Schoffer, P. 16, 18

Schott, J. 50

Schreiber, H. 66

"Sedum ma/us" 127 — 130, 190

" Sedum vulgare majus" 128

" Sempervivum majus" 127 — 130

Senecio 125

Serapio 21

Shepherd's Purse 122, 125

"Signatures," Doctrine of 207 — 212

Simler, J. 92, 193

"Simples" 35, 36, 103, 104, 196, 220

Simpling, The Art of, of Cole 211, 219

Sixtus IV, Pope n

Snow Hill, Johnson's garden on 113

Solanaceae 148

Solanum 95, 148

Somerset, Duke of 101, 102

Sonchus 125

Specimen Histories Plantarum of Renaulme

200
Speckle, V. R. 180, 183
Specklin, V. R., see Speckle, V. R.
Sprengel, K. P. J. 47, 65
"Squamony" 44

Stamens, Fuchs' definition of 124
Stamens, Function of 132 — 133, 224
Stirpium adversaria ?iova of de l'Obel, M.

and Pena, P. 78, 145, 146, 222, 224

Index

253

Stirpium...pemptades sex of Dodoens 74,

127, 145. '9°> '9 1
Storksbill 127

Strand, Lord Burleigh's garden in the 108
Strasburg, Books printed at 50, 55
Strawberry 185
Sundew 146, 151
Switzer, A. 197

"Tabaco," see Tobacco
Tabernxmontanus, J. T., see Theodor, J.
Tamus 146
Tendrils, Conventionalised representations

of 160
Theatrum botanicum of Parkinson 115, 144
Theobalds, Lord Burleigh's garden at 108
Theodor, J. (Tabernsemontanus) 67, 68,

109, 199
Theophrastus 2 — 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 50, 104,

116, 119, 134, 137
Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim,

see Paracelsus
Thistles 143, 151

Thurneisser zum Thurn, L. 216 — 218
" Tithymalus characia" 129
Tobacco, Early record of use of 105 — 106
Toothwort (Lathraa) 148, 209
Tournefort, J. Pitton 96
Tradescant, J. 113
Tragus, H., see Bock, H.
Trapa 185

"Tree bearing Geese" 109 — 113
"Tree of Knowledge" 28
"Tree of Life" 28, 29
"Tree of Paradise" 167
"Tree of Sorrow" 85—86
Treveris, P. 40
Treviranus, L. C. 194
Trevisa's translation of the Encyclopaedia

of Bartholomseus Anglicus II, 38, 158,

159
Trew, C. J. 92, 193
Trifolium 140
Tubingen, University of 58, 66, 93, 94,

226
Turner, R. 211, 212
Turner, W. 62, 100 — 104, 106, 107, 112,

125, 199, 204, 222
Tutsan 122
Twayblade 146
Type, Movable 16

Uffenbach, P. 85

Umbellifers 136, 144, 145, 148, 151, 216

Unicorn 31, 115

Universal Herbal of Green 2 1 2

Upas tree 29

Utrecht, Books published at 200

Valerian 88

Vanderloe, J. 72, 190

Venice, Books published at 83, 90, 161,

168, i 88, 196
Venird, A. 33, 65
Verbena (" Vervayn ") 43, 57
Veronica 62
Vertuose boke of Distillacyon, The, of

Hieronymus Braunschweig 45, 46
"Vervayn" ( Verbena) 43, 57
Vespasian 8
"Veltonia" 156
Vienna Library (K. k. Hofbibliothek) 8,

Hi 74» 85
Vienna Manuscript of Dioscorides, see

Dioscorides
Vinci, Leonardo da 170, 180
Vine 4, 160
Viola 120
Viola odorata 158
Violet, The Sweet 158
Viribus herbarum, De, of Macer Floridus

40
Virtiitibus herbarum, De, erroneously

attributed to Albertus Magnus 5, 215
Vita Conradi Gesneri of Simler 92, 193

Walnut 210

Waterlily 122, 146, 162, 172, 180, 190,

196
" Waterworte " 38
Weiditz, H. 50, 171, 172, 174, 224
Wheat 3

William the Silent 78, 79
Willow 212
Winckler, N. 215
Winter Cherry 165, 166, 202
Wintergreen 185

Wittenberg, University of 66, 68
Wolf, C. 92
Wood-sorrel 45, 121
Worde, Wynkyn de n, 38
Wormwood, see Artemisia
Worthy practise of...Leonerd Fuchsius, A

58
Wyer, R. 40

Zaluziansky von Zaluzian, A. 80, 117, 151

Zea mais 62

Zouche, Lord 78

Zurich, University of 90, 101

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