Herbals, Their Origin and Evolution: A Chapter in the History of Botany 1470-1670 — John Shaqi
Herbals, Their Origin and Evolution: A Chapter in the History of Botany 1470-1670Arber, Agnes Robertson
History
Herbals, Their Origin and Evolution: A Chapter in the History of Botany 1470-1670
Arber, Agnes Robertson
Botany -- Europe -- History; Herbals -- Europe -- History
[Illustration: 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 mediæval 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 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.
[Illustration: Text-fig. 6. “Brionia” [Arnaldus de Villa Nova,
Tractatus de virtutibus herbarum, 1499].]
The wood-blocks of the first German edition are bold and decorative,
but as a rule show little attempt at realism (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 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,’ sometimes also called the German
Ortus Sanitatis, or the Smaller Ortus. This folio, which was the
foundation of the later works called Hortus (or Ortus) Sanitatis,
appeared at Mainz, also from the printing press of Peter Schöffer in
1485, the year following the publication of the Latin Herbarius. 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 illustrations. 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.
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