Herbals
The most famous of the historical botanical works are, of course, the herbals, the illustrated tomes that describe the helpful and harmful uses and properties of known plants. Records of plants and their medicinal uses can be traced back to ancient Arabia, the Orient, Africa and Europe. Not all herbals are the same as they, like their subjects, evolved through the centuries, some relied on the text for accuracy as the illustrations were little more than embellished pictures, to the opposite, highly detailed depictions with less explanatory text. A significant change began in the European-style herbals in the 1500s when both text and imagery began to complement each other instead of relying either on the text or the image. Additionally, the illustrations became more detailed and scientific, not necessarily seen as art.
One of the earliest and most famous of herbals was De materia medica [the Latinized name], a massive work describing 600 alphabetically-listed plants along with their medicinal properties with instructions for preparation and use. It was penned by the physician Dioscorides Pedanius from the region of present-day Turkey, who lived between A.D. 40 and 90. In A.D. 65, he published what became the standard botanical, pharmacological reference for hundreds of years, well into the Renaissance, and was translated into many languages.1 Unfortunately, an original no longer exists, but this exquisite replica is on exhibit.
- Bock, Hieronymus, Conrad Gessner, and David Kyber. 1552. Hieronymi Tragi De Stirpium, Maxime Earum, Quae in Germania Nostra Nascuntur, Usitatis Nomenclaturis, Proprijs [Que] Differentijs, Ne [Que] Non Temperaturis Ac Facultatibus, Commentariorum Libri Tres. Germanica Primum Lingua Conscripti. [W. Rihel?].
- Hieronymus Bock was a sixteenth century German botanist, physician, and Lutheran minister who began the transition from medieval botany to the modern scientific worldview by arranging plants by their relation or resemblance. Instead of following Dioscorides as was traditional, he developed his own system to classify 700 plants. The first edition is without illustrations as Bock could not afford them. To compensate for the lack of visual representation of the plants, Bock described each specimen very clearly in the vernacular German spoken by the people. The descriptions of flowers are remarkably clear, and they indicate that he comprehended things by which his predecessors had been completely baffled. This later 1552 edition has more illustrations than any previous of his many editions, many of which are beautifully hand painted in vibrant colors.
Chamomilla plants, p.148-149
Fast-forward to 1555 to De historia stirpium commentarii insignes by Leonhart Fuchs (Murray & Hong Special Collections, not on exhibit). Fuchs (1536-1566) was a respected German physician and botanist who illustrated and commissioned accurate illustrations of plants in different stages of fruiting and flowering. Most were life-sized illustrations rather than miniaturized versions, and detailed woodcut illustrations were paired with the text. The importance is that before Fuchs, early botanical illustrations were often hand-drawn, rarely colorized depictions of plants. Details varied on the whims on the owner or buyer, the illustrator, and availability of source material. In fact, it is widely known that illustrations were copied copiously and not always in the best illustrative technique. De historia stirpium… has been recognized as one of the leading illustrated botanical tomes of the Renaissance for its inclusion of international flora, the precise illustrations, and occasional inclusion of pressed plants.2
Viola (violet) species, p. 850
Viola (violet) species, p. 851John Gerard, the best known of the English herbalists was a barber-surgeon and an ardent horticulturalist. This edition of Gerard’s Herball was revised by Thomas Johnson, a well-known apothecary, and published in 1636. It describes and illustrates several hundred flowering plants including 182 species which had not been described in Gerard’s earlier editions. It is considered one of the most significant early-modern English botanical publications and endures as a primary source of reference.
For many centuries this immense work was considered the “largest herbal in the English language.” Parkinson, the last of the old English herbalists, was an apothecary to James I. His massive herbal of 1,755 pages describes nearly 3,800 plants, nearly doubled the number described in the first edition of Gerard. Parkinson was more original than either Gerard or Johnson in addressing all aspect of the plant including its cultivation and use.
Line drawings of seven Rapiflorum species, p. 862-863
Enlarged image of Rapiflorum sylvestre
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Text and line drawing of Bryonia, p. 132 and Fol. 133
Blankaart, Steven. 1714. De Nederlandschen Herbarius of Kruidboek : Der Voornaamste Kruiden, Tot de Medicyne, Spysbereidingen En Konstwerken Dienstig, Handelende van Zommige Hier Te Lande Wassende Boomen, Kruiden, Heesters, Mossen, Enz. . 2. druk. Nicolaas ten Hoorn.
Steven Blankaart (1650-1704) lived in Amsterdam, became one of the most important physicians of the 17th century. He was more renown as a physician than a botanist, and wrote many popular medical treatises, and books on anatomy, surgery, etc. His one herbal De Nederlandschen herbarius of kruidboek... describes indigenous plants and trees and their medicinal properties.
1. Oak Spring Garden Library, Sandra Raphael, Greg Heins, Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi, and Tony Willis. 1989. An Oak Spring Herbaria: Herbs and Herbals from the Fourteenth to the Nineteenth Centuries: A Selection of the Rare Books, Manuscripts and Works of Art in the Collection of Rachel Lambert Mellon. Upperville, VA: Oak Spring Garden Library. p. 38-40.
2. Lack, H. Walter. 2001. Garden Eden: Masterpieces of Botanical Illustration. New York: Taschen. p. 36-38.