The Significance of the Herbal
Kat Ford
From mint, to peonies, to carrots, the people of the Renaissance could find a remedy for all that ailed them in their own backyards. And not just because it was common for every household to have a garden for herbs and vegetables or that it was common for most housewives to have knowledge of different cures; experts across the world agreed that every fruit, flower, herb, and bean had its own set of healing abilities. Information about the health benefits was spread primarily by word of mouth, though communities and between households, until a boom of scholarly research on the topic of plants came with the Renaissance.
The term "Herbal" was coined in the beginning of this period of discovery (Anderson 2), though documented collections of botany for medical purposes dates back to the dawn of recorded history. Soon many scholars, physicians, and scientists were compiling their own books describing the virtues and wonders of plants from England, Spain, the East Indies, and the New World. Herbals were information-heavy books, either handbook sized or not, that contained in-depth descriptions on many different kinds of plant, generally with sections for many different forms of plant life such as herbs, fruits, seeds, barks and mushrooms. Along with physical descriptions of plants, and accurate sketches of them later as printing technology advanced, came their uses in remedies and how to grow them, in addition to what season to plant and harvest certain flora as well as what time,
Despite the helpful knowledge books in this class contained, the audience for them in the Renaissance was very small in reality as quoted from An Illustrated History of the Herbals, "herbals are among the most fascinating of books but also among the least familiar, except to a relatively small number of scholars" (Anderson 1). Anderson attributes their obscurity due to their rarity and tendency to be written in Latin. Even if the audience demographic was not very broad, the interest in herbal books was split between those doing scholarly research as scientists and those interested in furthering their knowledge of remedies through application as physicians.
Even in the community of learned and rich Herbalists, some texts were better received than others. Herbals focusing on the flora native to England were generally trusted by the majority, but the topic of foreign plants was still considered suspicious territory. Herbals such as The English Physician, published in 1788, faced less scrutiny in the community, as it focused on herbs such as balm and sage, both described as being "so well known to be an inhabitant of every garden" (Culpeper 25, 219) that its presence would be of no shock to any reader. The subject of foreign flora on the other hand, though fascinating, caused scholars to second guess the practicality of the plants described. Scholars wishing to induct their findings into reputable areas of study, and who wanted to inspire others to investigate the same flora, had their work cut out for them.
In some cases, supportive scholars wrote essays on the importance of studying foreign plants, tacked onto a published herbal, in hopes of sparking interest in the community. In defense of Dr. Robert Morison’s published New Universal Herbal a colleague published "A Proposal to Noblemen, Gentlemen, and Others, Who are Willing to Subscribe towards Dr. Morison’s New Universal Herbal, Ordering Plants according to a New and True Method, Never Published Heretofore" in an attempt to gain the author more support, saying "whereof he hath lately (to the great satisfaction of the Learned, both at home and already given in one of the most difficult classes: And being now desirous, for the advancing and facilitating that part of Natural History, which hath hitherto been so tedious and discouraging to students of science, for the honor of this our famous hand, and for the Increase of Learning, chiefly in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, with all possible speed to finish and put out the whole work" (327).Others like Samuel Brown, author of An Account of Part of a Collection of Curious Plants and Drugs, Lately Given to the Royal Society by the East India Company from 1700, brought back seeds from his travels in the East Indies[3] to be raised and studied in England, "performance of which promise has been hitherto raised in the most Curious Gardens in England" (Brown 579), as well as studying them in their native climate. This appealed to the scientific and anthropological comminutes at once, for both were intrigued by the study and domestication of foreign life.
The term "Herbal" was coined in the beginning of this period of discovery (Anderson 2), though documented collections of botany for medical purposes dates back to the dawn of recorded history. Soon many scholars, physicians, and scientists were compiling their own books describing the virtues and wonders of plants from England, Spain, the East Indies, and the New World. Herbals were information-heavy books, either handbook sized or not, that contained in-depth descriptions on many different kinds of plant, generally with sections for many different forms of plant life such as herbs, fruits, seeds, barks and mushrooms. Along with physical descriptions of plants, and accurate sketches of them later as printing technology advanced, came their uses in remedies and how to grow them, in addition to what season to plant and harvest certain flora as well as what time,
Despite the helpful knowledge books in this class contained, the audience for them in the Renaissance was very small in reality as quoted from An Illustrated History of the Herbals, "herbals are among the most fascinating of books but also among the least familiar, except to a relatively small number of scholars" (Anderson 1). Anderson attributes their obscurity due to their rarity and tendency to be written in Latin. Even if the audience demographic was not very broad, the interest in herbal books was split between those doing scholarly research as scientists and those interested in furthering their knowledge of remedies through application as physicians.
Even in the community of learned and rich Herbalists, some texts were better received than others. Herbals focusing on the flora native to England were generally trusted by the majority, but the topic of foreign plants was still considered suspicious territory. Herbals such as The English Physician, published in 1788, faced less scrutiny in the community, as it focused on herbs such as balm and sage, both described as being "so well known to be an inhabitant of every garden" (Culpeper 25, 219) that its presence would be of no shock to any reader. The subject of foreign flora on the other hand, though fascinating, caused scholars to second guess the practicality of the plants described. Scholars wishing to induct their findings into reputable areas of study, and who wanted to inspire others to investigate the same flora, had their work cut out for them.
In some cases, supportive scholars wrote essays on the importance of studying foreign plants, tacked onto a published herbal, in hopes of sparking interest in the community. In defense of Dr. Robert Morison’s published New Universal Herbal a colleague published "A Proposal to Noblemen, Gentlemen, and Others, Who are Willing to Subscribe towards Dr. Morison’s New Universal Herbal, Ordering Plants according to a New and True Method, Never Published Heretofore" in an attempt to gain the author more support, saying "whereof he hath lately (to the great satisfaction of the Learned, both at home and already given in one of the most difficult classes: And being now desirous, for the advancing and facilitating that part of Natural History, which hath hitherto been so tedious and discouraging to students of science, for the honor of this our famous hand, and for the Increase of Learning, chiefly in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, with all possible speed to finish and put out the whole work" (327).Others like Samuel Brown, author of An Account of Part of a Collection of Curious Plants and Drugs, Lately Given to the Royal Society by the East India Company from 1700, brought back seeds from his travels in the East Indies[3] to be raised and studied in England, "performance of which promise has been hitherto raised in the most Curious Gardens in England" (Brown 579), as well as studying them in their native climate. This appealed to the scientific and anthropological comminutes at once, for both were intrigued by the study and domestication of foreign life.