Herbs and the Herbalists
OEB 59 Plants and Human Affairs
Timothy Sheldrake Botanicum Medicinale, 1759. [Library of the Arnold Arboretum] A natural system of classification…
What is it?
Thomas Castle The Linnaean Artificial System of Botany, 1836. [Library of the Gray Herbarium] Phylogenetic Trees
are used to guide us in their assessment of common ancestry …
BUT it wasn’t always this way.
Blanche Ames Tree of Economic Plants [Economic Botany Archives] For some pre-Darwinian naturalists a “natural system” of classification and the Divine plan were the same (at least post Middle Ages).
Konrad, von Megenberg. Buch der Natur, 1475. [Library of the Arnold Arboretum]
Mouton-Fontenille, J.P. Tableau des systêmes de botanique, 1798.
For many people, among westerners following the middle ages, it was believed that a Divine Power created all nature according to a plan, which humankind could discover to a certain degree. Main historical approaches to plant classification
Habit/Growth form of plant (trees, shrubs, and vines were major groups of plants; these systems utilized from 300 BC to the middle of the 18th century)
Konrad, von Megenberg. Buch der Natur, 1475. [Library of the Arnold Arboretum] Hortus Uplandicus
In 1732 a system based on the numerical and sexual parts of the plant was introduced by Linnaeus in his Hortus Uplandicus. Plants groups based on common numbers of floral parts, based primarily on number/union/length of stamens, and also on number of styles e.g., HEXANDRIA, MONOGYNIA—Tradescantia
R. Duppa. The Classes and Orders of the Linnæan System of Botany. 1816 [Library of the Gray Herbarium] Linnaeus freely acknowledged that this system was not “natural” in terms of reflecting a Divine plan, but was useful for organizing plants. Binomial his other most important contribution.
Linnaeus Systema Natura, 1740 [Library of the Arnold Arboretum] Many more features than just numbers of sexual parts that link various plants; realization that sexual systems very limiting.
Georg Dionysius Ehret Plantae et Papiliones Rariores [Library of the Arnold Arboretum] …. allowed the increasing plant knowledge to be easily catalogued for the first time. System based on inferred relationships of form, pre- evolutionary (mid 18th century)
Many plants were being brought to Europe from all over the world and microscope was introduced. There was tremendous increase in plant knowledge in centers of botanical study, namely Europe.
Maurice Auguste Comte de Benyowsky. Carl Peter Thunberg. Memoirs and Travels..., 1790 Voyages de C. P. Thunberg, au Japon, 1796. [Library of the Arnold Arboretum] [Library of the Gray Herbarium] Herbalists (1488-1682) were among earliest classifiers
Herbalists described and to some degree, illustrated the plants of the world known then.
This was especially true of plants of medical value and of domestic uses; these plants were often assumed to have attributes based on superstitions, misconceptions, and sorcerous folklore.
Both plates from: Barbarus Apuleius The herbal of Pseudo-Apuleius from the ninth-century manuscript in the abbey of Monte Cassino, Facsimile ed. 1935. [Library of the Arnold Arboretum] First herbal was published in 1488 by Otto Brunfels
In this work an important aspect that remains today is use of Perfecti and Imperfecti in distinguishing flowering and non-flowering plants.
Otto Brunfels. Herbarum vivæ eicones Argentorati, 1532. [Library of the Arnold Arboretum] Illustration of Leonhart Fuchs De Historia Stirpium, 1542 [Library of the Arnold Arboretum]
The herbalists as a group were Illustration of the draughtsman Heinrich important for their contributions to Füllmauer and Albrecht Meyer as well as the artist who cut the woodblocks Rudolph Speckle. the descriptive phases of systematics. Herbals had important medical aspects at that time. Most herbalists were medical doctors and vice-versa. In fact, the two fields, botany and medicine, did not diverge until the mid 1700s.
“The Genius of Health receiving the tributes of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America and delivering them to the British Readers.”
John Hill The British Herbal...,1756. [Library of the Gray Herbarium] The Earliest Herbals Display the best depiction of plant knowledge inherited from the Greeks and Romans
That knowledge was left unquestioned by the herbalists until the after the Middle Ages, beginning in the 1500s.
Tractatus de herbis = A medieval herbal, 2003. [Economic Botany Library of Oakes Ames] Dioscorides Pedanius, of Anazarbos Codex neapolitanus, 1988. [Economic Botany Library of Oakes Ames] Doctrine of Signatures God marked everything he created with a sign or signature. This sign was a clear indicator of the item's purpose as intended by God.
One of the most famous advocates of The Doctrine of Signatures is the Swiss physician Paracelsus (1493-1541).
Drawing of Paracelsus in his lab from, Botánica Oculta : Las Plantas Mágicas, c1977. [Economic Botany Library of Oakes Ames] Plates from: Giambattista della Porta Phytognomonica : Octo Libris Contenta In qvibvs nova, facillimaqve affertvr methodvs, qua plantarum, animalium, metallorum…, 1588. [Library of the Arnold Arboretum]
Pomegranate with its seeds exposed and a pinecone will help alleviate tooth pain and other tooth problems.
Maidenhair fern, among other plants, was believed to offer a cure for baldness. The Doctrine of Signatures led to a more focused concept of astrological influence.
One 16th century botanists that promoted this notion was Leonhard Thurneisser zum Thurn (1530-1596).
Portrait of the author in Leonhard Thurneisser zum Thurn Historia Sive Descriptio Plantarum Omnium, tam Domesticarum Quam Exoticarum…, 1578 [Economic Botany Library of Oakes Ames] His Historia sive Descriptio Plantarum Omnium was published in 1578. It emphasized the astrological governance of plants, and the proper time to pick them and prepare them for particular diseases and uses. The astrological system of diagnosis and treatment set forth by Culpeper:
1. Identify what planet caused the disease and look for it in his "Judgment of Diseases".
2. Identify what part of the body is affected by the disease. Does it lie in the flesh, blood, bones…
3. Identify what planet governs the afflicted part of the body.
4. His book will help you find the herbs that are of the planet opposite to the planet that caused the illness.
Nicholas Culpeper English Physician; and Complete Herbal, 1805. [Library of the Gray Herbarium] From introduction to 1805 edition of Culpeper’s Complete Herbal :
“No Science presents to our contemplation a more extensive field of important knowledge, or affords more ample entertainment to an inquisitive or philanthropic mind. Anatomy, BOTANY, Chemistry, and the Materia Medica, are From introduction to 1805 edition of Culpeper’s neglects themComplete can have Herbal no claim to taste :
A Key to Physic and the Occult Sciences, 1814. [Library of the Gray Herbarium] NEXT WEDNESDAY WE WILL HAVE A SPECIAL CLASS COVERING Working with one of your classmates choose one of the topic below. There will be materials and people to help you learn about the topic you have indicated on the sign-up sheet we will have on NEXT WEDNESDAY WE WILL HAVE A SPECIAL CLASS COVERING Wednesday Working with one of your classmates choose one of the topic below. There will be materials and people to help you learn about the topic you have indicated on the sign-up sheet we will have on Wednesday Herbals-- 1. The advantages of printed books over manuscripts 2. The significance of books being printed in languages other than La n
Systema cs -- 1. Various classifica on systems were proposed over centuries. Why did the Linnaean binomial classifica on system win out over others and what is the current view of the system? 2. Rela onships among and within families are o en depicted through charts or illustra ons. Select a couple of examples and explain the rela onships the author was trying to convey.
Doctrine of Signatures -- 1. Discuss the use of form and color in the Doctrine of Signatures 2. Are there any plants that do not have an obvious signature and how did these authors deal with that issue? 3. Discuss how the astrological system of DofS was used for diagnosis and treatment of illnesses. 4. Inves gate a plant that is commonly associated with the Doctrine of Signatures today. Has its signature changed in the hundreds of years that have passed?
Early Agriculture1. Examine the various techniques of botanical illustra on and describe the some of the advantages of each. -- 2. How did the