 Section 5 of Herbal's Their Origin and Evolution A Chapter in the History of Botany This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Shishang Jackmola Herbal's Their Origin and Evolution A Chapter in the History of Botany by Agnes Arbor 4. The Botanical Renaissance of the 16th and 17th Centuries Part 2. The Herbal in the Low Countries In the 16th century, the Herbal flourished exceedingly 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 learning for its own sake which distinguished that Prince of Publishers Christof Plantin of Antwerp. In these qualities, he forms a notable contrast to Ignoff of Frankfurt, to whose shortcoming we have already drawn attention. Plantin's life extended from about 1514 to 1589 and thus included the central years of that wonderful century. He was a native of Teorhen and studied the art of printing at Cain and other French towns. Towards 1550, he and his wife, Jean-Été Rivri, settled in Antwerp where he worked at bookbinding 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 Meissen Plantin. Christof'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 Paidmont, for instance, did all he could to persuade him to come to Teorhen, 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 to choose his subordinates that he gathered around him and unrivaled staff. One of Plantin's daughters married Jean Mortius, her father's chief assistant and successor and from him the business descended through a generations of printers to Édouard-Jean-Hian-Sainte-Moretus. The last of his race, from whom in 1876 the citizens of Antwerp purchased the Meissen Plantin and its contents. The house had remained practically unchanged since the days when Christof Plantin lived and worked there and it is now preserved as the Musée Plantin-Moretus. It is built round a rectangular courtyard and its beauty both in proportion and in detail in such that one feels at once that Plantin achieved the ambition he expressed in his charming sonnet. Le Bonheur des Sémandes, Au revoir une Meissen commande, Propres et Ballet, the pictures, furnitures and hangings and not only the 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 wage books are preserved showing the weekly earnings of compositors, engravers and bookbinders throughout a period of three centuries. In short, the Meissen Plantin beggars' description and a visit there is an infallible recipe for transporting the imagination back to the time of Renaissance when printing was in its first youth and was treated with reverence due to one of the fine arts. The first Belgian botanist of worldwide renounce was Rembert Dodens, or Dodinius. He was a contemporary of Plantin having been born at Malinus in 1517. He studied at Lowen and visited the universities and medical schools of France, Italy and Germany eventually qualifying as a doctor. He was successful in his profession being physician to the emperor's Maximilian II and Rudolf II and finally becoming professor of medicine at Leiden 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 Futes' work. To these a number of new engravings were added. The book was published in Dutch in the year 1554 by Wenderlo under the title Crudie book. The text is not a translation of Futes as is sometimes supposed although Dodens took Futes as his model for the order of description of each plant. The method of arrangement in 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 simultaneously with the first Dutch edition a French issue appeared under the title of Histoire des plantes. The translation was carried out by Charles de Eccluse with whose own work we shall shortly deal. Dodens supervised the production of the book and took the opportunity to make some additions. It became known in England through Light's translation which will be discussed in a later section of this chapter. The last edition of the herbal for which the author himself was responsible was printed by Wenderlo in 1563. The publisher then parted with the Futes' blocks which were probably acquired by the printer of Light's Dodens in England. The circumstance put great difficulties in the way of Dodens wish to reproduce his herbal in Latin. However, it proved a blessing in disguise for he had the good fortune to meet in Christophe plantens on whom he reclined the word I cannot depend for Donor of Ra qui sortende se presse tota la perfection et le mérite don il est ent ad susceptible. Planten undertook to produce a much modified Latin translation of the herbal and to have new plots in grave for it whilst Dodens on his side engaged to supply the artists with the 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 Histori Pompadé Sex Seve Libri Trigenta In this work, by far the largest number of the figures are original. Some, however, were borrowed from Decluse and Deauville. This arose from the fact that Planten was also the publisher for both these writers and as he bored the expense of their blocks he had an arrangement with the three authors that their illustration should be treated as common property. A few of Dodens' figures were based upon those in the famous manuscript of Tios Carrines, now at Vienna. In the Pemptades, the botanist in Dodens 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 Dodens rendered to botany. Between him and his two younger countrymen, Decluse and Deauville, there was so intimate a friendship that they freely imparted their observations to one another and permitted the use of them and also of their figures in one another's book. 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 Decluse or Clusius was born at Arras in the French Netherlands in 1526. Like Dodens, he passed the closing years of his life at Leiden. He studied at Lowen and other universities, including Montpellier, where he came under the influence of the botanist, Wilaume Rondelet, who also numbered the Alicamps, Deauville, Pierre Repena, and Jean Bohen among his pupils. Decluse was an enthusiastic adherent of the reformed faith to which he was converted by the influence of Melanchthon and he suffered religious persecution, which brought even actual martyrdom to some of his relatives. Though he himself did not lose his life, he was deprived of his property and between poverty and ill health, his careers seemed to have been a melancholy one. He passed a nomadic existence attached at one time as tutor to some great family, while at others, he was occupied in writing or translating for Rondelet, like Dodens or Planton, or undertaking precarious employment at the Court of Vienna. The University of Leiden 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 plans from the New World. Deaucluse had a reputation for versatility scarcely exceeded by that of his contemporary, the admirable Christian. 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 debut was made as the translator of Dodens, we may with reason look upon him as a disciple of the latter. The first original work, Deaucluse, was an account of the plans which he had observed while on an adventurous expedition into Spain and Portugal with two pupils. This was so successful botanically that he brought back 200 new species. The description of his finds was published by Planton in 1576, under the title of Reiriorum Eloquat Stirpium per Hispanias Observatorum Historia. Woodblocks were in grave purposefully for this book but for the confusion of the bibliographer, some of them were also used to illustrate Dodens' work in the interval while the Spanish flora of Deaucluse awaited a publication. In 1583 appeared Arrotha'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 1601 as the Reiriorum Plantarum Historia. In this book, the species belonging to the same genus are often brought together, but beyond this, there is little attempt at systematic arrangement. Deaucluse was weak in the synthetic faculty, his strength lying rather in his powers of observation. Cuvier reckons that he added more than 600 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 manuscript is preserved in the Leiden Library containing more than 80 beautiful vaticular drawings of fungi executed under the direction of Deaucluse by artists employed by his great friend and patron, Baron Baldesar de Bethiani. 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 from Turkey. Deaucluse seemed to have been a man of white friendships and his botanical correspondence was very large. He did much for horticulture and is called by his friend Mary the Bremen, Princess de Chime, Le Père des Tours Le Bureux Jardin des Sépées. He deserves special gratitude for one benefit of a very practical nature, namely the introduction of the potato into Germany and Austria. It is worth of note that Deaucluse, 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 Lobel, who was born in Flanders in 1538 and died in England at Highgate in 1616. He studied at Montpellier under Guilame Rondelet who finally bequeathed to him his botanical manuscripts. He also became acquainted with a young provincial Pierre Peina with whom he afterwards collaborated in botanical work. De Lobel took up medicine as his profession and eventually became physician to William the Silent, a post which he held until the assassination of the Statholder. Later on, he and Peina came to England, probably to seek a peaceful life under the prosperous sway of Queen Elizabeth, which was so favourable to the arts and sciences. The principal work was dedicated to her in terms of hyperbolic praise. De Lobel seems to have been well received in this country, for he was invited to superintendent the medicinal garden at Hackney, belonging to Lord Zeus, and he eventually obtained the title of botanist to James first. De Lobel's chief botanical work was the Styrpium adversaria nova, published in 1570 with Peina as joint author. Peina does not appear to have been a botanist of much importance and eventually quite forsook the subject in favour of medicine. It has been suggested, however, that De Lobel was inclined to minimise the value of his colleague's work. The system of classification upon which De Lobel's reputation really rests is set forth in this book. The main feature of this 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 Ticotillidens and Monocotillidens. The details of his system will be considered in a later chapter. In 1576, the work was enlarged and published as the Plantarum Siew Styrpium Historia. It was also translated into Flemish and appeared under the title of Cretiburg in 1581, dedicated to William of Orange. And the Burgumasters and other functionaries of Antwerp. The blocks used to illustrate this work were taken from previous books, especially those of De La Cluce. Immediately after the publication of Cretiburg, Plantin brought out an album of the engravings it had contained, which, although they had also been used to illustrate the herbals of Dodians and De La Cluce, were now grouped according to De Lobel's arrangement which was recognized as the best. End of Chapter 4, Part 2 Section 6 of Herbal's, Their Origin and Evolution, a chapter in the history of Botany. This is a LibriVox recording. Only LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org recording by Shashank Jackmola. Herbal's, Their Origin and Evolution, a chapter in the history of Botany by Agnes Arbor. Fourth, the botanical renaissance of the 16th and 17th centuries, Part 3, The Herbal in Italy. The Italian botanists of the Renaissance devoted themselves chiefly to interpreting the works of the classical writers of natural history and to the identification of the plans 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 Alps, to distort facts before they could make the plans of their native country fit into the Procrustian bed of classical descriptions. One of the chief of the commentators and herbalists of this period was Pierandria Meteoli or Meteolus, who was born at Siena in 1501 and died of the plague in 1577. We realize 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 Renaissance botanists, Gassner, Meteoli and Zaluzian. Leonard Fuchs was brought into fame by his successful treatment of one of these epidemics. It should also be recalled that while Gaspar Bohin, one of the best known of the later herbalists, was practicing as a physician at Basel, no less than three of these terrible outbreaks occurred in the town. Meteoli was the son of a doctor, and his early life was passed in Venice, where his father was in practice. He was destined for the law, but his inherited tastes led him away from the jurisprudence to medicine. He practiced in several different towns and became physician successively to the Archduke Ferdinand and to the Emperor Maximilian II. Meteoli's commentary in Sex Libros Pedacci discordides his Chevduovre, the gradual production and improvement of which occupied his leisure hours throughout his life was first published in 1544. It was translated into 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, but it contains, besides an exposition of Dioscorates, a natural history dealing with all the plants known to Meteoli. The early editions had small illustrations, but later on editions with large and very beautiful figures were published, such as that which appeared at Venice in 1565. Meteoli's descriptions of the plants with which he deals are not so good as those of some of his contemporaries. He found and recorded a certain number of new plants, especially from the Tidal, but most of the species which he described for the first time were not his own discoveries, but were communicated to him by others. Luca Ghini, for instance, had projected a similar work by handed over all his material to Meteoli, who also placed on record the discoveries made by the physician Wilhelm Kwakelbin, who had accompanied the celebrated diplomat, Auger Gislein Beusbek on a mission to Turkey. Beusbek brought from Constantinople a wonderful collection of Greek manuscripts, including Juliana Anesia's copy of the Materia Medissa of Dioscordites. Now in the Vienna Library, see pages 8 and 154. He discovered this great manuscript in the hands of a Jew who required a hundred due cards for it. The price was almost prohibitive, but Beusbek was an enthusiast and he successfully urged the Emperor, whose representative he was, to redeem so illustrious an author from that servitude. His purpose in buying the manuscripts seems to have been largely in order to communicate it to Meteoli, who would thus be able to make use of it in preparing his commentaries on Dioscordites. The personal character of Meteoli does not appear to have been a pleasant one. He engaged in numerous controversies with his fellow botanists and hurled the most abusive language at those who went here to criticize him. Another Italian herbalist, Castor Durante, slightly later in date than Meteoli, should perhaps be mentioned here, not because of his intrinsic value of his work, but because of its widespread popularity. At least two of his books appeared in many editions in translations. Durante was a physician who issued a series of botanical compilations, beddisoned with Latin words. The best known of his work is Herbario Nuovo, published at Rome in 1585. 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 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 beautiful maiden, daughter of a mighty lord called Parisataco. This maiden loved the son, but the son forsook her because he loved another. So, being scorned by the son, 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 flower of this tree shrinks so intensely from the sun and never opened in its presence. And thus, it is a special delight to see this tree in the night time adorn on all sides with its lovely flowers since they give forth a delicious perfume, the like of which is not to be met within any other plant, but no 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's more generally called Fabius Columna, who was born at Naples in 1567. His father was a well-known literature. Fabio Colonna's profession was that of law, but he was also well acquainted with languages, music, mathematics, and optics. He tells us in the preface of 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 prescriptions 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, Diascorides, 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. The 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 would remedy the state of things. This book was published in 1592 under the name of Phytobasanos, which embodies a coin conceived 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 rest 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. They were in advance on all previous plant drawing except the work of Kessner and Camerarius in giving, in many cases, detailed analysis of the flowers and fruits 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 reliefs. By means of his wine scientific correspondence, Colonna kept in touch with many of the naturalists of his time, notably with Delil Clues and Gaspard Bohin. A bouncing reference may be made here to a book which is rather of the nature of a local flora than a herbal entitled Prosperi al Paeni de Plantis Egypti, which was published at Venice in 1592. It contains a number of footcuts, which appears to be original. The one reproduced 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 al Paeno eventually became professor of botany at Padua and enriched the botanical garden of that town with Egyptian plants. End of chapter 4, part 3. Section number 7 of herbals, their origin and evolution, a chapter in the history of botany. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Shashank Jagmola. Herbales, their origin and evolution, a chapter in the history of botany by Agnes Arbor. Fourth, the botanical renaissance of the 16th and 17th centuries. Part 4, the herbal in Switzerland. Among the many scientific men whose names are associated with Switzerland, one of the most renowned is Kondrad Gesna, who was born at Zurich in 1516. 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. Kondrad 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 Basel, 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 rice stipendium for the continuous 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 14th year. Gersner's most remarkable characteristic was his versatility and encyclopedic knowledge. He has been called the Pliny of his time. His work on bibliographical and 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, which was intended as a companion work for his famous Historia and Imallium. In order to illustrate it, he had collected 1,500 drawings of plants, the majority original, though some were founded on previous footcuts, especially those of foxes. 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 collection and the manuscripts he bequeathed for publication to his friend Caspar Wolff. Wolff seems to have made an onus effort to carry out guestness wishes and he succeeded in publishing a few of the woodcuts as an appendix to similar's Vita Conradi Guestneri. 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 fulfill the spirit of this obligation. It is true that he brought a large number of guestness 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 Meteoli and a book of his own. Finally, about 150 years after the death of Camerarius, Guestner's drawings and blocks came into the possession of the 18th-century botanist and bibliographer Christoph Jacob True who published them, thus giving Guestner his due so far as was possible at that late date. Such blocks as were in good conditions were printed directly and, from the drawing, a number of copper engravings were made, colored 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, Guestner shows a marked advance on the methods of his contemporaries, namely in giving detailed analyst studies of flour and fruit structure as well as a drawing showing the habit of the plant. It must not be forgotten that even in True's edition it is impossible to discriminate with certainty between the work of Guestner and that of Camerarius. Unfortunately, we have no knowledge of the text of Guestner'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 indicate that he was acquainted with a number of plants which del clues, Casperd Bohin and others were the first to describe. Among Guestner's numerous scientific correspondence was Jean Bohin, a brilliant young man, 25 years his junior. Their acquaintance began when Bohin was only 18, but in spite of his friend's youth, Guestner consulted him in botanical difficulties, describing him as Iduitis simus et ornatis simus humanis. Jean Bohin 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 Casperd were born. The medical tradition seems to have been remarkably strong in the family. Both Jean and Casperd became doctors, Casperd, whose son also entered the profession, being in fact the second of six generations of physicians. For 200 years, an unbroken succession of members of the family were medical men. After Jean Bohin had studied for a time at the University of Basel, he went to Tubingen, where he learned botany from Leonhard Fuchs. From Tubingen, he proceeded to Zurich and accompanied Guestner on some journeys in the Alps after further travel on his own account. And, a period at the University of Montpellier, he reached Lyons, where he came in contact with Théale Champs, who engaged him to assist with the Histoire des Plantes. Bohin began to occupy himself with his work, but his Protestantism proved a stumbling block to his life there and he was obliged to quit France. Jean Bohin's chief botanical work, the Histoire Universale des Plantes, was a most ambitious undertaking, which he did not live to see published. However, his son-in-law Scherler, a physician of Basel 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 5,000 plants, the figures of which there are more than 3,500 are small and badly executed. A large proportion of them are ultimately derived from those of Fuchs. Jean Bohin's more famous brother, Gaspard, was born in 1560 and was theirs the younger by 19 years. Gaspard studied at Basel, Padua, Montpellier, Paris and Tübingen. He also travelled in Italy, making observations about the flora and becoming acquainted with scientific men. Unfortunately, he missed being a pupil of Leonhard Fuchs since his sojourn at Tübingen 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 Basel, 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 4,000 plants including specimens from correspondence in many countries, even Egypt and the East Indies. Besides steady 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. There is a marked parallelism between the careers of the Bohin brothers for Gaspar's great work underwent much the same vicissitudes as that of Zhiyun. The main part of Gaspar's chief work never saw the light at all although his son brought out one installment of it many years after his father's death. Gaspar was however more fortunate than Zhiyun 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. The prodromous teatry Batanishi 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 Del Cluz. Figures of about 140 species are given two of which are here reproduced. One of these, the potato, still retains the name of Solanum tuberosum, which Bohin gave to it. He had previously published a description of this plant in an earlier work, the Phytopinax of 1596. In 1623, Gaspar Bohin brought out his most important botanical work, the Pynax Teatry Batanishi. By this state, 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. Bohin's Pynax 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 Legislature in Botanical. The work which dealt with about 6000 plants was recognized as preeminent for many years. Morrison criticized the scheme of arrangement on which it was based, but adopted its nomenclature as also Deirdre. Tornifort also retained, as far as possible, the names of the genera and species used in the Pynax. As Saka's 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 Bohin deserves great honor as the first to introduce some degree of order into the chaotic model 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 Bohin 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. End of chapter number 4, part 4. Section 8 of Herbal's Their Origin and Evolution, a chapter in the history of botany. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Lynette Calkins, Monument, Colorado. Herbal's Their Origin and Evolution, a chapter in the history of botany by Agnes Arbor. Section 4, the Botanical Renaissance of the 16th and 17th centuries, part 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 16th and 17th centuries, but it must be remembered that Jean and Gaspard Bohin and the publisher Christophe Plantin were French by extraction, though Switzerland and Holland were their countries by adoption. Most of the important Herbal's published in other languages were translated into French quite early in their history, sometimes in a modified form, so that France, in the 16th century, was probably by no means backward in botanical knowledge. One such adaptation was L'histoire des plantes by Geoffroy Linossier, which was founded in part on the works of Fouche and Matteoli. A well-known name among the earlier French writers is that of Jean-Ruel, or Jeunesse Julius, as he is commonly called, 1474 to 1537. 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 des Nétoures Styrpium, 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 de la Champs, 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 Cannes in 1513 and, after studying medicine at Montpellier, entered upon the practice of it at Lyons, where he remained until his death in 1588. de la Champs' great work is generally called the Historia Plantarum Lugdinensis. Curiously enough, the author's name is not mentioned on the title page. From the preface, one would gather that Johannes Mollineaus, or de Molines, 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 de la Champs was really responsible for it, though assisted at different times by Jean Bohin and de Molines. The Historia Plantarum had numerous faults, but it was at the time the most complete universal flora that existed. It contained about 2,700 figures, but both in drawing and wood-cutting, they show marked inferiority to much of the earlier work. End of Chapter 4 Part 5 Section 9 of Herbal's Their Origin and Evolution, a chapter in the history of botany. This is a Lipravox recording, all Lipravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, auto-volunteer, please visit Lipravox.org. Herbal's Their Origin and Evolution, a chapter in the history of botany. Bayak Nisaba. Chapter 4, The Botanical Renaissance of the 16th and 17th Centuries, Part 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 properly between 1510 and 1515. He received his education at what is now Pembroke College in Cambridge. Pembroke deserves to be especially held in honour by botanists 400 years later, Nehemiah grew, who was as pre-eminent among British botanists of the 17th century as Turner was among those of the 16th, 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 cracked into his own party. Eban 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 preferment, he obtained the Deenery of Wales. Difficulty in ejecting the previous Deen caused much delay in obtaining possession of the house, and Turner lamented bitterly that, in the small and crowded temporary lodging, I cannot go to my book, for you cry enough children and noice it 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 Wales was reinstated. However, when Elizabeth ascended the throne, the position was reversed, and Turner came back to Wales, the usurper, as he calls his rival, being ejected. But as triumph was short-lived, for in 1564 he was suspended for non-conformity. His controversial methods were violent in the extreme, and he seems to have been a thorn in the flesh of his superiors. The Bishop of Bath and Wells wrote on one occasion that he was much in combat with Mr. Dr. Turner, Dean of Wales, for his undiscreet behaviour in the pulpit, where he met Lith with all matters and unseemly speaketh of all estates more than is standing with discretion. 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 the Thigst he was a 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 Luke again, who was also the teacher of Cheshall Pino. Another servant with whom he became acquainted on the continent was Conrad Gessner, whom he visited at Zurich, and with whom he maintained a warm friendship. He also corresponded with Leonhard Fuchs. Turner's earliest botanical work was the Lebelles de Re Habaria Novus, 1538, which is the first book in which localities for many of our native British plans are placed on racket. In 1548, this was followed by another little work, the names of herbs in Greek, Latin, English, Dutch and French with the common names that Herberies in apothecaries 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 advice of physicians in this matter, their advice was that I should cease from setting out of this book in Latin till I had seen those places of England or in its most plenty of herbs that I might in my herbal declare to the great honour of our country what number of sovereign and strange herbs were in England that were not in other nations, whose counsel I have followed deferring to set up my herbal in Latin, till that I have seen the West Country which I never saw yet in all my life, which country of all places of England as I here say is most richly replenished with all kinds of strange and wonderful works and gifts of nature as are stones, herbs, fishes and metals. He explains that while waiting to complete his herbal he has been advised to publish his little book in which he has set forth the names of plants. He adds, and because man should not think that I write of that I never saw and that apothecaries should be excuses when as the right herbs are required of them I have showed in what places of England, Germany and Italy the herbs grow and may be had for labour and money. Ternus Jeff de Oeuvre was his herbal published in three instalments the first in London in 1551 the first and second together at Cologne in 1562 during his exile in the reign of Mary and the third part together with the preceding in 1568. The title of the first part runs as follows a new herbal wherein are contained the names of herbs with the properties, degrees and natural places of the same gathered and made by William Turner physician onto Duke of Somerset's Grace. The figures illustrating the herbal are for the most part the same as those in the October edition of Fuchs's work published in 1545. The dedication of a 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 blanny an occasion on which the princess Elizabeth as she then was had conversed with him in Latin. As for your knowledge in the Latin tongue he writes 18 years ago or more I had in the Duke of Somerset's house being his physician at that time a good trial thereof when as it pleased your Grace to speak Latin onto me for although I have both in England low and high Germany and other places of my long travel and pilgrimage never spoke with any noble or gentle woman that spoke so well and so much Kongru fine and pure Latin as your Grace did onto me so long ago. Turner defends himself against the insinuation that a book in treating only of trees herbs and weeds and shrubs is not a met 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 Hall, Cambridge he endeavoured to learn the names of plans but such was the ignorance and symbols at that time that he could get no information on the subject even from physicians. He claims that his herbal has considerable originality a claim which seems well founded in his own words they that have read the first part of my herbal and have compared my writings of plans with those things that Matiolis Fuxius, Tragus and Dodoneos wrote in their first editions of the herbals may easily perceive that I taught the truth of certain plans which these above-named writers either knew not at all or else erred in them greatly so it as I learned something of them so they either might or did learn something of me again as the second editions may testify and because I would not be like onto a crier it cryeth lost horse on the market and telleth all the marks and tokens that he hath and yet never saw the horse neither could know the horse if we saw him I went into Italy and into diverse parts of Germany to know and see the herbs myself. This herbal contains many evidences of Turner's independence of thought he fought against what he regarded as superstition and science with the same ardor with which he entered upon religious polemics the legend of the human form of the Mandrake receives gunned mercy at his hands as he points out the roots which are counterfeited and made like little puppets and mammots which come to be sold in England in boxes with air and such form as man hath are nothing else but foolish feint trifles and not natural for they are so trimmed of crafty thieves to mop the poor people with all and to rob them of both their wit and their money I have in my time at diverse times taken up the roots of Mandrake out of the ground but I never saw any such thing upon or in them as are in and upon the pertless roots that are commonly to be sold in boxes Turner was however by no means the first to dispute the Mandrake superstition in the greater Hubble 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 Turner had a fine scorn for any superstitious notions he detected in the writings of his contemporaries and 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 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 Theophrathus and Deoscoridus that the broom rape or O'banche could kill other plants merely by its painful 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 admitting to show the roots which are the real instruments of destruction he triumphantly concludes and as touching experience I know that the fresh and young O'banche has coming out of the great root many little strings wherewith it taketh hold of the roots of the herbs that grow next onto it wherefor Mattioli's or not so likely to have defaced the authority of Theophrast so ancient in substantial order Turner's work is largely occupied with the opinions of early writers especially Deoscoridus 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 plans whereof as no mention made neither of the old Grecians nor Latins Turner's herbal is arranged alphabetically and does not show evidence of any interest in the relationships of the plants it is as individual and essentially as simple 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 Gessner'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 Nicholas Monardis a Spanish physician had published in 1569 and 1571 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 joyful news out of the new found world this book contains a good figure of the tobacco plant text figure 52 perhaps the first ever published and also a long account on its virtues the reader is told that the necros and indians after inhaling tobacco smoke do remain lightened without any weariness for to labour again and they do this with so great pleasure that although they be not weary yet they are very desirous for to do it and the thing has come to so much effect that their maesters doth chasten them for it and do burn the tobacco because they should not use it 27 years after the appearance of the first part of Turner's Herbal a translation of Dadoan's work made by Henry Light appeared in England Light was born about 1529 and towards the end of the reign of Henry the 8th 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 the Dadoan's Herbal into this country his book which was published in 1578 was professively a translation of the French version of Dadoan's Coy-de-Bac of 1554 which had been made by Delacluse in 1557 Light's copy of this work with copious manuscript notes and on the title page the quaint endorsement Henry Light taught me to speak English is preserved in the British Museum this copy proves that Light was no mere mechanical translator for the workers annotated and corrected with great care references to Delabelle and Turner being introduced the title of Light's book is as follows a new herbal or history of plants wherein is contained the oldest course in perfect description of all sorts of herbs and plants their diverse and sundry kinds their strange figures, fashions and shapes their names, natures, operations and virtues and they're not only of those which are here going in this our country of England but of all others also of foreign realms commonly used in physics first set forth in the Dutch or Almain tongue by that learned D. Rembert Dadoan's physician to the emperor and now first translated out of French into English by Henry Light as choir the illustrations used in the book were the same as those which had appeared in the translation by Delacluse and were for the most part copies of those in the Octavio edition of Fox's Herbal with some additional blocks which had been cut specially for Dadoan's the result is that many of the same figures occur both in Turner and in Light there are said to be 870 figures in Light's herbal of which about 30 are new of the letter Chentauria Rapondicum is an example text figure 53 Light 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 dogrel verses in commendation of this work which imply that Rembert Dadoan's himself made additions to the English translation the most important stanza is the following Great was his tile which first this work did frame and so was his which ventured to translate it for when he had finished all the same he minded not to add nor to abate it but what he found he meant whole to relate it till Rembert he did send addition store for to augment Light's travel past before we now come to John Gerard plate 12 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 Sheshire what a master in Chirurgri but was better known as a remarkably successful gardener for 20 years he supervised the gardens belonging to Lord Burley in the Strand and at Theobalds and Hertfordshire besides having himself a famous garden and Hallborn the then the most fashionable district of London in 1596 he published a list of plans which he cultivated in Hallborn which is interesting as being the first complete catalogue ever published of the contents of a single garden Gerard's reputation rests so ever on a much larger work The Herbal or General History of Plans printed by John Norton in 1597 but the manner in which they spoke originated does the author little credit it seems that Norton the publisher had commissioned a certain doctor priest to translate the doens final work the Pemptadas of 1583 into English but priest died before the work was finished Gerard simply adopted priests translation completed it and published it as a zone merely altering the arrangement from that of the doens to that of De La Belle he had insulted injury by gratuitously remarking in an address to the reader at the beginning of The Herbal that doctor priest one of our London College Hearth as I heard translated the last edition of Dodonius which meant to publish the same but being prevented by death his translation like was perished after the manner of the period The Herbal is embellished with a number of prefatory letters in one of which written by Stephen Bradwell the statement occurs which is so inconsistent with Gerard's own remarks that he certainly committed an oversight in allowing it to stand in Bradwell's words De priest for this translation of so much of Dodonius Hearth hereby left at home for this honourable sepulcher Master Gerard coming last but not the least Hearth many ways accommodated the whole work onto our English nation The Herbal is a massive volume in clear Roman type contrasting markedly with a black letter used in the works of Turner and Light and giving the book a much more modern appearance it contains about 1,800 woodcuts nearly all from blocks used by Tabernay Montanus in his iconis of 5090 which Norton attained from Frankfurt less than 1% 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 figure 60 Gerard did not know enough about botany to couple the wood blocks of Tabernay Montanus with their appropriate descriptions and Delebel 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 amundation on the ground that Delebel had forgotten his English After this episode the relations between the two botanists seem not unnaturally to have become somewhat strained Gerard evidently aimed at conveying information in simple language for in one place what he speaks of a preparation being skirted into the ice he apologizes for the colloquialism explaining that he does not wish to be over eloquent among gentle women onto whom especially my works are most necessary The value of Gerard's work must inevitably be at a discount when we realize that it is impossible from internal evidence to accept him as a credible witness His oft quoted account of the goose tree barnacle 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 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 figure 54 which is not however original Gerard relates our trees actually bearing shells which open and hatch up barnacle geese occur in the orchids but he states that on this point he has no first and knowledge he proceeds however to remark but what our eyes have seen and hands have touched we shall declare there is a small island in Lancashire called the pile of Fowlers where in a found the broken pieces of old and blue ships somewhere off have been cast there by shipwreck and also the trunks of buddies with the branches of old and rotten trees cast up there likewise whereon is found a certain spoon or froth that in time breedeth onto certain shells in shape like those of the muskle but sharper pointed and of a whitish colour wherein is contained a thing and form like a lace of silk finely woven as it were together of a whitish colour one end where off is fastened onto the insert of the shell even as the fish of oysters and mussels are the other end is made fast onto the belly of a root mass or lump which in time cometh to the shape and form of a bird when it is perfectly formed the shell gapeth open and the first thing that appeareth is the foreset lace or string next come the legs of the bird hanging out and as it groweth greater it openeth the shell by degrees till at length it is all come forth and hangeth only by the bill in short space after it cometh to full maturity and falleth into the sea where it gathereth feathers and groweth to a fowl bigger than a mallet and lesser than a goose the fable of the goose tree was rejected in the later editions of Gerard's herbal published after the author's death it reappears however later in the 17th century in the Historia Naturalis of John Johnston the legend is of respectable antiquity being found in various early chronicles Sebastian Minster for example in his Cosmografia printed a battle in 1545 refers to it as recorded by previous writers and figures a tree with pendant fruits out of which geese are dropping into a lake or stream Hector Boethius, a Boeaca in a Scottish chronicle gives a coined count of the origin of the geese from Driftwood in the sea and the small bodies and hollows of which grow small worms first they shore their head and fate and last of all they shore their plum and wings finally co-in they are coming to the just measure and quantity of geese they fly into the air as other founts do 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 tooth 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 fervent masts or planks of yard arms of a ship have rotted on the sea then fungi as it were break out upon them first in which in cause of time one may discern evident forms of birds which afterwards are clothed in feathers and at last become alive and fly now lest this should seem fabulous to anyone besides the common evidence of all the long shoremen of England, Ireland and Scotland that renowned historian Gerardus bears witness that the generation of the barnacles is none other than this but in as much as it seemed heartfully safe to trust the Volga and by reason of the rarity of the thing I do not quite credit Gerardus 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 Gerardus worthy of belief in this affair who, taken oath upon the very gospel which he taught answered that what Gerardus 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 into me the goose tree is also figured by Della Bell and D'Ali Shams but it is for a flashing to find that Colonna in his Futo Basinas 1592 flatly denies the truth of the legend the importance of Gerardus' herbal in the history of botany is chiefly due to an improved addition brought out by Thomas Johnson in 1633 36 years after the work was originally published Johnson was an apothecary in London and cultivated a physical garden on Snow Hill his first botanical work was a shorter current 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 current 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 enlarged the herbal and illustrated it with plantain's woodcuts his edition contained an account of no less than 2850 plants Johnson also corrected numerous areas 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 was said to have been a man of great personal courage joined the royalists he took an active part in the defence of Basin House and received a shot wound during the siege from which he died John Parkinson, 1567 to 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 13 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 Longakhead respectively another important London garden of the period was that of Lambeth belonging to John Tradescent gardener to charts the first Parkinson became Pothecary to James the first and botanist to charts the first the early 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 Zola Paradisus terrestris a garden of all sorts of pleasant flowers which our English eye will permit to be nursed up together with the right ordering planting and preserving of them and the uses and virtues it has lately become accessible in the form of a facsimile reprint the words Paradisi in Zola a former 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 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 got the creative heaven and earth at the beginning when he created Adam inspired him with the knowledge of all natural things which successively descended to Noah afterwards and to his posterity for as he was able to give names to all the living creatures according to their several natures so no doubt but he had also the knowledge both what herbs and fruits were fit either for meat 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 figure 55 is taken from part of one illustration the figures are partly original and partly copied from the books of Delacluse Delebel and others in 1640 Parkinson followed up this work with a much larger volume dealing with plants in general and called the Theatron Botanicum the theative plants or an herbal of a large extent he complains that the publication of the work has been delayed partly through the disastrous times but chiefly through the machinations of ratchet and perverse men according to the preface to the paradises terrestris the author's original idea was merely to supplement his description of the flower garden by an account of a garden of symbols this scheme grew into one of a more extensive and general nature but without losing the predominant medical interest which would have characterised the workers originally planned in accordance with his 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 Bohin's peanuts is incorporated with the result that the account of the nomenclature of each plant it becomes very pull and detailed many of Delebel's manuscript notes are also inserted the scheme of classification adopted is however markedly inferior to that of Delebel occasionally in spite of his comparatively late date Parkinson deplace an imagination that is truly medieval 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 far remote from these parts and huge vast wildnesses among other most fierce and wild beasts he discusses also the use of the powder of mummies as a medicine and 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 Morrison born 1620 and John Ray born 1627 but as their chief works appeared after the close of the period selected for special study in this book 1470 to 1670 and as they were botanists in the modern sense rather than herbalists we will not attempt any discussion of their writings while Morrison and Ray were advancing the subject of systematic botany Nehemiah Gru 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 letter part of the 17th 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 19th century the day of their preeminence was over end of chapter 4 part 6 recording by Mocha section 10 of Herbalt's their origin and evolution a chapter in the history of botany this is a lipovox recording all lipovox recordings are in the public domain for my information autovalentia please visit lipovox.org Herbalt's the origin and evolution a chapter in the history of botany by Jecny Zaba chapter 4 the botanical renaissance of the 16th and 17th centuries part 7 the revival of Aristotelian botany the subject of Aristotelian botany scarcely comes within the scope of a book on Herbalt's 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 chiefly 16th century exponent the Italian servant Andrea Cisalpino 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 Mutnus carried on the tradition of Aristotelian 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 plans from the standpoint of medicine and natural history Cisalpino plate 14 it is true was largely concerned like the Herbalists with the mere description of plans but the fame of his great work De Plantis Libri 16 1583 rests upon the first book which contains an account of the theory of botany on Aristotelian lines Cisalpino'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 conceptions the chief tangible contribution which Cisalpino made to botanical science was his insistence on the prime importance of the organs of verification this was the idea on which he chiefly laid stress in a system of classification to which we shall return in a later chapter a botanist who had something in common with Cisalpino was the Bohemian author Adam Saludciansky von Saludcian 1558 to 1613 his most important work was the Methodi Habarie Libres III published at Prague in 1592 as a herbal it does not rank high since Saludciansky neither recorded any new plans 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 and 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 17th century discusses the sorts of plans and related topics quite in the manner of the Aristotelian school in his book de la nature vertu et utilité des plantes dedicated to Montsignor le Tré Illustre et le Tré Réveron cardinal Montsueux le Cardinal de Richelieu he treats a variation within single species the sensitiveness of plans the 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 and of chapter 4 part 7 recording by Mocha Chapter 5 Herbal's Their Origin and Evolution a chapter in the history of botany this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer visit LibriVox.org Herbal's Their Origin and Evolution a chapter in the history of botany by Agnes Arbor Chapter 5 The Evolution of the Art of Plant Description probably 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 16th century their drawings were so conventional and their descriptions 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 suggests itself is that a knowledge of the actual plant was in practice transmitted by word of mouth and that the Herbal's 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 descriptions which although they seem somewhat rudimentary when judged by modern standards are greatly in advance of those contained in the first printed Herbal's the medieval philosopher Albertus Magnus who as we have already pointed out was a follower of Aristotle and Theophrastus also showed marked originality in his description of flowers and drew attention to a number of points which appear to have escaped the notice of many more recent writers for instance in describing the flower of the Bore age he distinguished 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 light you notice 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 activation 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 one bird form e.g. aquilagia viola and lamium two pyramid and bell form three 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 diascorides for example are so brief and meager that only those with the most marked characteristics 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 gives an account of a plant which compared with most of the other descriptions in the herbal may fairly be called precise and full quote this wart which is named radiolus by another name ever fern is like fern and it is produced in stony places and in old house steds and it has on each leaf two rows of fair spots and they shine like gold end quote the group of late 15th century herbals which we discussed in chapter 2 the Latin and German herbarias and the Hortis sanitatis are like in giving very brief and inadequate accounts of the characters of the plants enumerated although their descriptions often have a certain naive charm it is scarcely worthwhile to give actual examples of their methods it will perhaps suffice to quote a few specimens from the English Great Herbal which is a work of much the same class the wood sorrel is dealt with as follows quote this herb groweth in three places and specially in hedges, woods, and underwalls sides and hath leaves like livid grass and hath a sour smell as sorrel and hath a yellow flower as another example we may cite the chicory which is described as having quote croaked and writhing stalks and the flower is of a color of the sky end quote of the water lilies we receive a still more generalized account quote nenufar is an herb that groweth in water and hath large leaves and hath a flower in manner of a rose the rope thereof is called trumian and is very big it is of two manners one is white and another yellow occasionally we meet with a hint of more detailed observation for instance the colored central flower in the umbel of the carrot is mentioned though in terms that sounds somewhat strange to the modern botanist we read that it quote hath a large flower and in the middle thereof a little reed prick end quote it is somewhat remarkable that banks is herbal though originally published a year earlier than the first edition of the great herbal shows a slight but distinct superiority in the matter of description see page 38 perhaps this is to be connected with the fact that banks is herbal is without illustrations but even if we allow that the descriptions in banks is herbal occasionally sees 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 tootson and of shepherd's purse of the first the herbalist writes quote this herb hath leaves some del reed like unto ye leaves of orage and this herb hath sinews on his leaves as hath plantain and it hath yellow flowers and bareth black berries and it groweth in dry woods of shepherd's purse he says quote this herb hath a small stalk and full of branches and ragged leaves and a white flower the cods thereof be like a purse end quote the herbarium vivae aekonus of auto brunfels 1530 was the first herbal illustrated with drawings which are throughout both beautiful and true to nature the descriptions on the other hand are quite unworthy of the figures being mostly borrowed from earlier writers the wonderful excellence of the woodblocks with which the German fathers of botany enriched their books was in our sense an actual hindrance to the development of the art of plant description since the pencil of the draftsman 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 super-arrogation however in another sense the draftsman 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 supervises 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 draftsman had not, as it were, lent him his trained eyesight the next great worker, Hieronymus Bach differs from Brunfels in the comparative unimportance of his contributions to plant illustration and the relatively great 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 quote 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 color from them develop towards autumn small round white berries berry 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 in sown for as I have said above the mistletoe only originates and develops on trees in winter mistletoe 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 mistletoe are both beneficial and harmful to birds in dayhistoria stirpium the great latin work of Leonard 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's definitions quote 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 papas both to the Greeks and to the latins is the 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 papi as happens in Sonicio, Sankos and several others in the German edition of Fuchs's herbal the descriptions are remarkably good for their time being more methodical than those of Bach though sometimes less lively and picturesque as an instance of his manner we may cite his account of the butterbur of which his woodcut is shown in text figure 58 quote the flower of butterbur he writes is the first to appear before the planter 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 stock at times a span high it withers and decays without fruit together with the stock then the round gray ash colored leaves appear which are at first like colt's foot 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 I wish 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 end quote our English herbalist William Turner is often fresh and effective in his descriptions he compares the daughter Cuscuta to quote a great red harp string end quote and the seed vessels of shepherd's purse to a quote boys satchel or little bag end quote of the dud nettle he says quote lameum hath leaves like unto a nettle but less indented about and wider the downy things that are in it like prickles bite not yet stock is four square the flowers are white and have a strong savor and are very like unto little coals or hoods that stand over bear heads the seed is black and groweth about the stock certain places going between as we see in whorehound end quote the three great botanists of the low countries Dorawans, Delecluz, and Delebel were so closely associated that it is hardly necessary to consider their style of plant description individually Henry Light's well-known herbal of 1578 was a translation of the histoire des plantes which is itself a version by Delecluz of the Dutch herbal of Dorawans we may thus fairly illustrate the style of plant description of this school by a quotation from Light since it has the advantage of retaining the 16th century flavor which is so easily lost in a modern translation as a typical example we may take a paragraph about the Storkspil erodium will be noticed that it does not represent any great advance upon Fuchs's work quote the kind of geranium or Storkspil his leaves are cut and jagged in many pieces like to crowfoot his stalks be slender and parted into sundry branches upon which groweth small flowers somewhat like roses or the flowers of mellows of a light Murray or red color after them cometh little round heads with small long bills like needles or like the beaks of cranes and herons wherein the seed is contained the root is thick round short and knobby with certain small strings hanging by it in his Pemptades of 1583 Dorawans 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 quote the flower 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 end quote the description from the pen of Delacluse are characterized by a greater fullness and closer attention to flower structure than those of his predecessors the plant which he calls Sedum or Sempervivum magis of which his woodcut is reproduced in text figure 59 is described as being quote a shrub rather than an herb occasionally it reaches the height of two cubits three feet 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 altogether and overlapping just as in Sedum vulgare magis these leaves however are fat and full of juice and shaped like a tongue and slightly serrated round the edge with a somewhat astringent flavor the whole shrub is coated with a thick fleshy sappy bark the outer membrane inclines to a dark color and is speckled as in Tithalamus carousia these speckles are simply the remains of leaves which have fallen off meanwhile a thick pedestal covered with leaves springs out from the top of the larger branches and bears so to speak a thersus of many yellow flowers 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 pedestal grows slender but the plant is an evergreen in Gerard's herbal of 1597 the descriptions are seldom sufficiently original to be of much interest we may quote however his account of the potato flower text figure 60 then so great a novelty that in his portrait plate 12 his represented holding a spray of it in his hand it has he says quote very fair and pleasant flowers made of one entire whole leaf which is folded or plated in such strange sort that it seemeth to be a flower made of six sundry small leaves which cannot be easily perceived except the same be pulled open the color whereof it is hard to express the whole flower is of a light purple color stripped down the middle of every fold or wealth with a light show of yellowness as though purple and yellow were mixed together in the middle of the flower thrusts forth a thick fat pointel yellow is gold with a small sharp green prick or point in the mittis thereof the plant descriptions by Valerius Cordus which were published after his death are among the best produced in the 16th 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-Bohem 1620 in which a high level of terceness and accuracy is attained as an example we may translate his description of beta-critica semine aculeato of which his drawing is reproduced in text figure 62 quote 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 tuber-cold and separate into three reflex 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 a double layer of reddish membrane the inner one enclosing a white ferronaceous core any great advance on boan'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 Gruh though he himself attributed this discovery to Sir Thomas Millington a botanist otherwise unknown Sherrod's account of the stamens and stigma of the potato as a quote pointele yellow as gold with a small sharp green prick or point in the middest thereof and quote vague as it seems to the 20th 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 already shown both Fuchs and Dodo ends 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 Young and to Linnaeus that we owe the foundations of an 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 17th and 18th century and is thus outside the scope of the present volume end of chapter five