i] Aristotelian Botany 3 



was interested in the germination of seeds, and was aware, 

 though somewhat dimly, of the essential differences between 

 the seedling of the Bean and that of the Wheat. 



. In the Middle Ages, knowledge of Aristotelian botany 

 was brought into western Europe at two different periods, 

 — the ninth and the thirteenth centuries. In the ninth 

 century of the Christian era, Rhabanus Magnentius Maurus, 

 a German writer, compiled an encyclopaedia which con- 

 tained information about plants, indirectly derived from 

 the writings of Theophrastus. Rhabanus actually based 

 his work upon the writings of Isidor of Seville, who lived 

 in the sixth and seventh centuries — Isidor having obtained 

 his botanical data from Pliny, whose knowledge of plants 

 was in turn borrowed from Theophrastus. 



'The renewal of Aristotelian learning in the thirteenth 

 century was derived less directly from classical writings 

 than was the case with the earlier revival. From the time 

 of Alexander onwards, various Greek schools had been 

 founded in Syria. These schools were largely concerned 

 with the teachings of Aristotle, which were thence handed 

 on into Persia, Arabia and other countries. The Arabs 

 translated the Syriac versions of Greek writers into their 

 own language, and their physicians and philosophers kept 

 alive the knowledge of science during the dark ages when 

 Greece and Rome had ceased to be the homes of learning, 

 and while culture was still in its infancy in Germany, 

 France and England. The Arabic translations of classical 

 writings were eventually rendered into Latin, or even 

 sometimes into Greek again, and in this guise found their 

 way to western Europe. 



,' Amongst other books, which suffered these successive 

 metamorphoses, was the pseudo-Aristotelian botany of 

 Nicolaus of Damascus, which has acquired importance in 

 the annals of western science, because it formed the basis 

 of the botanical work of Albertus Magnus. 



Albert of Bollstadt (1 193 — 1280), Bishop of Ratisbon, 

 was a famous scholastic philosopher. He was esteemed one 

 of the most learned men of his age, and was called "Albertus 

 Magnus" during his life-time, the title being conferred on 

 him by the unanimous consent of the schools. The "Angelic 

 Doctor," St Thomas Aquinas, became one of his pupils. 



