40 The Earlier English Herbals [ch. 



was probably first published about the same time as 

 Askham's Herbal, is simply a later edition of the herbal of 

 Rycharde Banckes, and another closely similar edition with 

 an almost identical title was published by Kynge. 



Another version of the same work, undated, and printed 

 by Robert Wyer, appeared under an even more deceptive 

 title — 'A newe Herball of Macer, Translated out of Laten 

 in to Englysshe.' There was, as a matter of fact, a 

 certain -^Emilius Macer, a contemporary of Virgil and Ovid, 

 who wrote about plants in Latin verse, and there is also 

 a herbal which was first printed in the fifteenth century, 

 and which is known by the name of ' Macer Floridus de 

 viribus herbarum.' Macer Floridus or yEmilius Macer is 

 supposed to have been the pseudonym of a physician whose 

 real name was Odo. ' De viribus herbarum ' deals with 

 seventy-seven plants in alphabetical order, and describes 

 their virtues in mediaeval Latin verse, which is believed to 

 date back to the tenth century. It is illustrated with 

 wood-cuts which are apparently copied from those of the 

 Herbarius zu Teutsch. 



There seems to be no justification whatever for the use 

 of Macer's name on the title-page of 'A newe Herball of 

 Macer.' Except for some slight verbal differences, it is 

 identical with Banckes' herbal of 1525. Another closely 

 similar edition, also undated, was published under the name 

 of 'Macers Herbal. Practysd by Doctor Lynacro.' Macer's 

 name was probably merely borrowed in each case, in order 

 to give the books a well-sounding title, and thus to increase 

 the chances of sale. 



3. The Grete Herball. 



Among the earlier English herbals, the greater reputa- 

 tion belongs, not to Banckes' Herbal in any of its forms, but 

 to the 'Grete Herball' printed by Peter Treveris in 1526, 

 and again in 1529. This was admittedly a translation from 

 the French, namely from the work known as ' Le Grant 

 Herbier,' whose origin we have discussed on p. 24. In 

 the preface and supplement, however, it also shows some 

 indebtedness to the Ortus Sanitatis. The figures in the 

 Grete Herball are degraded copies of the series which 



