88 The Botanical Renaissance [ch. 



that of law, but he was also well acquainted with languages, 

 music, mathematics and optics. He tells us in the preface 

 to 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 pre- 

 scriptions 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, 

 Dioscorides, 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. 



This 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 should remedy this state of things. 

 This book was published in 1592, under the name of 

 1 Phytobasanos,' which embodies' a quaint conceit 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 wrest 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 (Text-figs. 46 and 105). They were an 

 advance on all previous plant drawings, except the work of 

 Gesner and Camerarius, in giving, in many cases, detailed 

 analyses of the flowers and fruit 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 leaves 1 . 



By means of his wide scientific correspondence, Colonna 

 kept in touch with many of the naturalists of his time, 

 notably with de l'Ecluse and Gaspard Bauhin. 



A passing reference may be made here to a book which 

 is rather of the nature of a local flora than a herbal, entitled 



1 'Ekphrasis,' 1616, pp. 245 etc. 



