IX] 



Evolution of the Herbal 



223 



but their writers form a class apart, and must not be con- 

 fused with the herbalists proper, whose attitude was, on the 

 whole, marked by a healthy scepticism which was in advance 

 of their time. It would, naturally, be far from true to say 

 that they were all quite free from superstition, but, con- 

 sidering the intellectual atmosphere of the period, their 

 enlightenment was quite remarkable. 



When we come to consider the origin of the herbal, we 

 find that it is impossible to assign any date for its beginning. 



Text-fig. 112. Wood-cut from the title-page of the Grete Herball, 1526. 



Reduced. 



In manuscript form, herbals have existed from very early 

 times, but, in the present book, those prior to the inven- 

 tion of printing have been scarcely touched upon. Our 

 subject has been limited to the most active life-period of the 

 printed herbal, which may be reckoned as beginning in the 

 last quarter of the fifteenth century, with the ' Book of Nature,' 

 the ' Herbarium ' of Apuleius, and the Latin and German 

 1 Herbarius.' When this active period ended is less easily 

 decided, but in some senses it may fairly be taken as 



