6 THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS 



Physicians in 1903, Dr. J. F. Payne commented on the remark- 

 able fact that the Anglo-Saxons had a much wider knowledge 

 of herbs than the doctors of Salerno, the oldest school of medicine 

 and oldest university in Europe. " No treatise," he said, " of 

 the School of Salerno contemporaneous with the Leech Book of 

 Bald is known, so that the Anglo-Saxons had the credit of 

 priority. Their Leech Book was the first medical treatise written 

 in Western Europe which can be said to belong to modern 

 history, that is, which was produced after the decadence and 

 decline of the classical medicine, which belongs to ancient 

 history. ... It seems fair to regard it [the Leech Book], in a 

 sense, as the embryo of modern English medicine, and at all 

 events the earliest medical treatise produced by any of the 

 modern nations of Europe." The Anglo-Saxons created a 

 vernacular literature to which the continental nations at that 

 time could show no parallel, and in the branch of literature 

 connected with medicine, in those days based on a knowledge 

 of herbs (when it was not magic), their position was unique. 

 Moreover, the fact that the Leech Book was written in the 

 vernacular is in itself remarkable, for it points to the existence 

 of a class of men who were not Latin scholars and yet were 

 able and willing to read books. The Leech Book belongs to 

 the literary period commonly known as the school of Alfred. 

 It was probably written shortly after Alfred's death, but it is 

 more than probable that it is a copy of a much older manuscript, 

 for what is known as the third book of the Leech Book is evi- 

 dently a shorter and older work incorporated by the scribe when 

 he had finished the Leech Book proper. 



The book itself was written under the direction of one Bald, 

 who, if he were not a personal friend of King Alfred's, had at 

 any rate access to the king's correspondence; for one chapter 

 consists of prescriptions sent by Helias, Patriarch of Jerusalem, 

 to the king. 1 We learn the names of the first owner and scribe 



1 This chapter consists of prescriptions containing drugs such as a resident 

 in Syria would recommend. It is interesting to find this illustration of Asser's 



