NA TURE 



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THURSDAY, MAY 29, 1913. 



OLD HERBALS. 

 Herbals: their Origin and Evolution. A Chapter 

 in the History of Botany, 1470-1670. By Dr. 

 Agnes Arber. Pp. xviii + 253 +xxi plates. 

 (Cambridge University Press, 1912.) Price 

 10s. 6d. net. 



IN this age of literary activity it is difficult to 

 find a sphere of knowledge that has not been 

 hitherto exploited by the makers of books. It is 

 therefore a refreshing experience to find that the 

 work before us is the first attempt to present to 

 the public a popular survey of this fascinating old 

 literature of herbals. The active life-period of this 

 literature extends over a course of two hundred 

 years, beginning in the latter part of the fifteenth 

 and ending during the second half of the seven- 

 teenth century. 



These curious old books treat of the medicinal 

 virtues of plants and herbs, and were written 

 chiefly by physicians for their own convenience 

 and the use of the public at a time when botany 

 was still a branch of medicine. But, in addition 

 to the medical, they possess an artistic interest, 

 being illustrated from the earliest times with 

 woodcut figures of plants. This is exemplified 

 in the profuse collection of choice and beautiful 

 illustrations in Mrs. Arber's work. 



The mediaeval encyclopaedia of Bartholomaeus 

 Anglicus has a section dealing with herbs and 

 trees and their medicinal properties, and although 

 this is perhaps the first printed book containing 

 information of a strictly botanical nature, the 

 earliest work to which the term "herbal" is 

 generally applied is the Latin Herbarium of 

 Apuleius Platonicus, first printed at Rome about 

 1484 by the physician to Pope Sixtus IV. This 

 little book, based on classical writings, and illus- 

 trated with figures coming down from late 

 Roman art, was, in its manuscript form, the chief 

 text-book of medicine of our Anglo-Saxon fore- 

 fathers. 



But we must turn to Germany for the doyens 

 amongst printed herbals. These are the Latin 

 " Herbarius " (1484), the German " Herbarius " 

 (1485), and the "Hortus Sanitatis " (1491), all 

 three representing a tradition of great antiquity 

 and printed at Mainz. It is also to the German 

 "fathers of botany," Brunfels and Fuchs, that we 

 owe the handsome herbals which, for the beauty 

 and faithfulness of their illustrations, remain not 

 only unsurpassed by any other herbal, but perhaps 

 unequalled. In the Netherlands, Italy, Switzer- 

 land, and France the herbal attained great popu- 

 larity, and for an account of its origin and growth 

 in these countries Mrs. Arber's work must be read. 

 NO. 2274, VOL. 91] 



The first work printed in our own country, deal- 

 ing exclusively with the medicinal virtues of herbs, 

 was a small quarto volume without illustrations 

 published anonymously by Richard Banckes in 

 1525. During the next four decades this book was 

 in great demand, no fewer than about fourteen 

 editions appearing, some with the names of Macer, 

 Linacre, and Askham on the title-pages, and others 

 attributed erroneously to the physician Walter 

 Cary and to the printer William Copland. But 

 a year after the appearance of Banckes's book 

 there appeared the fine folio, with woodcut illus- 

 trations, called the "Crete Herball." This was a 

 translation of the French work " Le Grant 

 Herbier." Nevertheless, it may be looked upon 

 as the doyen of the English herbals, and no lover 

 of books would wish to dispute this claim after 

 reading the delightful old phraseology in the 

 quaint black letter fount of our early printers. 

 The herbals of the great English botanists, Wil- 

 liam Turner, John Gerard, Henry Lyte, and John 

 Parkinson, are all described in the work before us. 



We wish we had space enough to deal ade- 

 quately with other interesting parts of Mrs. 

 Arber's work. The chapter on the evolution of 

 botanical illustration, and the well-chosen illustra- 

 tions numbering upwards of one hundred and 

 twenty, show clearly the important position this 

 old herbal literature occupies in the history o1 

 wood-engraving. But our concluding remarks 

 must be confined to the chapter on signatures and 

 astrological botany. Absurd and preposterous as 

 these doctrines are, they nevertheless make 

 delightful reading. /According to the former, many 

 medicinal plants were stamped, as it were, with 

 some indication of their uses. In this extraordinary 

 superstition of the mystics, described by Dr. Paris 

 as the most absurd hypothesis that ever disgraced 

 the annals of medicine, the best botanists of the 

 period had little belief ; and in astrological botany 

 they perhaps had less. Nevertheless, as Mrs. 

 Arber rightly explains, 



"a number of books dealing with such topics ap- 

 peared during the period we have considered, but 

 their writers form a class apart, and must not 

 be confused 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." 



The few inconsistencies we have noticed are 

 chiefly bibliographical in their nature, and do not 

 detract from the merits of the book. We con- 

 fidently recommend it to all lovers of antiquarian 

 lore. 



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