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Title: The Old English Herbals
Author: Rohde, Eleanour Sinclair
Language: English
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Transcriber's Note
This text uses some uncommon characters, in particular yogh (ȝ),
apostrophus (Ɔ) and y, m and n with a macron (ȳ, m̄ and n̄ respectively).
There are also some astronomical symbols (♄, ♃, ♂, ⊙, ♀, ☿, ☽) and Greek
text, e.g. Περὶ Διδαξέων. If these do not display correctly, you may need
to adjust your font settings.
Superscripted characters are surrounded with braces, e.g. y{e}.
Tironian ampersands are indicated with [et].
A letter q with a small c above it, meaning the word 'qui', is
indicated with [qui].
Asterisms (three dots arranged in a triangle point-up) are indicated
with [.'.]. Reverse asterisms (three dots arranged in a triangle
point-down) are indicated with ['.'].
Other symbols are noted descriptively, and are enclosed in square
brackets and marked with tildes, e.g. [~cross pattée~].
The parallel-column text referred to on page 67 has been transcribed
as two separate paragraphs in this version of the e-text.
THE OLD
ENGLISH HERBALS
BY
ELEANOUR SINCLAIR ROHDE
AUTHOR OF "A GARDEN OF HERBS"
[Illustration: Illustration of the "lilie" from the Saxon
translation of the _Herbarium of Apuleius_]
Longmans, Green and Co.
1922
[Illustration: HERBS BEING DUG UP AND MADE INTO MEDICINES UNDER THE
DIRECTION OF A SAGE
From a 12th century copy of the _Herbarium of Apuleius_, now in the
Library of Eton College]
TO
MY BROTHER
"The Lely is an herbe wyth a whyte floure. And though the
levys of the floure be whyte: yet wythin shyneth the
lykenesse of golde."--BARTHOLOMÆUS ANGLICUS (_circ._ 1260).
PREFACE
The writing of this book on that fascinating and somewhat neglected[1]
branch of garden literature--the old English Herbals--has been a
labour of love, but it could not have been done without all the kind
help I have had. My grateful thanks are due to the authorities at the
British Museum, to Professor Burkitt of Cambridge, and very specially
to Mr. J. B. Capper for invaluable help. I am indebted to Dr. James,
the Provost of Eton, for his kind permission to reproduce an
illustration from a twelfth-century MS. in the Library of Eton College
for the frontispiece. I find it difficult to express either my
indebtedness or my gratitude to Dr. and Mrs. Charles Singer, the
former for all his help and the latter for her generous permission to
make use of her valuable bibliography of early scientific manuscripts.
I am further indebted to Dr. Charles Singer for reading the chapter on
the Anglo-Saxon herbals in proof. For their kind courtesy in answering
my inquiries concerning the MS. herbals in the libraries of their
respective cathedrals, I offer my grateful thanks to the Deans of
Lincoln and Gloucester Cathedrals, and to the Rev. J. N. Needham for
information concerning the herbals in the library of Durham Cathedral;
to the librarians of the following colleges--All Souls' College,
Oxford; Balliol College, Oxford; Corpus Christi College, Oxford;
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; Emmanuel College, Cambridge;
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge; Magdalene College, Cambridge;
Peterhouse, Cambridge; Jesus College, Cambridge; St. John's College,
Oxford, and Trinity College, Cambridge; to the librarians of Durham
University, Trinity College, Dublin, the Royal Irish Academy, and the
National Library of Wales; to the Honble. Lady Cecil for information
respecting MSS. in the library of the late Lord Amherst of Hackney;
and to the following owners of private libraries--the Marquis of Bath,
Lord Leconfield, Lord Clifden, Mr. T. Fitzroy Fenwick of Cheltenham,
and Mr. Wynne of Peniarth, Merioneth. For information respecting
incunabula herbals in American libraries I am indebted to Dr. Arnold
Klebs and to Mr. Green of the Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis.
No pains have been spared to make the bibliographies as complete as
possible, but I should be glad to be told of any errors or omissions.
There are certain editions of _Banckes's Herbal_ and _The Grete
Herball_ mentioned by authorities such as Ames, Hazlitt, etc., of
which no copies can now be found in the chief British libraries (see
p. 204 _et seq._). If any copies of these editions are in private
libraries I should be grateful to hear of them. The rarest printed
herbal is "_Arbolayre contenāt la qualitey et vertus proprietiez
des herbes gōmes et simēces extraite de plusiers tratiers de
medicine com̄ent davicene de rasis de constatin de ysaac et
plateaire selon le con̄u usaige bien correct_." (Supposed to have
been printed by M. Husz at Lyons.) It is believed that there are only
two copies of this book now extant. One is in the Bibliothèque
Nationale, Paris; the other was sold in London, March 23, 1898, but I
have been unable to discover who is the present owner. For this or any
other information I should be most grateful.
ELEANOUR SINCLAIR ROHDE.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] It is a remarkable fact that even the eleventh edition of the
omniscient _Encyclopædia Britannica_ has no article on Herbals.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
THE ANGLO-SAXON HERBALS 1
Evidence of the existence of books on herbs in the eighth
century--Tenth-century manuscripts--Their importance as the
first records of Anglo-Saxon plant lore and of folk medicine
of a still earlier age--Preliminary survey of the more
important manuscripts--_Leech Book of Bald_--Authorship and
origin--Oldest Leech Book written in the vernacular in
Europe--Saxon translation of the _Herbarium Apuleii
Platonici_--Illustrations--Saxon translation of the Περὶ
Διδαξέων--The _Lacnunga_--Importance of these manuscripts
to the student of folk lore--Folk lore of the origin of
disease--Doctrine of the "elf-shot"--"Flying
venom"--Doctrine of the worm as the ultimate source of
disease--Demoniac possession--Herbal
remedies--Picturesqueness of Saxon methods of treating
diseases--Smoking patient with fumes of herbs--Cattle
similarly treated--Use of herbs as amulets--Binding on with
red wool--Specially sacred herbs--Charms and incantations to
be used in picking and administering herbs--Transference of
disease--Predominance of the number nine--Ceremonies to be
observed in the picking of herbs--Nature-worship in these
ceremonies--Eostra--Prayer to Earth.
CHAPTER II
LATER MANUSCRIPT HERBALS AND THE EARLY PRINTED HERBALS 42
Later manuscript herbals--Copies of Macer's herbal--Treatise
on the virtues of rosemary sent by the Countess of Hainault
to Queen Philippa of England--Bartholomæus Anglicus, _De
Proprietatibus rerum_--Popularity of his
writings--Characteristics of _De herbis_--Trevisa's
translation--Bartholomæus on the rose, the violet,
etc.--Fleeting pictures of mediæval life in _De
herbis_--Feeding swine, making bread, building houses,
making linen, life in the vineyards, woods, etc.--Wynken de
Worde's poem at the end of his edition of _De Proprietatibus
rerum_--_Banckes's Herbal_--Possible sources--Later
editions--Rose recipes--Mediæval belief in wholesomeness of
fragrant herbs--Descriptions of herbs in _Banckes's
Herbal_--"The boke of secretes of Albartus Magnus"--Herb
lore and magic--The _Grete Herball_--Its origin--Peter
Treveris--Characteristics of this herbal--_The vertuose book
of the Dystillacion of the Waters of all maner of Herbes_.
CHAPTER III
TURNER'S HERBAL AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE FOREIGN HERBALISTS 75
William Turner--Cambridge with Nicholas Ridley--Travels
abroad--Bologna--Luca Ghini--Conrad
Gesner--Cologne--Appointed chaplain and physician to the
Duke of Somerset--His early writings on herbs--Turner's
Herbal--Illustrations--Characteristics of the
book--Descriptions of herbs--North-country lore--Old country
customs--Influence of the foreign herbalists on the later
English herbals--Leonhard Fuchs--Rembert Dodoens--Charles de
l'Escluse--Matthias de l'Obel--Lyte's translation of
Dodoens' _Cruÿdtboeck_--Illustrations--_Ram's little
Dodoen_.
CHAPTER IV
GERARD'S HERBAL 98
Popularity of Gerard's Herbal--Its charm--Gerard's
boyhood--Later life--His garden in Holborn--Friendship with
Jean Robin, keeper of the royal gardens in Paris--Origin of
Gerard's Herbal--Illustrations--Old beliefs in the effects
of herbs on the heart and mind--Use of herbs as
amulets--Other folk lore--Myth of the barnacle geese--Origin
and history of the myth--Old English names of plants--Wild
flower life of London in Elizabeth's day--"Master Tuggie's"
garden in Westminster--Shakespeare and Gerard.
CHAPTER V
HERBALS OF THE NEW WORLD 120
Herbals written in connection with the colonisation of
America by the Spaniards and English--Early records of the
plant lore of the Red Indians--English weeds introduced into
America and first gardens in New England--_Joyfull Newes
from out of the newe founde worlde_--Gums used by the Red
Indians--"Mechoacan"--"The hearbe tabaco"--First account and
illustration of this plant--Its uses by the Red Indians in
their religious ceremonies and as a wound-herb--Origin of
the name "Nicotiana"--Sassafras--Use by the Spanish
soldiers--Root used as a pomander in Europe in time of
plague--_New England's Rarities discovered_--Weeds
introduced into America with the first Colonists--First list
of English plants grown in New England gardens--_The
American Physitian_--The "Maucaw" tree--Use of the seed by
the Red Indians--Cacao and the making of chocolate--Cacao
kernels used as tokens--James Petiver--_The South-Sea
Herbal_.
CHAPTER VI
JOHN PARKINSON, THE LAST OF THE GREAT ENGLISH HERBALISTS 142
John Parkinson--The _Paradisus_--Myth of the vegetable
lamb--Origin of the myth--Characteristics of the book--An
Elizabethan flower-garden--Lilies, anemones, gilliflowers,
cucko-flowers, etc.--Sweet herbs: rosemary, lavender,
basil, thyme, hyssop--The kitchen garden--The
orchard--_Theatrum Botanicum_--Its importance--Old belief in
the power of herbs against evil spirits--Folk lore in this
Herbal--Bee lore--Beauty recipes--Country customs and
beliefs.
CHAPTER VII
LATER SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY HERBALS AND SIXTEENTH- AND
SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY STILL-ROOM BOOKS 163
Later seventeenth-century Herbals--Revival of belief in
astrological lore--Nicholas Culpeper--His
character--Popularity in the East End of London--His
Herbal--Coles's _Art of Simpling_--Doctrine of
Signatures--Herbs used by animals--Plants used in and
against witchcraft--Coles's astrological beliefs--On the
pleasures of gardening--Still-room books--Their relation to
herbals--The Fairfax still-room book--An old
love-letter--Recipes: "To make a bath for melancholy,"
"Balles for the face," "For them theyr speech
faileth"--_Lady Sedley her receipt book_--Noted contributors
to this book--_Mary Doggett Her Book of Receipts_,
1682--Recipes: "A pomander for balme water," "To dry roses
for sweet powder," "A perfume for a sweet bagg"--The
Countess of Kent's still-room book--"A comfortable cordial
to cheer the heart"--Tryon's still-room book--Sir Kenelm
Digby--Charm of his books--Recipes: "Sweet meat of apples,"
"Wheaten Flommery," "A Flomery Caudle," "Conserve of Red
Roses"--The old herb-gardens--Fairies and
herb-gardens--Revival of the old belief in the communion
between stars and flowers.
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
ENGLISH HERBALS 189
I. Manuscript herbals, treatises on the virtues of herbs,
etc. Manuscripts written in Latin after 1400 are not
included in this list.
II. Printed books. The herbals are listed according to
authors, or, in the case of anonymous works, according to
the names by which they are usually known, and full titles,
etc., of all known editions are given. In cases where only
one copy of an edition is known the library where it is to
be found is indicated. Editions mentioned in Ames, Hazlitt,
etc., but of which no copies are now known, are listed, but
in each case the fact that the only mention of them is to be
found in one of the above is stated.
FOREIGN HERBALS 225
This list includes only the chief works and those which have
some connection with the history of the herbal in England.
INDEX 237
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
_Facing page_
HERBS BEING DUG UP AND MADE INTO MEDICINES UNDER
THE DIRECTION OF A SAGE _Frontispiece_
ÆSCULAPIUS PLATO AND A CENTAUR FROM THE SAXON
TRANSLATION OF THE "HERBARIUM OF APULEIUS" 10
MANDRAKE FROM A SAXON HERBAL 22
(1) ARTEMISIA AND (2) BLACKBERRY, FROM A SAXON HERBAL 30
FROM A SAXON HERBAL 40
WOODCUT OF TREES AND HERBS FROM THE SEVENTEENTH BOOK
OF "DE PROPRIETATIBUS RERUM" 48
INITIAL LETTERS FROM "BANCKES'S HERBAL" 56
WOODCUT FROM THE TITLE-PAGE OF THE "GRETE HERBALL" (1526) 64
WOODCUT OF PETER TREVERIS' SIGN OF THE "WODOWS" FROM THE
"GRETE HERBALL" (1529) 70
WOODCUT FROM THE TITLE-PAGE OF THE FOURTH EDITION OF THE
"GRETE HERBALL" (1561) 71
ILLUSTRATIONS FROM TURNER'S "HERBALL" 88
PORTRAIT OF JOHN GERARD FROM THE FIRST EDITION OF THE
"HERBALL" (1597) 104
ILLUSTRATIONS OF SASSAFRAS AND TOBACCO FROM NICHOLAS
MONARDES' "JOYFULL NEWES OUT OF THE NEWE FOUNDE
WORLDE" (1577) 128
TITLE-PAGE OF PARKINSON'S "PARADISUS" (1629) 144
TITLE-PAGE OF PARKINSON'S "THEATRUM BOTANICUM" (1640) 152
PORTRAIT OF JOHN PARKINSON FROM THE "PARADISUS" (1629) 160
NICHOLAS CULPEPER FROM "THE ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED" 166
FRONTISPIECE OF "THE CURIOUS DESTILLATORY," BY THOMAS
SHIRLEY, M.D., PHYSICIAN IN ORDINARY TO HIS MAJESTY
(1677) 174
THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS
CHAPTER I
THE ANGLO-SAXON HERBALS
"Everything possible to be believ'd is an image of truth."
WILLIAM BLAKE.
There is a certain pathos attached to the fragments from any great
wreck, and in studying the few Saxon manuscripts, treating of herbs,
which have survived to our day, we find their primary fascination not
so much in their beauty and interest as in the visions they conjure up
of those still older manuscripts which perished during the terrible
Danish invasions. That books on herbs were studied in England as early
as the eighth century is certain, for we know that Boniface, "the
Apostle of the Saxons," received letters from England asking him for
books on simples and complaining that it was difficult to obtain the
foreign herbs mentioned in those we already possessed.[2] But of these
manuscripts none have survived, the oldest we possess being of the
tenth century, and for our knowledge of Anglo-Saxon plant lore we look
chiefly to those four important manuscripts--the _Leech Book of Bald_,
the _Lacnunga_ and the Saxon translations of the _Herbarium of
Apuleius_ and the so-called Περὶ Διδαξέων.
Apart from their intrinsic fascination, there are certain
considerations which give these manuscripts a peculiar importance.
Herb lore and folk medicine lag not years, but centuries, behind the
knowledge of their own day. Within living memory our peasants were
using, and in the most remote parts of these islands they use still,
the herbal and other remedies of our Saxon ancestors. They even use
curiously similar charms. The herb lore recorded in these manuscripts
is the herb lore, not of the century in which they were written, but
of the dim past ages pictured in the oldest parts of _Widsith_ and
_Beowulf_. To the student of English plant lore, the _Herbarium of
Apuleius_ and the Περὶ Διδαξέων are less interesting because they
are translations, but the more one studies the original Saxon writings
on herbs and their uses, the more one realises that, just as in
_Beowulf_ there are suggestions and traces of an age far older than
that in which the poem was written, so in these manuscripts are
embedded beliefs which carry us back to the dawn of history. It is
this which gives this plant lore its supreme interest. It is almost
overwhelming to recognise that possibly we have here fragments of the
plant lore of our ancestors who lived when Attila's hordes were
devastating Europe, and that in the charms and ceremonies connected
with the picking and administering of herbs we are carried back to
forms of religion so ancient that, compared to it, the worship of
Woden is modern. Further, it is only in these manuscripts that we find
this herb lore, for in the whole range of Saxon literature outside
them there is remarkably little mention of plant life. The great world
of nature, it is true, is ever present; the ocean is the background of
the action in both _Beowulf_ and _Cynewulf_, and the sound of the wind
and the sea is in every line. One is conscious of vast trackless
wastes of heath and moor, of impenetrable forests and terror-infested
bogs; but of the details of plant life there is scarcely a word. In
these manuscripts alone do we find what plant life meant to our
ancestors, and, as with all primitive nations, their belief in the
mystery of herbs is almost past our civilised understanding. Their
plant lore, hoary with age, is redolent of a time when the tribes were
still wandering on the mainland of Europe, and in these first records
of this plant lore there is the breath of mighty forests, of marsh
lands and of Nature in her wildest. We are swept back to an epoch when
man fought with Nature, wresting from her the land, and when the
unseen powers of evil resented this conquest of their domains. To the
early Saxons those unseen powers were an everyday reality. A
supernatural terror brooded over the trackless heaths, the dark mere
pools were inhabited by the water elves. In the wreathing mists and
driving storms of snow and hail they saw the uncouth "moor gangers,"
"the muckle mark steppers who hold the moors," or the stalking fiends
of the lonely places, creatures whose baleful eyes shone like flames
through the mist. To this day some of our place names in the more
remote parts of these islands recall the memory of those evil terrors.
In these manuscripts we are again in an atmosphere of eotens and
trolls, there are traces of even older terrors, when the first Teuton
settlers in Europe struggled with the aborigines who lived in caves,
hints as elusive as the phantom heroes in the Saxon poems, and as
unforgettable.
Still more remarkable is the fact that beneath the superstructure of
Christian rites to be used when the herbs were being picked or
administered we find traces not merely of the ancient heathen
religion, but of a religion older than that of Woden. It has been
emphasised by our most eminent authorities that in very early times
our ancestors had but few chief gods, and it is a remarkable fact that
there is no mention whatever of Woden in the whole range of Saxon
literature before the time of Alfred. In those earlier centuries they
seem to have worshipped a personification of Heaven, and Earth, the
wife of Heaven, and the Son, whom after ages called Thor. There were
also Nature deities, Hrede, the personification of the brightness of
Summer, and Eostra, the radiant creature of the Dawn. It will be
remembered that it was the worship, not of Balder, but of Eostra,
which the Christian missionaries found so deeply imbedded that they
adopted her name and transferred it to Easter. For this we have the
authority of Bede. Separate from these beneficent powers were the
destroying and harmful powers of Nature--darkness, storm, frost and
the deadly vapours of moorland and fen, personified in the giants, the
ogres, the furious witches that rode the winds and waves; in fact, the
whole horde of demons of sea and land and sky. It is the traces of
these most ancient forms of religion which give to the manuscripts
their strongest fascination.
Many of us miss all that is most worth learning in old books through
regarding anything in them that is unfamiliar as merely quaint, if not
ridiculous. This attitude seals a book as effectually and as
permanently as it seals a sensitive human being. There is only one way
of understanding these old writers, and that is to forget ourselves
entirely and to try to look at the world of nature as they did. It is
not "much learning" that is required, but sympathy and imagination. In
the case of these Saxon manuscripts we are repaid a thousandfold; for
they transport us to an age far older than our own, and yet in some
ways so young that we have lost its magic key. For we learn not only
of herbs and the endless uses our forefathers made of them, but, if we
try to read them with understanding, these books open for us a magic
casement through which we look upon the past bathed in a glamour of
romance. Our Saxon ancestors may have been a rude and hardy race, but
they did not live in an age of materialism as we do. In their writings
on herbs and their uses we see "as through a glass darkly" a time when
grown men believed in elves and goblins as naturally as they believed
in trees, an age when it was the belief of everyday folk that the air
was peopled with unseen powers of evil against whose machinations
definite remedies must be applied. They believed, as indeed the people
of all ancient civilisations have believed, that natural forces and
natural objects were endued with mysterious powers whom it was
necessary to propitiate by special prayers. Not only the stars of
heaven, but springs of water and the simple wayside herbs, were to
them directly associated with unseen beings. There are times when one
is reminded forcibly of that worship of Demeter, "nearer to the Earth
which some have thought they could discern behind the definitely
national mythology of Homer." They believed that the sick could be
cured by conjurations and charms, as firmly as we believe to-day in
curing them by suggestion--is there any real difference between these
methods?--and when one reads the charms which they used in
administering their herbs one cannot help wondering whether these were
handed down traditionally from the Sumerians, those ancient
inhabitants of Mesopotamia who five thousand years before Christ used
charms for curing the sick which have now been partially deciphered
from the cuneiform inscriptions. But before studying the plant lore
therein contained, it may be as well to take a preliminary survey of
the four most important manuscripts.
The oldest Saxon book dealing with the virtues of herbs which we
possess is the _Leech Book of Bald_, dating from about A.D. 900-950.
Unlike some other MS. herbals of which only a few tattered pages
remain, this perfect specimen of Saxon work has nothing fragile about
it. The vellum is as strong and in as good condition as when it first
lay clean and untouched under the hand of the scribe--Cild by
name--who penned it with such skill and loving care. One's imagination
runs riot when one handles this beautiful book, now over a thousand
years old, and wonders who were its successive owners and how it has
survived the wars and other destructive agencies through all these
centuries. But we only know that, at least for a time, it was
sheltered in that most romantic of all English monasteries,
Glastonbury.[3] This Saxon manuscript has a dignity which is unique,
for it is the oldest existing leech book written in the vernacular. In
a lecture delivered before the Royal College of Physicians in 1903,
Dr. J. F. Payne commented on the remarkable 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 evidently 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.[4]
We learn the names of the first owner and scribe from lines in Latin
verse at the end of the second part of the MS.
"Bald is the owner of this book, which he ordered Cild to write,
Earnestly I pray here all men, in the name of Christ,
That no treacherous person take this book from me,
Neither by force nor by theft nor by any false statement.
Why? Because the richest treasure is not so dear to me
As my dear books which the Grace of Christ attends."
The book consists of 109 leaves and is written in a large, bold hand
and one or two of the initial letters are very faintly illuminated.
The writing is an exceptionally fine specimen of Saxon penmanship. On
many of the pages there are mysterious marks, but it is impossible to
conjecture their meaning. It has been suggested that they point to the
sources from which the book was compiled and were inserted by the
original owner.
The _Leech Book of Bald_ was evidently the manual of a Saxon doctor,
and he refers to two other doctors--Dun and Oxa by name--who had given
him prescriptions. The position of the leech in those days must have
been very trying, for he was subjected to the obviously unfair
competition of the higher clergy, many of whom enjoyed a reputation
for working miraculous cures.[5] The leech being so inferior in
position, it is not surprising that his medical knowledge did not
advance on scientific lines. He relied on the old heathen
superstitions, probably from an instinctive feeling that in pagan
religion, combined with the herb lore which had been handed down
through the ages, the mass of the people had a deep-rooted faith.
Nothing is more obvious in the Leech Book than the fact that the
virtues ascribed to the different herbs are based not on the personal
knowledge of the writer, but on the old herb lore. This gives the
Leech Book its special fascination; for it is the oldest surviving
manuscript in which we can learn the herb lore of our ancestors,
handed down to them from what dim past ages we can only surmise. We
have, therefore, to bear in mind that what may strike our modern minds
as quaint, or even grotesque, is in the majority of instances a
distorted form of lore which doubtless suffered many changes during
the early centuries of our era. Nearly all that is most fascinating in
the Leech Book is of very ancient Indo-Germanic or Eastern origin, but
one cannot help wondering how much the Saxons incorporated of the herb
lore of the ancient Britons. Does not Pliny tell us that the Britons
gathered herbs with such striking ceremonies that it would seem as
though the Britons had taught them to the Persians?
One cannot read Bald's manuscript without being struck by his
remarkable knowledge of native plants and garden herbs. We are
inferior to our continental neighbours in so many arts that it is
pleasant to find that in the ancient art of gardening and in their
knowledge of herbs our Saxon forefathers excelled. It has been pointed
out by eminent authorities that the Anglo-Saxons had names for, and
used, a far larger number of plants than the continental nations. In
the _Herbarium of Apuleius_, including the additions from Dioscorides,
only 185 plants are mentioned, and this was one of the standard works
of the early Middle Ages. In the _Herbarius_ of 1484, the earliest
herbal printed in Germany, only 150 plants are recorded, and in the
German _Herbarius_ of 1485 there are 380. But from various sources it
has been computed that the Anglo-Saxons had names for, and used, at
least 500 plants.[6] One feels instinctively that the love of flowers
and gardens was as deep-rooted in our ancestors as it is in our nation
to-day, and though we do not know exactly what they grew in their
gardens--which they called wyrtȝerd (literally, herb-yard)--we do
know that the marigolds, sunflowers, peonies, violets and
gilly-flowers which make the cottage gardens of England so gay and
full of colour to-day were also the commonest plants in the Saxon
gardens. Fashions in large gardens have changed throughout the
centuries, and there are stately gardens in this country famed the
world over. But in regard to our cottage gardens we are staunchly
conservative, and it is assuredly the cottage garden which is
characteristically English. Incidentally, one cannot help regretting
that so many of our old Saxon plant names have fallen into disuse.
"Waybroad," for instance, is much more descriptive than "plantain,"
which is misleading.[7] "Maythen" also is surely preferable to
"camomile," and "wergulu" is more characteristic of that fierce weed
than "nettle." Those of us who are gardeners will certainly agree that
"unfortraedde" is the right name for knotweed. And is not "joy of the
ground" a delightful name for periwinkle?
The oldest illustrated herbal which has come down to us from Saxon
times is the translation of the Latin _Herbarium Apuleii
Platonici_.[8] The original Latin work is believed to date from the
fifth century, though no copy so ancient as this is in existence now.
The name Apuleius Platonicus is possibly fictitious and nothing is
known of the writer, who was, of course, distinct from Apuleius
Madaurensis, the author of the _Golden Ass_. The Saxon translation of
this herbal (now in the British Museum) is supposed to date from A.D.
1000-1050, and belongs to the school of Ælfric of Canterbury. The
frontispiece is a coloured picture in which Plato is represented
holding a large volume which is being given him by Æsculapius and the
Centaur, and on the other side of the page is a blue circle spotted
with white and red, within which is the name of the book: "Herbarium
Apuleii Platonici quod accepit ab Escolapio et Chirone centauro
magistro Achillis." The book consists of 132 chapters, in each of
which a herb is described, and there are accompanying illustrations of
the herbs. Throughout the book there are also remarkable pictures of
snakes, scorpions and unknown winged creatures. It has been pointed
out that the figures of herbs are obviously not from the original
plants, but are copied from older figures, and these from others older
still, and one wonders what the original pictures were like. It is
interesting to think that perhaps the illustrations in this Saxon
herbal are directly descended, so to speak, from the drawings of
Cratevas,[9] Dionysius or Metrodorus, of whom Pliny tells us "They
drew the likeness of herbs and wrote under them their effects." The
picture of the lily is very attractive in spite of the fact that the
flowers are painted pale blue. The stamens in the figure stand out
beyond the petals and look like rays of light, with a general effect
that is curiously pleasing. One of the most interesting figures is
that of the mandrake (painted in a deep madder), which embodies the
old legend that it was death to dig up the root, and that therefore a
dog was tied to a rope and made to drag it up. It is the opinion of
some authorities that these figures show the influence of the school
represented by the two splendid Vienna manuscripts of Dioscorides
dating from the fifth and seventh centuries. There is no definite
evidence of this, and though the illustrations in the Saxon manuscript
show the influence of the classical tradition, they are poor compared
with those in the Vienna manuscript. To some extent at least the
drawings in this herbal must necessarily have been copies, for many of
the plants are species unknown in this country.
[Illustration: ÆSCULAPIUS PLATO AND A CENTAUR
From the Saxon translation of the _Herbarium of Apuleius_
(Cott. Vit., C. 3, folio 19_a_)]
The Saxon translation of the Περὶ Διδαξέων (Harl. 6258) is a thin
volume badly mutilated in parts. Herr Max Löwenbeck[10] has shown that
this is in part translated from a treatise by an eleventh-century
writer, Petrocellus or Petronius, of the School of Salerno--the
original treatise being entitled _Practica Petrocelli Salernitani_.[11]
As has been pointed out by many eminent authorities, the School of
Salerno, being a survival of Greek medicine, was uncontaminated by
superstitious medicine. Consequently there are striking differences
between this and the other Saxon manuscripts. The large majority of the
herbs mentioned are those of Southern Europe, and the pharmacy is very
simple compared with the number of herbs in prescriptions of native
origin. As Dr. J. F. Payne[12] has pointed out, Herr Löwenbeck's
important discovery does not account for the whole of the English book.
The order of the chapters differs from that of the Salernitan writer;
there are passages not to be found in the _Practica_, and in some
places the English text gives a fuller reading. It is fairly evident
that the Saxon treatise is at least in part indebted to the
_Passionarius_ by Gariopontus, another Salernitan writer of the same
period.
The _Lacnunga_ (Harl. 585), an original work, and one of the oldest
and most interesting manuscripts, is a small, thick volume without any
illustrations. Some of the letters are illuminated and some are rudely
ornamented. At the top of the first page there is the inscription
"Liber Humfredi Wanley," and it is interesting, therefore, to realise
that the British Museum owes this treasure to the zealous antiquarian
whose efforts during the closing years of the seventeenth and early
years of the eighteenth century rescued so many valuable Saxon and
other MSS. from oblivion.[13]
To the student of folk lore and folk custom these sources of herb lore
are of remarkable interest for the light they throw on the beliefs and
customs of humble everyday people in Anglo-Saxon times. Of kings and
warriors, of bards and of great ladies we can read in other Saxon
literature, and all so vividly that we see their halls, the long
hearths on which the fires were piled, the openings in the roof
through which the smoke passed. We see the men with their "byrnies" of
ring mail, their crested helmets, their leather-covered shields and
deadly short swords. We see them and their womenkind wearing golden
ornaments at their feasts, the tables laden with boars' flesh and
venison and chased cups of ale and mead. We see these same halls at
night with the men sleeping, their "byrnies" and helmets hanging near
them, and in the dim light we can make out also the trophies of the
chase hanging on the walls. We read of their mighty deeds, and we know
at least something of the ideals and the thoughts of their great men
and heroes. But what of that vast number of the human kind who were
always in the background? What of the hewers of wood and drawers of
water, the swineherds, the shepherds, the carpenters, the hedgers and
cobblers? Is it not wonderful to think that in these manuscripts we
can learn, at least to some extent, what plant life meant to these
everyday folk? And even in these days to understand what plant life
means to the true countryman is to get into very close touch with him.
Not only has suburban life separated the great concentrated masses of
our people from their birthright of meadows, fields and woods; of
Nature, in her untamed splendour and mystery, most of them have never
had so much as a momentary glimpse. But in Saxon times even the towns
were not far from the unreclaimed marshes and forests, and to the
peasant in those days they were full not only of seen, but also of
unseen perils. There was probably not a Saxon child who did not know
something of the awe of waste places and impenetrable forests. Even
the hamlets lay on the very edge of forests and moors, and to the
peasant these were haunted by giant, elf and monster, as in the more
inaccessible parts of these islands they are haunted still to those
who retain something of primitive imagination. And when we study the
plant lore of these people we realise that prince and peasant alike
used the simple but mysterious herbs not only to cure them of both
physical and mental ills, but to guard them from these unseen
monsters. Of the reverence they paid to herbs we begin to have some
dim apprehension when we read of the ceremonies connected with the
picking and administering of them.
But, first, what can we learn of the beliefs as to the origin of
disease? Concerning this the great bulk of the folk lore in these
manuscripts is apparently of native Teutonic origin, or rather it
would be more correct to speak of its origin as Indo-Germanic; for the
same doctrines are to be found among all Indo-Germanic peoples, and
even in the Vedas, notably the Atharva Veda. Of these beliefs, the
doctrine of the "elf-shot" occupies a large space, the longest chapter
in the third book of the _Leech Book of Bald_ being entirely "against
elf-disease." We know from their literature that to our Saxon
ancestors waste places of moor and forest and marshes were the resort
of a host of supernatural creatures at enmity with mankind. In the
_Leech Book of Bald_ disease is largely ascribed to these elves, whose
shafts produced illness in their victims. We read of beorg-ælfen,
dun-ælfen, muntælfen. But our modern word "elf" feebly represents
these creatures, who were more akin to the "mark-stalkers," to the
creatures of darkness with loathsome eyes, rather than to the fairies
with whom we now associate the name. For the most part these elves of
ancient times were joyless impersonations and creatures not of sun but
of darkness and winter. In the gloom and solitude of the forest,
"where the bitter wormwood stood pale grey" and where "the hoar stones
lay thick," the black, giant elves had their dwelling. They claimed
the forest for their own and hated man because bit by bit he was
wresting the forest from them. Yet they made for man those mystic
swords of superhuman workmanship engraved with magic runes and dipped
when red hot in blood or in a broth of poisonous herbs and twigs. We
do not understand, we can only ask, why did they make them? What is
the meaning of the myth? The water elves recall the sea monsters who
attended Grendel's dam, impersonations of the fury of the waves, akin
to Hnikarr, and again other water elves of the cavernous bed of ocean,
primeval deadly creatures, inhabiting alike the sea and the desolate
fens, "where the elk-sedge waxed in the water." If some were akin to
the Formori of the baleful fogs in Irish mythic history and the
Mallt-y-nos, those she-demons of marshy lands immortalised by the
Welsh bards, creatures huge and uncouth "with grey and glaring eyes,"
there were others who exceeded in beauty anything human. When Cædmon
wrote of the beauty of Sarah, he described her as "sheen as an elf."
With the passing of the centuries we have well-nigh forgotten the
black elves, though they are still realities to the Highlander and too
real for him to speak of them. But have we not the descendants of the
sheen bright elves in the works of Shakespeare, Milton and Shelley?
One feels very sure that our Saxon ancestors would have understood
that glittering elf Ariel as few of us are capable of understanding
him. He is the old English bright elf. Did not Prospero subdue him
with magic, as our ancestors used magic songs in administering herbs
"to quell the elf"? Here is one such song from the _Leech Book of
Bald_, and at the end a conjuration to bury the elf in the earth.
"I have wreathed round the wounds
The best of healing wreaths
That the baneful sores may
Neither burn nor burst,
Nor find their way further,
Nor turn foul and fallow.
Nor thump and throle on,
Nor be wicked wounds,
Nor dig deeply down;
But he himself may hold
In a way to health.
Let it ache thee no more
Than ear in Earth acheth.
"Sing also this many times, 'May earth bear on thee with all her might
and main.'"--_Leech Book of Bald_, III. 63.
This was for one "in the water elf disease," and we read that a person
so afflicted would have livid nails and tearful eyes, and would look
downwards. Amongst the herbs to be administered when the charm was
sung over him were a yew-berry, lupin, helenium, marsh mallow, dock
elder, wormwood and strawberry leaves.
Goblins and nightmare were regarded as at least akin to elves, and we
find the same herbs were to be used against them, betony being of
peculiar efficacy against "monstrous nocturnal visions and against
frightful visions and dreams."[14] The malicious elves did not confine
their attacks to human beings; references to elf-shot cattle are
numerous. I quote the following from the chapter "against elf
disease."
"For that ilk [_i. e._ for one who is elf-shot].
"Go on Thursday evening when the sun is set where thou
knowest that helenium stands, then sing the Benedicite and
Pater Noster and a litany and stick thy knife into the wort,
make it stick fast and go away; go again when day and night
just divide; at the same period go first to church and cross
thyself and commend thyself to God; then go in silence and,
though anything soever of an awful sort or man meet thee,
say not thou to him any word ere thou come to the wort which
on the evening before thou markedst; then sing the
Benedicite and the Pater Noster and a litany, delve up the
wort, let the knife stick in it; go again as quickly as thou
art able to church and let it lie under the altar with the
knife; let it lie till the sun be up, wash it afterwards,
and make into a drink with bishopwort and lichen off a
crucifix; boil in milk thrice, thrice pour holy water upon
it and sing over it the Pater Noster, the Credo and the
Gloria in Excelsis Deo, and sing upon it a litany and score
with a sword round about it on three sides a cross, and then
after that let the man drink the wort; Soon it will be well
with him."--_Leech Book_, III. 62.
The instructions for a horse or cattle that are elf-shot runs thus:--
"If a horse or other neat be elf-shot take sorrel-seed or
Scotch wax, let a man sing twelve Masses over it and put
holy water on the horse or on whatsoever neat it be; have
the worts always with thee. For the same take the eye of a
broken needle, give the horse a prick with it, no harm shall
come."--_Leech Book of Bald_, I. 88.
Another prescription for an elf-shot horse runs thus:--
"If a horse be elf-shot, then take the knife of which the
haft is the horn of a fallow ox and on which are three brass
nails, then write upon the horse's forehead Christ's mark
and on each of the limbs which thou mayst feel at: then take
the left ear, prick a hole in it in silence, this thou shalt
do; then strike the horse on the back, then will it be
whole.--And write upon the handle of the knife these words--
"Benedicite omnia opera Domini dominum.
"Be the elf what it may, this is mighty for him to
amend."--_Leech Book of Bald_, I. 65.[15]
Closely allied to the doctrine of the elf-shot is that of "flying
venom." It is, of course, possible to regard the phrase as the graphic
Anglo-Saxon way of describing infectious diseases; but the various
synonymous phrases, "the on-flying things," "the loathed things that
rove through the land," suggest something of more malignant activity.
As a recent leading article in _The Times_ shows, we are as a matter
of fact not much wiser than our Saxon ancestors as to the origin of an
epidemic such as influenza.[16] Indeed, to talk of "catching" a cold
or any infectious disease would have struck an Anglo-Saxon as
ludicrous, mankind being rather the victims of "flying venom." In the
alliterative lay in the _Lacnunga_, part of which is given below, the
wind is described as blowing these venoms, which produced disease in
the bodies on which they lighted, their evil effects being
subsequently blown away by the magician's song and the efficacy of
salt and water and herbs. This is generally supposed to be in its
origin a heathen lay of great antiquity preserved down to Christian
times, when allusions to the new religion were inserted. It is written
in the Wessex dialect and is believed to be of the tenth century, but
it is undoubtedly a reminiscence of some far older lay. The lay or
charm is in praise of nine sacred herbs (one a tree)--mugwort,
waybroad (plantain), stime (watercress), atterlothe (?), maythen
(camomile), wergulu (nettle), crab apple, chervil and fennel.
"These nine attack
against nine venoms.
A worm came creeping,
he tore asunder a man.
Then took Woden
nine magic twigs,
[&] then smote the serpent
that he in nine [bits] dispersed.
Now these nine herbs have power
against nine magic outcasts
against nine venoms
& against nine flying things
[& have might] against the loathed things
that over land rove.
Against the red venoms
against the runlan [?] venom
against the white venom
against the blue [?] venom
against the yellow venom
against the green venom
against the dusky venom
against the brown venom
against the purple venom.
Against worm blast
against water blast
against thorn blast
against thistle blast
Against ice blast
Against venom blast
. . . . . . .
if any venom come
flying from east
or any come from north
[or any from south]
or any from west
over mankind
I alone know a running river
and the nine serpents behold [it]
All weeds must
now to herbs give way,
Seas dissolve
[and] all salt water
when I this venom
from thee blow."[17]
In the chapter in the _Leech Book of Bald_[18] containing the
prescriptions sent by the Patriarch of Jerusalem to King Alfred, we
find among the virtues of the "white stone" that it is "powerful
against flying venom and against all uncouth things," and in another
passage[19] that these venoms are particularly dangerous "fifteen
nights ere Lammas and after it for five and thirty nights: leeches who
were wisest have taught that in that month no man should anywhere
weaken his body except there were a necessity for it." In the most
ancient source of Anglo-Saxon medicine--the _Lacnunga_--we find the
following "salve" for flying venom:--
"A salve for flying venom. Take a handful of hammer wort and
a handful of maythe (camomile) and a handful of waybroad
(plantain) and roots of water dock, seek those which will
float, and one eggshell full of clean honey, then take clean
butter, let him who will help to work up the salve melt it
thrice: let one sing a mass over the worts, before they are
put together and the salve is wrought up."[20]
But it is in the doctrine of the worm as the ultimate source of
disease that we are carried back to the most ancient of sagas. The
dragon and the worm, the supreme enemy of man, which play so
dominating a part in Saxon literature, are here set down as the source
of all ill. In the alliterative lay in the _Lacnunga_ the opening
lines describe the war between Woden and the Serpent. Disease arose
from the nine fragments into which he smote the serpent, and these
diseases, blown by the wind, are counteracted by the nine magic twigs
and salt water and herbs with which the disease is again blown away
from the victim by the power of the magician's song. This is the
atmosphere of the great earth-worm Fafnir in the Volsunga Saga and the
dragon in all folk tales, the great beast with whom the heroes of all
nations have contended. Further, it is noteworthy that not only in
Anglo-Saxon medicine, but for many centuries afterwards, even minor
ailments were ascribed to the presence of a worm--notably toothache.
In the _Leech Book_ we find toothache ascribed to a worm in the tooth
(see _Leech Book_, II. 121). It is impossible in a book of this size
to deal with the comparative folk lore of this subject, but in passing
it is interesting to recall an incantation for toothache from the
Babylonian cuneiform texts[21] in which we find perhaps the oldest
example of this belief.
"The Marshes created the Worm,
Came the Worm and wept before Shamash,
What wilt thou give me for my food?
What wilt thou give me to devour?
. . . . . . .
Let me drink among the teeth
And set me on the gums,
That I may devour the blood of the teeth
And of the gums destroy their strength.
Then shall I hold the bolt of the door.
. . . . . . .
So must thou say this, O Worm,
May Ea smite thee with the might of his fist."
Closely interwoven with these elements of Indo-Germanic origin we find
the ancient Eastern doctrine which ascribes disease to demoniac
possession. The exorcisms were originally heathen charms, and even in
the _Leech Book_ there are many interesting survivals of these,
although Christian rites have to a large extent been substituted for
them. Both mandrake and periwinkle were supposed to be endowed with
mysterious powers against demoniacal possession. At the end of the
description of the mandrake in the _Herbarium of Apuleius_ there is
this prescription:--
"For witlessness, that is devil sickness or demoniacal
possession, take from the body of this same wort mandrake by
the weight of three pennies, administer to drink in warm
water as he may find most convenient--soon he will be
healed."--_Herb. Ap._, 32.
Of periwinkle we read:--
"This wort is of good advantage for many purposes, that is
to say first against devil sickness and demoniacal
possessions and against snakes and wild beasts and against
poisons and for various wishes and for envy and for terror
and that thou mayst have grace, and if thou hast the wort
with thee thou shalt be prosperous and ever acceptable. This
wort thou shalt pluck thus, saying, 'I pray thee, vinca
pervinca, thee that art to be had for thy many useful
qualities, that thou come to me glad blossoming with thy
mainfulness, that thou outfit me so that I be shielded and
ever prosperous and undamaged by poisons and by water;' when
thou shalt pluck this wort thou shalt be clean of every
uncleanness, and thou shalt pick it when the moon is nine
nights old and eleven nights and thirteen nights and thirty
nights and when it is one night old."--_Herb. Ap._
[Illustration: MANDRAKE FROM A SAXON HERBAL
(Sloane 1975, folio 49_a_)]
In the treatment of disease we find that the material remedies, by
which I mean remedies devoid of any mystic meaning, are with few
exceptions entirely herbal. The herb drinks were made up with ale,
milk or vinegar, many of the potions were made of herbs mixed with
honey, and ointments were made of herbs worked up with butter. The
most scientific prescription is that for a vapour bath,[22] and there
are suggestions for what may become fashionable once more--herb baths.
The majority of the prescriptions are for common ailments, and one
cannot help being struck by the number there are for broken heads,
bleeding noses and bites of mad dogs. However ignorant one may be of
medicine, it is impossible to read these old prescriptions without
realising that our ancestors were an uncommonly hardy race, for the
majority of the remedies would kill any of us modern weaklings,
even if in robust health when they were administered. At times one
cannot help wondering whether in those days, as not infrequently
happens now, the bulletin was issued that "the operation was quite
successful, but the patient died of shock!" And, as further evidence
of the old truth that there is nothing new under the sun, it is
pleasant to find that doctors, even in Saxon days, prescribed
"carriage exercise," and moreover endeavoured to sweeten it by
allowing the patient to "lap up honey" first. This prescription runs
thus:--
"Against want of appetite. Let them, after the night's fast,
lap up honey, and let them seek for themselves fatigue in
riding on horseback or in a wain or such conveyance as they
may endure."--_Leech Book_, II. 7.
In the later herbals, "beauty" recipes are, as is well known, a
conspicuous feature, but they find a place also in these old
manuscripts. In the third book (the oldest part) of the _Leech Book_
there is a prescription for sunburn which runs thus:--
"For sunburn boil in butter tender ivy twigs, smear
therewith."--_Leech Book_, III. 29.
And in _Leech Book_ II. we find this prescription:--
"That all the body may be of a clean and glad and bright
hue, take oil and dregs of old wine equally much, put them
into a mortar, mingle well together and smear the body with
this in the sun."--_Leech Book_, II. 65.
Prescriptions for hair falling off are fairly numerous, and there are
even two--somewhat drastic--prescriptions for hair which is too thick.
Sowbread and watercress were both used to make hair grow, and in
_Leech Book_ I. there is this prescription:--
"If a man's hair fall off, work him a salve. Take the mickle
wolf's bane and viper's bugloss and the netherward part of
burdock, work the salve out of that wort and out of all
these and out of that butter of which no water hath come. If
hair fall off, boil the polypody fern and foment the head
with that so warm. In case that a man be bald, Plinius the
mickle leech saith this leechdom: 'Take dead bees, burn them
to ashes, add oil upon that, seethe very long over gledes,
then strain, wring out and take leaves of willow, pound
them, pour the juice into the oil; boil again for a while on
gledes, strain them, smear therewith after the
bath.'"--_Leech Book_, I. 87.
The two prescriptions for hair which is too thick are in the same
chapter:--
"In order that the hair may not wax, take emmets' eggs, rub
them up, smudge on the place, never will any hair come up
there." Again: "if hair be too thick, take a swallow, burn
it to ashes under a tile and have the ashes shed on."
There are more provisions against diseases of the eye than against any
other complaint, and it is probably because of the prevalence of these
in olden days that we still have so many of the superstitions
connected with springs of water. Both maythen (camomile) and wild
lettuce were used for the eyes. In the following for mistiness of eyes
there is a touch of pathos:--
"For mistiness of eyes, many men, lest their eyes should
suffer the disease, look into cold water and then are able
to see far.... The eyes of an old man are not sharp of
sight, then shall he wake up his eyes with rubbings, with
walkings, with ridings, either so that a man bear him or
convey him in a wain. And they shall use little and careful
meats and comb their heads and drink wormwood before they
take food. Then shall a salve be wrought for unsharpsighted
eyes; take pepper and beat it and a somewhat of salt and
wine; that will be a good salve."
One prescription is unique, for the "herb" which one is directed to
use is not to be found in any other herbal in existence. This is "rind
from Paradise." There is a grim humour about the scribe's comment, and
one cannot help wondering what was the origin of the prescription:--
"Some teach us against bite of adder, to speak one word
'faul.' It may not hurt him. Against bite of snake if the
man procures and eateth rind which cometh out of Paradise,
no venom will hurt him. Then said he that wrote this book
that the rind was hard gotten."
These manuscripts are so full of word pictures of the treatment of
disease that one feels if one were transported back to those days it
would in most cases be possible to tell at a glance the "cures"
various people were undergoing. Let us visit a Saxon hamlet and go and
see the sick folk in the cottages. On our way we meet a man with a
fawn's skin decorated with little bunches of herbs dangling from his
shoulders, and we know that he is a sufferer from nightmare.[23]
Another has a wreath of clove-wort tied with a red thread round his
neck. He is a lunatic, but, as the moon is on the wane, his family
hope that the wearing of these herbs will prove beneficial. We enter a
dark one-roomed hut, the dwelling of one of the swineherds, but he is
not at his work; for it seemed to him that his head turned about and
that he was faring with turned brains. He had consulted the leech and,
suggestion cures being then rather more common than now, the leech had
advised him to sit calmly by his fireside with a linen cloth wrung out
in spring water on his head and to wait till it was dry. He does so,
and, to quote the words with which nearly all Saxon prescriptions end,
we feel "it will soon be well with him." Let us wend our way to the
cobbler, a sullen, taciturn man who finds his lively young wife's
chatter unendurable. We find him looking more gloomy than usual, for
he has eaten nothing all day and now sits moodily consuming a raw
radish. But there is purpose in this. Does not the ancient leechdom
say that, if a radish be eaten raw after fasting all day, no woman's
chatter the next day can annoy? In another cottage we find that a
patient suffering from elf-shot is to be smoked with the fumes of
herbs. A huge quern stone which has been in the fire on the hearth
all day is dragged out, the prepared herbs--wallwort and mugwort--are
scattered upon it and also underneath, then cold water is poured on
and the patient is reeked with the steam "as hot as he can endure
it."[24] Smoking sick folk, especially for demoniac possession, is a
world-wide practice and of very ancient origin. There is no space here
to attempt to touch on the comparative folk lore of this subject.
Moreover, fumigating the sick with herbs is closely akin to the
burning of incense. Even in ancient Babylonian days fumigating with
herbs was practised.[25] It was very common all through the Middle
Ages in most parts of Europe, and that it has not even yet died out is
shown by the extract from _The Times_ given below.[26] I have
purposely put in juxtaposition the translation of the ancient
Babylonian tablet and the extract from _The Times_.
It is noteworthy that not only human beings, but cattle and swine
were smoked with the fumes of herbs. In the _Lacnunga_, for sick
cattle we find--"Take the wort, put it upon gledes and fennel and
hassuck and 'cotton' and incense. Burn all together on the side on
which the wind is. Make it reek upon the cattle. Make five crosses of
hassuck grass, set them on four sides of the cattle and one in the
middle. Sing about the cattle the Benedicite and some litanies and the
Pater Noster. Sprinkle holy water upon them, burn about them incense
and cotton and let someone set a value on the cattle, let the owner
give the tenth penny in the Church for God, after that leave them to
amend; do this thrice."--_Lacnunga_, 79.
"To preserve swine from sudden death sing over them four masses, drive
the swine to the fold, hang the worts upon the four sides and upon the
door, also burn them, adding incense and make the reek stream over the
swine."--_Lacnunga_, 82.
* * * * *
Herbs used as amulets have always played a conspicuous part in folk
medicine, and our Saxon ancestors used them, as all ancient races have
used them, not merely to cure definite diseases but also as protection
against the unseen powers of evil,[27] to preserve the eyesight, to
cure lunacy, against weariness when going on a journey, against being
barked at by dogs, for safety from robbers, and in one prescription
even to restore a woman stricken with speechlessness. The use of herbs
as amulets to cure diseases has almost died out in this country, but
the use of them as charms to ensure good luck survives to this
day--notably in the case of white heather and four-leaved clover.
There is occasionally the instruction to bind on the herb with red
wool. For instance, a prescription against headache in the third book
of the _Leech Book_ enjoins binding waybroad, which has been dug up
without iron before sunrise, round the head "with a red fillet."
Binding on with red wool is a very ancient and widespread custom.[28]
Red was the colour sacred to Thor and it was also the colour abhorred
not only by witches in particular but by all the powers of darkness
and evil. An ancient Assyrian eye charm prescribes binding "pure
strands of red wool which have been brought by the pure hand of ... on
the right hand," and down to quite recent times even in these islands
tying on with red wool was a common custom.
Besides their use as amulets, we also find instructions for hanging
herbs up over doors, etc., for the benefit not only of human beings
but of cattle also. Of mugwort we read in the _Herbarium of Apuleius_,
"And if a root of this wort be hung over the door of any house then
may not any man damage the house."
"Of Croton oil plant. For hail and rough weather to turn
them away. If thou hast in thy possession this wort which is
named 'ricinus' and which is not a native of England, if
thou hangest some seed of it in thine house or have it or
its seed in any place whatsoever, it turneth away the
tempestuousness of hail, and if thou hangest its seed on a
ship, to that degree wonderful it is, that it smootheth
every tempest. This wort thou shalt take saying thus, 'Wort
ricinus I pray that thou be at my songs and that thou turn
away hails and lightning bolts and all tempests through the
name of Almighty God who hight thee to be produced'; and
thou shalt be clean when thou pluckest this herb."--_Herb.
Ap._, 176.
"Against temptation of the fiend, a wort hight red niolin,
red stalk, it waxeth by running water; if thou hast it on
thee and under thy head and bolster and over thy house door
the devil may not scathe thee within nor without."--_Leech
Book_, III. 58.
"To preserve swine from sudden death take the worts lupin,
bishopwort, hassuck grass, tufty thorn, vipers bugloss,
drive the swine to the fold, hang the worts upon the four
sides and upon the door."--_Lacnunga_, 82.
The herbs in commonest use as amulets were betony, vervain, peony,
yarrow, mugwort and waybroad (plantain). With the exception of
vervain, no herb was more highly prized than betony. The treatise on
it in the _Herbarium of Apuleius_ is supposed to be an abridged copy
of a treatise on the virtues of this plant written by Antonius Musa,
physician to the Emperor Augustus. No fewer than twenty-nine uses of
it are given, and in the Saxon translation this herb is described as
being "good whether for a man's soul or his body." Vervain was one of
the herbs held most sacred by the Druids and, as the herbals of Gerard
and Parkinson testify, it was in high repute even as late as the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It has never been satisfactorily
identified, though many authorities incline to the belief that it was
verbena. In Druidical times libations of honey had to be offered to
the earth from which it was dug, mystic ceremonies attended the
digging of it and the plant was lifted out with the left hand. This
uprooting had always to be performed at the rising of the dog star and
when neither the sun nor the moon was shining. Why the humble waybroad
should occupy so prominent a place in Saxon herb lore it is difficult
to understand. It is one of the nine sacred herbs in the alliterative
lay in the _Lacnunga_, and the epithets "mother of worts" and "open
from eastwards" are applied to it. The latter curious epithet is also
applied to it in _Lacnunga_ 46,--"which spreadeth open towards the
East." Waybroad has certainly wonderfully curative powers, especially
for bee-stings, but otherwise it has long since fallen from its high
estate. Peony throughout the Middle Ages was held in high repute for
its protective powers, and even during the closing years of the last
century country folk hung beads made of its roots round children's
necks.[29] Yarrow is one of the aboriginal English plants, and from
time immemorial it has been used in incantations and by witches.
Country folk still regard it as one of our most valuable herbs,
especially for rheumatism. Mugwort, which was held in repute
throughout the Middle Ages for its efficacy against unseen powers of
evil, is one of the nine sacred herbs in the alliterative lay in the
_Lacnunga_, where it is described thus:--
"Eldest of worts
Thou hast might for three
And against thirty
For venom availest
For flying vile things,
Mighty against loathed ones
That through the land rove."
Harleian MS. 585.
[Illustration: (1) ARTEMISIA AND (2) BLACKBERRY, FROM A SAXON HERBAL
(Sloane 1975, folio 37_a_)]
With the notable exception of vervain, it is curious how little
prominence is given in Saxon plant lore to the herbs which were held
most sacred by the Druids, and yet it is scarcely credible that some
of their wonderful lore should not have been assimilated. But in these
manuscripts little or no importance attaches to mistletoe, holly,
birch or ivy. There is no mention of mistletoe as a sacred herb.[30]
We find some mention of selago, generally identified with
_lycopodium selago_, of which Pliny tells us vaguely that it was "like
savin." The gathering of it had to be accompanied in Druid days with
mystic ceremonies. The Druid had his feet bare and was clad in white,
and the plant could not be cut with iron, nor touched with the naked
hand. So great were its powers that it was called "the gift of God."
Nor is there any mention in Saxon plant lore of the use of _sorbus
aucuparia_, which the Druids planted near their monolithic circles as
protection against unseen powers of darkness. There is, however, one
prescription which may date back to the Roman occupation of Britain.
It runs thus: "Take nettles, and seethe them in oil, smear and rub all
thy body therewith; the cold will depart away."[31] It has always been
believed that one of the varieties of nettle (_Urtica pilulifera_) was
introduced into England by the Roman soldiers, who brought the seed of
it with them. According to the tradition, they were told that the cold
in England was unendurable; so they brought these seeds in order to
have a plentiful supply of nettles wherewith to rub their bodies and
thereby keep themselves warm. Possibly this prescription dates back to
that time.
From what hoary antiquity the charms and incantations which we find in
these manuscripts have come down to us we cannot say. Their atmosphere
is that of palæolithic cave-drawings, for they are redolent of the
craft of sorcerers and they suggest those strange cave markings which
no one can decipher. Who can say what lost languages are embedded in
these unintelligible words and single letters, or what is their
meaning? To what ancient ceremonies do they pertain, and who were the
initiated who alone understood them? At present it is all mysterious,
though perhaps one day we shall discover both their sources and their
meaning. They show no definite traces of the Scandinavian rune-lays
concerning herbs, though one of the charms is in runic characters. It
is noteworthy that in the third book, which is evidently much older
than the first two parts of the _Leech Book_, the proportion of
heathen charms is exceptionally large. In one prescription we find the
names of two heathen idols, Tiecon and Leleloth, combined with a later
Christian interpolation of the names of the four gospellers. The charm
is in runic characters and is to be followed by a prayer. Many of the
mystic sentences are wholly incomprehensible, in others we find
heathen names such as Lilumenne, in others a string of words which may
be a corrupt form of some very ancient language. Thus a lay to be sung
in case a man or beast drinks an insect runs thus:--"Gonomil, orgomil,
marbumil, marbsai, tofeth," etc.[32]
If some of the charms have a malignant sound, others were probably as
soothing in those days as those gems are still which have survived in
our inimitable nursery rhymes.
For instance, the following has for us no meaning, but even in the
translation it has something of the curious effect of the words in the
original. A woman who cannot rear her child is instructed to
say--"Everywhere I carried for me the famous kindred doughty one with
this famous meat doughty one, so I will have it for me and go home."
In the _Lacnunga_ there is a counting-out charm which is a mixture of
an ancient heathen charm combined with a Christian rite at the end.
"Nine were Noddes sisters, then the nine came to be eight,
and the eight seven, and the seven six, and the six five,
and the five four, and the four three, and the three two,
and the two one, and the one none. This may be medicine for
thee from scrofula and from worm and from every mischief.
Sing also the Benedicite nine times."--_Lacnunga_, 95.[33]
One of the most remarkable narrative charms is that for warts copied
below from the _Lacnunga_. It is to be sung first into the left ear,
then into the right ear, then above the man's poll, then "let one who
is a maiden go to him and hang it upon his neck, do so for three days,
it will soon be well with him."
"Here came entering
A spider wight.
He had his hands upon his hams.
He quoth that thou his hackney wert.
Lay thee against his neck.
They began to sail off the land.
As soon as they off the land came, then began they to cool.
Then came in a wild beast's sister.
Then she ended
And oaths she swore that never could this harm the sick, nor him
who could get at this charm, nor him who had skill to sing this
charm. Amen. Fiat."--_Lacnunga_, 56.
Of the world-wide custom of charming disease from the patient and
transferring it to some inanimate object we find numerous examples.
This custom is not only of very ancient origin, but persisted until
recent times even in this country. As commonly practised in
out-of-the-way parts of Great Britain it was believed that the disease
transferred to an inanimate object would be contracted by the next
person who picked it up, but in the Saxon herbals we find an
apparently older custom of transferring the disease to "running water"
(suggestive of the Israelitish scapegoat), and also that of throwing
the blood from the wound across the wagon way. These charms for
transferring disease seem originally to have been associated with a
considerable amount of ceremonial. For instance, in those to cure the
bite of a hunting spider we find that a certain number of
scarifications are to be struck (and in both cases an odd
number--three and five); in the case of the five scarifications, "one
on the bite and four round about it," the blood is to be caught in "a
green spoon of hazel-wood," and the blood is to be thrown "in silence"
over a wagon way. In the _Lacnunga_ there are traces of the actual
ceremonial of transferring the disease, and the Christian prayer has
obviously been substituted for an older heathen one. The charm is in
unintelligible words and is followed by the instruction, "Sing this
nine times and the Pater Noster nine times over a barley loaf and give
it to the horse to eat." In a "salve against the elfin race" it is
noticeable that the herbs, after elaborate preparation, are not
administered to the patient at all, but are thrown into running water.
"A salve against the elfin race and nocturnal goblin
visitors: take wormwood, lupin.... Put these worts into a
vessel, set them under the altar, sing over them nine
masses, boil them in butter and sheep's grease, add much
holy salt, strain through a cloth, throw the worts into
running water."--_Leech Book_, III. 61.
One charm in the _Lacnunga_ which is perhaps not too long to quote
speaks of some long-lost tale. It appears to be a fragment of a
popular lay, and one wonders how many countless generations of our
ancestors sang it, and what it commemorates:--
"Loud were they loud, as over the land they rode,
Fierce of heart were they, as over the hill they rode.
Shield thee now thyself; from this spite thou mayst escape thee!
Out little spear if herein thou be!
Underneath the linden stood he, underneath the shining shield,
While the mighty women mustered up their strength;
And the spears they send screaming through the air!
Back again to them will I send another.
Arrow forth a-flying from the front against them;
Out little spear if herein thou be!
Sat the smith thereat, smoke a little seax out.
Out little spear if herein thou be!
Six the smiths that sat there-- making slaughter-spears:
Out little spear, in be not spear!
If herein there hide flake of iron hard,
Of a witch the work, it shall melt away.
Wert thou shot into the skin, or shot into the flesh,
Wert thou shot into the blood, or shot into the bone,
Wert thou shot into the limb-- never more thy life be teased!
If it were the shot of Esa, or it were of elves the shot
Or it were of hags the shot; help I bring to thee.
This to boot for Esa-shot, this to boot for elfin-shot.
This to boot for shot of hags! Help I bring to thee.
Flee witch to the wild hill top ... ...
But thou--be thou hale, and help thee the Lord."
Who were these six smiths and who were the witches? One thinks of that
mighty Smith Weyland in the palace of Nidad king of the Niars, of the
queen's fear of his flashing eyes and the maiming of him by her cruel
orders, and of the cups he made from the skulls of her sons and gems
from their eyes. We think of these as old tales, but instinct tells us
that they are horribly real. We may not know how that semi-divine
smith made himself wings, but that he flew over the palace and never
returned we do not doubt for an instant. To the fairy stories which
embody such myths children of unnumbered generations have listened,
and they demand them over and over again because they, too, are sure
that they are real.
Nor is the mystery of numbers lacking in these herbal prescriptions,
particularly the numbers three and nine. In the alliterative lay of
the nine healing herbs this is very conspicuous. Woden, we are told,
smote the serpent with nine magic twigs, the serpent was broken into
nine parts, from which the wind blew the nine flying venoms. There are
numerous instances of the patient being directed to take nine of each
of the ingredients or to take the herb potion itself for three or nine
days. Or it is directed that an incantation is to be said or sung
three or nine times, or that three or nine masses are to be sung over
the herbs. This mystic use of three and nine is conspicuous in the
following prescription:--
"Against dysentery, a bramble of which both ends are in the
earth take the newer root, delve it up, cut up nine chips
with the left hand and sing three times the Miserere mei
Deus and nine times the Pater Noster, then take mugwort and
everlasting, boil these three worts and the chips in milk
till they get red, then let the man sip at night fasting a
pound dish full ... let him rest himself soft and wrap
himself up warm; if more need be let him do so again, if
thou still need do it a third time, thou wilt not need
oftener."--_Leech Book_, II. 65.
The leechdom for the use of dwarf elder against a snake-bite runs
thus:--[34]
"For rent by snake take this wort and ere thou carve it off
hold it in thine hand and say thrice nine times Omnes malas
bestias canto, that is in our language Enchant and overcome
all evil wild deer; then carve it off with a very sharp
knife into three parts."--_Herb. Ap._, 93.
Some of the most remarkable passages in the manuscripts are those
concerning the ceremonies to be observed both in the picking and in
the administering of herbs. What the mystery of plant life which has
so deeply affected the minds of men in all ages and of all
civilisations meant to our ancestors, we can but dimly apprehend as we
study these ceremonies. They carry us back to that worship of earth
and the forces of Nature which prevailed when Woden was yet unborn.
That Woden was the chief god of the tribes on the mainland is
indisputable, but even in the hierarchy of ancestors reverenced as
semi-divine the Saxons themselves looked to Sceaf rather than to
Woden, who himself was descended from Sceaf. There are few more
haunting legends than that of our mystic forefather, the little boy
asleep on a sheaf of corn who, in a richly adorned vessel which moved
neither by sails nor oars, came to our people out of the great deep
and was hailed by them as their king. Did not Alfred himself claim him
as his primeval progenitor, the founder of our race? There is no
tangible link between his descendant Woden and the worship of earth,
but the sheaf of corn, the symbol of Sceaf, carries us straight back
to Nature worship. Sceaf takes his fitting place as the semi-divine
ancestor with the lesser divinities such as Hrede and Eostra, goddess
of the radiant dawn. It is to this age that the ceremonies in the
picking of the herbs transport us, to the mystery of the virtues of
herbs, the fertility of earth, the never-ceasing conflict between the
beneficent forces of sun and summer and the evil powers of the long,
dark northern winters. Closely intertwined with Nature worship we find
the later Christian rites and ceremonies. For the new teaching did not
oust the old, and for many centuries the mind of the average man
halted half-way between the two faiths. If he accepted Christ he did
not cease to fear the great hierarchy of unseen powers of Nature, the
worship of which was bred in his very bone. The ancient festivals of
Yule and Eostra continued under another guise and polytheism still
held its sway. The devil became one with the gloomy and terrible in
Nature, with the malignant elves and dwarfs. Even with the warfare
between the beneficent powers of sun and the fertility of Nature and
the malignant powers of winter, the devil became associated. Nor did
men cease to believe in the Wyrd, that dark, ultimate fate goddess
who, though obscure, lies at the back of all Saxon belief. It was in
vain that the Church preached against superstitions. Egbert,
Archbishop of York, in his Penitential, strictly forbade the gathering
of herbs with incantations and enjoined the use of Christian rites,
but it is probable that even when these manuscripts were written, the
majority at least of the common folk in these islands, though
nominally Christian, had not deserted their ancient ways of
thought.[35] When the Saxon peasant went to gather his healing herbs
he may have used Christian prayers[36] and ceremonies, but he did not
forget the goddess of the dawn. It is noteworthy how frequently we
find the injunction that the herbs must be picked at sunrise or when
day and night divide, how often stress is laid upon looking towards
the east, and turning "as the sun goeth from east to south and west."
In many there is the instruction that the herb is to be gathered
"without use of iron" or "with gold and with hart's horn" (emblems of
the sun's rays). It is curious how little there is of moon lore. In
some cases the herbs are to be gathered in silence, in others the man
who gathers them is not to look behind him--a prohibition which occurs
frequently in ancient superstitions. The ceremonies are all mysterious
and suggestive, but behind them always lies the ancient ineradicable
worship of Nature. To what dim past does that cry, "Erce, Erce, Erce,
Mother of Earth" carry us?
"Erce, Erce, Erce, Mother of Earth!
May the All-Wielder, Ever Lord grant thee
Acres a-waxing, upwards a-growing
Pregnant [with corn] and plenteous in strength;
Hosts of [grain] shafts and of glittering plants!
Of broad barley the blossoms
And of white wheat ears waxing,
Of the whole earth the harvest!
Let be guarded the grain against all the ills
That are sown o'er the land by the sorcery men,
Nor let cunning women change it nor a crafty man."
And that other ancient verse:--
"Hail be thou, Earth, Mother of men!
In the lap of the God be thou a-growing!
Be filled with fodder for fare-need of men!"
It is of these two invocations that Stopford Brooke (whose
translations I have used) writes: "These are very old heathen
invocations used, I daresay, from century to century and from far
prehistoric times by all the Teutonic farmers. Who 'Erce' is remains
obscure. But the Mother of Earth seems to be here meant, and she is a
person who greatly kindles our curiosity. To touch her is like
touching empty space, so far away is she. At any rate some Godhead or
other seems here set forth under her proper name. In the Northern
Cosmogony, Night is the Mother of Earth. But Erce cannot be Night. She
is (if Erce be a proper name) bound up with agriculture. Grimm
suggests Eorce, connected with the Old High German 'erchan' = simplex.
He also makes a bold guess that she may be the same as a divine dame
in Low Saxon districts called Herke or Harke, who dispenses earthly
goods in abundance, and acts in the same way as Berhta and Holda--an
earth-goddess, the lady of the plougher and sower and reaper. In the
Mark she is called Frau Harke. Montanus draws attention to the
appearance of this charm in a convent at Corvei, in which this line
begins--'Eostar, Eostar, eordhan modor.' ... The name remains
mysterious. The song breathes the pleasure and worship of ancient
tillers of the soil in the labours of the earth and in the goods the
mother gave. It has grown, it seems, out of the breast of earth
herself; earth is here the Mother of Men. The surface of earth is the
lap of the Goddess; in her womb let all growth be plentiful. Food is
in her for the needs of men. 'Hail be thou, Earth!' I daresay this
hymn was sung ten thousand years ago by the early Aryans on the Baltic
coast."
Even in a twelfth-century herbal we find a prayer to Earth, and it is
so beautiful that I close this chapter with it:--
"Earth,[37] divine goddess, Mother Nature who generatest all
things and bringest forth anew the sun which thou hast given
to the nations; Guardian of sky and sea and of all gods and
powers and through thy power all nature falls silent and
then sinks in sleep. And again thou bringest back the light
and chasest away night and yet again thou coverest us most
securely with thy shades. Thou dost contain chaos infinite,
yea and winds and showers and storms; thou sendest them out
when thou wilt and causest the seas to roar; thou chasest
away the sun and arousest the storm. Again when thou wilt
thou sendest forth the joyous day and givest the nourishment
of life with thy eternal surety; and when the soul departs
to thee we return. Thou indeed art duly called great Mother
of the gods; thou conquerest by thy divine name. Thou art
the source of the strength of nations and of gods, without
thee nothing can be brought to perfection or be born; thou
art great queen of the gods. Goddess! I adore thee as
divine; I call upon thy name; be pleased to grant that which
I ask thee, so shall I give thanks to thee, goddess, with
one faith.
"Hear, I beseech thee, and be favourable to my prayer.
Whatsoever herb thy power dost produce, give, I pray, with
goodwill to all nations to save them and grant me this my
medicine. Come to me with thy powers, and howsoever I may
use them may they have good success and to whomsoever I may
give them. Whatever thou dost grant it may prosper. To thee
all things return. Those who rightly receive these herbs
from me, do thou make them whole. Goddess, I beseech thee;
I pray thee as a suppliant that by thy majesty thou grant
this to me.
"Now I make intercession to you all ye powers and herbs and
to your majesty, ye whom Earth parent of all hath produced
and given as a medicine of health to all nations and hath
put majesty upon you, be, I pray you, the greatest help to
the human race. This I pray and beseech from you, and be
present here with your virtues, for she who created you hath
herself promised that I may gather you into the goodwill of
him on whom the art of medicine was bestowed, and grant for
health's sake good medicine by grace of your powers. I pray
grant me through your virtues that whatsoe'er is wrought by
me through you may in all its powers have a good and speedy
effect and good success and that I may always be permitted
with the favour of your majesty to gather you into my hands
and to glean your fruits. So shall I give thanks to you in
the name of that majesty which ordained your birth."
[Illustration: FROM A SAXON HERBAL
(Harl. 1585, folio 19_a_)]
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Nec non et si quos sæcularis scientiæ libros nobis ignotos
adepturi sitis, ut sunt de medicinalibus, quorum copia est aliqua apud
nos, sed tamen segmenta ultra marina quæ in eis scripta comperimus,
ignota nobis sunt et difficilia ad adipiscendum.--Bonifac.,
_Epistolæ_, p. 102.
[3] A catalogue of the books of that foundation cited by Wanley
(Hickes, _Thesaur._ Vol. II. Præf. ad Catalogum) contains the entry
"Medicinale Anglicum," and the MS. described above has on a fly-leaf
the now almost illegible inscription "Medicinale Anglicum." There is
unfortunately no record as to the books which, on the dissolution of
the monasteries, may possibly have found their way from Glastonbury to
the royal library.
[4] 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 statement, that he had seen and read the
letters which the Patriarch of Jerusalem sent with presents to the
king. From Asser also we learn that King Alfred kept a book in which
he himself entered "little flowers culled on every side from all sorts
of masters." "Flosculos undecunque collectos a quibus libet magistris
et in corpore unius libelli mixtim quamvis sicut tunc suppetebat
redigere."--ASSER, p. 57.
[5] The stories of miraculous cures by famous Anglo-Saxon bishops and
abbots are for the most part too well known to be worth quoting, but
the unfair treatment of the leech is perhaps nowhere more clearly
shown than in Bede's tale of St. John of Beverley curing a boy with a
diseased head. Although the leech effected the cure, the success was
attributed to the bishop's benediction, and the story ends, "the youth
became of a clear countenance, ready in speech and with hair
beautifully wavy."
[6] A small but striking instance of Saxon knowledge, or rather close
observation, of plants is to be found in the following description of
wolf's teazle in the _Herbarium of Apuleius_:--"This wort hath leaves
reversed and thorny and it hath in its midst a round and thorny knob,
and that is brown-headed in the blossoms and hath white seed and a
white and very fragrant root." The word "reversed" is not in the
original and was therefore added by the Saxon translator, who had
observed the fact that all the thistle tribe protect their leaves by
thorns pointing backwards as well as forwards.
[7] It is interesting to remember that even as late as the sixteenth
century plantain was called "waybroad." See _Turner's Herbal_.
[8] There are numerous Latin MSS. of this book, chiefly in Italian
libraries, several being in the Laurentian Library at Florence. The
book was first printed at Rome, probably soon after 1480, by Joh.
Philippus de Lignamine, who was also the editor. De Lignamine, who was
physician to Pope Sixtus IV., says that he found this MS. in the
library of the monastery of Monte Cassino. In the first impression the
book is dedicated to Cardinal de Gonzaga; in the second impression to
Cardinal de Ruvere. (The copy in the British Museum is of the second
impression.) In this small quarto volume the illustrations are rough
cuts. It is interesting to remember that these are the earliest known
printed figures of plants. The printed text contains a large number of
Greek and Latin synonyms which do not appear in the Saxon translation.
Subsequent editions were printed in 1528 (Paris) and in the Aldine
Collection of Latin medical writers, 1547 (Venice).
[9] Cratevas is said to have lived in the first century B.C. Pliny,
Dioscorides and Galen all quote him.
[10] Erlanger, _Beiträge zur englischen Philologie_, No. XII. (περὶ
διδαξέων), eine Sammlung von Rezepten in englischer Sprache.
[11] Printed by De Renzi in _Collectio Salernitana_, Vol. IV. (Naples,
1856).
[12] _English Medicine in the Anglo-Saxon Times._
[13] On the preceding blank page there is an inscription in late
seventeenth-century handwriting--
"This boucke with letters is wr [remainder of word illegible]
Of it you cane no languige make.
Ba C.
A happie end if thou dehre [dare] to make
Remember still thyn owne esstate,
If thou desire in Christ to die
Thenn well to lead thy lif applie
barbara crokker."
It is at least probable that Wanley, who at this period was collecting
Anglo-Saxon manuscripts for George Hickes, secured this MS. from
"barbara crokker." Her naïve avowal of her inability to read the MS.
suggests that she probably had no idea of the value of the book, and
when one remembers Wanley's reputation for driving shrewd bargains one
cannot help wondering what he paid for this treasure. Those must have
been halcyon days for collectors, when a man who had been an assistant
in the Bodleian Library with a salary of £12 a year could buy Saxon
manuscripts!
[14] _Herb. Ap._, I.
[15] For "elf-shot" herbal remedies see also _Leech Book_, III. 1, 61,
64.
[16] "The visitation raises again questions which were so anxiously
propounded three years ago. In what manner does an epidemic of this
kind arise? How is it propagated? We are still to a great extent in
the dark in regard to both these points. Indeed, it has recently been
suggested that we do not 'catch' influenza at all, but that certain
climatic or other conditions favour the multiplication on an important
scale of micro-organisms normally present in the human air passages.
It would be foolish to pretend to any opinion on a subject which is at
present almost entirely speculative: yet the theory we have quoted may
serve to show how complicated and difficult are the issues
involved."--_The Times_, January 13, 1922.
[17] Translation from Dr. Charles Singer's _Early English Magic and
Medicine_. Proceedings of the British Academy.
[18] _Leech Book of Bald_, Book II. 64.
[19] _Id._ Book I. 72. For other references to flying venom see _Leech
Book of Bald_, I. 113; II. 65.
[20] _Lacnunga_, 6.
[21] _Cuneiform Texts_, Part XVII. pl. 50.
[22] The directions for the vapour bath are given in such a brief and
yet forceful way that I cannot imagine anyone reading it without
feeling at the end as though he had run breathlessly to collect the
herbs, and then prepared the bath and finally made the ley of alder
ashes to wash the unfortunate patient's head. Like all these cheerful
Saxon prescriptions, this one ends with the comforting assurance "it
will soon be well with him," and one wonders whether in this, as in
many other cases, the patient got well in order to avoid his friends'
ministrations. The prescription for a vapour bath made with herbs runs
thus:--
"Take bramble rind and elm rind, ash rind, sloethorn, rind of apple
tree and ivy, all these from the nether part of the trees, and
cucumber, smear wort, everfern, helenium, enchanters nightshade,
betony, marrubium, radish, agrimony. Scrape the worts into a kettle
and boil strongly. When it hath strongly boiled remove it off the fire
and seat the man over it and wrap the man up that the vapour may get
up nowhere, except only that the man may breathe; beathe him with
these fomentations as long as he can bear it. Then have another bath
ready for him, take an emmet bed all at once, a bed of those male
emmets which at whiles fly, they are red ones, boil them in water,
beathe him with it immoderately hot. Then make him a salve. Take worts
of each kind of those above mentioned, boil them in butter, smear the
sore limbs, they will soon quicken. Make him a ley of alder ashes,
wash his head with this cold, it will soon be well with him, and let
the man get bled every month when the moon is five and fifteen and
twenty nights old."
[23] _Leech Book_, I. 60.
[24] _Lacnunga_, 48.
[25] In an incantation against fever we find the instruction:--
"The sick man ... thou shalt place
... thou shalt cover his face
Burn cypress and herbs ...
That the great gods may remove the evil
That the evil spirit may stand aside
. . . . . . .
May a kindly spirit a kindly genius be present."
R. Campbell Thompson, _Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, p. 29.
See also p. 43. Cf. also Tobit vi. 7.
[26] _A Pomeranian Rite._--An attempt was made a few days ago to cast
a devil out of a woman living in a village of the Lauenberg district
of Pomerania, on the Polish frontier. She appears to have been of a
sour and somewhat hysterical temperament, and three of the village
gossips came to the conclusion that she was a victim of diabolical
possession and resolved to effect a cure by means of enchantment. They
first of all gathered the herbs needed for the purpose in the forest
at the proper conjunction of the stars. Then a tripod was formed of
three chairs, and to these the patient was bound. Beneath her was
fixed a pail of red-hot coal on which the herbs were scattered. As the
fumes of the burning weeds veiled the victim the three neighbours
crooned the prescribed exorcism. The louder the woman shrieked the
louder they sang, and after the process had been continued long enough
to prove effective, in their opinion, they ran away, believing that
the devil would run out of the woman after them. She, however,
continued to shriek. Her cries were heard by a man, who released
her.--_The Times_, December 5, 1921.
[27] It is interesting to find the same beliefs amongst the ancient
Babylonians.
"Fleabane on the lintel of the door I have hung
S. John's wort, caper and wheatears
With a halter as a roving ass
Thy body I restrain.
O evil spirit get thee hence
Depart O evil Demon.
. . . . . . .
In the precincts of the house stand not nor circle round
'In the house will I stand,' say thou not,
'In the neighbourhood will I stand,' say thou not.
O evil spirit get thee forth to distant places
O evil Demon hie thee unto the ruins
Where thou standest is forbidden ground
A ruined desolate house is thy home
Be thou removed from before me, By Heaven be thou exorcised
By Earth be thou exorcised."
Trans. of Utukke Limnûte Tablet "B." R. C. Thompson, _Devils and Evil
Spirits of Babylonia_.
[28] Sonny (_Arch. f. Rel._, 1906, p. 525), in his article "Rote Farbe
im Totenkulte," considers the use of red to be in imitation of blood.
The instruction to bind on with red is found even in the _Grete
Herball_ of 1526. "Apium is good for lunatyke Folke yf it be bounde to
the pacyentes heed with a lynen clothe dyed reed," etc.
[29] See W. G. Black, _Folk Medicine_.
[30] Even modern science has not yet succeeded in solving some of the
mysteries connected with this remarkable plant. For instance, although
the apple and the pear are closely related, mistletoe very rarely
grows on the pear tree, and there is no case on record of mistletoe
planted on a pear tree by human hands surviving the stage of
germination. There are, it is true, two famous mistletoe pears in this
country--one in the garden of Belvoir Castle and the other in the
garden of Fern Lodge, Malvern, but in both cases the seed was sown
naturally. It grows very rarely on the oak, and this possibly accounts
for the special reverence accorded by the Druids to the mistletoe oak.
[31] _Leech Book_, I. 81.
[32] _Lacnunga_, 9.
[33] This closely resembles a Cornish charm for a tetter.
"Tetter, tetter, thou hast nine brothers,
God bless the flesh and preserve the bone;
Perish thou, tetter, and be thou gone.
Tetter, tetter, thou hast eight brothers."
Thus the verses are continued until tetter having "no brother" is
ordered to be gone.--R. Hunt, _Popular Romances of the West of
England_, p. 414.
[34] For further instances of the mystic use of three and nine see
also _Leech Book_, I. 45, 47, 67.
[35] St. Eloy, in a sermon preached in A.D. 640, also forbade the
enchanting of herbs:--
"Before all things I declare and testify to you that you shall observe
none of the impious customs of the pagans, neither sorcerers, nor
diviners, nor soothsayers, nor enchanters, nor must you presume for
any cause to enquire of them.... Let none regulate the beginning of
any piece of work by the day or by the moon. Let none trust in nor
presume to invoke the names of dæmons, neither Neptune, nor Orcus, nor
Diana, nor Minerva, nor Geniscus nor any other such follies.... Let no
Christian place lights at the temples or the stones, or at fountains,
or at trees, or at places where three ways meet.... Let none presume
to hang amulets on the neck of man or beast.... Let no one presume to
make lustrations, nor to enchant herbs, nor to make flocks pass
through a hollow tree, or an aperture in the earth; for by so doing he
seems to consecrate them to the devil. Let none on the kalends of
January join in the wicked and ridiculous things, the dressing like
old women or like stags, nor make feasts lasting all night, nor keep
up the custom of gifts and intemperate drinking. Let no one on the
festival of St. John or on any of the festivals join in the solstitia
or dances or leaping or caraulas or diabolical songs."--From a sermon
preached by St. Eloy in A.D. 640.
[36] A Christian prayer for a blessing on herbs runs thus:--
"Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui ab initio mundi omnia instituisti et
creasti tam arborum generibus quam herbarum seminibus quibus etiam
benedictione tua benedicendo sanxisti eadem nunc benedictione olera
aliosque fructus sanctificare ac benedicere digneris ut sumentibus ex
eis sanitatem conferant mentis et corporis ac tutelam defensionis
eternamque uitam per saluatorem animarum dominum nostrum iesum
christum qui uiuit et regnat dominus in secula seculorum. Amen."
[37] Translation from _Early English Magic and Medicine_ by Dr.
Charles Singer. Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol. IV.
CHAPTER II
LATER MANUSCRIPT HERBALS AND THE EARLY PRINTED HERBALS
"Spryngynge tyme is the time of gladnesse and of love; for
in Sprynging time all thynge semeth gladde; for the erthe
wexeth grene, trees burgynne [burgeon] and sprede, medowes
bring forth flowers, heven shyneth, the see resteth and is
quyete, foules synge and make theyr nestes, and al thynge
that semed deed in wynter and widdered, ben renewed, in
Spryngyng time."--BARTHOLOMÆUS ANGLICUS, _circ._ 1260.
Between the Anglo-Saxon herbals and the early printed herbals there is
a great gulf. After the Norman Conquest the old Anglo-Saxon lore
naturally fell into disrepute, although the Normans were inferior to
the Saxons in their knowledge of herbs. The learned books of the
conquerors were written exclusively in Latin, and it is sad to think
of the number of beautiful Saxon books which must have been destroyed,
for when the Saxons were turned out of their own monasteries the
Normans who supplanted them probably regarded books written in a
language they did not understand as mere rubbish. Much of the old
Saxon herb lore is to be found in the leech books of the Middle Ages,
but, with one notable exception, no important original treatise on
herbs by an English writer has come down to us from that period. The
vast majority of the herbal MSS. are merely transcriptions of Macer's
herbal, a mediæval Latin poem on the virtues of seventy-seven plants,
which is believed to have been written in the tenth century. The
popularity of this poem is shown by the number of MSS. still extant.
It was translated into English as early as the twelfth century with
the addition of "A fewe herbes wyche Macer tretyth not."[38] In 1373
it was translated by John Lelamoure, a schoolmaster of Hertford. On
folio 55 of the MS. of this translation is the inscription, "God
gracious of grauntis havythe yyeue and ygrauted vertuys in woodys
stonys and herbes of the whiche erbis Macer the philosofure made a
boke in Latyne the whiche boke Johannes Lelamoure scolemaistre of
Herforde est, they he unworthy was in the yere of oure Lorde a. m.
ccc. lxxiij tournyd in to Ynglis." Macer's herbal is also the basis of
a treatise in rhyme of which there are several copies in England and
one in the Royal Library at Stockholm. This treatise, which deals with
twenty-four herbs, begins thus quaintly--
"Of erbs xxiiij I woll you tell by and by
Als I fond wryten in a boke at I in boroyng toke
Of a gret ladys preste of gret name she barest."
The poem begins with a description of betony, powerful against "wykked
sperytis," and then treats, amongst other herbs, of the virtues of
centaury, marigold, celandine, pimpernel, motherwort, vervain,
periwinkle, rose, lily, henbane, agrimony, sage, rue, fennel and
violet. It is pleasant to find the belief that only to look on
marigolds will draw evil humours out of the head and strengthen the
eyesight.
"Golde [marigold] is bitter in savour
Fayr and ȝelw [yellow] is his flowur
Ye golde flour is good to sene
It makyth ye syth bryth and clene
Wyscely to lokyn on his flowris
Drawyth owt of ye heed wikked hirores [humours].
. . . . . . .
Loke wyscely on golde erly at morwe [morning]
Yat day fro feueres it schall ye borwe:
Ye odour of ye golde is good to smelle."
The instructions for the picking of this joyous flower are given at
length. It must be taken only when the moon is in the sign of the
Virgin, and not when Jupiter is in the ascendant, for then the herb
loses its virtue. And the gatherer, who must be out of deadly sin,
must say three Pater Nosters and three Aves. Amongst its many virtues
we find that it gives the wearer a vision of anyone who has robbed
him. The virtues of vervain also are many; it must be picked "at
Spring of day" in "ye monyth of May." Periwinkle is given its
beautiful old name "joy of the ground" ("men calle it ye Juy of
Grownde") and the description runs thus:--
"Parwynke is an erbe grene of colour
In tyme of May he beryth blo flour,
His stalkys ain [are] so feynt [weak] and feye
Yet never more growyth he heye [high]."
Under sage we find the old proverb--"How can a man die who has sage in
his garden?"
"Why of seknesse deyeth man
Whill sawge [sage] in gardeyn he may han."
A manuscript of exceptional interest is one describing the virtues of
rosemary which was sent by the Countess of Hainault to her daughter
Philippa, Queen of England, and apart from its intrinsic interest it
is important from the fact that it is obviously the original of the
very poetical discourse on rosemary in the first printed English
herbal, commonly known as Banckes's herbal. Moreover, in this MS.
there is recorded an old tradition which I have not found in any other
herbal, but which is still current amongst old-fashioned country folk,
namely, that rosemary "passeth not commonly in highte the highte of
Criste whill he was man on Erthe," and that when the plant attains the
age of thirty-three years it will increase in breadth but not in
height. It is the oldest MS. in which we find many other beliefs about
rosemary that still survive in England. There is a tradition that
Queen Philippa's mother sent the first plants of rosemary to England,
and in a copy of this MS. in the library of Trinity College,
Cambridge, the translator, "danyel bain," says that rosemary was
unknown in England until the Countess of Hainault sent some to her
daughter.
The only original treatise on herbs written by an Englishman during
the Middle Ages was that by Bartholomæus Anglicus, and on the
plant-lover there are probably few of the mediæval writers who
exercise so potent a spell. Even in the thirteenth century, that age
of great men, Bartholomew the Englishman ranked with thinkers such as
Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus. He was accounted one
of the greatest theologians of his day, and if his lectures on
theology were as simple as his writings on herbs, it is easy to
understand why they were thronged and why his writings were so eagerly
studied, not only in his lifetime but for nearly three centuries
afterwards. A child could understand his book on herbs, for, being
great, he was simple. But although his work _De Proprietatibus Rerum_
(which contains nineteen books) was the source of common information
on Natural History throughout the Middle Ages, and was one of the
books hired out at a regulated price by the scholars of Paris, we know
very little of the writer. He spent the greater part of his life in
France and Saxony, but he was English born and was always known as
Bartholomæus Anglicus.[39] We know that he studied in Paris and
entered the French province of the Minorite Order, and later he became
one of the most renowned professors of theology in Paris. In 1230 a
letter was received from the general of the Friars Minor in the new
province of Saxony asking the provincial of France to send Bartholomew
and another Englishman to help in the work of that province, and the
former subsequently went there. We do not know the exact date of _De
Proprietatibus Rerum_, but it must have been written about the middle
of the thirteenth century; for, though it cites Albertus Magnus, who
was teaching in Paris in 1248, there is no mention of any of the later
authorities, such as Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon and Vincent de
Beauvais. It was certainly known in England as early as 1296, for
there is a copy of that date at Oxford, and there still exist both in
France and in England a considerable number of other manuscript
copies, most of which date from the latter part of the thirteenth
century and the early part of the fourteenth. The book was translated
into English in 1398 by John de Trevisa,[40] chaplain to Lord Berkeley
and vicar of Berkeley, and Bartholomew could scarcely have been more
fortunate in his translator. At the end of his translation, Trevisa
writes thus:--
"Endlesse grace blysse thankyng and praysyng unto our Lorde
God Omnipotent be gyuen, by whoos ayde and helpe this
translacon was endyd at Berkeleye the syxte daye of Feuerer
the yere of our Lorde MCCCLXXXXVIII the yere of y{e} reyne
of Kynge Rycharde the seconde after the Conqueste of
Englonde XXII. The yere of my lordes aege, syre Thomas,
Lorde of Berkeleye that made me to make this Translacōn
XLVII."
Salimbene shows that the book was known in Italy in 1283, and there
are two MS. copies in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris, of which
the earliest is dated 1297. Before Trevisa made his English
translation, it had been translated into French by Jehan Corbichon, in
1372, for Charles V. of France.
The book was first printed at Basle about 1470, and the esteem in
which it was held may be judged from the fact that it went through at
least fourteen editions before 1500, and besides the English and
French translations it was also translated into Spanish and Dutch. The
English translation was first printed by Caxton's famous apprentice,
Wynken de Worde.[41] The translator in a naïve little introductory
poem says that, just as he had looked as a child to God to help him in
his games, so now he prays Him to help him in this book.
"C[?]Rosse was made all of red .
In the begynning of my boke .
That is called, god me sped .
In the fyrste lesson that j toke .
Thenne I learned a and b .
And other letters by her names .
But alway God spede me .
Thought me nedefull in all games .
Yf I played in felde, other medes .
Stylle other wyth noyse .
I prayed help in all my dedes .
Of him that deyed upon the croys .
Now dyuerse playes in his name .
I shall lette passe forth and far .
And aventure to play so long game .
Also I shall spare .
Wodes, medes and feldes .
Place that I have played inne .
And in his name that all thīg weldes .
This game j shall begynne. .
And praye helpe conseyle and rede .
To me that he wolde sende .
And this game rule and lede .
And brynge it to a good ende. ."
And in the preface Trevisa addresses his readers thus: "Merveyle not,
ye witty and eloquent reders, that I thȳne of wytte and voyde of
cunning have translatid this boke from latin to our vulgayre language
as a thynge profitable to me and peradventure to many other, whych
understonde not latyn nor have not the knowledge of the proprytees of
thynges."
The seventeenth book of _De Proprietatibus Rerum_ is on herbs and
their uses, and it is full of allusions to the classical writers on
herbs--Aristotle, Dioscorides and Galen--but the descriptions of the
plants themselves are original and charming.
There is no record to show that Bartholomew the Englishman was a
gardener, but we can hardly doubt that the man who described flowers
with such loving care possessed a garden and worked in it. The
_Herbarius zu Teutsch_ might have been written in a study, but there
is fresh air and the beauty of the living flowers in Bartholomew's
writings. Of the lily he says: "The Lely is an herbe wyth a whyte
floure. And though the levys of the floure be whyte yet wythen shyneth
the lyknesse of golde." Bartholomew may have known nothing of the
modern science of botany, but he knew how to describe not only the
lily, but also the atmosphere of the lily, in a word-picture of
inimitable simplicity and beauty. One feels instinctively that only a
child or a great man could have written those lines. And is there not
something unforgettable in these few words on the unfolding of a
rose--"And whāne they [the petals] ben full growen they sprede
theymselues ayenst the sonne rysynge"?
The chapter on the rose is longer than most, and is so delightful that
I quote a considerable part of it. "The rose of gardens is planted and
sette and tylthed as a vyne. And if it is forgendred and not shred and
pared and not clensed of superfluyte: thēne it gooth out of kynde
and chaungeth in to a wylde rose. And by oft chaunging and tylthing
the wylde rose torneth and chaūgith into a very rose. And the rose
of ye garden and the wylde rose ben dyuers in multitude of floures:
smelle and colour: and also in vertue. For the leves of the wylde rose
ben fewe and brode and whytyssh: meddlyd wyth lytyll rednesse: and
smellyth not so wel as the tame rose, nother is so vertuous in
medicyn. The tame rose hath many leuys sette nye togyder: and ben all
red, other almost white: w{t} wonder good smell.... And the more they
ben brused and broken: the vertuoūser they ben and the better
smellynge. And springeth out of a thorne that is harde and rough:
netheles the Rose folowyth not the kynde of the thorne: But she
arayeth her thorn wyth fayr colour and good smell. Whan ye rose
begynneth to sprynge it is closed in a knoppe wyth grenes: and that
knoppe is grene. And whan̄e it swellyth thenne spryngeth out harde
leuys and sharpe.... And whāne they ben full growen they sprede
theymselues ayenst the sonne rysynge. And for they ben tendre and
feble to holde togyder in the begynnynge; theyfore about those smale
grene leuys ben nyghe the red and tendre leuys ... and ben sette all
aboute. And in the mydill thereof is seen the sede small and yellow
wyth full gode smell."
[Illustration: WOODCUT OF TREES AND HERBS FROM THE SEVENTEENTH
BOOK OF "DE PROPRIETATIBUS RERUM"
Printed by Wynkyn de Worde (1495)]
There follows a description, too long to quote here, of the growth of
the rose hip, which ends with the remark: "But they ben not ful good
to ete for roughnesse that is hyd wythin. And greuyth [grieveth]
wythin his throte that ete thereof." ... "Among all floures of the
worlde," he continues, "the floure of the rose is cheyf and beeryth ye
pryse. And by cause of vertues and swete smelle and savour. For by
fayrnesse they fede the syghte: and playseth the smelle by odour, the
touche by softe handlynge. And wythstondeth and socouryth by vertue
ayenst many syknesses and euylles." A delicious recipe is given for
Rose honey. "Rose shreede smalle and sod in hony makyth that hony
medycynable wyth gode smelle: And this comfortyeth and clenseth and
defyeth gleymy humours."
Of the violet we read: "Violet is a lytyll herbe in substaunce and is
better fresshe and newe than whan it is olde. And the floure thereof
smellyth moost.... And the more vertuous the floure thereof is, ye
more it bendyth the heed thereof doūwarde. Also floures of
spryngynge tyme spryngeth fyrste and sheweth somer. The lytylnes
thereof in substaunce is nobly rewarded in gretnesse of sauour and of
vertue."
Bartholomew's descriptions of flowers are usually brief, and there is
a clarity and vividness about them which give them a charm peculiarly
their own. How fresh and English, for instance, is his chapter on the
apple. I have never before seen the taste of an apple described as
"merry," but how true the description is! "Malus the Appyll tree is a
tree yt bereth apples and is a grete tree in itself ... it is more
short than other trees of the wood wyth knottes and rinelyd Rynde.
And makyth shadowe wythe thycke bowes and braunches: and fayr with
dyuers blossomes, and floures of swetnesse and lykynge: with goode
fruyte and noble. And is gracious in syght and in taste and vertuous
in medecyne ... some beryth sourysh fruyte and harde and some ryght
soure and some ryght swete, with a good savoure and mery." The
descriptions of celandine and broom are also characteristic.
"Celidonia is an herbe w{t} yelowe floures, the frute smorcheth them
that it towchyth. And hyghte Celidonia for it spryngeth, other
blomyth, in the comynge of swalowes.... It hyȝt celidonia for it
helpith swallowes birdes yf their eyen be hurte other (or) blynde."
"Genesta hath that name of bytterness for it is full of bytter to
mannes taste. And is a shrubbe that growyth in a place that is
forsaken, stony and untylthed. Presence thereof is wytnesse that the
grounde is bareyne and drye that it groweth in. And hath many
braunches knotty and hard. Grene in wynter and yelowe floures in somer
thyche [the which] wrapped with heuy smell and bitter sauour. And ben
netheles moost of vertue." Bartholomew gives the old mandrake legend
in full, though he adds, "it is so feynd of churles others of
wytches," and he also writes of its use as an anæsthetic.[42] Further,
he records two other beliefs about the mandrake which I have never
found in any other English herbal--namely, that while uprooting it one
must beware of contrary winds, and that one must go on digging for it
until sunset. "They that dygge mandragora be besy to beware of
contrary wyndes whyle they digge. And maken circles abowte with a
swerder and abyde with the dyggynge unto the sonne goynge downe."
But apart from herbs and their uses, the book _De herbis_ is full of
fleeting yet vigorous pictures of the homely everyday side of mediæval
life. Bartholomew, being one of the greatest men of his century,
writes of matters in which the simplest of us are interested. He
tells us of the feeding of swine with acorns. Of the making and baking
of bread (including the thrifty custom of mixing cooked beans with the
flour "to make the brede the more hevy"). Incidentally, and with all
due respect, it may be remarked that he had no practical knowledge of
this subject, his vivid description being obviously that of an
interested spectator. There is an airy masculine vagueness about the
conclusion of the whole matter of bread-making--"and at last after
many travailes, man's lyfe is fedde and sustained therewith." He tells
us of the use of laurel leaves to heal bee and wasp stings and to keep
books and clothes from "moths and other worms," of the making of
"fayre images" and of boxes wherein to keep "spycery" from the wood of
the box-tree. Of the making of trestle tables "areared and set upon
feet," of playing boards "that men playe on at the dyes [dice] and
other gamys. And this maner of table is double and arrayd wyth dyerse
colours." Of the making of writing tables, of wood used for flooring
that "set in solar floors serue all men and bestys y{t} ben therein,
and ben treden of alle men and beestys that come therein," and so
strong that "they bende not nor croke [crack] whan they ben pressyd
w{t} heuy thynges layd on them." And also of boards used for ships,
bridges, hulks and coffers, and "in shypbreche [shipwreck] men fle to
bordes and ben ofte sauyd in peryll." Of the building of houses with
roofs of "trees stretchyd from the walles up to the toppe of ye
house," with rafters "stronge and square and hewen playne," and of
"the covering of strawe and thetche [thatch]." Of the making of linen
from the soaking of the flax in water till it is dried and turned in
the sun and then bound in "praty bundels" and "afterward knockyd,
beten and brayd and carflyd, rodded and gnodded; ribbyd and heklyd and
at the laste sponne," of the bleaching, and finally of its many uses
for making clothing, and for sails, and fish nets, and thread, and
ropes, and strings ("for bows"), and measuring lines, and sheets ("to
reste in"), and sackes, and bagges, and purses ("to put and to kepe
thynges in"). Of the making of tow "uneven and full of knobs," used
for stuffing into the cracks in ships, and "for bonds and byndynges
and matches for candelles, for it is full drye and takyth sone fyre
and brenneth." "And so," he concludes somewhat breathlessly, "none
herbe is so nedefull to so many dyurrse uses to mankynde as is the
flexe." Of the vineyard "closyd about wyth walles and wyth hegges,
with a wayte [watch] set in an hyghe place to kepe the vynyerde that
the fruyte be not dystroyed." Of the desolation of the vineyard in
winter, "but in harueste tyme many comyth and haunteth the vynyerde."
Of the delicious smell of a vineyard. Of the damage done by foxes and
swine and "tame hounds." "A few hounds," Bartholomew tells us, "wasten
and dystroye moo grapes that cometh and eteth therof theuylly
[thievishly]." "A vineyard," he concludes, "maye not be kepte nother
sauyd but by his socour and helpe that all thynge hath and possesseth
in his power and myghte. And kepyth and sauyth all lordly and
myghtily." And is there any other writer who in so few words tells us
of the woods in those days? Of the "beestis and foulis" therein as
well as the herbs, of the woods in summer-time, of the hunting
therein, of the robbers and the difficulty of finding one's way? Of
the birds and the bees and the wild honey and the delicious coolness
of the deep shade in summer, and the "wery wayfarynge trauelynge men"?
And the final brief suggestion of the time when forests were veritable
boundaries? I believe also that this is the only book in which we are
told of the interesting old custom of tying knots to the trees "in
token and marke of ye highe waye," and of robbers deliberately
removing them. The picture is so perfect that I give it in full:--
"Woods ben wide places wast and desolate y{t} many trees
growe in w{t}oute fruyte and also few hauyinge fruyte. And
those trees whyche ben bareyne and beereth noo manere
fruyte alwaye ben generally more and hygher than̄e y{t}
wyth fruyte, fewe out taken as Oke and Beche. In thyse wodes
ben ofte wylde beestes and foulis. Therein growyth herbes,
grasse, lees and pasture, and namely medycynall herbes in
wodes foūde. In somer wodes ben bewtyed [beautied] wyth
bowes and braunches, w{t} herbes and grasse. In wode is
place of disceyte [deceit] and of huntynge. For therin wylde
beest ben hunted: and watches and disceytes [deceits] ben
ordenyd and lette of houndes and of hunters. There is place
of hidynge and of lurkyng. For ofte in wodes theuys ben hyd,
and oft in their awaytes and disceytes passyng men cometh
and ben spoylled and robbed and ofte slayne. And soo for
many and dyuerse wayes and uncerten strange men ofte erre
and goo out of the waye. And take uncerten waye and the waye
that is unknowen before the waye that is knowen and come oft
to the place these theues lye in awayte and not wythout
peryll. Therefore ben ofte knottes made on trees and in
busshes in bowes and in braunches of trees; in token and
marke of ye highe waye; to shewe the certen and sure waye to
wayefareynge men. But oft theuys in tornynge and metyng of
wayes chaunge suche knottes and signes and begyle many men
and brynge them out of the ryght waye by false tokens and
sygnes. Byrdes, foules and bein [bees] fleeth to wode,
byrdes to make nestes and bein [bees] to gadre hony. Byrdes
to kepe themself from foulers and bein [bees] to hyde
themself to make honycombes preuely in holowe trees and
stockes. Also wodes for thyknesse of trees ben colde with
shadowe. And in hete of the sonne wery wayfarynge and
trauelynge men haue lykynge to have reste and to hele
themself in the shadow. Many wodes ben betwyne dyuers
coūtrees and londes: and departyth theym asondre. And by
weuynge and castyng togyder of trees often men kepeth and
defendyth themself from enymies."[43]
Bartholomew's book on herbs ends thus: "And here we shall fynysshe
and ende in treatyng of the XVII boke whyche hath treated as ye may
openly knowe of suche thynges as the Maker of all thyng hath ordered
and brought forth by his myghty power to embelyssh and araye the erthe
wyth and most specyally for ye fode of man and beast."
At the end of the book is the poem which has caused so much
controversy amongst bibliographers. In this Wynken de Worde definitely
states that Caxton had a share in the first printing of this book at
Cologne:--
"And also of your charyte call to remembraunce
The soule of William Caxton first prȳter of this boke.
In laten tonge at Coleyn hyself to auauce
That every well disposed man may therein loke."
In spite of this, modern bibliographers are of opinion that Caxton
could not have played even a subordinate part in the printing of this
book at Cologne.
De Worde also refers to the maker of the paper[44]:--
"... John Tate the yonger ...
Which late hathe in England doo make this paper thynne
That now in our Englysh this boke is prynted Inne."
There is charm as well as pathos in the verses on the reproduction of
manuscripts in book form, showing us vividly what the recent discovery
of the art of printing meant to the scholars of that day. The simile
of Phœbus "repairing" the moon is very apt.
"For yf one thyng myght laste a M yere
Full sone comyth aege that frettyth all away;
But like as Phebus wyth his bemes clere
The mone repeyreth as bryght as ony day
Whan she is wasted ryght; so may we say
Thise bokes old and blynde whan we renewe
By goodly pryntyng they ben bryght of hewe."
The last verse of the poem is as follows:--
"Nowe gloryous god that regnest one in thre
And thre in one graunte vertu myght and grace
Unto the prynter of this werke that he
May be rewarded in thy heuenly place
And whan the worlde shall come before thy face
There to receue accordyng to desert
Of grace and mercy make hym then expert."
The treatise on herbs formed, as we have seen, only a part of
Bartholomew's _De Proprietatibus Rerum_, and, to speak strictly, the
first printed English herbal was the small quarto volume published by
Richard Banckes in 1525. It was the beginning of a series of small
books[45] chiefly in black letter. All of them, though issued from
different presses, have nearly the same title, and they vary only
slightly from the original _Banckes's Herbal_. The title of this
Herbal is--
"Here begynneth a new mater / the whiche sheweth and |
treateth of ye vertues & proprytes of her- | bes / the
whiche is called | an Herball ['.'] | ¶ Cum gratia &
priuilegio | a rege indulto |
"(_Colophon_) ¶ Imprynted by me Rycharde Banckes / dwellynge
in | Lōdō / a lytel fro ye Stockes in ye Pultry / ye
XXV day of | Marche. The yere of our Lorde MCCCCC. & XXV."
We do not know who the author of this book was, and it has been
suggested that it is based on some mediæval English manuscript now
lost. Certainly when one reads this anonymous work known as _Banckes's
Herbal_ one is struck not only by its superiority to the later and
more famous _Grete Herball_, but also by its greater charm. It gives
the impression of being a compilation from various sources, the author
having made his own selection from what pleased him most in the older
English manuscript herbals. It seems to have been a labour of love,
whereas the _Grete Herball_ is merely a translation. It is almost
certain that the writer made use of one of the numerous manuscript
versions of Macer's Herbal, which in parts _Banckes's Herbal_
resembles very closely, and the chapter on rosemary shows that he had
access to one of the copies of the manuscript on the virtues of
rosemary which was sent by the Countess of Hainault to Queen Philippa.
He does not give the beautiful old tradition preserved in that
manuscript,[46] but he ascribes wonderful virtues to this herb, with
the same loving enthusiasm and almost in the same words. Of rosemary
in _Banckes's Herbal_ we read:--
"Take the flowers thereof and make powder thereof and binde
it to thy right arme in a linnen cloath and it shale make
thee light and merrie.
"Take the flowers and put them in thy chest among thy
clothes or among thy Bookes and Mothes shall not destroy
them.
"Boyle the leaves in white wine and washe thy face therewith
and thy browes and thou shalt have a faire face.
"Also put the leaves under thy bedde and thou shalt be
delivered of all evill dreames.
"Take the leaves and put them into wine and it shall keep
the wine from all sourness and evill savours and if thou
wilt sell thy wine thou shalt have goode speede.
"Also if thou be feeble boyle the leaves in cleane water and
washe thyself and thou shalt wax shiny.
"Also if thou have lost appetite of eating boyle well these
leaves in cleane water and when the water is colde put
thereunto as much of white wine and then make sops, eat them
thereof wel and thou shalt restore thy appetite againe.
"If thy legges be blowen with gowte boyle the leaves in
water and binde them in a linnen cloath and winde it about
thy legges and it shall do thee much good.
"If thou have a cough drink the water of the leaves boyld in
white wine and ye shall be whole.
[Illustration: INITIAL LETTERS FROM "BANCKES'S HERBAL"]
"Take the Timber thereof and burn it to coales and make
powder thereof and rubbe thy teeth thereof and it shall keep
thy teeth from all evils. Smell it oft and it shall keep
thee youngly.
"Also if a man have lost his smellyng of the ayre that he
may not draw his breath make a fire of the wood and bake his
bread therewith, eate it and it shall keepe him well.
"Make thee a box of the wood of rosemary and smell to it and
it shall preserve thy youth."
That _Banckes's Herbal_ achieved immediate popularity is attested by
the fact that the following year another edition of it was issued, and
during the next thirty years various London printers issued the same
book under different titles.[47] Robert Wyer[48] ascribed the
authorship of those he issued to Macer, and in the edition of 1530 he
added, after "Macer's Herbal," "Practysed by Dr. Lynacro." Whether
this statement is true it is impossible to discover, but we know that
the great doctor died some years before Wyer set up as a printer, and
his name does not appear in any of the subsequent editions of the
herbal issued by other printers. In Wyer's edition there are some good
initial letters very similar to those used by Wynkyn de Worde.
The most interesting edition of the herbal is that printed by William
Copland, in which first appear the additional chapters on "The virtues
of waters stylled," "The tyme of gathering of sedes" and "A general
rule of all maner of herbes." He issued two editions bearing the same
title and differing only in the woodcuts and the colophon. The title
is "A boke of the | propreties of Herbes called an her- | ball,
whereunto is added the tyme y{e} | herbes, floures and Sedes shold |
be gathered to be kept the whole, ye- | re, with the vertue of ye
Herbes whē | they are stylled. Al- | so a generall rule of all
ma- | ner of Herbes drawen | out of an auncyent | booke of Phisyck |
by W. C." The woodcut in the first edition is three "Tudor" roses in a
double circle with a crown over one of the roses and across the riband
"Kȳge of floures." In the second edition the woodcut is a quaint
little representation of a lady seated in a garden. One man standing
behind her is holding her and another is walking towards her. The
three figures are near a wall, on the other side of which several men
are apparently conversing. Who W. C. was is uncertain. In the
_Dictionary of National Biography_ William Copland is said to be both
the author and the printer of the book, but in many catalogues
(notably in that of the British Museum) Walter Cary figures as the
author. In a lengthy account of the Carys in _Notes and Queries_
(March 29, 1913) Mr. A. L. Humphreys disposes conclusively of the
supposition that W. C. can stand for Walter Cary.
"_A Boke of the Properties of Herbes_ bears on the
title-page the initials W. C., which may stand either for
Copland or Cary. This was one of several editions of
_Banckes's Herbal_, then very popular, and although it may
have been edited or promoted in some way by a Walter Cary,
it could not have been by the one who wrote _The Hammer for
the Stone_. The 'Herball' was issued somewhere about 1550
and various editions of it exist, but all these appeared
when the Walter Cary we are considering was a child. There
is, however, a connection between the Carys and herbals,
because it is well known that Henry Lyte (1529-1607) of
Lytes Cary was the famous translator of Dodoens's _Herball_
(1578), and he had a herbal garden at Lytes Cary."
Ames in his _Typographical Antiquities_ describes the two editions,
which are identical, as though they were two different books, and
ascribes one to Walter Cary and the other to William Copland. We have
only Ames's authority for the supposition that Copland was the
compiler as well as the printer. The herbal in question is merely
another edition of _Banckes's Herbal_, but it is quite possible that
the three additional chapters at the end were "drawen out of an
auncyent booke of Physick" by Copland.[49]
Two editions of _Banckes's Herbal_ are ascribed, on account of the
wording of the title, to Antony Askham, and the title is so attractive
that it is a disappointment to find that the astrological additions
"declaryng what herbes hath influence of certain sterres and
constellations," etc., do not appear in any known copy of the herbal.
This astrological lore from the famous man who combined the
professions of priest, physician and astrologer in the reign of Edward
VI. would be of remarkable interest. But it has been pointed out by
Mr. H. M. Barlow[50] that, if the bibliographers who have attributed
the work to Askham had examined the title of the work with greater
care, they would have observed that the phrase "by Anthonye Askham"
refers not to the substance of the book itself (which is merely
another edition of _Banckes's Herbal_) but to the "Almanacke" from
which the additions were intended to be taken, though apparently they
were never printed. The title of "Askham's" Herbal is--
"A lytel | herball of the | properties of her- | bes newely
amended and corrected, | with certayne addicions at the ende
| of the boke, declarying what herbes | hath influence of
certaine Sterres | and constellations, whereby may be |
chosen the beast and most luckye | tymes and dayes of their
mini- | stracion, accordyinge to the | Moone being in the
sig- | nes of heauen, the | which is dayly | appoynted | in
the | Almanacke; made and gathered | in the yere of our
Lorde god | M.D.L. the XII. day of Fe- | bruary by Anthonye
| Askham Phi- | sycyon.
"(_Colophon._) Imprynted at | London in Flete- | strete at
the signe of the George | next to Saynte Dunstones | Churche
by Wylly- | am Powell. | In the yeare of oure Lorde | M.D.L.
the twelfe day of Marche."
There are some charming prescriptions to be found in "Askham's"
Herbal. Under "rose," for instance, we have recipes for "melroset,"
"sugar roset," "syrope of Rooses," "oyle of roses" and "rose water."
"Melrosette is made thus. Take faire purified honye and new
read rooses, the whyte endes of them clypped awaye, thā
chop theym smal and put thē into the Hony and boyl thē
menely together; to know whan it is boyled ynoughe, ye shal
know it by the swete odour and the colour read. Fyve yeares
he may be kept in his vertue; by the Roses he hath vertue of
comfortinge and by the hony he hath vertu of clensinge.
"Syrope of Rooses is made thus. Some do take roses dyght as
it is sayd and boyle them in water and in the water strayned
thei put suger and make a sirope thereof; and some do make
it better, for they put roses in a vessell, hauing a
strayght mouthe, and they put to the roses hote water and
thei let it stande a day and a night and of that water,
putting to it suger, thei do make sirope, and some doe put
more of Roses in the forsaid vessel and more of hote water,
and let it stande as is beforesaide, and so they make a read
water and make the rose syrope. And some do stāpe new
Roses and then strayne out the joyce of it and suger
therwyth, they make sirope: and this is the best making of
sirope. In Wynter and in Somer it maye be geuen competently
to feble sicke melācoly and colorike people.
"Sugar Roset is made thus--Take newe gathered roses and
stāpe them righte smal with sugar, thā put in a glasse
XXX. dayes, let it stande in ye sunne and stirre it wel, and
medle it well together so it may be kept three yeares in his
vertue. The quātitie of sugar and roses should be thus.
In IIII. pound of sugar a pounde of roses.
"Oyle of roses is made thus. Some boyle roses in oyle and
kepe it, some do fyll a glasse with roses and oyle and they
boyle it in a caudron full of water and this oyle is good.
Some stampe fresh roses with oyle and they put it in a
vessel of glasse and set it in the sūne IIII. dais and
this oyle is good.
"Rose water. Some do put rose water in a glass and they put
roses with their dew therto and they make it to boile in
water thā thei set it in the sune tyll it be readde and
this water is beste."
Under the same flower we find this fragrant example of the widespread
mediæval belief in the efficacy of good smells:--
"Also drye roses put to ye nose to smell do cōforte the
braine and the harte and quencheth sprite."
The herbalists were never weary of teaching the value of sweet
scents.[51] "If odours may worke satisfaction," wrote Gerard in his
_Herball_, "they are so soveraigne in plants and so comfortable that
no confection of the apothecaries can equall their excellent vertue."
One of the most delicious "scent" prescriptions in Askham is to be
found under Violet--"For thē that may not slepe for sickness seeth
this herb in water and at euen let him soke well hys feete in the
water to the ancles, whā he goeth to bed, bind of this herbe to his
temples and he shall slepe wel by the grace of God."
The most curious recipe is that under "woodbinde." "Go to the roote of
woodbinde and make a hole in the middes of the roote, than cover it
well againe y{t} no ayre go out nor that no rayne go in, no water,
nor earth nor the sune come not to much to it, let it stande so a
night and a day, thā after that go to it and thou shalt fynde
therein a certayne lycoure. Take out that lycoure with a spone and put
it into a clean glas and do so every day as long as thou fyndest ought
in the hole, and this must be done in the moneth of April or Maye,
than anoynt the sore therwith against the fyre, thā wete a lynnen
clothe in the same lycoure and lappe it about the sore and it shal be
hole in shorte space on warrantyse by the Grace of God."
Unlike the later _Grete Herball_, Askham gives some descriptions of
the herbs themselves, notably in the case of alleluia (wood-sorrel),
water crowfoot, and asterion.
"This herbe alleluia mē call it Wodsour or Stubwort, this
herbe hath thre leaves ye which be roūd a litel departed
aboue and it hath a whyte flour, but it hath no lōge
stalkes and it is Woodsoure and it is like thre leued
grasse. The vertue of this herbe is thus, if it be rosted in
the ashes in red docke leaves or in red wort leaves it
fretteth awai dead flesh of a wounde. This herbe groweth
much in woodes."
Water crowfoot: "This herb that men call water crowfoot hath
yelow floures, as hath crowfoot and of the same shap, but
the leves are more departed as it were Rammes fete, and it
hath a long stalke and out of that one stalke groweth many
stalkes smal by ye sides. This herb groweth in watery
places."
"Asterion or Lunary groweth among stoones and in high
places, this herb shyneth by night and he bringeth forth
purple floures hole and rounde as a knockebell or else lyke
to foxgloves, the leves of this herbe be rounde and blew and
they have the mark of the Moone in the myddes as it were
thre leved grasse, but the leaves therof be more and they be
round as a peny. And the stalk of this herb is red and thyse
herb semeth as it were musk and the joyce therof is yelow
and this groweth in the new Moone without leve and euery day
spryngeth a newe leaue to the ende of fyftene dayes and
after fyftene dayes it looseth euery day a leaue as the
Moone waneth and it springeth and waneth as doth the Moone
and where that it groweth there groweth great quantitie.
"The vertue of this herbe is thus--thei that eat of the
beris or of the herbe in waning of the moone, whā he is
in signo virginis if he have the falling euell he shal be
hole thereof or if he beare thys about his neck he shal be
holpen without doute. And it hath many more vertues than I
can tell at this tyme."
One of the unidentified herbs is called "sene," and we are given the
somewhat vague geographical information, "It groweth in the other syde
the sea and moste aboute Babilon."
* * * * *
Another small book printed by William Copland must be mentioned, for,
although it is not a herbal, it contains a great deal of curious herb
lore not to be found elsewhere. This is _The boke of secretes of
Albartus Magnus of the vertues of Herbes, Stones, and certaine
beastes_. Who the author was is unknown, but he was certainly not
Albert of Bollstadt (1193-1280), Bishop of Ratisbon, the scholastic
philosopher to whom it was ascribed, probably in order to increase its
sale. There is one philosophical remark which is not unworthy of the
famous Bishop: "Every man despiseth ye thyng whereof he knoweth
nothynge and that hath done no pleasure to him." But for the most part
it deals with the popular beliefs concerning the mystical properties
of herbs, stones and animals.
Of celandine the writer tells us: "This hearbe springeth in the time
in ye which the swallowes and also ye Eagles maketh theyr nestes. If
any man shal have this herbe with ye harte of a Molle (mole) he shall
overcome all his enemies.... And if the before named hearbe be put
upon the headde of a sycke man if he should dye he shal syng anone
with a loud voyce, if not he shall weep."
"Perwynke when it is beatē unto pouder with wormes of ye earth
wrapped aboute it and with an herbe called houslyke it induceth love
between man and wyfe if it bee used in their meales ... if the sayde
confection be put in the fyre it shall be turned anone unto blue
coloure."
Of the herb which, he tells us, "the men of Chaldea called roybra," he
says: "He that holdeth this herbe in hys hāde with an herbe called
Mylfoyle or yarowe or noseblede is sure from all feare and fantasye or
vysion. And yf it be put with the juyce of houselyke and the bearers
hands be anoynted with it and the residue be put in water if he entre
in ye water where fyshes be they wil gather together to hys handes ...
and if hys hande be drawē forth they will leape agayne to theyre
owne places where they were before."
Of hound's tongue: "If ye shall have the aforenamed herbe under thy
formost toe al the dogges shall kepe silence and shall not have power
to bark. And if thou shalt put the aforesayde thinge in the necke of
any dogge so y{t} he maye not touche it with his mouthe he shalbe
turned always round about lyke a turning whele untill he fall unto the
grounde as dead and this hath bene proved in our tyme."
Of centaury: "If it be joyned with the bloude of a female lapwing or
black plover and be put with oyle in a lampe, all they that compasse
it aboute shal beleue themselves to be witches so that one shall
beleve of an other that his head is in heaven and his fete in the
earth. And if the aforesaid thynge be put in the fire whan the starres
shine it shall appeare y{t} the sterres runne one agaynste another and
fyght."
Of vervain: "This herbe (as witches say) gathered, the sunne beyng in
the signe of the Ram, and put with grayne or corne of pyonie of one
yeare olde healeth them y{t} be sicke of ye falling sykenes."
Of powder of roses: "If the aforesayde poulder be put in a lampe and
after be kindled all men shall appeare blacke as the deuell. And if
the aforesaid poulder be mixed with oyle of the olyue tree and with
quycke brymstone and the house anointed wyth it, the Sunne shyning, it
shall appeare all inflamed."
[Illustration: WOODCUT FROM THE TITLE-PAGE OF THE "GRETE HERBALL"
(1526)]
Of verbena: "Infants bearing it shalbe very apte to learne and louing
learnynge and they shalbe glad and joyous."
It is the only book on the virtues of herbs in which I have found a
recipe to revive drowning flies and bees! This is to be done by
placing them in warm ashes of pennyroyal, and then "they shall recover
their lyfe after a little tyme as by ye space of one houre." The book
ends with a curious philosophical dissertation, "Of the mervels of the
worlde," which is followed by a series of charms--to stop a cock
crowing, to make men look as though they had no heads, to obtain rule
over all birds, to keep flies away from a house, to write letters
which can only be read at night, to make men look as though they had
"the countenance of a dog," to make men seem as though they had three
heads, to understand the language of birds, to make men seem like
angels, and to put things in the fire without their being consumed.
* * * * *
Though lacking in the charm of the quaint and typically English
_Banckes's Herbal_, the most famous of the early printed herbals was
the _Grete Herball_ printed by Peter Treveris in 1526.[52]
"The grete herball | whiche geueth parfyt knowlege and
under- | standyng of all maner of herbes & there gracyous
vertues whiche god hath | ordeyned for our prosperous
welfare and helth, for they hele & cure all maner | of
dyseases and sekenesses that fall or mysfortune to all maner
of creatoures | of god created, practysed by many expert and
wyse maysters, as Auicenna and | other &c. Also it geueth
full parfyte understandynge of the booke lately pryn | ted
by me (Peter treveris) named the noble experiens of the
vertuous hand | warke of surgery."
(_Colophon._) "Imprentyd at London in South- | warke by me
peter Treueris, dwel- | lynge in the sygne of the wodows |
In the yere of our Lorde god M.D. | XXVI the XXVII day of
July."
According to the introduction it was compiled from the works of "many
noble doctoures and experte maysters in medecines, as Auicenna,
Pandecta, Constantinus, Wilhelmus, Platearius, Rabbi Moyses, Johannes
Mesue, Haly, Albertus, Bartholomeus and more other." But with the
exception of the preface the _Grete Herball_ is a translation of the
well-known French herbal, _Le Grant Herbier_. Until about 1886 _Le
Grant Herbier_ was supposed to be a translation of the _Herbarius zu
Teutsch_, published at Mainz in 1485, or of the _Ortus Sanitatis_,
printed also at Mainz in 1491.[53] The _Herbarius zu Teutsch_, which
was probably compiled by a Frankfort physician, is a fine herbal
beautifully illustrated, and the later _Ortus Sanitatis_ is by some
authorities supposed to be a Latin translation of it. To judge from
the preface to the German Herbarius it was a labour of love,
undertaken by a man who apparently was possessed of ample wealth and
leisure; for in his preface he tells us that he "caused this
praiseworthy work to be begun by a Master learned in physic," and
then, finding that as many of the herbs did not grow in his native
land he could not draw them "with their true colours and form," he
left the work unfinished and journeyed through many lands--Italy,
Croatia, Albania, Dalmatia, Greece, Corfu, Candia, Rhodes, Cyprus, the
Holy Land, Arabia, Babylonia and Egypt. He was accompanied by "a
painter ready of wit and cunning and subtle of hand," and was thus
able to have the herbs "truly drawn." The book he compiled on his
return was long regarded as the original of the French herbal, _Le
Grant Herbier_, but in 1866 Professor Giulio Camus found two
fifteenth-century manuscripts in the Biblioteca Estense at Modena, one
the Latin work commonly known from the opening words as _Circa
Instans_, and the other a French translation of the same manuscript.
It was always supposed by medical historians that the _Circa Instans_
was written by Matthaeus Platearius of Salerno in the twelfth century,
but in Professor Camus's memoir, _L'Opéra Saleritana "Circa Instans"
ed il testo primitivo del "Grand Herbier in Francoys" secundo duo
codici del secolo XV conservati nella Regia Biblioteca Estense_, there
are reproduced the French verses in which occurs the line, "Il a esté
escript Millccc cinquante et huit," and Mr. H. M. Barlow[54] supports
the deduction that _Circa Instans_ was not written by a Salernitan
physician, but by a writer described in the verses as "Bartholomaeus
minid' senis" in 1458. _Le Grant Herbier_, of which the English _Grete
Herball_ is a translation, is a version of the French manuscript
translation of _Circa Instans_, and therefore, as _Circa Instans_ is
older than either the _Herbarius zu Teutsch_ or the Latin _Ortus
Sanitatis_, it would seem that it is the real original of our _Grete
Herball_. The preface to the _Grete Herball_, however, bears a strong
resemblance to that of the German Herbarius, of which I quote a part
from Dr. Arber's translation, made from the second (Augsburg) edition
of 1485. They have been placed in parallel columns to show how closely
the English preface follows that of the German Herbarius.
Preface to the _Herbarius zu Teutsch_.
"Many a time and oft have I contemplated
inwardly the wondrous
works of the creator of the universe:
how in the beginning He formed
the heavens and adorned them with
goodly shining stars, to which he
gave power and might to influence
everything under heaven. Also how
he afterwards formed the four elements:
fire, hot and dry--air, hot
and moist--water, cold and moist--earth,
dry and cold--and gave to
each a nature of its own; and how
after this the same Great Master of
Nature made and formed herbs of
many sorts and animals of all kinds
and last of all Man, the noblest of
all created things. Thereupon I
thought on the wondrous order which
the Creator gave these same creatures
of His, so that everything which
has its being under heaven receives
it from the stars and keeps it by
their help. I considered further how
that in everything which arises, grows,
lives or soars in the four elements
named, be it metal, stone, herb or
animal, the four natures of the elements,
heat, cold, moistness and
dryness, are mingled. It is also to
be noted that the four natures in
question are also mixed and blended
in the human body in a measure and
temperament suitable to the life and
nature of man; while man keeps
within this measure ... he is strong
and healthy, but as soon as he steps
or falls beyond ... which happens
when heat takes the upper hand and
strives to stifle cold or on the contrary
when cold begins to suppress
heat ... he falls of necessity into
sickness and draws nigh unto death.
... Of a truth I would as soon count
the leaves on the trees or the grains
of sand in the sea as the things
which are the causes of man's sickness.
It is for this reason that so
many thousands and thousands of
perils and dangers beset man. He is
not fully sure of his health or his
life for one moment. While considering
these matters, I also remembered
how the Creator of Nature,
who has placed us amid such dangers
has mercifully provided us with a
remedy, that is with all kinds of
herbs, animals and other created
things.... By virtue of these herbs
and created things the sick man may
recover the temperament of the four
elements and the health of his body.
Since then man can have no greater
nor nobler treasure on earth than
bodily health, I came to the conclusion
that I could not perform any
more useful and holy work than to
compile a book in which could be
contained the virtue and nature of
many herbs and other created things,
together with their true colours and
for the help of all the world, and the
common good, therefore I caused
this praiseworthy work to be begun
by a Master learned in physic who,
at my request gathered into a book
the nature and virtue of many herbs
out of the acknowledged masters of
physic, Galen, Avicenna, Serapio,
Dioscorides, Pandectarius, Platearius
and others."
Preface to _The Grete Herball_.
"Consyderynge the grete goodnesse
of almyghty God creatour of
heven and erthe, and al thynge
therin comprehended to whom be
eternall laude and prays etc. Consyderynge
the cours and nature of
the foure elementes and qualytees
where to ye nature of man is inclyned,
out of the whiche elementes issueth
dyvers qualytees infyrmytees and
dyseases in the corporate body of
man, but god of his goodnesse that
is creatour of all thynges hath
ordeyned for mankynd (whiche he
hath created to his own lykenesse)
for the grete and tender love, which
he hath unto hym, to whom all
thinges erthely he hath ordeyned to
be obeysant, for the sustentacyon
and helthe of his lovynge creature
mankynde whiche is onely made
egally of the foure elementes and
qualitees of the same, and when
any of these foure habounde or hath
more domynacyon, the one than the
other it constrayneth ye body of
man to grete infyrmytees or dyseases,
for the which ye eternall god hath
gyven of his haboundante Grace,
vertues in all maner of herbes to
cure and heale all maner of sekenesses
or infyrmytees to hym befallying
through the influent course
of the foure elementes beforesayd
and of the corrupcyons and ye
venymous ayres contrarye ye helthe
of man. Also of onholsam meates
or drynkes, or holsam meates or
drynkes taken ontemperatly whiche
be called surfetes that bryngeth a
man sone to grete dyseases or sekenesse,
whiche dyseases ben of nombre
and ompossoyble to be rehersed, and
fortune as well in vilages where as
nother surgeons nor phisicians be
dwellyng nygh by many a myle, as
it dooth in good townes where they
be redy at hande, wherefore brotherly
love compelleth me to wryte thrugh
ye gyftes of the holy ghost shewynge
and enformynge how man may be
holpen with grene herbes of the
gardyn and wedys of ye feldys as
well as by costly receptes of the
potycarys prepayred."
The illustrations in the _Grete Herball_ are poor, being merely
inferior copies of those in the later editions of the _Herbarius zu
Teutsch_.[55] In the majority of cases it is impossible to identify
the plant from the figure, and the same figure is sometimes prefixed
to different plants. But if the illustrations are poor and dull the
frontispiece and the full-page woodcut of the printer's mark are very
much the reverse. The frontispiece is a charming woodcut of a man
holding a spade in his right hand and gathering grapes, and a woman
throwing flowers and herbs out of her apron into a basket. There are
two figures in the lower corners, the one of a male and the other of a
female mandrake. The woodcut of the printer's mark at the end sheds an
interesting ray of light on the Peter Treveris who issued the two
first editions of this Herball.[56] The woodcut represents two
wodows[57] (savages), a man and a woman, on either side of a tree,
from which is suspended a shield with Peter Treveris's initials. Ames
supposes that Treveris was a native of Trèves and took his name from
that city, but it is more likely that he was a member of the Cornish
family of Treffry, which is sometimes spelt Treveris. A Sir John
Treffry, who fought at Poitiers, took as supporters to his arms a wild
man and woman, and one likes to find that one of his descendants
perpetuated the memory of his gallant ancestor by adopting the same
sign for his trade device.
The _Grete Herball_ is alphabetically arranged, for the idea of the
natural relationship of plants was unknown at that time. But we find a
"classification" of fungi. "Fungi ben musherons. There be two maners
of them, one maner is deadly and sleeth them that eateth of them and
the other dooth not"! As in most sixteenth- and seventeenth-century
herbals, there are quaint descriptions of a good many things besides
herbs. The most gruesome of these is a substance briefly described as
"mummy," and the accompanying illustration is of a man digging beside
a tomb. "Mummy," one reads, "is a maner of spyces or confectyons that
is founde in the sepulchres or tombes of dead bodyes that haue be
confyct with spyces. And it is to wyte that in olde tyme men were wont
to confyct the deed corpses and anoynte them with bawme and myre
smellynge swete. And yet ye paynims about babylon kepe that custome
for there is grete quantity of bawme. And this mummye is specially
founde about the brayne and about the maronge in the rydge bone. For
the blode by reason of the bawme draweth to the brayne and thereabout
is chauffed. And lykewise is the brayne brent and parched and is the
quantyte of mommye and so the blode is mroeued in the rydge of the
backe. That mommye is to be chosen that is bryght blacke stynkynge and
styffe. And that y{t} is whyt and draweth to a dymme colour and that
is not stynkynge nor styffe, and that powdreth lightly is naught. It
hath vertue to restrayne or staunche."[58]
[Illustration: WOODCUT OF PETER TREVERIS' SIGN OF THE "WODOWS"
FROM THE "GRETE HERBALL" (1529)]
[Illustration: WOODCUT FROM THE TITLE-PAGE OF THE FOURTH EDITION
OF THE "GRETE HERBALL" (1561)]
Other substances described are salt, cheese, pitch, lead, silver,
gold, amber, water, starch, vinegar, butter, honey and the lodestone.
The dissertation on water shows very clearly that our ancestors
regarded bathing as a fad, and a dangerous fad at that. The writer
gloomily observes, "many folke that hath bathed them in colde water
haue dyed or they came home." And those who are foolish enough to
drink water he warns by quoting the authority of "Mayster Isaac," who
"sayth that it is impossible for them that drynketh overmuche water in
theyr youth to come to ye age that God hath ordeyned them." In the
description of the lodestone we find the well-known popular belief
about ships being drawn to their destruction. "The lodestone, the
adamant stone that draweth yren hath myghte to draw yren as Aristotle
sayth. And is founde in the brymmes of the occyan see. And there be
hillis of it and these hyllis drawe ye shippes that haue nayles of
yren to them and breke the shyppes by drawynge of the nayles out." The
accompanying illustration is of a sinking ship with a man going
towards the hill of adamant with uplifted hands, while another man is
swimming, and a third sits calmly in the ship.
In view of the free use of honey in olden times, the account of honey
in the _Grete Herball_ seems inadequate. "Hony is made by artyfyce and
craft of bees. The whyche bees draweth the thynnest parte of the
floures and partelye of the thickest and moost grosse and thereof
maketh hony and waxe and also they make a substaunce that is called
the honycombe. The tame hony is that that is made in the hous or hyues
that labourers ordeyneth for the sayd bees to lodge and worke in. Hony
is whyte in cold places and browne in warm place. And hony ought to be
put in medicyne and may be kept C yeeres. There is an other that is
called wylde hony and is found in woodes and is not so good as the
other and is more bytter. Also there is a honey called castanea
because it is made of chestayne floures that the bees sucketh and is
bytter."
In the _Grete Herball_, as in _Banckes's Herball_, we find numerous
instances of the use of herbs as amulets or for their effect on the
mind, and for the smoking of patients with their fumes. I quote the
following:--
"Betony. For them that be ferfull. For them that ben to
ferfull gyue two dragmes of powdre hereof wt warme water and
as moche wyne at the tyme that the fere cometh."
"Buglos. To preserve the mynde. This herbe often eaten
confermeth and conserueth the mynde as many wyse maysters
sayth."
"To make folke mery. Take the water that buglos hath bē
soden in and sprynkle it about the hous or chambre and all
that be therein shall be mery."
"Vervain. To make folke mery at ye table. To make all them
in a hous to be mery take foure leaves and foure rotes of
vervayn in wyne, than spryncle the wine all about the hous
where the eatynge is and they shall be all mery."
"Musk. Agaynst weyknesse of the brayne smel to musk."
"Struciūn. Against lytargye blowe the powdre of the sede
in to the nose or elles sethe the sede thereof and juice of
rue in stronge vyneygre and rubbe the hynder parte of ye
head therwith."
"Artemisia. To make a child mery hange a bondell of mugwort
or make smoke thereof under the chylde's bedde for it taketh
away annoy for hem."
"Rosemary. For weyknesse of ye brayne. Agaynst weyknesse of
the brayne and coldenesse thereof, sethe rosmarin in wyne
and lete the pacyent receye the smoke at his nose and kepe
his heed warme."
"Southernwood. The fume of it expelleth all serpents out of
the house and what so ever there abydeth dyeth."
There are two delicious violet recipes for "Syrope of Vyolettes" and
"oyle of vyolettes."
"Syrope of vyolettes ī made in this maner--Sethe
vyolettes in water and lete it lye all nyght in ye same
water. Than poure and streyne out the water, and in the same
put sugre and make your syrope.
"Oyle of vyolettes is made thus. Sethe vyolettes in oyle and
streyne it. It will be oyle of vyolettes."
It is in this herbal that we find the first avowal of disbelief in the
supposed powers of the mandrake.
"There be two maners the male and the female, the female
hath sharpe leves. Some say that it is better for medycyne
than the male but we use of bothe. Some say that the male
hath figure of shape of a man. And the female of a woman but
that is fals. For Nature never gaue forme or shape of
mākynde to an herbe. But it is of troughe that some hath
shaped suche fygures by craft as we have fortyme herde say
of labourers in the feldes."
The _Grete Herball_ ends thus--
"O ye worthy reders or practicyens to whome this noble
volume is presēt. I beseche you take intellygence and
beholde ye workes and operacyōs of almighty god which
hath endewed his symple creature mankynde with the graces of
ye holy goost to have parfyte knowlege and understandynge of
the vertue of all manner of herbes and trees in this booke
comprehendyed and everyche of them chaptred by hymselfe and
in every chaptre dyuers clauses where is shewed dyuers maner
of medycunes in one herbe comprehended whiche ought to be
notyfyed and marked for the helth of man in whom is repended
ye hevenly gyftes by the eternall Kynge to whom be laude and
prayse everlastynge. Amen."
The only important books Treveris published besides the _Grete
Herball_ were the two English translations of Hieronymus
Braunschweig's works (_The noble experyence of the virtuous
Handy-worke of Surgeri_ and _The vertuouse Book of the Dystillacion of
the Waters of all maner of Herbes_) and the handsome edition of
Trevisa's translation of Higden's _Polychronicon_. _The vertuouse Book
of the Dystillacion of the Waters of all maner of Herbes_ is well
printed, but the illustrations are from the same inferior German cuts
as those in the _Grete Herball_. The book was translated into English
by Laurence Andrew and, though strictly it does not come within the
category of herbals, part of the preface is too beautiful to omit.
"Lerne the hygh and meruelous vertue of herbes. Knowe how inestimable
a preservative to the helth of man god hath provyded growying euery
daye at our hande, use the effectes with reverence, and give thankes
to the maker celestyall. Beholde how moch it excedeth to use medecyne
of efycacye naturall by God ordeyned then wicked wordes or charmes of
efycacye unnaturall by the dyuell enuented, whiche yf thou doste well
marke, thou shalt have occasyon to gyue the more louynges and praise
to oure sauyour, by redynge this boke and knowlegying his benyfites
innumerable. To whose prayse, and helthe of all my crysten bretherne,
I have taken upon me this symple translacyon, with all humble
reverence ever redy to submit me to the correccion of the lerned
reder."
FOOTNOTES:
[38] See Bibliography of English MS. Herbals.
[39] He is sometimes erroneously called Bartholomew de Glanville.
Leland, without citing any authority, called him de Glanville. Bale
copied Leland in 1557 and added a list of writings wrongly attributed
to Bartholomew. Quétif and Echard give detailed reasons in pointing
out Leland's error. The Parmese chronicler, Salimbene, writing in
1283, refers to him as Bartholomæus Anglicus, and John de Trittenheim,
Abbot of Sparheim (end of fifteenth century), speaks of him as
"Bartholomeus natione Anglicus." M. Leopold Delisle endeavoured to
claim him as a Frenchman, but although he spent the greater part of
his life abroad, he was always distinguished as "Bartholomæus
Anglicus." That he was a Minorite "de provincia Francia" is no proof
that he was a Frenchman. Batman (1582), on the authority of Bale,
describes Bartholomæus as being "of the noble familie of the Earles of
Suffolk."
[40] John de Trevisa, a Cornishman, was a Fellow of Exeter College,
Oxford, and subsequently of Queen's College. He afterwards became
chaplain to Lord Berkeley and vicar of Berkeley.
[41] Wynkyn de Worde's real name was Jan van Wynkyn (de Worde being
merely a place-name), and in the sacrist's rolls of Westminster Abbey,
1491-1500, he figures as Johannes Wynkyn.
[42] "The rind thereof medled with wine ... gene to them to drink that
shall be cut in their body for they should slepe and not fele the sore
knitting."
[43] Under "Birch" there is another touch of life in the woods in the
Middle Ages. "Wylde men of wodes and forestes useth that sede instede
of breede [bread]. And this tree hath moche soure juys and somwhat
bytynge. And men useth therfore in spryngynge tyme and in haruest to
slyt the ryndes and to gader ye humour that comyth oute therof and
drynkyth in stede of wyn. And such drynke quencheth thurste. But it
fedyth not nother nourryssheth not, nother makyth men dronke."
[44] In regard to this paper (probably the first made in England for
printing) see Bibliography, p. 204.
[45] For dates, full titles, etc., of all the editions of _Banckes's
Herbal_ see Bibliography of English Herbals.
[46] See p. 44.
[47] See Bibliography of English Herbals.
[48] Robert Wyer was one of the most famous printers of the early
sixteenth century. He came of a Buckinghamshire family and was
probably a near relation of John Wyer, also a printer who lived in
Fleet Street, for both of them used the device of St. John the
Evangelist. He served his apprenticeship to Richard Pynson, whose
printing press was in the rentals of Norwich House near the site of
the present Villiers Street, and on Pynson's death succeeded to the
business. In both his editions of the herbal there is his well-known
device of St. John the Evangelist bareheaded and dressed in a flowing
robe, sitting under a tree on an island and writing on a scroll spread
over his right knee. At his right hand is an eagle with outstretched
wings holding an inkwell in its beak, and in the background are the
towers and spires of a great city.
[49] Ames catalogues two other editions of the herbal by "W. C.," one
published by Anthony Kitson and the other by Richard Kele, but no
known copies of these exist.
[50] Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1913.
[51] The popular belief in the power of sweet-smelling herbs to ward
off infection of the much-dreaded plague rose to its height in Charles
II.'s reign, when bunches of rosemary were sold for six and
eightpence. Till recently there were at least two survivals of this
belief in herbal scents--the doctor's gold-headed cane (formerly a
pomander carried at the end of a cane) and the little bouquets carried
by the clergy at the distribution of the Maundy Money in Westminster
Abbey.
[52] For dates of later editions see Bibliography of English Herbals.
[53] For fuller bibliographical details of the _Herbarius zu Teutsch_
and the _Ortus Sanitatis_ see Bibliography of Foreign Herbals.
[54] Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine.
[55] The illustrations in the second and later editions of the
_Herbarius zu Teutsch_ are very inferior to those in the first, which
are beautiful. _The vertuose boke of Distillacyon of the waters of all
maner of Herbes_ (1527), translated by Laurence Andrew from the _Liber
de arte distillandi_ by Hieronymus Braunschweig, is illustrated with
cuts from the same wood-blocks as the _Grete Herball_.
[56] Titles and dates of the subsequent editions issued by Thomas
Gibson (1539) and Jhon Kynge (1561) will be found in the Bibliography
of English Herbals.
[57] Treveris had his printing office in Southwark, at the sign of the
"Wodows."
[58] The use of "mummy" is not only mentioned by all the later
herbalists up to the end of the seventeenth century, but is even to be
found in MS. still-room books. In the Fairfax still-room book a recipe
for wounds said to have been procured from "Rodolphus Goclerius,
professor of Phisicke in Wittenburghe," begins thus: "Take of the moss
of a strangled man 2 ounces, of the mumia of man's blood, one ounce
and a halfe of earth-worms washed in water or wine and dyed," etc.
CHAPTER III
TURNER'S HERBAL AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE FOREIGN HERBALISTS
"In the beginning of winter the Goldfinches use muche to
haunte this herbe [teazle] for the sedes sake whereof they
are very desyrous."--_Turner's Herbal_, 1551.
Like so many sixteenth-century notabilities, William Turner, commonly
known as the father of English botany, was remarkably versatile, for
he was a divine, a physician and a botanist. He was a native of
Morpeth, Northumberland, and was born in Henry VIII.'s reign: the
exact date is unknown. His father is supposed to have been a tanner.
We know nothing of his early education, but he entered what is now
Pembroke College,[59] Cambridge, under the patronage of Thomas Lord
Wentworth. This he himself tells us in the preface to the second part
of his herbal, which is dedicated to Lord Wentworth of the next
generation. "And who hath deserved better to have my booke of herbs to
be given to him, than he, whose father with his yearly exhibition did
helpe me, beying student in Cambridge of Physik and philosophy?
Whereby with some further help and study am commed to this pore
knowledge of herbes and other simples that I have. Wherefore I
dedicate unto you this my litle boke, desyring you to defende it
against the envious evil speakers, which can alow nothing but that
they do themselves: and the same I give unto your Lordship, beseeching
to take it in the stede of a better thyng, and for a token of my good
will toward you, and all your father's houshold, which thing if ye
do, as sonne as I shall have convenient lesure, ye shall have the
third and last parte of my herball also. Almighty God kepe you and all
youres. Amen."
At Cambridge Turner was intimate with Nicholas Ridley (afterwards the
famous Bishop of London), and though it is interesting to know that
Ridley instructed him in Greek, it is even more attractive to learn
that the future bishop also initiated him into the mysteries of tennis
and archery. Turner did well at the university, for he was elected
Junior Fellow of his college in 1531 and Joint Treasurer in 1532, and
he had a title for Orders in 1537. Throughout his life he was a
staunch Protestant and at Cambridge he used to attend the preachings
of Hugh Latimer. We do not know how long Turner held his fellowship,
possibly till his marriage with Jane, daughter of George Ander,
Alderman of Cambridge. He left Cambridge in 1540 and travelled about,
preaching in various places. In Wood's _Athenæ Oxonienses_ we read,
"In his rambles he settled for a time in Oxon among several of his
countrymen that he found there, purposely for the conversation of men
and books.... At the same time and after, following his old trade of
preaching without a call, he was imprisoned for a considerable
time."[60] On his release he left England and travelled in Italy,
Germany and Holland. He tells us in his herbal that he visited
Cremona, Como, Milan, Venice and Chiavenna, and at Bologna[61] he
studied botany under Luca Ghini. Either there or at Ferrara he took
his M.D. degree. From Italy he went to Zurich, where he formed his
intimate and lifelong friendship with Conrad Gesner,[62] the famous
Swiss naturalist.
He subsequently visited Basle and Cologne, and it was in these two
cities that his small religious books upholding the Protestant cause
were printed. They were very popular in England, so much so that in
the last year of Henry VIII.'s reign they were prohibited. Turner
spent some time botanising in the Rhine country: in his herbal he
speaks of different plants which he collected at Bonn, Basel, Bingen,
Cologne, "Erenffelde" and "Sieburg." Then he went to Holland and East
Friesland--the latter he frequently mentions--and became physician to
the "Erle of Emden." It was probably at this time that he explored the
islands off the mainland. He was in correspondence with "Maister Riche
and maister Morgan, Apotecaries of London," two names which, it is
interesting to note, occur also in de l'Obel's works and in Gerard's
Herbal.
Turner wrote the first part of his Herbal when he was abroad, but he
delayed publication until the conclusion of his wanderings. On his
return to England he became chaplain and physician to the Duke of
Somerset, and it is generally believed that he sat in the House of
Commons.[63] He was promised the prebend of Botevant in York, and in a
letter written to thank Cecil for the promise we find the remark, "My
chylder have bene fed so long with hope that they are very leane, i
wold fayne have thē fatter if it were possible."
Turner held this appointment for little more than two years, and after
failing to obtain either the provostship of Oriel College, Oxford, or
the presidency of Magdalen, he seems to have become despondent. He
wanted a house "where i may studie in and have sū place to lay my
bookes in," and in another letter he complains of "being pened up in a
chamber with all my ho[use] holde seruantes and children as shepe in a
pyndfolde.... i can not go to my booke for ye crying of childer and
noyse yt is made in my chamber." Finally he begged leave to go abroad,
"where I will also finishe my great herball and my bookes of fishes,
stones and metalles if God send me lyfe and helthe." He was
subsequently made Dean of Wells, but he lost this office on the
accession of Mary, and, like so many of the Protestant divines, he
went abroad. He stayed at Bonn, Frankfort, Freiburg, Lauterburg [?
Lauenburg], Mainz, Rodekirche, Strasburg, Speyer, Worms, Cologne and
Weissenburg. At Cologne and Weissenburg he had gardens, and it was
from Cologne that he published the second part of his Herbal. His
works were proclaimed heretical for the second time in 1555, and the
Wardens of every Company had to give notice of any copy they had in
order that they might be destroyed. It is not surprising that Turner's
works are rare!
On the accession of Elizabeth he returned to England and was
reinstated in the deanery of Wells.[64] His diocesan seems to have
found him troublesome, for in 1559 the Bishop of Bath and Wells wrote:
"I am much encombred with mr. Doctor Turner Deane of Welles
for his indiscreete behavior in the pulpit where he medleth
w{th} all matters.... I have advertised him by wrytynges and
have admonished secretly by his owne frendes:
notwithstanding he persisteth still in his follie: he
conten̄eth all Bishopps and calleth thē white coats,
typpett gentlemē, with other wordes of reproche [mu]che
more unsemlie and asketh 'who gave them autoritie more ouer
me then I ouer them'?
"GILBERT BATH AND WELLS."
_January 24,
1559-60._
There is a story told that Turner trained his dog at a given sign to
snatch the bishop's square cap off his head when the prelate was
dining with him. If this is true, possibly it accounts for the fact
that he was subsequently suspended for Nonconformity, after which,
being precluded from clerical duties, he left Wells and returned to
London. He lived in Crutched Friars and, like the two other
Elizabethan herbalists, had a famous garden. He was in failing health
when he completed his herbal, and there is extant a pathetic letter
(the greater part of it written by an amanuensis) to his staunch
patron Lord Burleigh, which is signed "Your old and seikly client
wllm turner doctor of physic."
Turner died in 1568, and was buried in S. Olave's, Crutched Friars,
where the tablet to his memory can still be seen.
CLARISSIMO . DOCTISSIMO . FORTISSIMOQUE . VIRO | GULIELMO .
TURNERO . MEDICO . AC . THEOLOGICO . PERITISSI | MO .
DECANO . WELLENSI . PER . ANNOS . TRIGINTA . IN . VTRAQUE |
SCIENTIA . EXERCITATISSIMVS . ECCLESIAE . ET . REI . PUBLICAE |
PROFVIT . ET . CONTRA . VTRIVSQUE . PERNITIOSISSIMOS . HOS |
TES . MAXIME . VERO . ROMANUM . ANTICHRISTVM . FORTISSIMUS |
JESU . CHRISTI . MILES . ACERRIME . DIMICAVIT . AC . TANDEM .
COR | PUS . SENIO . ET . LABORIBUS . CONFECTVM . IN . SPEM .
BEATISSIM : |
RESVRRECTIONIS . HIC . DEPOSVIT . ANIMAM . IMMORTALEM |
CHARISSIMO . EIVSQUE . SANCTISSIMO . DEO . REDDIDIT . ET .
DEVICTIS . CHRISTI . VIRTUTE . MVNDI . CARNISQUE . VIRIBUS .
TRIUMPHAT IN AETERNUM .
MAGNVS . APOLLINEA . QVONDAM . TVRNERVS . IN . ARTE
MAGNUS . ET . IN . VERA . RELIGIONE . FVIT .
MORS . TAMEN . OBREPENS . MAIOREM . REDDIDIT ILLVM .
CIVIS . ENIM . CAELI . REGNA . SVPERNA . TENET
OBIIT . 7 DIE . IVLII . AN . DOM . 1568 .
In his will, which is too long to quote here, Turner bequeathed to his
wife[65] "his best pece or syluer vessell and halfe dozen of syluer
spones," and to his nephew "my lyttell furred gowne." Peter, the son
to whom he left "all my writen bookes and if he be a preacher all my
diuinitie bookes, & yf he practise Phisicke all my physicke bookes,"
had some knowledge of plants, for in a copy of Turner's Herbal in the
Linnean Society's Library there is a long list of errata for which
Peter Turner apologised in an Address to the Reader. There is
something very naïve and charming about Peter's admiration for his
father's "fame and estimation." He tells us that he has diligently
compared the printed book with his father's "owne hande copie," and
refrains from having the whole book printed again because "I should
have done against Charitie to have caused the Printer by that meanes
to lose all his labor and cost which he hath bestowed in printing
hereof. Wherefore, gentle Reader, beare a little with the Printer that
never was much accustomed to the printing of Englishe and afore thou
reade over this booke correct it as I haue appointed and then the
profit thereof will abundantly recompense thy paynes. In the meane
time vse this Herbale in stede of a better and give all laude and
prayse unto the Lorde."
Turner was the first Englishman who studied plants scientifically, and
his herbal marks the beginning of the science of botany in England.
Like most writers of any value, he impressed his personality upon his
books, and these show him to have been a man of indomitable character,
caustic wit and independent thought. "Vir solidae eruditionis judicii"
he is called by John Ray. His first botanical work was the _Libellus
de re herbaria novus_ (1538), printed by John Byddell in London. This
little book is particularly interesting, because it is the first in
which localities of native British plants are given. In 1548 he
published another small book entitled _The names of herbes in Greke,
Latin, Englishe, Duche, and Frenche wyth the commone names that
Herbaries and Apotecaries use, gathered by William Turner_. In the
preface he tells us that he had begun to "set furth an herbal in
latyn," but that when he asked the advice of physicians, "their advise
was that I shoulde cease from settynge out of this boke in latin till
I had sene those places of Englande, wherein is moste plentie of
herbes, that I might in my herbal declare to the greate honoure of our
countre what numbre of sovereine and strang herbes were in England,
that were not in other nations, whose counsell I have folowed,
deferrying to set out my herbal in latyn, tyl that I have sene the
west countrey, which I never sawe yet in al my lyfe, which countrey of
al places of England, as I heare say, is moste richely replenished
wyth al kindes of straunge and wonderfull workes and giftes of nature
as are stones, herbes, fishes and metalles, when as they that moued
me to the settyng furth of my latin herbal, hearde this so reasonable
an excuse, they moved me to set out an herbal in Englishe as Fuchsius
dyd in latine wyth the discriptions, figures and properties of as many
herbes, as I had sene and knewe, to whom I could make no other answere
but that I had no such leasure in this vocation and place that I am
nowe in, as is neccessary for a man that shoulde take in hande suche
an interprise. But thys excuse coulde not be admitted for both
certeine scholars, poticaries, and also surgeons, required of me if
that I woulde not set furth my latin herbal, before I have sene the
west partes, and have no leasure in thys place and vocation to write
so great a worke, at the least to set furth my judgement of the names
of so many herbes as I knew, whose request I have accomplished, and
have made a litle boke, which is no more but a table or regestre of
suche bokes as I intende by the grace of God to set furth hereafter;
if that I may obteine by your graces healp such libertie and leasure
with convenient place, as shall be necessary for suche a purpose."
Turner's notable work, his Herbal, is the only original work on botany
written by any Englishman in the sixteenth century. The first part of
it was printed in London by Steven Mierdman, a Protestant refugee from
Antwerp, in 1551. The second part was printed by Arnold Birckman, at
Cologne, in 1561, during Turner's enforced exile. Birckman also
printed the edition of 1568, which contained all three parts. (For the
full title, etc., see Bibliography of Herbals, p. 208.)
One of the most attractive features of this Herbal is the number of
beautiful woodcuts with which it is illustrated. A few were specially
drawn and cut for the author, but the great majority are reproductions
of the exquisite drawings in Fuchs's herbals (_De historia Stirpium_,
1545; and _Neue Kreüterbuch_, 1543). Nearly all the illustrations in
the famous sixteenth-century Flemish, English and Swiss herbals were
printed from the actual wood-blocks or copied from the illustrations
in Fuchs's works. Notably in Hieronymus Bock's _Kreüter Buch_ (1546),
Rembert Dodoens's _Cruÿdtboeck_ (1554), Henry Lyte's _Niewe Herball_
(1578), and Jean Bauhin's _Historia plantarum universalis_ (1651). It
is a remarkable fact that so far as wood-engraving is concerned this
country has contributed nothing to the art of plant illustration. In
the first English illustrated Herbal, the _Grete Herball_ of 1526, the
figures are merely copies of the inferior cuts in the later editions
of the _Herbarius zu Teutsch_, and, with the exception of Parkinson's
_Paradisus_, all the English sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century
herbals borrowed their illustrations from Flemish or German sources.
Fuchs had two sets of blocks for his Herbal, one for the folio edition
of 1542 and the other for the octavo edition of 1545. It was the
blocks for the latter which were borrowed by Turner's printer, and it
has been suggested that it was his desire to secure these beautiful
illustrations which led him to have his herbal printed at Cologne.[66]
Over 400 of Fuchs's blocks were used in the complete edition of
Turner's Herbal, and, of the rest, some are copied from the smaller
figures in Mattioli's[67] commentary on Dioscorides.
Turner dedicated the first part of his Herbal (1551) to the Duke of
Somerset, uncle to Edward VI., and at that time Lord Protector. The
preface is delightful and I quote a part of it:--
"To the mighty and christiane Prince Edward, Duke of
Summerset, Erle of Herford, Lorde Beauchampe, and Uncle unto
the Kynges maiesty, Wyllyam Turner his servant wysheth
increase in the knowledge of Goddes holy worde and grace to
lyue thereafter. Although (most myghty and Christian Prince)
there be many noble and excellent actes and sciences, which
no man douteth but that almyghty God, the author of all
goodness, hath gyuen unto us by the hands of the Hethen, as
necessary unto the use of Mankynd: yet is there none among
them all, whych is so openly cōmended by the verdit of
any holy writer in the Bible, as is ye knowledge of plantes,
herbes, and trees and of Phisick. I do not remembre that I
have red anye expressed commendations of Grammer, Logick,
Philosophie, naturall or morall, Astronomie, Arithmetyke,
Geometry, Cosmographie, Musycke, Perspectiue or any other
such lyke science. But I rede amonge the commendatyons and
prayses of Kyng Salomon, that he was sene in herbes shrubbes
and trees and so perfectly that he disputed wysely of them
from the hyghest to the lowest, that is from the Cedre tre
in Mount Liban unto the Hysop that groweth furth of the
wall. If the Knowledge of Herbes, shrubbes and trees which
is not the lest necessary thynge unto the knowledge of
Phisicke were not greatly commendable it shulde never have
bene set among Salomon's commendacyons and amongst the
singular giftes of God. Therefor whereas Salomon was
commended for the Knowledge of Herbes the same Knowledge was
expressedly ynough com̄ended there also." Continuing, he
speaks of learned Englishmen "Doctor Clement, Doctor Wendy
and Doctor Owen, Doctor Wolton and Maister Falconer"[68]
which "have as much knowledge in herbes yea and more than
diuerse Italianes and Germanes whyche have set forth in
prynte Herballes and bokes of simples. Yet hath none of al
these set furth any thyng other to the generall profit of
hole Christendome in latin and to the honor of thys realme,
nether in Englysh to the proper profit of their naturall
countre." After slyly observing that perhaps they do not
care to jeopardise their estimation, he compares himself,
for having ventured to write this book, with the soldier
"who is more frendly unto the commonwealth, which
adventurously runneth among the myddes of hys enemyes, both
gyuyng and takyng blowes, then he that, whilse other men
feight, standeth in the top of a tre iudging how other men
do, he beynge without the danger of gonne shot himself."
To those who may object that it is too small, he explains that he will
write more fully when he has "travelled diverse shyres in England to
learn more of the herbs that grow there." Others may condemn him for
writing in English, "for now (say they) every man without any study of
necessary artes unto the knowledge of Phisick will become a Phisician
... euery man nay euery old wyfe will presume, not without the mordre
of many, to practyse Phisick." To these he succinctly replies, "How
many surgianes and apothecaries are there in England which can
understand Plini in Latin or Galen and Dioscorides?" The English
physicians, he says, rely on the apothecaries, and they in turn on the
old wives who gather the herbs. Moreover, since the physicians are not
present when their prescriptions are made up, "many a good mā by
ignorance is put in jeopardy of his life, or good medecine is marred
to the great dishonesty both of the Phisician and of Goddes worthy
creatures." All this can be avoided by having a herbal written in
English. Dioscorides and Galen, he points out, wrote in their native
tongue, Greek. "Dyd Dioscorides and Galen give occasion for every old
wyfe to take in hād the practise of Phisick? Did they giue any iust
occasion of murther? If they gaue no occasyon unto every old wyfe to
practise physike then give I none. If they gave no occasion of murther
then gyue I none ... then am I no hynderer wryting unto the English my
countremen an English herball."
The second part of Turner's Herbal is dedicated to his old patron,
Thomas Lord Wentworth, and the complete work, including the third
part, to Queen Elizabeth.[69] In the preface to this last he reminds
the queen of a conversation he had had with her in Latin eighteen
years before, at the Duke of Somerset's house, when he was physician
to that nobleman. It is in this preface also that he criticises the
foreign herbalists; though he has learnt much from them, they had much
to learn from him, "as their second editions maye testifye." He claims
that in the first part of his herbal he taught "the truth of certeyne
plants which these above-named writers (Matthiolus, Fuchsius, Tragus
and Dodoneus) either knew not at al or ellis erred in them
greatlye.... And because I would not be lyke unto a cryer yt cryeth a
loste horse in the marketh, and telleth all the markes and tokens that
he hath, and yet never sawe the horse, nether coulde knowe the horse
if he sawe him: I wente into Italye and into diverse partes of
Germany, to knowe and se the herbes my selfe."
The book owes much of its charm to its vivid descriptions of the
plants, and the fascinating and unexpected details he gives us about
them. The comparison of dodder, for instance, to "a great red harpe
strynge," is a happy touch which it is impossible to forget. "Doder
groweth out of herbes and small bushes as miscelto groweth out of
trees. Doder is lyke a great red harpe strynge and it wyndeth about
herbes foldyng mych about them and hath floures and knoppes one from
an other a good space.... The herbes that I have marked doder to growe
most in are flax and tares."
These accurate observations and careful descriptions are
characteristic of the writer, and recall similar touches in the Saxon
herbals. For example, he records that the stamens of the Madonna lily
have a different smell from the flower itself, and that the berries of
the bay tree are almost, but not quite, round. There is only space to
quote the following:--
"The lily hath a long stalk and seldom more than one,
howbeit it hath somtyme II. It is II or III cubites hyghe.
It hath long leves and somthyng of the fashion of the great
satyrion. The flour is excedyng white and it hath the forme
or fashion of a long quiver, that is to say, smal at the
one end and byg at the other. The leves of the floures are
full of crestes, and the overmost ends of the leves bowe a
little backwarde and from the lowest parte within come forth
long small yelow thynges lyke thredes of another smelle than
the floures are of. The roote is round and one pece groweth
hard to another allmoste after the maner of the roote of
Garleke, but that the clowes in the lily are broder."
"The leaves of the Bay tree are alwayes grene and in figure
and fashion they are lyke unto periwincle. They are long and
brodest in the middest of the lefe. They are blackishe grene
namely when they are olde. They are curled about the edges,
they smell well. And when they are casten into the fyre they
crake wonderfully. The tre in England is no great tre, but
it thryveth there many partes better and is lustier than in
Germany. The berries are allmoste round but not altogether.
The kirnell is covered with a thick black barke which may
well be parted from the kirnell."
"Blewbottel groweth in ye corne, it hath a stalke full of
corners, a narrow and long leefe. In the top of the stalke
is a knoppy head whereupon growe bleweflowers about
midsummer. The chylder use to make garlandes of the floure.
It groweth much amonge Rye wherefore I thinke that good ry
in an evell and unseasonable yere doth go out of kinde in to
this wede."
"Pennyroyal.--It crepeth much upon the ground and hath many
lytle round leves not unlyke unto the leves of merierum
gentil but that they are a little longer and sharper and
also litle indented rounde about, and grener than the leves
of meriurum ar. The leves grow in litle branches even from
the roote of certayn ioyntes by equall spaces one devyded
from an other. Where as the leves grow in litle tuftes upon
the over partes of the braunches.... Pennyroyal groweth
much, without any setting, besyd hundsley [Hounslow] upon
the heth beside a watery place."
Of camomile he writes: "It hath floures wonderfully
shynynge yellow and resemblynge the appell of an eye ... the
herbe may be called in English, golden floure. It will
restore a man to hys color shortly yf a man after the longe
use of the bathe drynke of it after he is come forthe oute
of the bath. This herbe is scarce in Germany but in England
it is so plenteous that it groweth not only in gardynes but
also VIII mile above London, it groweth in the wylde felde,
in Rychmonde grene, in Brantfurde grene.... Thys herb was
consecrated by the wyse men of Egypt unto the sonne and was
rekened to be the only remedy of all agues."
Unlike modern authorities, Turner contends that our English hyssop is
the same plant as that mentioned in the Bible, and he also describes a
species which does not now exist. "We have in Sumershire beside ye
cōmē Hysop that groweth in all other places of Englande a kinde
of Hysop that is al roughe and hory and it is greater muche and
stronger then the cōmen Hysop is, som call it rough Hysop." Another
plant which seems to have disappeared and which, he states, no other
writer describes, is "the wonderful great cole with leaves thrise as
thike as ever I saw any other cole have. It hath whyte floures and
round berryes lyke yvy. This herbe groweth at douer harde by the
Sea-syde. I name it the Douer cole because I founde it first besyde
Douer." Incidentally he mentions samphire also as growing at Dover.
It is interesting to find that Turner identifies the _Herba
Britannica_ of Dioscorides and Pliny (famed for having cured the
soldiers of Julius Cæsar of scurvy in the Rhine country) with
_Polygonum bistorta_, which he observed plentifully in Friesland, the
scene of Pliny's observations. This herb is held by more modern
authorities to be _Rumex aquations_ (great water dock).
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATIONS FROM TURNER'S "HERBAL"]
Throughout the Herbal there are recollections of the north of England,
where the author spent his boyhood. Of heath, for instance, he tells
us: "The hyest hethe that ever I saw groweth in Northumberland,
which is so hyghe that a man may hyde himself in." Of the wild
hyacinth he writes: "The boyes in Northūberland scrape the roote of
the herbe and glew theyr arrowes and bokes wyth that slyme that they
scrape of." Of sea-wrake (seaweed) he tells us: "In the Bishopriche of
Durham the housbandmen of the countie that dwel by the sea syde use to
fate [fatten, _i. e._ manure] their lande with seawrake." Under
"birch" we find: "Fisherers in Northumberland pyll off the uttermost
barke and put it in the clyft of a sticke and set in fyre and hold it
at the water syde and make fish come thether, whiche if they se they
stryke with theyr leysters or sammon speres. The same," he continues,
"is good to make hoopes of and twigges for baskettes, it is so
bowinge. It serveth for many good uses and for none better then for
betinge of stubborne boyes that ether lye or will not learne."
Cudweed "is called in Northumberland chafwede because it is thought to
be good for chafyng of any man's fleshe wyth goynge or rydynge." And
it would be interesting to know if the daisy is still called banwurt
in the north. "The Northern men call thys herbe banwurt because it
helpeth bones to knyt agayne.... Plinie writeth that the dasey hath
III and sometimes IV little whyte leves whiche go about the yelow
knope, it appereth that the double Daseys were not founde in plinies
tyme whych have a greate dele mo then Plini maketh mention of."
There are other country customs which he records. "Shepherds use
clivers [goosegrass] in stede of a strayner to pull out here of the
mylke;" "birderers [bird-catchers] take bowes of birch and lime the
twigges and go a bat folinge with them;" "som make a lee [lye] or an
ashy water of the rotes of gentian wherwyth they toke out spottes very
well out of cloth." He mentions woad as "trimmed wyth mannes labor in
dyenge and wull and clothe," and teazle "which the fullers dresse
their cloth wtall." Apparently Turner gave the spindle tree its name,
for he says: "I coulde never learne an Englishe name for it. The
Duche men call it in Netherlande, spilboome, that is, spindel tree,
because they use to make spindels of it in that countrey, and me
thynke it maye be so well named in English seying we have no other
name.... I know no good propertie that this tree hath, saving only it
is good to make spindels and brid of cages" [bird cages].
The use of complexion washes was a custom on which Turner was
alarmingly severe. There are fewer beauty recipes in his herbal than
in any other--only four altogether. "Some weomen," we find, "sprinkle
ye floures of cowslip w{t} whyte wine and after still it and wash
their faces w{t} that water to drive wrinkles away and to make them
fayre in the eyes of the worlde rather then in the eyes of God, whom
they are not afrayd to offend." And of marygold we learn that "Summe
use to make theyr here yelow with the floure of this herbe, not beyng
contēt with the naturall colour which God hath geven thē."
There is curiously little folk lore in this herbal, and most of it is
guarded by "some do say" or "some hold." Nevertheless, with this
qualification, Turner gives us fragments of folk lore not to be found
in other herbals. For instance, that nutshells burnt and bound to the
back of a child's head will make grey eyes black, and that parsley
thrown into fish ponds will heal the sick fishes therein. Again, this
is the first herbal in which any account is to be found of the very
old custom of curing disease in cattle by boring a hole in the ear and
inserting the herb bearfoot.[70]
"They say it should be used thus. The brodest part of the ear must
have a round circle made about it w{t} the blood that rinneth furth
with a brasen botken and the same circle must be round lyke unto the
letter O, and when this is done without and in the higher part of the
ear the halfe of the foresaid circle is to be bored thorowe with the
foresaid botken and the roote of the herbe is to be put in at the
hole, when y{t} newe wounde that hath receyued it holdeth it so fast,
that it will not let it go furth, then all the mighte and pestilent
poison of the disease is brought so into the eare. And whilse the part
which is circled aboute dyeth and falleth awaye y{t} hole beast is
saved with the lose of a very small parte."
Another piece of folk lore is remarkable because it is the only
instance in an English herbal of a belief in the effect of a human
being on a plant: "If ye woulde fayne have very large and greate
gourdes, then take sedes that growe there [in the sides].... And let
weomen nether touche the yonge gourdes nor loke upon them, for the
only touchinge and sighte of weomen kille the yonge gourdes." This
belief he quotes from Pliny.
Turner, again, is the only old herbalist who refers to the old and
widespread belief that larch was fire-proof. It was largely used, he
tells us, for laying under the tiles of newly-built houses, as "a sure
defence against burning," and he narrates at length how Julius Cæsar
was unable to burn a tower built with larch. On the old mandrake
legend he is scathing. "The rootes which are counterfited and made
like litle puppettes and mammettes which come to be sold in England in
boxes with heir [hair] and such forme as man hath, are nothyng elles
but folishe fened trifles and not naturall. For they are so trymmed of
crafty theves to mocke the poore people withall and to rob them both
of theyr wit and theyr money. I have in my tyme at diverse tymes
takē up the rootes of mandrake out of the grounde but I never saw
any such thyng upon or in them as are in and upon the pedlers rootes
that are comenly to be solde in boxes. It groweth not under galloses
[gallows] as a certayn doting doctor of Colon in his physick lecture
dyd teach hys auditors." But he accepts without question the belief in
its efficacy as an anæsthetic: "It is given to those who must be
burned or cut in some place that they should not fele the burning or
cuttyng." Of wine made of it, he says: "If they drynk thys drynke they
shall fele no payne, but they shall fall into a forgetfull and
slepishe drowsiness. Of the apples of mandrake, if a man smell of them
thei will make hym slepe and also if they be eaten. But they that
smell to muche of the apples become dum ... thys herbe diverse wayes
taken is very jepardus for a man and may kill hym if he eat it or
drynk it out of measure and have no remedy from it.... If mandragora
be taken out of measure by and by slepe ensueth and a great lousing of
the streyngthe with a forgetfulness."
Turner is one of the few herbalists who cautions against the excessive
use of any herb. "Onions eaten in meat largely make the head ake, they
make them forgetfull whiche in the tyme of syknes use them out of
mesure." "Cole engendreth euell and melancholie juice. It dulleth the
syght and it troubleth the slepe wyth contrary thynges which are sene
in the dreme." Of nigella he writes: "Take hede that ye take not to
muche of this herbe, for if ye go beyonde the mesure it bryngeth
deth." "Hemp seed," he says, "if it be taken out of measure taketh
men's wyttes from thē as coriander doth." "If any person use
saffron measurably it maketh in them a good colour, but if thei use it
out of mesure it maketh hym loke pale, and maketh the hede ache and
hurteth the appetite." For those who have taken an overdose of opium
there is a surprising remedy. "If the pacient be to much slepi put
stynkynge thynges unto hys nose to waken hym therewith." As in all
herbals of this period, there are an astonishing number of remedies
against melancholy and suggestions for those whose weak brains will
not stand much strong drink; but, while remedies for broken heads, so
common in the older herbals, are conspicuously absent, we find that
walnuts are recommended "for the bytings both of men and dogges"!
As in the _Grete Herball_, there are many descriptions of other
substances besides herbs, some of the longest being of dates, rice,
olives, citron, pomegranates and lentils. The account of citron it
would be pleasant to transcribe in full, not for the sake of the story
but for the manner of the telling. One could listen to a sermon of
considerable length from a divine who, in a book intended for
grown-ups, has a tale of "two naughty murthering robbers, condemned
for theyr murder and robery to be flayn and poysoned to deth of
serpentes, and such venemous bestes," and of the one who, owing to
having eaten "a pece of citron," remained, Daniel-like, unhurt by the
poison of the snakes, whilst the other who had not taken this
precaution "fell down sterk dede." And finally, the moral--"Wherefore
it were wisdome that noblemen and other that are bydden to dynner of
theyr enemies or suspected frendes before they eat any other thyng
should take a pece of citron."
The later sixteenth-century herbalists owed much to the famous
herbalists of the Netherlands, and above all to that prince amongst
publishers, Christophe Plantin of Antwerp, whose personality secured
him a unique place in the literary world. Indeed, there is a splendour
about the works of the Flemish herbalists unequalled by any others of
this period, with the exception of the Bavarian doctor Leonhard Fuchs.
There is no comparison between them and the Italian herbalists of the
Renaissance, who, for the greater part, devoted themselves to studying
the classical writers and identifying the plants mentioned by the old
authorities. France, curiously enough, contributed comparatively
little when the herbal was at its zenith, though it must of course be
remembered that the Bauhins, who rank as Swiss herbalists, were of
French extraction. But it is difficult to estimate the influence of
the works of those three notable friends, Rembert Dodoens, Charles de
l'Escluse and Matthias de l'Obel, particularly on the English
herbalists. The most famous English herbal--Gerard's--is virtually a
translation of the _Pemptades_ of Dodoens. Lyte's translation of the
_Cruÿdtboeck_ was the standard work on herbs during the latter part of
the century, and Parkinson incorporated a large part of de l'Obel's
unfinished book in his _Theatrum Botanicum_.
De l'Obel, after whom the little garden flower--lobelia--is named,
spent the greater part of his life in England. He was a Fleming by
birth and a doctor by profession,[71] and he was physician to William
the Silent until his assassination. About 1569 he came over to England
(with his friend Pena, who at one time was physician to Louis XIII.)
and lived at Highgate with his son-in-law. He superintended Lord
Zouche's garden at Hackney, and later was given the title of botanist
to James I. L'Obel's great work, written in collaboration with Pena,
was the _Stirpium Adversaria Nova_, printed in London by Thomas
Purfoot in 1571.[72] Pulteney, in his _Biographical Sketches_ (1790),
makes the extraordinary statement that Christophe Plantin of Antwerp
was the real printer. It has, however, been pointed out by modern
authorities that the archives of the Plantin Museum show that Plantin
bought 800 copies of Purfoot's edition, with the wood blocks, for 1320
florins. In 1576 Plantin published de l'Obel's _Plantarum seu Stirpium
historia_, and to this he appended the first part of the _Adversaria_,
keeping Purfoot's original colophon.
Although Dodoens neither lived in England nor had any of his works
printed here, his _Cruÿdtboeck_ became one of the standard works in
this country through Lyte's translation. Dodoens was born at Malines
about 1517 and, after studying at Louvain, visited the universities
and medical schools of France, Italy and Germany, graduated M.D., and
was appointed physician to Maximilian II. and Rudolf II. successively.
In the latter part of his life he was Professor of Medicine at Leyden,
where he died in 1585. Plantin published Dodoens's most important
work, _Stirpium historiæ pemptades sex sive libri triginta_, in which
some of the figures are copied from the fifth-century manuscript[73]
copy of Dioscorides. Dodoens's first book, the _Cruÿdtboeck_, was
translated into French by his friend Charles de l'Escluse[74] and
afterwards into English by Henry Lyte.
Lyte, who was an Oxford man, travelled extensively in his youth and
made a collection of rare plants. He contributed nothing original to
the literature on herbs, but his translation of the French version of
the _Cruÿdtboeck_ was an inestimable service. His own copy of the
French version, which is now in the British Museum, has on the
title-page the quaint inscription "Henry Lyte taught me to speake
Englishe." The book is full of MS. notes and references to Turner.
The full title of Lyte's book is as follows: "A niewe Herball or
Historie of Plantes: wherein is contayned the whole discourse and
perfect description of all sortes of Herbes and Plantes: their divers
and sundry kindes: their straunge Figures, Fashions and Shapes: their
Names, Natures, Operations, and Vertues: and that not only of those
which are here growyng in this our Countrie of Englande but of all
others also of forrayne Realmes, commonly used in Physicke. First set
foorth in the Doutche or Almaigne tongue by that learned D. Rembert
Dodoens, Physition to the Emperour: And nowe first translated out of
French into English by Henry Lyte Esquyer."
(_Colophon._) "Imprinted at Antwerpe by Me Henry Loë Booke printer and
are to be solde at London in Paul's churchyarde by Gerard Dewes."[75]
The beautiful illustrations in Lyte's _Dodoens_ are to a large extent
printed from the same blocks as those in the octavo edition (1545) of
Fuchs. In Fuchs there are about 516 illustrations, and in Lyte's
_Dodoens_ about 870. Those which are not copied from Fuchs were
probably collected by Dodoens himself, who, according to some verses
at the beginning of the herbal, took a practical interest in the
publication of the English translation of his book.
"Till Rembert he did sende additions store,
For to augment Lyte's travell past before."
The original wood-blocks never came to England, and three years later
van der Loë's widow sold them to Christophe Plantin for 420 florins.
All the commendatory verses at the beginning of Lyte's herbal are in
Latin, except some lines in which William Clowes speaks of writing
about herbs as "a fit occupation for gentlemen and wights of worthy
fame," and recalls the great men who have immortalised themselves
thereby, notably Gentius, Lysimachus, Mythridates and Dioscorides.
Then, after giving due praise to Dodoens, "Whose learned skill hath
offered first this worthy worke to vewe," Clowes ends with four lines
in which he plays upon the name of the translator:
"And Lyte, whose toyle hath not bene light to dye it in this grayne,
Deserves no light regarde of us: but thankes and thankes agayne.
And sure I am all English hartes that lyke of Physickes lore
Will also lyke this gentleman: and thanke hym muche therefore."
The herbal is dedicated to Queen Elizabeth "as the best token of love
and diligence that I am at this time able to shew.... And doubtless if
my skill in the translation were answerable to the worthynesse eyther
of the Historie itselfe or of the Authours thereof I doubt not but I
should be thought to haue honoured your Maiestie with an acceptable
present." The preface is dated from "my poore house at Lytes carie
within your Maiesties Countie of Somerset the first day of Januarie
MDLXXVIII."
In 1606 there appeared the book commonly known as _Ram's little
Dodoen_. It purported to be an epitome of Lyte's _Dodoens_, but,
though some of its matter has been abridged from Dodoens's work, it is
in reality a compilation of recipes unworthy of the great name it
bears. In his preface the author tells us: "I have bestowed some tyme
in reducing the most exquisit new herball or history of plants (first
set forth in Dutch and Almayne tongue by the learned and worthy man of
famous memory Dr. Rembert Dodeon (_sic_) Phisician to the Emperor, and
translated into English by Master Henry Lyte Esq.), with a brief and
short epitome ... so as where the great booke at large is not to be
had but at a great price, which cannot be procured by the poorer
sort, my endevor herein hath bin chiefly to make the benefit of so
good, necessary and profitable a worke to be brought within the reach
and compasse as well of you my poore countrymen and women whose lives,
healths, ease and welfare is to be regarded with the rest, at a
smaller price than the great volume is. My onely and greatest care
hath byn of long tyme to knowe or thinke how and upon whome to bestow
the dedication of this my small labour. And in the penning of this my
letter my Affections are satisfied with the dedication thereof to
these my poore and loving countrymen whosoever and to whose hands
soever it may come. For whose sake I have desired publicatiō of the
same, beseeching Almighty God to blesse us all."
The book is curiously arranged, for on one page we have "the practice
of Dodoen," and on the opposite "the practises of others for the same
Phisike helpes, collected and presented to the Author of this
Treatise." There are directions for each month, and each is headed by
a motto. The twelve mottoes, when read together, form the following
quaint rhyme:--
"January. With this fyre I warme my hand
February. With this spade I digge my land
March. Here I cut my Vine spring
April. Here I hear the birds sing
May. I am as fresh as bird on bough
June. Corn is weeded well enough
July. With this sithe my grasse I mowe
August. Here I cut my corne full lowe
September. With this flaile I earne my bread
October. Here I sowe my wheats so red
November. With this axe I kill my swine
December. And here I brew both ale and wine."
There are some things in this little handbook worthy of remembrance,
notably an imaginative passage in which the author tells us that
"herbs that grow in the fields are better than those which grow in
gardens, and of those herbs which grow in the fieldes, such as grow on
hilles are best."
FOOTNOTES:
[59] Then "Marie Valence Hall." (Founded in 1347 by Marie widow of
Aylmer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke.)
[60] It has been suggested that Turner was imprisoned for his refusal
to subscribe to the Six Articles and that he recanted to save his
life. But, as Dr. B. D. Jackson has pointed out, Turner was made of
sterner stuff and his whole life and writings are a standing
contradiction to any such supposition.
[61] One of the earliest botanic gardens in Europe was at Bologna. It
was founded by Luca Ghini. It is interesting to see how frequently
Turner in his herbal quotes Ghini, and cites his authority against
other commentators. Luca Ghini was the first who erected a separate
professorial chair at Bologna for Botanical Science. He himself
lectured on Dioscorides for twenty-eight years. He was the preceptor
of Caesalpinus and Anquillara, two of the soundest critics on
botanical writings of that age.
The most famous public botanical gardens in Europe during the
sixteenth, seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries were the
following. I give them in the order in which they were made:--
1533--Padua.
1544--Florence.
1547--Bologna.
1570--Paris.
1598--Montpellier.
1628--Jena.
1632--Oxford.
1637--Upsala.
1673--Chelsea.
1675--Edinburgh.
1677--Leyden.
1682--Amsterdam.
1725--Utrecht.
The first botanic garden in America was founded in Philadelphia by
John Bartram, the great American botanist, in the middle of the
eighteenth century.
[62] Gesner had a high opinion of Turner, of whom he wrote:--
"Ante annos 15, aut circiter cum Anglicus ex Italia rediens me
salutaret (Turnerus) is fuerit vir excellentis tum in re medica tum
aliis plerisque disciplinis doctrinae aut alius quisquam vix satis
memini."--_De Herbis Lunariis_, 1555.
[63] The Duke of Somerset was himself keenly interested in botanical
investigations, and Turner frequently refers to the Duke's garden. It
was during this time that Turner had his own garden at Kew. That he
sat in the House of Commons is generally supposed from a passage in
his _Spiritual Physik_, and this view is sustained by the character of
the Hunter in his _Romish Wolfe_.
[64] It has been asserted in some accounts of Turner that he was a
Canon of Windsor, but this is a mistake. The Canon of Windsor was
Richard Turner, also a Protestant, and, like the herbalist, exiled
during Mary's reign.
[65] Turner's widow subsequently married Richard Cox, who became
Bishop of Ely. She founded a scholarship at Cambridge in memory of her
first husband.
[66] It was for the same reason that Henry Lyte's translation of
Dodoens was printed abroad.
[67] Pierandrea Mattioli (1501-1577) was physician successively to the
Archduke Ferdinand and to the Emperor Maximilian II. With the
exception of Fabio Colonna he was the greatest of the Italian
herbalists.
[68] This was probably the John Falconer who sent English plants to
Amatus Lusitanus, who taught physic at Ferrara and Ancona, and whose
commentary on Dioscorides was published in 1553.
[69] Queen Elizabeth's love of gardening and her botanical knowledge
were celebrated in a long Latin poem by an Italian who visited England
in 1586 and wrote under the name of Melissus (see _Archæologia_, VII.
120).
[70] Parkinson in his _Theatrum Botanicum_ also mentions this use of
bearfoot.
[71] He studied medicine at Montpelier under Guillaume Rondelet, who
bequeathed him his botanical manuscripts. D'Aléchamps, Pena and Jean
Bauhin, all famous herbalists, were also pupils of Rondelet.
[72] For full title see Bibliography of Herbals, p. 210.
[73] This manuscript, now in the Vienna Library, was bought from a Jew
in Constantinople for 100 ducats by Auger-Geslain Busbecq, when he was
on a mission to Turkey.
[74] On one of his visits to England de l'Escluse met Sir Francis
Drake, who gave him plants from the New World.
[75] For subsequent editions see Bibliography of Herbals, p. 211.
CHAPTER IV
GERARD'S HERBAL
"If odours may worke satisfaction, they are so soveraigne in
plants and so comfortable that no confection of the
apothecaries can equall their excellent vertue."--_Gerard's
Herbal_, 1597.
When one looks at the dingy, if picturesque, thoroughfare of Fetter
Lane it is difficult to realise that it was once the site of Gerard's
garden, and it is pleasant to remember that the city of London in
those far-off days was as noted for the beauty of its gardens as for
its stately houses. The owner of this particular garden in Fetter Lane
is the most famous of all the English herbalists. His Herbal,[76]
which was published in 1597, gripped the imagination of the English
garden-loving world, and now, after the lapse of three hundred years,
it still retains its hold on us. There are English-speaking people the
world over who may know nothing of any other, but at least by name
they know Gerard's Herbal. In spite of the condemnation he has justly
earned, not only in modern times, but from the critics of his own day,
for having used Dr. Priest's translation of Dodoens's _Pemptades_
without acknowledgment, no one can wander in the mazes of Gerard's
monumental book without succumbing to its fascination. One reads his
critics with the respect due to their superior learning, and then
returns to Gerard's Herbal with the comfortable sensation of slipping
away from a boring sermon into the pleasant spaciousness of an
old-fashioned fairy-tale. For the majority of us are not scientific,
nor do we care very much about being instructed. What we like is to
read about daffodils and violets and gilliflowers and rosemary and
thyme and all the other delicious old-fashioned English flowers. And
when we can read about them in the matchless Elizabethan English we
ask nothing more. Who that has read it once can forget those words in
the preface?--
"What greater delight is there than to behold the earth
apparelled with plants as with a robe of embroidered works,
set with Orient pearls and garnished with great diversitie
of rare and costly jewels? But these delights are in the
outward senses. The principal delight is in the minde,
singularly enriched with the knowledge of these visible
things, setting forth to us the invisible wisdome and
admirable workmanship of almighty God."
And could any modern writer give with such simplicity and charm the
"atmosphere" of the violet?
"Addressing myself unto the violets called the blacke or
purple violets or March violete of the Garden, which have a
great prerogative above others, not only because the minde
conceiveth a certaine pleasure and recreation by smelling
and handling of these most odoriferous flowers, but also
that very many by these violets receive ornament and comely
Grace: for there be made of them garlands for the head,
nosegaies and posies, which are delightful to look on and
pleasant to smell, speaking nothing of the appropriate
vertues; yea Gardens themselves receive by these the
greatest ornament of all, chiefest beautie and most gallant
grace; and the recreation of the Minde which is taken
heereby, cannot bee but verie good and honest; for flowers
through their beautie, varietie of colour and exquisite
formes do bring to a liberall and gentlemanly minde the
remembrance of honestie, comeliness and all kindes of
vertues. For it would be an unseemly thing, as a certain
wise man saith, for him that doth looke upon and handle
faire and beautifull things, and who frequenteth and is
conversant in faire and beautifull places to have his minde
not faire."
The bones, so to speak, of Gerard's work are, it is true, taken from
Dodoens's splendid Latin herbal, but it is Gerard's own additions
which have given the book its hold on our affections. He describes
with such simplicity and charm the localities where various plants are
to be found, and he gives so much contemporary folk lore that before
we have been reading long we feel as though we were wandering about in
Elizabethan England with a wholly delightful companion.
We know from Gerard's coat of arms that he was descended from a
younger branch of the Gerards of Ince, a Lancashire family, but there
are no records at the College of Arms to show his parentage. His name
is frequently spelt with an e at the end, but Gerard himself and his
friends invariably spelt it without. (The spelling "Gerarde" on the
title-page of the Herbal is probably an engraver's error.) John Gerard
was born at Nantwich in Cheshire in 1545, and educated at the school
at Wisterson or Willaston, two miles from his native town. In the
Herbal he gives us two glimpses of his boyhood. Under raspberry we
find:--
"Raspis groweth not wilde that I know of.... I found it
among the bushes of a causey neere unto a village called
Wisterson, where I went to schoole, two miles from the
Nantwich in Cheshire."
Writing of yew[77] he tells us:--
"They say that if any doe sleepe under the shadow thereof it
causeth sickness and sometimes death and that if birds do
eat of the fruit thereof it causeth them to cast their
feathers and many times to die. All which I dare boldly
affirme is altogether untrue: for when I was young and went
to schoole divers of my schoole-fellowes and likewise
myselfe did eat our fils of the berries of this tree and
have not only slept under the shadow thereof but among the
branches also, without any hurt at all, and that not one
time but many times."
It is supposed that at an early age he studied medicine. In his Herbal
he speaks of having travelled to Moscow, Denmark, Sweden and Poland,
and it is possible that he went abroad as a ship's surgeon. This,
however, is mere surmise. We know that in 1562 he was apprenticed to
Alexander Mason, who evidently had a large practice, for he was twice
warden of the Barber-Surgeons' Company. Gerard was admitted to the
freedom of the same company in 1569.[78] Before 1577 he must have
settled in London, for in his Herbal he tells us that for twenty years
he had superintended the gardens belonging to Lord Burleigh in the
Strand and at Theobalds in Hertfordshire. Hentzner, in his
_Itinerarium_, gives a lengthy account of the gardens at Theobalds
when Gerard was superintendent.
Gerard's own house was in Holborn and, as already mentioned, his
garden, where he had over a thousand different herbs, was in what is
now Fetter Lane.[79] What a wonderful garden that must have been, and
how full it was of "rarities," ranging from white thyme to the
double-flowered peach. How often we read of various plants, "these be
strangers in England yet I have them in my garden," sometimes with the
triumphant addition, "where they flourish as in their natural place of
growing." In 1596 Gerard published a catalogue of twenty-four pages
of the plants in this garden--the first complete catalogue of the
plants in any garden, public or private.[80] A second edition was
published in 1599. Of Gerard's knowledge of plants the members of his
own profession had a high opinion. George Baker, one of the "chief
chirurgions in ordinarie" to Queen Elizabeth, wrote of him: "I protest
upon my conscience that I do not thinke for the Knowledge of plants
that he is inferior to any, for I did once see him tried with one of
the best strangers that ever came into England and was accounted in
Paris the onely man,[81] being recommended to me by that famous man M.
Amb. Parens; and he being here was desirous to go abroad with some of
our herbarists, for the whiche I was the means to bring them together,
and one whole day we spent therein, searching the most rarest simples:
but when it came to the triall my French man did not know one to his
fower." In 1598, the year after the publication of his Herbal, and
again in 1607, Gerard was appointed examiner of candidates for
admission to the freedom of the Barber-Surgeons' Company, but apart
from this we have little definite knowledge of his life. He seems to
have been a well-known figure in the later years of Elizabeth and the
early years of James I., and it is probable that he held the same
position in the household of Robert Earl of Salisbury, Secretary of
State, as he had held in that of his father, Lord Burleigh. A few
years before he died James's queen (Anne of Denmark) granted him the
lease of a garden (two acres in all) east of Somerset House for four
pence a year. Besides the rent he had to give "at the due and proper
seasons of the yeare a convenient proportion and quantitie of herbes,
floures, or fruite, renewing or growing within the said garden plott
or piece of grounde, by the arte and industrie of the said John
Gerard, if they be lawfully required and demanded."[82] Gerard only
kept this garden for a year. In 1605 he parted with his interest in it
to Robert Earl of Salisbury, and it is interesting to note that in the
legal documents connected with this transaction he is described as
herbarist to James I. Of his private life we know nothing beyond that
he was married and that his wife helped him in his work. He died in
February 1611-1612, and was buried in St. Andrew's Church, Holborn.
In 1597, as we have seen, Gerard published the Herbal which made him
famous, but its history, as his critics point out, reflects little
credit on the author. John Norton, the Queen's printer, had
commissioned Dr. Priest, a member of the College of Physicians, to
translate Dodoens's _Pemptades_ from Latin into English. Priest died
before he finished his work and the unfinished translation came
somehow into Gerard's hands. Gerard altered the arrangement of the
herbs from that of Dodoens to that of de l'Obel in his _Adversaria_,
and of Priest's translation he merely says: "Dr. Priest, one of our
London College, hath (as I heard) translated the last edition of
Dodoens, which meant to publish the same, but being prevented by death
his translation likewise perished." There are no fewer than 1800
illustrations in the Herbal, most of them taken from the same
wood-blocks that Tabernæmontanus (Bergzabern) used for his _Eicones_
(1590). Norton, the Queen's printer, procured the loan of these
wood-blocks from Nicolas Bassæus of Frankfurt. They are good
specimens, and certainly superior to the sixteen original cuts which
Gerard added. It is interesting, however, to note that amongst the
latter is the first published representation of the "Virginian"
potato. Gerard made so many mistakes in connection with the
illustrations that James Garret, a London apothecary (and the
correspondent of Charles de l'Escluse), called Norton's attention to
the matter. Norton thereupon asked de l'Obel to correct the work, and,
according to de l'Obel's own account, he was obliged to make over a
thousand alterations. Gerard then stopped any further emendation, on
the ground that the work was sufficiently accurate, and declared
further that de l'Obel had forgotten the English language. Mr. B. D.
Jackson affirms that when one compares the Herbal with the catalogue
of the plants in his garden Gerard seems to have been in the right. On
the other hand, de l'Obel in his _Illustrationes_ speaks of Gerard
with great bitterness and alleges that the latter pilfered from the
_Adversaria_ without acknowledgment.
When one turns to the Herbal one forgets the bitterness of these old
quarrels and Gerard's possible duplicity in the never-failing charm of
the book itself. It is not merely a translation of Dodoens's
_Pemptades_, for throughout the volume are inserted Gerard's own
observations, numerous allusions to persons and places of antiquarian
interest, and a good deal of contemporary folk-lore. No fewer than
fifty of Gerard's own friends are mentioned, and one realises as one
wanders through the pages of this vast book that he received plants
from all the then accessible parts of the globe. Lord Zouche sent him
rare seeds from Crete, Spain and Italy. Nicholas Lete, a London
merchant, was a generous contributor to Gerard's garden and his name
appears frequently. Gerard writes of him: "He is greatly in love with
rare and faire flowers, for which he doth carefully send unto Syria,
having a servant there at Aleppo, and in many other countries." It was
Nicholas Lete who sent Gerard an "orange tawnie gilliflower" from
Poland. William Marshall, a chirurgeon on board the _Hercules_, sent
him rarities from the Mediterranean. The names which appear most
frequently in connection with indigenous plants are those of Thomas
Hesketh, a Lancashire gentleman, Stephen Bridwell, "a learned and
diligent searcher of simples in the West of England," James Cole, a
London merchant, "a lover of plants and very skilful in the knowledge
of them," and James Garret, a London apothecary and a tulip
enthusiast, who "every season bringeth forth new plants of sundry
colours not before seen, all of which to describe particularly were to
roll Sisiphus's stone or number the sands." Jean Robin, the keeper of
the royal gardens in Paris, sent him many rarities. For instance, of
barrenwort (_Epimedium alpinum_) he writes: "This was sent to me from
the French King's herbarist Robinus dwellying in Paris at the syne of
the blacke heade in the street called Du bout du Monde, in English the
end of the world." In view of Sir Walter Raleigh's well-known
enthusiasm for collecting rare plants, it is at least possible that he
may have been a donor to Gerard's garden.
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF JOHN GERARD FROM THE FIRST EDITION OF
THE "HERBALL" (1597)]
Even the most cursory reading of the book suggests how much we lose by
the lack of the old simple belief in the efficacy of herbs to cure not
only physical ills, but also those of the mind and even of the heart.
This belief was shared by the greatest civilisations of antiquity, and
it is only we poor moderns who ignore the fact that "very wonderful
effects may be wrought by the Vertues, which are enveloped within the
compasse of the Green Mantles wherewith many Plants are adorned."[83]
Doctors are cautious folk nowadays, but it is wonderful to think of a
time when the world was so young that people were brave and hopeful
enough to imagine that mere humans could alleviate, even cure, the
sorrows of others. If ever anything so closely approaching the
miraculous is attempted again one feels very sure that we shall turn,
as the wise men of the oldest civilisations did, to God's most
beautiful creations to accomplish the miracle. In common with the
majority of the old herbalists, Gerard had a faith in herbs which was
simple and unquestioning. Sweet marjoram, he tells us, is for those
"who are given to over-much sighing." Again, "The smell of Basil is
good for the heart ... it taketh away sorrowfulness, which commeth of
melancholy and maketh a man merry and glad." "Bawme comforts the
heart and driveth away all melancholy and sadnesse: it makes the heart
merry and joyfull and strengtheneth the vitall spirits." "Chervil root
boiled and after dressed as the cunning Cook knoweth how better than
myself is very good for old people that are dull and without courage."
Of the despised dead-nettle he tells us that "the flowers baked with
sugar, as roses are, maketh the vitall spirits more fresh and lively."
In connection with borage he quotes the well-known old couplet:
"I Borage
Bring alwaies Courage."
"Those of our time," he continues, "do use the floures in sallads to
exhilerate the mind and make the mind glad. There be also many things
made of them, used everywhere for the comfort of the heart, for the
driving away of sorrow and encreasing the joy of the minde.... The
leaves and floures put into wine make men and women glad and merry and
drive away all sadnesse, dulnesse and melancholy."
Of bugloss he says: "The physitions use the leaves, floures and rootes
and put them into all kindes of medecines indifferently, which are of
force and vertue to drive away sorrow and pensiveness of the minde,
and to comfort and strengthen the heart."
Rosemary was held of such sovereign virtue in this respect that even
the wearing of it was believed to be remedial. "If a garland thereof
be put about the head, it comforteth the brain, the memorie, the
inward senses and comforteth the heart and maketh it merry." Certain
herbs strewed about the room were supposed to promote happiness and
content. Meadowsweet, water-mint and vervain (one of the three herbs
held most sacred by the Druids) were those most frequently used for
this purpose.
"The savor or smell of the water-mint rejoyceth the heart of man, for
which cause they use to strew it in chambers and places of recreation,
pleasure and repose, where feasts and banquets are made."
"The leaves and floures of meadowsweet farre excelle all other
strowing herbs for to decke up houses, to strawe in chambers, halls
and banqueting houses in the summertime, for the smell thereof makes
the heart merrie and joyful and delighteth the senses."
In connection with vervain he quotes Pliny's saying that "if the
dining room be sprinckled with water in which the herbe hath been
steeped the guests will be the merrier."
Scattered through the Herbal we find recipes for the cure of many
other ailments with which modern science does not attempt to cope. For
instance, under "peony" we read: "The black graines (that is the seed)
to the number of fifteene taken in wine or mead is a speciall remedie
for those that are troubled in the night with the disease called the
Night Mare, which is as though a heavy burthen were laid upon them and
they oppressed therewith, as if they were overcome with their enemies,
or overprest with some great weight or burthen, and they are also good
against melancholie dreames." Under Solomon's seal one lights on this:
"The root stamped while it is fresh and greene and applied taketh away
in one night or two at the most any bruise, black or blew spots,
gotten by falls or women's wilfulnesse in stumbling upon their hasty
husbands' fists or such like." Of cow parsnip he tells us: "If a
phrenticke or melancholicke man's head bee anointed with oile wherein
the leaves and roots have been sodden, it helpeth him very much, and
such as bee troubled with the sickness called the forgetfull evill."
Would any modern have either the courage or the imagination to attempt
to cure "the forgetfull evill"? In the old Saxon herbals the belief in
the efficacy of herbs used as amulets is a marked feature, and even in
Gerard's Herbal much of this old belief survives. "A garland of
pennyroyal," he tells us, "made and worne about the head is of a great
force against the swimming in the head, the paines and giddiness
thereof." The root of spatling poppy "being pound with the leaves and
floures cureth the stinging of scorpions and such like venemous
beasts: insomuch that whoso doth hold the same in his hand can receive
no damage or hurt by any venemous beast." Of shrubby trefoil we learn
that "if a man hold it in his hand he cannot be hurt with the biting
of any venemous beast." Of rue he says: "If a man be anointed with the
juice of rue, the poison of wolf's bane, mushrooms or todestooles, the
biting of serpents, stinging of scorpions, spiders, bees, hornets and
wasps will not hurt him." In the older herbals numerous herbs are
mentioned as being of special virtue when used as amulets to protect
the wayfaring man from weariness, but Gerard mentions only
two--mugwort and _Agnus castus_. He quotes the authority of Pliny for
the belief that "the traveller or wayfaring man that hath mugwort tied
about him feeleth no wearisomeness at all and he who hath it about him
can be hurt by no poysonous medecines, nor by any wilde beaste,
neither yet by the Sun itselfe." Of _Agnus castus_ he writes: "It is
reported that if such as journey or travell do carry with them a
branch or rod of agnus castus in their hand, it will keep them from
weariness." The herbs most in repute as amulets against misfortune
generally were angelica (of sovereign virtue against witchcraft and
enchantments) and figwort, which was "hanged about the necke" to keep
the wearer in health. At times one feels that Gerard rather doubted
the efficacy of these "physick charms," and he gives us a naïve
description of his friends' efforts to cure him of an ague by their
means.
"Having a most grievous ague," he writes, "and of long continuance,
notwithstanding Physick charmes, the little wormes found in the heads
of Teazle hanged about my necke, spiders put in a walnut shell, and
divers such foolish toies, that I was constrained to take by
fantasticke peoples procurement, notwithstanding I say my helpe came
from God himselfe, for these medicines and all other such things did
me no good at all."
Under "gourd" Gerard gives a use of this herb which, though popular,
is not to be found in any other English herbal. "A long gourd," he
says, "or else a cucumber being laid in the cradle or bed by the young
infant while it is asleep and sicke of an ague, it shall very quickly
be made whole." The cure was presumably effected by the cooling
properties of the fruit. In another place he recommends the use of
branches of willow for a similar purpose. "The greene boughes of
willows with the leaves may very well be brought into chambers and set
about the beds of those that be sick of fevers, for they do mightily
coole the heate of the aire, which thing is wonderfull refreshing to
the sicke Patient."
There is so much contemporary folk lore embodied in Gerard that it is
disappointing to find that when writing of mugwort, a herb which has
been endowed from time immemorial with wonderful powers, he declines
to give the old superstitions "tending to witchcraft and sorcerie and
the great dishonour of God; wherefore do I purpose to omit them as
things unwoorthie of my recording or your receiving." He also pours
scorn on the mandrake legend. "There have been," he says, "many
ridiculous tales brought up of this plant, whether of old wives or
runnegate surgeons, or phisick mongers I know not, all whiche dreames
and old wives tales you shall from hencefoorth cast out of your bookes
of memorie." The old legend of the barnacle geese, however, he gives
fully. It is both too long and too well known to quote, but it is
interesting to remember that this myth is at least as old as the
twelfth century. According to one version, certain trees growing near
the sea produced fruit like apples, each containing the embryo of a
goose, which, when the fruit was ripe, fell into the water and flew
away. It is, however, more commonly met with in the form that the
geese emanated from a fungus growing on rotting timber floating at
sea. This is Gerard's version. One of the earliest mentions of this
myth is to be found in Giraldus Cambrensis (_Topographia Hiberniæ_,
1187), a zealous reformer of Church abuses. In his protest against
eating these barnacle geese during Lent he writes thus:--
"There are here many birds which are called Bernacae which
nature produces in a manner contrary to nature and very
wonderful. They are like marsh geese but smaller. They are
produced from fir-timber tossed about at sea and are at
first like geese upon it. Afterwards they hang down by their
beaks as if from a sea-weed attached to the wood and are
enclosed in shells that they may grow the more freely.
Having thus in course of time been clothed with a strong
covering of feathers they either fall into the water or seek
their liberty in the air by flight. The embryo geese derive
their growth and nutriment from the moisture of the wood or
of the sea, in a secret and most marvellous manner. I have
seen with my own eyes more than a thousand minute bodies of
these birds hanging from one piece of timber on the shore
enclosed in shells and already formed ... in no corner of
the world have they been known to build a nest. Hence the
bishops and clergy in some parts of Ireland are in the habit
of partaking of these birds on fast days without scruple.
But in doing so they are led into sin. For if anyone were to
eat the leg of our first parent, although he (Adam) was not
born of flesh, that person could not be adjudged innocent of
eating flesh."
Jews in the Middle Ages were divided as to whether these barnacle
geese should be killed as flesh or as fish. Pope Innocent III. took
the view that they were flesh, for at the Lateran Council in 1215 he
prohibited the eating of them during Lent. In 1277 Rabbi Izaak of
Corbeil forbade them altogether to Jews, on the ground that they were
neither fish nor flesh. Both Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon derided
the myth, but in general it seems to have been accepted with
unquestioning faith. Sebastian Munster, in his _Cosmographia
Universalis_ (1572), tells us that Pope Pius II. when on a visit to
Scotland was most anxious to see these geese, but was told that they
were to be found only in the Orkney Islands. Sebastian believed in
them himself, for he wrote of them:--
"In Scotland there are trees which produce fruit
conglomerated of leaves, and this fruit when in due time it
falls into the water beneath it is endowed with new life
and is converted into a living bird which they call the
tree-goose.... Several old cosmographers, especially Saxo
Grammaticus, mention the tree and it must not be regarded as
fictitious as some new writers suppose."[84]
Even Hector Boece, in his _Hystory and Croniklis of Scotland_ (1536),
took the myth seriously, but in his opinion "the nature of the seis is
mair relevant caus of their procreation than ony uther thyng." William
Turner accepted the myth and gives as his evidence what had been told
him by an eye-witness, "a theologian by profession and an Irishman by
birth, Octavian by name," who promised him that he would take care
that some growing chicks should be sent to him! In later times we find
that Gaspar Schott (_Physica Curiosa Sive Mirabilia Naturæ et Artis_,
1662, lib. ix. cap. xxii. p. 960) quotes a vast number of authorities
on the subject and then demonstrates the absurdity of the myth. Yet in
1677 Sir Robert Moray read before the Royal Society "A Relation
concerning Barnacles," and this was published in the _Philosophical
Transactions_, January-February 1677-8. Among illustrations of the
barnacle geese, that in de l'Obel's _Stirpium Historia_ (1571) depicts
the tree without the birds. Gerard shows the tree with the birds; in
Aldrovandus leaves have been added to the tree and there is also an
illustration showing the development of the barnacles into geese.
As in all herbals the element of the unexpected is not lacking in
Gerard. Who would think of finding under the eminently dull heading
"fir trees" the following gem of folk lore? "I have seen these trees
growing in Cheshire and Staffordshire and Lancashire, where they grew
in great plenty as is reported before Noah's flood, but then being
overturned and overwhelmed have lien since in the mosse and waterie
moorish grounds very fresh and sound untill this day; and so full of a
resinous substance, that they burne like a Torch or Linke and the
inhabitants of those countries do call it Fir-wood and Fire-wood unto
this day: out of the tree issueth the rosin called Thus, in English
Frankincense." In these days of exaggerated phraseology one is the
more appreciative of that word "overturned." Gerard mentions the
famous white Thorn at Glastonbury, but he is very cautious in his
account of it. "The white thorn at Glastonbury ... which bringeth
forth his floures about Christmas by the report of divers of good
credit, who have seen the same; but myselfe have not seen it and
therefore leave it to be better examined."
Another attractive feature of this Herbal is the preservation in its
pages of many old English names of plants. One species of cudweed was
called "Live-for-ever." "When the flower hath long flourished and is
waxen old, then comes there in the middest of the floure a certain
brown yellow thrumme, such as is in the middest of the daisie, which
floure being gathered when it is young may be kept in such manner (I
meane in such freshnesse and well-liking) by the space of a whole year
after in your chest or elsewhere; wherefore our English women have
called it 'Live-long,' or 'Live-for-ever,' which name doth aptly
answer his effects." Another variety of cudweed was called "Herbe
impious" or "wicked cudweed," a variety "like unto the small cudweed,
but much larger and for the most part those floures which appeare
first are the lowest and basest and they are overtopt by other
floures, which come on younger branches, and grow higher as children
seeking to overgrow or overtop their parents (as many wicked children
do), for which cause it hath been called 'Herbe impious.'" Of the herb
commonly known as bird's-eye he tells us: "In the middle of every
small floure appeareth a little yellow spot, resembling the eye of a
bird, which hath moved the people of the north parts (where it
aboundeth) to call it Birds eyne." "The fruitful or much-bearing
marigold," he writes, "is likewise called Jackanapes-on-horsebacke: it
hath leaves, stalkes and roots like the common sort of marigold,
differing in the shape of his floures; for this plant doth bring forth
at the top of the stalke one floure like the other marigolds, from
which start forth sundry other smal floures, yellow likewise and of
the same fashion as the first, which if I be not deceived commeth to
pass per accidens, or by chance, as Nature often times liketh to play
with other floures; or as children are borne with two thumbes on one
hand or such like, which living to be men do get children like unto
others: even so is the seed of this marigold, which if it be sowen it
brings forth not one floure in a thousand like the plant from whence
it was taken." Goat's-beard still retains its old name of
'go-to-bed-at-noon,' "for it shutteth itselfe at twelve of the clocke,
and sheweth not his face open untill the next dayes Sun doth make it
flower anew, whereupon it was called go-to-bed-at-noone: when these
floures be come to their full maturitie and ripenesse they grow into a
downy Blow-ball like those of dandelion, which is carried away with
the winde." Of the wild scabious (still called devil's-bit by country
folk) he tells us: "It is called Devil's bit of the root (as it
seemeth) that is bitten off. Old fantasticke charmers report that the
Devil did bite it for envie because it is an herbe that hath so many
good vertues and is so beneficent to mankind." Gerard's, again, is the
only herbal in which we find one of the old names for vervain: "Of
some it is called pigeons grasse because Pigeons are delighted to be
amongst it as also to eat thereof." Golden moth-wort, he tells us, is
called God's flower "because the images and carved gods were wont to
wear garlands thereof: for which purpose Ptolomy King of Egypt did
most diligently observe them as Pliny writeth. The floures ...
glittering like gold, in forme resembling the scaly floures of tansy
or the middle button of the floures of camomil, which, being gathered
before they be ripe or withered, remaine beautiful long after, as
myself did see in the hands of Mr. Wade, one of the Clerks of her
Majesties Counsell, which were sent him among other things from Padua
in Italy." The variety of daisy which children now call "Hen and
Chickens" was known as the "childing daisy" in Gerard's time.
"Furthermore, there is another pretty double daisy which differs from
the first described only in the floure which at the sides thereof puts
forth many foot-stalkes carrying also little double floures, being
commonly of a red colour; so that each stalke carries as it were an
old one and the brood thereof: whence they have fitly termed it the
childing Daisie." Of silverweed he tells us: "the later herbarists doe
call it argentine of the silver drops that are to be seen in the
distilled water thereof, when it is put into a glasse, which you shall
easily see rowling and tumbling up and downe in the bottome."
Delphinium, we learn, derives its name from dolphin, "for the floures
especially before they be perfected have a certain shew and likeness
of those Dolphines which old pictures and armes of certain antient
families have expressed with a crooked and bending figure or shape, by
which signe also the heavenly Dolphin is set forth." Rest-harrow, he
says, is so called "because it maketh the Oxen whilest they be in
plowing to rest or stand still." One of the most attractive names
which he accounts for is cloudberry. "Cloudberrie groweth naturally
upon the tops of two high mountaines (among the mossie places), one in
Yorkshire, called Ingleborough, the other in Lancashire called Pendle,
two of the highest mountains in all England, where the clouds are
lower than the tops of the same all winter long, whereupon the country
people have called them cloudberries; found there by a curious
gentleman in the knowledge of plants, called Mr. Hesketh, often
remembered."
For those who care to seek it Gerard supplies an unequalled picture of
the wild-flower life in London in Elizabethan days. It is pleasant to
think of the little wild bugloss growing "in the drie ditch bankes
about Piccadilla" (Piccadilly), of mullein "in the highwaies about
Highgate"; of clary "in the fields of Holborne neere unto Grays Inn";
of lilies of the valley, the rare white-flowered betony, devil's-bit,
saw-wort, whortleberries, dwarf willows and numerous other wild plants
on Hampstead Heath; of the yellow-flowered figwort "in the moist
medowes as you go from London to Hornsey"; of the yellow pimpernel
"growing in abundance between Highgate and Hampstead"; of sagittaria
"in the Tower ditch at London"; of white saxifrage "in the great field
by Islington called the Mantles and in Saint George's fields behinde
Southwarke"; of the vervain mallow "on the ditch sides on the left
hand of the place of execution by London called Tyburn and in the
bushes as you go to Hackney"; of marsh-mallows "very plentifully in
the marshes by Tilbury Docks"; of the great wild burnet "upon the side
of a causey, which crosseth a field whereof the one part is earable
ground and the other part medow, lying between Paddington and Lysson
Green neere unto London upon the highway"; of hemlock dropwort
"betweene the plowed lands in the moist and wet furrowes of a field
belonging to Battersey by London, and amongst the osiers against York
House a little above the Horse-ferry against Lambeth"; of the small
earth-nut "in a field adjoyning to Highgate on the right side of the
middle of the village and likewise in the next field and by the way
that leadeth to Paddington by London"; of chickweed spurry "in the
sandy grounds in Tothill fields nigh Westminster"; of the pimpernel
rose "in a pasture as you goe from a village hard by London called
Knightsbridge unto Fulham, a village thereby"; of dwarf elder "in
untoiled places plentifully in the lane at Kilburne Abbey by London";
of silver cinquefoil "upon brick and stone walls about London,
especially upon the bricke wall in Liver Lane"; of water-ivy, "which
is very rare to find, nevertheless I found it once in a ditch by
Bermondsey house near to London and never elsewhere."
The glimpses he gives us of London gardens are few and one longs for
more. It is remarkable how few vegetables, or "pot-herbs" as they
called them, were grown in Elizabethan times. Vegetables which figured
in the old Roman menus were considered luxuries in this country even
in the days of the later Stuarts. The wild carrot is an indigenous
plant in our islands, but of the cultivated carrot we were ignorant
till the Flemish immigrants introduced it in the early seventeenth
century. Parsnips, turnips and spinach were also rarities. With the
exception of the wild cabbage, the whole brassica tribe were unknown
to us till the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Potatoes and
Jerusalem artichokes were both introduced into this country in Tudor
days. Gerard was one of the first to grow potatoes, and he proudly
tells us, "I have received hereof from Virginia roots which grow and
prosper in my garden as in their own native countrie." He was, in
fact, the originator of the popular but incorrect epithet "Virginia
potato." The potato was not a native of Virginia, nor was it
cultivated there in Tudor times. The Spaniards brought it from Quito
in 1580, and Gerard had it in his garden as early as 1596. The potato
to which Shakespeare refers (_Troilus and Cressida_, V. ii. 534;
_Merry Wives of Windsor_, V. v. 20, 21) is, of course, the sweet
potato, which had been introduced into Europe nearly eighty years
earlier. Gerard speaks of this sweet potato as "the common potato,"
which is somewhat confusing to the modern reader.
There is a delightful glimpse of a well-known London garden, that of
"Master Tuggie," who lived in Westminster and whose hobby was
gilliflowers. It is the more interesting to find this passage in
Gerard, for, as all lovers of Parkinson's _Paradisus_ will remember,
some of the varieties of gilliflower were called after their
enthusiastic grower. Indeed, who can forget their enchanting
names--"Master Tuggie's Princesse" and "Master Tuggie his Rose
gillowflower"? Of gilliflowers, which vied with roses in pride of
place in Elizabethan gardens, Gerard writes thus:--
"Now I (holding it a thing not so fit for me to insist upon
these accidental differences of plants having specifique
differences enough to treat of) refer such as are addicted
to these commendable and harmless delights to survey the
late and oft-mentioned Worke of my friend, Mr. John
Parkinson, who hath accurately and plentifully treated of
these varieties. If they require further satisfaction, let
them at the time of the yeare repaire to the garden of
Mistress Tuggie (the wife of my late deceased friend, Mr.
Ralph Tuggie) in Westminster, which in the excellencie and
varietie of these delights exceedeth all that I have seene,
as also, he himself, whilst he lived exceeded most, if not
all, of his time, in his care, industry and skill, in
raising, increasing and preserving of these plants."
Gerard's descriptions of the most loved English garden flowers are
perhaps too well known to quote, and therefore I give only the
following: "The Plant of Roses, though it be a shrub full of prickes,
yet it hath beene more fit and convenient to have placed it with the
most glorious flowers of the world than to inserte the same here among
base and thornie shrubs; for the rose doth deserve the chiefest and
most principall place among all flowers whatsoever being not only
esteemed in his beautie, vertue and his fragrance and odoriferous
smell, but also because it is the honor and ornament of our English
Scepter, as by the coniunction appeereth in the uniting of those two
most royal houses of Lancaster and Yorke. Which pleasant flowers
deserve the chiefest place in crowns and garlands. The double white
sort doth growe wilde in many hedges of Lancashire in great abundance,
even as briers do with us in these southerly parts, especially in a
place of the countrey called Leyland, and in the place called
Roughfoorde not far from Latham. The distilled water of roses is good
for the strengthening of the hart and refreshing of the spirits and
likewise in all things that require a gentle cooling. The same being
put in iunketting dishes, cakes, sawces and many other pleasant
things, giveth a fine and delectable taste. It bringeth sleepe which
also the fresh roses themselves promote through their sweete and
pleasant smell."
Like most gardeners Gerard was an optimist. It is wonderful enough to
think of the rare, white thyme growing in the heart of London, but
think of the courage of trying to raise dates in the open! "of the
which," Gerard tells us (in no wise downcast by his numerous
failures), "I have planted many times in my garden and have growne to
the height of three foot, but the frost hath nipped them in such sort
that soone after they perished, notwithstanding my industrie by
covering them, or what else I could do for their succour." And does it
not make one feel as eager as Gerard himself when one finds, under
water-mallows, that, though exotic plants, "at the impression hereof I
have sowen some seeds of them in my garden, expecting the successe."
The mere catalogue of the plants in Gerard's own wonderful garden
fills a small book, and scattered through the Herbal we find numerous
references to it, unfortunately too lengthy to quote here.
One likes to think that Shakespeare must have seen this garden, for we
know that at least for a time he lived in the vicinity. In those days
two such prominent men could scarcely have failed to know one
another.[85] As Canon Ellacombe has pointed out, Shakespeare's
writings are full of the old English herb lore. In this use of plant
lore, which was traditional rather than literary, he is curiously
distinct from his contemporaries. Outside the herbals there is more
old English herb lore to be found in Shakespeare than in any other
writer. It is, in fact, incredible that the man whose own works are so
redolent of the fields and hedgerows of his native Warwickshire, did
not visit the garden of the most famous herbarist of his day. Perhaps
it was to Shakespeare that Gerard first told the sad tale of the loss
of his precious scammony of Syria, a tale which no one with a
gardener's heart can read without a pang of sympathy, even after the
lapse of three centuries. One of his numerous correspondents had sent
him the seed of this rare plant, "of which seed," he says:--
"I received two plants that prospered exceeding well; the
one whereof I bestowed upon a learned apothecary of
Colchester, which continueth to this day bearing both
floures and ripe seed. But an ignorant weeder of my garden
plucked mine up and cast it away in my absence instead of a
weed, by which mischance I am not able to write hereof so
absolutely as I determined. It floured in my garden about S.
James' tide as I remember, for when I went to Bristow Faire
I left it in floure; but at my returne it was destroyed as
is aforesaid."
FOOTNOTES:
[76] Americans who have the proud distinction of being "of Royal
Indian descent" may be interested to know that a copy of Gerard's
Herbal in Oxford has been identified as having belonged to Dorothy
Rolfe, the mother-in-law of the Princess Pocahontas.
[77] Yew berries are an ingredient in at least one prescription in a
Saxon herbal (_Leech Book of Bald_, I. 63).
[78] Gerard endeavoured to induce the Barber-Surgeons' Company to
establish a garden for the cultivation and study of medicinal plants,
but nothing came of the scheme.
[79] Formerly it was generally supposed that Gerard's garden was on
the northern side of Holborn, but this is unlikely, for during the
latter part of Elizabeth's reign the part which is now known as Ely
Place and Hatton Garden was an estate of forty acres belonging to the
Bishopric of Ely. Holborn was almost a village then, and Gerard tells
us in his _Herball_ that in Gray's Inn Lane he gathered mallow,
shepherd's purse, sweet woodruff, bugle and Paul's betony, and in the
meadows near red-flowered clary, white saxifrage, the sad-coloured
rocket, yarrow, lesser hawkweed and the curious strawberry-headed
trefoil. Wallflower and golden stonecrop grew on the houses.
[80] Conrad Gesner drew up a codified list of choice plants cultivated
in the gardens of about twenty of his friends, with short lists of
rarities in certain gardens. Johann Franke published his _Hortus
Lusatiæ_ in forty-eight pages--a very scarce work--which is a
catalogue of all the plants growing near Launitz in Bohemia. The list
contains both wild and cultivated plants, and the latter are
distinguished by the addition of the letter H.
[81] This must have been Jean Robin, who in 1597 was appointed Keeper
of the King's gardens in Paris. We know that Gerard was on intimate
terms with him, and Robin sent him numerous plants, which he
gratefully acknowledges in his Herbal. Gerard frequently speaks of him
as "my loving friend John Robin."
[82] MSS. Record Office, James I. (Domestic), Vol. IX. fol. 113.
[83] W. Coles, _The Art of Simpling_.
[84] _Cosmographia Universalis_, 1572, p. 49.
[85] Shakespeare and Gerard were near neighbours during the time when
the former was writing many of his finest plays, for Shakespeare lived
in the house of a Huguenot refugee (Mountjoy by name) 1598-1604. This
house was at the corner of Mugwell Street (now Monkswell Street) and
Silver Street, very near the site of the ancient palace of King
Athelstan in Saxon days. Almost opposite Mountjoy's house was the
Barber-Surgeons' Hall. Aggers' Map (_circ._ 1560) with pictures of the
houses, gives an excellent idea of the neighbourhood in those days.
See also Leak's Map (1666).
CHAPTER V
HERBALS OF THE NEW WORLD
"And I doe wish all Gentlemen and Gentlewomen, whom it may
concerne, to bee as careful whom they trust with the
planting and replanting of these fine flowers, as they would
be with so many Iewels."--PARKINSON, _Paradisus_, 1629.
To English folk and Americans alike the herbals--now amongst the
rarest in the English language--treating of the virtues of herbs in
the New World are of exceptional interest. For these contain some of
the earliest records of the uses of herbs learnt from the Red Indians,
lists of English weeds introduced into America by the first settlers,
and, perhaps most interesting of all, what they grew in the first
gardens in New England. It requires very little imagination to realise
how much the discovery of the New World meant to the botanists,
gardeners and herbalists of that day, for at no time in our history
were there greater plant-lovers than in Elizabethan and Stuart times.
In their strenuous lives the soldiers, explorers and sea-captains
found time to send their friends in the Old World rare plants and
other treasures, and these gifts of "rarities" were cherished as
jewels. Is not the following a vivid picture of the arrival of such a
package from the New World? "There came a Paket, as of Letters,
inrolled in a seare clothe: so well made that thei might passe to any
part beeyng never so farre, the whiche beeyng opened, I founde a small
Cheste made of a little peece of Corke, of a good thickenesse sette
together, whiche was worthie to be seen, and in the holownesse of it
came the hearbes, and the seedes that the Letter speaketh of,
everythyng written what it was, and in one side of the Corke, in a
hollowe place there came three Bezaar stones, cloased with a
Parchement and with Waxe in good order. The Letter was written with
verie small Letters, and sumwhat harde to reade." The letter and the
precious gift of herbs, seeds and stones were from an officer on duty
in "New Spain" (he describes himself as "a Souldier that have followed
the warres in these countries all my life"), who was unknown to
Monardes, but had read his first book on the use of the herbs in the
New World, and therefore was emboldened to send him these rare plants
and the "bezaar stones." Nicolas Monardes, the author of this herbal
(translated into English by John Frampton),[86] most gratefully
acknowledges his unknown friend's kindness and writes of him, "the
gentleman of the Peru, which wrote to me this letter, although I know
hym not, it seemeth that he is a man curious and affectioned to the
like thinges and I have him in great estimation. For bicause that the
office of a Souldier is to handle weapons, and to sheed bloud, and to
do other exercises apertainyng to Souldiers, he is muche to bee
esteemed that he will enquire and searche out herbes, and Plantes and
to knowe their properties and vertue. And therefore I dooe esteeme
muche of this Gentlemanne for the labour whiche he taketh in knowyng
and enquiryng of these naturall thinges. And I doe owe much unto him,
... I wil provoke hym by writyng to hym againe, to sende more thinges.
For it is a greate thinge to knowe the secreates and marvailes of
nature, of the Hearbes which he hath sent me. I will make experience
of them and I will know their vertues and operation and the Seedes wee
will sowe at their time."
The interest in the plant-life of the New World may be judged from the
fact that Monardes's work, which is the earliest "American" herbal,
was translated into Latin by no less a botanist than Charles de
l'Escluse, and into Italian, Flemish, French and English. Frampton's
English translation went through four editions. The original book was
written nineteen years before the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and
throughout it there is very evident the pride of a Spanish subject in
the splendid overseas dominions of his country, then the first empire
in the world and the mistress of the seas. The preface is so redolent
of the atmosphere of Spanish galleons and the boundless interest in
the great new continent and its wonders, that I quote it almost in
full, although in modern print it loses much of the charm of the
original black-letter. The writer surely had in his mind the account
of the navy of Tharshish, which came once in three years, "bringing
gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks," and one cannot help
suspecting that loyalty to his Catholic Majesty of Spain suggested the
inclusion of lions from America in order that he might not be outdone
by the splendour of Solomon. Moreover, Monardes proudly tells us that
from the New World to Spain "there commeth every yere one hundred
shippes laden ... that it is a greate thynge and an incredle riches."
"In the yere of our Lorde God, a thousande, fower hundreth
ninetie twoo: our Spaniardes were gouerned by Sir Christofer
Colon [Columbus], beeyng naturally borne of the countrie
Genoa, for to discouer the Occidentall Indias, that is
called at this daie, the Newe Worlde, and thei did discouer
the first lande thereof, the XI daie of October, of the
saied yere, and from that tyme unto this, thei haue
discouered many and sundrie Ilandes, and muche firme Lande,
as well in that countrie, whiche thei call the Newe Spaine,
as in that whiche is called the Peru, where there are many
Prouinces, many Kyngdomes, and many Cities, that hath
contrary and diuers customes in them, whiche there hath been
founde out, thynges that neuer in these partes, nor in any
other partes of the worlde hath been seen, nor unto this
daie knowen: and other thynges, whiche now are brought unto
us in greate aboundaunce, that is to saie, Golde, Siluer,
Pearles, Emeraldes, Turkeses [turquoises], and other fine
stones of greate value, yet greate is the excesse and
quantitie that hath come, and every daie doeth come, and in
especiallie of Golde and Siluer: That it is a thyng of
admiration that the greate number of Milleons, whiche hath
come besides the greate quantitie of Pearles, hath filled
the whole worlde, also thei doe bryng from that partes,
Popingaies, Greffons, Apes, Lions, Gerfaucons, and other
kinde of Haukes, Tigers wolle, Cotton wolle, Graine to die
colours with all, Hides, Sugars, Copper, Brasill, the woode
Ebano, Anill: and of all these, there is so greate
quantitie, that there commeth every yere, one hundred
Shippes laden thereof, that it is a greate thynge and an
incredle riches.
"And besides these greate riches, our Occidentall Indias
doeth sende unto us many Trees, Plantes, Herbes, Rootes,
Joices, Gummes, Fruites, Licours, Stones that are of greate
medicinall vertues, in the whiche there bee founde, and hath
been founde in them, verie greate effectes that doeth excede
muche in value and price: All that aforesaied, by so muche
as the Corporall healthe is more Excellent, and necessaire
then the temporall goodes, the whiche thynges all the worlde
doeth lacke, the wante whereof is not a little hurtfull,
according to the greate profite which wee doe see, by the
use of them doeth followe, not onely in our Spaine but in
all the worlde.... The people of old tyme did lacke them,
but the tyme whiche is the discouerer of all thynges, hath
shewed them unto us greatly to our profite, seying the
greate neede that we had of them.
"And as there is discouered newe regions, newe Kyngdomes,
and newe Prouinces, by our Spanyardes, thei haue brought
unto us newe Medicines, and newe Remedies, wherewith thei
doe cure and make whole many infirmities, whiche if wee did
lacke them, thei were incurable, and without any remedie,
the whiche thynges although that some have knowledge of
them, yet thei bee not common to all people, for whiche
cause I did pretēde to treate and to write, of all
thynges, that thei bryng from our Indias, whiche serueth for
the arte and use of Medicine, and the remedy of the hurtes
and deseases, that wee doe suffer and endure, whereof no
small profite doeth followe to those of our tyme, and also
unto them that shall come after us, the whiche I shall be
the first, that the rather the followers maie adde hereunto,
with this beginnyng, that whiche thei shall more knowe, and
by experience shall finde. And, as in this Citee of Seuill,
which is the Porte and skale of all Occidentall Indias, wee
doe knowe of thē more, then in any other partes of all
Spaine, for because that all thynges come first hither,
where with better relation, and greater experience it is
knowen. I doe it with experience and use of them this
fourtie yeres, that I doe cure in this Citee, where I haue
informed myself of them, that hath brought these thynges out
of those partes with muche care, and I have made with all
diligence and foresight possible, and with much happie
successe."
Then he begins straightway to tell us of various herbs and gums
brought from the New World, and of what the herbalists had been able
to learn of their medicinal virtues. He writes of "Copall" and "Anime"
(varieties of rosin), and tells us that the Spaniards first learnt of
these from the Indian priests, who "went out to receive them [the
Spaniards] with little firepottes, burnyng in them this Copall, and
giuing to them the smoke of it at their noses." "Tacamahaca" (the
Indian name for a rosin) is "taken out by incision of a tree beyng as
greate as a Willowe Tree, and is of a verie sweete smell; he doeth
bryng forth a redde fruite, as the seede of Pionia." The Indians used
it for swellings in any part of the body and also for toothache.
"Caranna," another gum brought from Nombre de Dios, is discovered to
be of sovereign virtue for gout--"it taketh it awaie with muche
easines." The balsam of the New World, "that licour most excellent
whiche for his Excellencie and meruerlous effectes is called Balsamo,
an imitation of the true Balsamo that was in the lande of Egipt," is
"made of a tree greater than a Powndgarned Tree, it carrieth leaues
like to Nettles: the Indians doe call it Xilo and we do call the same
Balsamo." There follows an account of the way in which the Red Indians
made the balsam, either by cutting incisions in the tree and letting
the "clammish licour, of colour white but most excellent and very
perfite," run out, or by cutting up boughs and branches of the tree
into very small pieces, boiling them in cauldrons and then skimming
off the oil. "It is not convenient, nor it ought to be kept in any
other vessel then in silver (glasse or Tinne or any other thing
glassed, it doth penetrate and doth passe through it), the use thereof
is onely in thinges of Medecine and it hath been used of long tyme ...
the Spaniards had knowledge of it because they did heale therwith the
woundes that they did receive of the Indians: beyng advised of the
vertue thereof by the same Indians, and they did see the saide Indians
heale and cure themselves therewith." We learn that when this precious
new balsam was first brought to Spain it sold for ten ducats an ounce,
and in Italy for a hundred ducats an ounce. The use of another wound
herb, "for shottes of arrows," of which unfortunately he does not give
even the Indian name, was taught to a certain "Jhon Infante" by his
native servant. The book gives us many pleasant glimpses of the kindly
courtesy of the Red Indians to their foes, and though, according to
some authorities, they would never tell the secrets of the herbs they
used as medicines, we have Monardes's detailed accounts of how they
showed the Spaniards the uses of them. Guiacum, for instance, was
brought to the notice of a Spaniard in San Domingo by an Indian
doctor.
One of the most interesting accounts is of "Mechoacan." "It is brought
from a countrie that is beyonde the greate Citie of Mexico more than
fortie leagues, that is called Mechoacan, the whiche Syr Fernando
Curtes did conquer in the yere of 1524, it is a countrie of muche
Riches, of Gold and chiefly of Silver ... those Mynes be so celebrated
and of so muche riches that they be called the Cacatecas, every day
they goe discovering in the Lande verie riche Mynes of Silver and some
of Golde, it is a countrie of good and holsome ayres, and doth bring
forth healthfull Hearbes for to heale many diseases, in so muche that
at the tyme the Indians had the government of it, the inhabiters there
rounde aboute that Province, came thether to heale their diseases and
infirmities.... The Indians of that countrie be of a taller growthe
and of better faces then the Borderers are and of more healthe.
"The principall place of that province the Indians doe call in their
language Chincicila and the Spaniards doe call it as thei call that
realme Mechoacan, and it is a great towne of Indians, situated nere to
a lake which is of swete water and of verie muche Fishe, the same Lake
is like the fashion of making an horse shewe, and in the middest
thereof standeth the Towne, the whiche at this daye hath greate trade
of buying and sellyng."
We are told in detail how the Warden of the Friars of St. Francis was
cured by a native Indian doctor with this herb--"mechoacan":--
"As soone as that Province was gotten of the Indians there went
thither certaine Friers, of Saincte Frances order, and as in a
countrie so distant from their naturall soyle, some of them fell
sicke, amongest whom the Warden, who was the Chief Frier of the house
fell sicke, with whom Caconcin Casique, an Indian lord, a man of great
power in that countrie, had very greate friendship, who was Lorde of
all that countrie. The father Warden had a long sicknes and put to
muche danger of life, the Casique as he sawe his disease procede
forward, he saied that he would bryng hym an Indian of his, which was
a Phisition, with whom he did cure hym self, and it might bee that he
would give hym remeady of his disease. The whiche beeyng heard of the
Frier, and seyng the little helpe that he had there, and the want of a
Phisition, and other thynges of benefite, he thanked hym and saied
unto hym, that he should bryng hym unto hym: who beyng come, and seyng
his disease, he said to the Casique, that if he tooke a pouder that he
would giue hym of a roote, that it would heale hym. The whiche beeyng
knowen to the Frier, with the desire that he had of healthe, he did
accepte his offer and tooke the pouder that the Indian Physition gave
hym the nexte daie in a little Wine.... He was healed of his
infirmitie and the rest of the Friers which were sicke did followe the
father Warden's cure and took of the Self same powder once or twice
and as ofte as thei had neede of for to heale them. The use of the
whiche went so well with them that the Friers did send relation of
this to the Father Provincall to Mexico where he was: who did
communicate with those of the countrie, giving to them of the roote,
and comforting them that thei should take it, because of the good
relation that he had from those Friers of Mechoacan. The whiche beyng
used of many and seyng the marueilous woorkes that it did the fame of
it was extended all abrode, that in short tyme all the countrie was
full of his good woorkes and effectes, banishing the use of Ruibarbe
of Barbarie and taking his name, naming it Ruibarbo of the Indos and
so all men dooeth commonly call it. And also it is called Mechoaca for
that it is brought from thence.... And so thei do carry it from the
Newe Spaine as Merchandise of very great price."
The plant itself Monardes describes thus:--"It is an herbe that goeth
creepyng up by certaine little Canes, it hath a sadde greene coulour,
he carrieth certaine leaues, that the greatnesse of them maie bee of
the greatnesse of a good potenge dishe, that is in compasse rounde,
with a little point, the leaffe hath his little Senewes, he is small,
well nere without moisture, the stalke is of the coulour of a cleare
Taunie. Thei saie that he dooeth caste certaine clusters, with little
Grapes, of the greatnesse of a Coriander seede, whiche is his fruite
and dooeth waxe ripe by the Monethe of September: he doeth caste out
many bowes, the whiche doeth stretche a long upō the yearth, and if
you doe put anythyng nere to it, it goeth creepyng upon it. The roote
of the Mechoacan is unsaverie and without bightyng or any sharpness of
taste."
The book was published in successive parts, and the second of these,
dedicated to the King of Spain, contains the first written account and
illustration of "the hearbe tabaco." Monardes tells us that this herb
was one "of much antiquity" amongst the Indians, who taught the
Spaniards to use it as a wound-herb. It was first introduced into
Spain "to adornate Gardens with the fairenesse thereof and to give a
pleasant sight, but nowe we doe use it more for his meruelous
medicinable vertues than for his fairenesse." The Red Indians called
it "picielt." (The name tabaco was given it by the Spaniards, either
from the island which still bears the name Tobago, as Monardes
declares, or from a native word connected in some way with the use of
the dried leaves for smoking.) According to Monardes the leaves, when
warmed and laid on the forehead with orange oil, were efficacious to
cure headaches. They were also good for toothache. "When the griefe
commeth of a cold cause or of colde Rumes, putting to the tooth a
little ball made of the leafe of the Tabaco, washing first the tooth
with a smal cloth wet in the Juyce, it stayeth it, that the
putrifaction goe not forwarde: and this remedie is so common that it
healeth euerie one." Of greater interest is the account of its
application as a wound-herb and of an experiment made on a small dog
at the Spanish Court.
"A little whiles past, certain wilde people going in their
Bootes [boats] to S. John De puerto Rico to shoote at
Indians or Spaniards (if that they might find them) came to
a place and killed certain Indians and Spaniards and did
hurt many, and as by chance there was no Sublimatum at that
place to heale them, they remembered to lay upon the wounds
the Juice of the Tabaco and the leaves stamped. And God
would, that laying it upon the hurts, the griefs, madnes,
and accidents wherewith they died were mittigated, and in
such sorte they were delivered of that euill that the
strength of the Venom was taken away and the wounds were
healed, of the which there was great admiration. Which thing
being knowen to them of the Islande they use it also in
other hurtes and wounds, which they take when they fight
with the wilde people: nowe they stand in no feare of them,
by reason they have founde so great a remedie in a case so
desperate. This Hearbe hath also vertue against the hearbe
called of the Crosse boweshooter, which our hunters doe use
to kill the wilde beastes withall and which hearbe is Venom
most stronge, and doeth kill without remedie, which the
Kinges pleasure was to prooue and commanded to make
experience thereof, and they wounded a little dogge in the
throate, and put forthwith into the wound the hearbe of the
Crosse boweshooter, and after a little whyle, they powred
into the self same wound that they had annointed with the
Crosse boweshooters hearbe, a good quantitie of the juice of
Tabaco and layde the stamped leaves upon it and they tied up
the dogge and he escaped, not without great admiration of
all men that saw him. Of the which the excellent Phisition
of the Chamber of his Maiestie, Doctor Barnarde in the
margent of this booke, that sawe it, by the commaundement of
his Maiestie, writeth these wordes--'I made this experience
by the commaundement of the Kinges Maiesty. I wounded the
dogge with a knife and after I put the Crosse boweshooters
hearbe into the wound and the hearbe was chosen and the
dogge was taken of the hearbe, and the Tabaco and his Juyce
being put into the wounde the dogge escaped and remained
whole.'"
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATIONS OF SASSAFRAS AND TOBACCO FROM
NICOLAS MONARDES' "JOYFULL NEWES OUT OF THE NEWE FOUNDE
WORLDE" (1577)
(The figure of tobacco is the first printed illustration of
that plant to appear in an English book)]
We are further given an exceptionally interesting account of the use
of tobacco in the religious ceremonies of the Red Indians. "One of the
meruelles of this hearbe and that whiche bringeth most admiration is
the maner howe the Priests of the Indias did use it, which was in this
maner: when there was amongst the Indians any maner of businesse of
great importaunce, in the whiche the chiefe Gentleman called Casiques
or any of the principall poople [people] of the Countrey had
necessitie to consult with their Priestes in any businesse of
importaunce: then they went and propounded their matter to their
chiefe Priest, foorthwith in their presence he tooke certeyne leaues
of the Tabaco and cast them into ye fire and did receive the smoke of
them at his mouth and at his nose with a Cane, and in taking of it he
fell downe uppon the ground as a Dead man, and remayning so according
to the quantity of the smoke that he had taken, when the hearbe had
done his woorke he did revive and awake, and gave them then aunsweares
[answers] according to the visions, and illusions whiche he sawe,
whiles he was rapte in the same maner, and he did interprete to them
as to him seemed best, or as the Divell had counselled him, giuing
them continually doubtfull aunsweres in such sorte that howsoever it
fell out, they might say that it was the same whiche was declared and
the aunswere that he made.
"In like sort the rest of the Indians for their pastime do take the
smoke of the Tabaco, to make themselves drunke withall, and to see the
visions, and things that represent unto them, that wherein they do
delight: and other times they take it to know their businesse and
successe, because conformable to that whiche they haue seene, being
drunke therewith, euen so they iudge of their businesse. And as the
devil is a deceuer and hath the knowledge of the vertue of hearbs, so
he did shew the vertue of this Hearb, that by the meanes thereof, they
might see their imaginations and visions, that he hath represented
unto them and by that meanes deceiue them."
The Red Indians also used this herb when they were obliged to travel
for several days "in a dispeopled countrie where they shal finde
neither water nor meate." They rolled the leaves into small balls,
which they put "betweene the lower lippe and the teeth and goe chewing
it all the time that they trauell and that whiche they chew they
swallow downe and in this sort they journey three or foure dayes
without hauing neede of meate or drink, for they feele no hunger nor
weaknesse nor their trauel doth trouble them." (This custom Monardes
compares to that of the bear, which during the winter "remaineth in
his Caue and liueth without meate or drink, with onely chewing his
pawes"!)
On its first introduction into Europe tobacco seems to have been
regarded as a new all-heal, and in the city of Seville, we read, "they
know not what other to doe, hauing cut or hurt themselves but to run
to the Tabaco as to a most readie remedie. It doth meruellous workes,
without any need of other Surgery, but this only hearbe." One chapter
is devoted entirely to an account of various cures effected by
tobacco, and it is interesting to read the authoritative account of
the origin of the botanical name "Nicotiana." Monardes tells us that
it was so called after Nicot, "my very friend ye first author inventer
and bringer of this hearbe into France." It appears that "Maister John
Nicot, being Embassador for his Maiestie in Portugall, in the yeere of
our Lorde 1559, went one day to see the Prysons of the King of
Portugall, and a Gentleman, being the Keeper of the said Prysons,
presented him with this hearb as a strange plant brought from
Florida." The same Maister Nicot, "hauing caused the said hearb to be
set in his Garden, where it grewe and multiplyed maruellously,"
experimented with it, and amongst other things cured a young man who
had a sore on his nose. Quite a number of cures were effected, the
most interesting being that of one of Nicot's own cooks, who "hauing
almost cutte off his thombe with a great Chopping Knife ran unto the
said Nicotiane and healed it"!
The prescription for the ointment of tobacco is as follows:--"Take a
pounde of the freshe leaues of the sayde Hearbe, stampe them, and
mingle them with newe Waxe, Rosine, common oyle of each three ounces,
let them boyle altogether, untill the Juice of Nicotiane be consumed,
then add therto three ounces of Venise Turpentine, straine the same
through a Linen cloth, and keepe it in Pottes to your use." The
account of tobacco ends thus:--"Loe here you haue the true Historie of
Nicotiane of the which the sayde Lorde Nicot, one of the Kinge's
Counsellors, first founder out of this hearbe, hath made me privie, as
well by woorde as by writing, to make thee (friendly Reader) partaker
thereof, to whome I require thee to yeeld as harty thankes as I
acknowledge myself bound unto him for this benefite received."
We find that the Indians first taught the Spaniards the use of
sassafras, and "the Spaniards did begin to cure themselves with the
water of this tree and it did in them greate effectes, that it is
almost incredible: for with the naughtie meates and drinkyng of the
rawe waters, and slepyng in the dewes, the moste parte of them came to
fall into continuall Agues.... Thei tooke up the roote of this Tree
and tooke a peece thereof suche as it seemed to theim beste, thei
cutte it small into verie thinne and little peeces and cast them into
water at discretion, little more or lesse, and thei sodde it the tyme
that seemed nedefull for to remaine of a good colour, and so thei
dranke it in the mornyng fastyng and in the daie tyme and at dinner
and supper, without kepyng any more waight or measure, then I have
saied, nor more keepyng, nor order then this, and of this thei were
healed of so many griefes and euill diseases. That to heare of them
what thei suffred and how thei were healed it doeth bryng admiration
and thei whiche were whole dranke it in place of wine, for it doeth
preserue them in healthe: As it did appeare verie well by theim, that
hath come frō thence this yere, for thei came all whole and strong,
and with good coulours, the whiche doeth not happen to them that
dooeth come from those partes and from other conquestes, for thei come
sicke and swolne, without collour, and in shorte space the moste of
theim dieth: and these souldiours doeth trust so muche in this woodde
that I beyng one daie amongest many of them, informing myself of the
thynges of this Tree, the moste parte of them tooke out of their
pokettes a good peece of this woodd, and said: 'Maister, doe you see
here the woodde, that euery one of us doth bryng for to heale us with
all, if we do fall sicke, as we haue been there,' and they began to
praise so muche, to confirme the meruelous workes of it, with so many
examples of them that were there, that surely I gave greate credite
unto it and thei caused me to beleeve all that thereof I had heard,
and gave me courage to experimente it as I have doen." There is
another vivid glimpse of the use of sassafras as a pomander when the
pestilence was rife in Seville. "Many did use to carrie a peece of the
Roote of the wood with them to smell to it continually, as to a
Pomander. For with his smell so acceptable it did rectifie the
infected ayre: I caried with mee a peece a greate tyme, and to my
seemyng I founde greate profite in it. For with it and with the
chewing of the rinde of lemmon in the mornyng and in the daye tyme for
to preserve health it hath a greate strength and property. It seemeth
to mee that I was delivered by the healpe of God from the fyre in the
whiche we that were Phisitions went in, blessed be our Lorde God that
delivered us from so great euill and gave us this moste excellente
Tree called Sassafras, which hath so greate vertues, and doth suche
maruellous effectes as we have spoken of and more that the tyme will
shewe us, which is the discouerer of all thinges."
* * * * *
It is a far cry from Monardes's book to that by "John Josselyn
Gentleman," written nearly a hundred years later. Instead of the
atmosphere of the El Dorado of the Spanish Main, of the galleons, of
the tropical sun and plants of the West Indies, we find ourselves in
the good company of the first settlers in New England, the Spanish
Empire being only a memory of the past. Just fifty years after the
landing of the Pilgrim Fathers on American soil, _New England's
Rarities discovered_ was printed at the Green Dragon in St. Paul's
Churchyard, London, and the book is of peculiar interest, for it
contains the first published lists of English plants that would thrive
in America. There is a certain pathos in the efforts of the new
settlers to produce in the New Country (which then took two months to
reach) something that would remind them of the familiar English
gardens of their old homes, and no one with a gardener's heart can
read it without sympathy. The book was written by one John Josselyn,
who undertook the then perilous voyage in order to stay with his only
brother, who lived a hundred leagues from Boston. There he remained
about eight years, making it his business to collect all the
information he could about plants that interested him. Even as late as
1663 the country was very imperfectly explored, for he gravely informs
the reader that he cannot say whether New England is an island or not.
He is not very sure whether even America is an island, but is
confident that the Indians are closely allied to the Tartars.
But to turn to the subject-matter of the book. First we have a careful
list of plants which the author found and which were common in England
also, and--what is quite delightful--notes on the uses made of these
plants by the Red Indians. For instance, they used white hellebore to
cure their wounds, and John Josselyn tells us exactly how. They first
rubbed racoon's grease or wild cat's grease on the wounds and then
strewed the dried and powdered root on to it. They also applied the
powdered root for toothache. Under the yellow-flowered water-lily we
find a note to the effect that the Indians used the roots for food,
and Josselyn seems to have tried them himself, for he says that they
taste of sheep's liver. "The Moose Deer," he says, "feed much on them
and the Indians choose this time when their heads are under water to
kill them." From acorns the Indians made the oil with which they
rubbed themselves. This was prepared by burning rotten maple wood to
ashes and then boiling acorns with these ashes till the oil floated on
the top. Of American walnuts and violets he had apparently a poor
opinion, for he describes the walnuts as being not much bigger than a
nutmeg and "but thinly replenished with kernels," and the violets as
inferior to the English "Blew Violet." The most interesting of the
recipes is that for the beer which he used to brew for Indians who
came to him when they had bad colds. New Englanders who still possess
treasured old housewives' books will probably find they have recipes
for the same kind of beer; for it is typical of that commonly made in
England in the seventeenth century and is strangely flavoured with
elecampane, liquorice, sassafras, aniseed, and fennel seed. Then
follows a list of plants peculiar to New England, with a long
description of "Indian wheat," of which "the Flower [flour] makes
excellent Puddens." Another plant described at length is the
hollow-leaved lavender, but it is difficult to identify it from the
illustration. The most interesting part of this list is that
consisting of plants to which no English names had yet been given.
It is hard to believe that before the Pilgrim Fathers landed some of
the commonest weeds were unknown in their new country. Yet we have
John Josselyn's list of these, and it includes couch-grass, shepherd's
purse, dandelion, groundsel, sow-thistle, stinging-nettle, mallows,
plantain, wormwood, chickweed, mullein, knot-grass and comfrey. The
plantain, one always learnt as a child, follows the English colonist
wherever he goes, and there is curious confirmation in Josselyn's note
that the Indians called this familiar weed "'Englishman's Foot,' as
though it were produced by their treading." But the most fascinating
list of all is that of the English garden-plants which those early
settlers tried to grow, and it is impossible to read it without
realising the loving care which must have been lavished on the
southernwood, rosemary, lavender, and other plants imported from
English gardens, which survived the long journey only to succumb to
the rigours of the New England winter. There is something so naïve and
appealing about this list, the first gardening link, as it were,
between England and America, that I give it in full as it stands in
the original:
"Cabbidge growes there exceeding well
Lettice
Parsley, Marygold, French Mallowes, Chervil, Burnet,
Winter Savory, Summer Savory, Time, Sage, Carrots.
Parsnips of a prodigous size,
Red Beetes,
Radishes
Purslain
Pease of all sorts and the best in the world. I never heard of nor
did see in Eight Years time one worm Eaten Pea.
Spearmint, Rew will hardly grow
Featherfew prospereth exceedingly.
Southernwood is no plant for this Country, Nor Rosemary, Nor
Bayes,
White Satten groweth pretty well, so doth
Lavender Cotton. But
Lavender is not for the Climate.
Penny Royal,
Smalledge
Ground Ivy or Ale Hoof.
Gillyflowers will continue Two Years.
Fennel must be taken up and kept in a Warm Cellar all the Winter.
Housleek prospereth notably,
Hollyhocks.
Enula Campana, in two Years time the Roots rot,
Comferie with white Flowers,
Coriander and
Dill and
Annis thrive exceedingly, but Annis Seed as also the Seed of Fennel
seldom come to maturity; the Seed of Annis is commonly eaten of
a fly.
Clary never lasts but one Summer, the
Roots rot with the Frost,
Sparagus thrives exceedingly so does
Garden Sorrel and
Sweet Bryer or Eglantine
Bloodwort but sorrily but
Patience and
English Roses very pleasantly.
Celandine by the West Country Men called Kenning Wort grows but
slowly.
Muschata as well as in England.
Pepperwort flourisheth notably and so doth Tansie
Musk Mellons are better than our English and Cucumbers.
Pompions there be of several kinds; they are dryer than our English
pompions and better tasted; You may eat them Green."
The book ends in a delightfully irrelevant fashion with a poem on an
Indian squaw, introduced as follows:--"Now, gentle Reader, having
trespassed upon your patience a long while in the perusing of these
rude Observations, I shall, to make you amends, present you by way of
Divertisement, or Recreation, with a Copy of Verses on the Indian Squa
or Female Indian trick'd up in all her bravery."
* * * * *
_The American Physitian; or a Treatise of the Roots, Plants, Trees,
Shrubs, Fruit, Herbs, etc., growing in the English Plantations in
America_,[87] has, as its name implies, more of a medical character
than the older books. In his preface the writer, William Hughes, tells
us:--"'Tis likely some may say need we trouble ourselves with those
things we cannot reach? To such I answer, that the most part of them
here mentioned which grow not in England already are brought over
daily and made use of.... I suppose there are few but would gladly
know that there are such things in the world, although scarcely any
which care or desire to go to see them; I hope this Description which
is as right to truth as I could possibly draw it, if my eyesight
failed me not, may be acceptable, although it be far short of what I
intended; it being my desire to have made it more compleat by one more
voyage into those parts of the World, in which my endeavours should
not have been found wanting for the bringing and fitting of Roots,
Seeds and other Vegetables to our climate, for, to increase the number
of Rarities which we have here in our Garden already; in the which I
perceive much may be done, if further industry were used, but I have
yet met with no opportunity to accomplish the same; and therefore hope
that some others who have conveniency will do something herein for the
promotion of further knowledge in these and many other excellent
things which those parts afford, and we are yet unacquainted with. And
whosoever is offended at this that I have here written, may let it
alone; it forceth none to meddle with it: I know the best things
displease some, neither was there ever any man yet that could please
all people: but in hurting none, possibly I may please some; for whom
only it is intended."
The book itself contains interesting accounts of yams, gourds,
potatoes, prickly pears, maize (of turkeys fed on maize he says, "If I
should tell how big some of their turkeys are I think I should hardly
be believed"), cotton, pepper and sugar. His dissertation on the
making of sugar is one of the earliest accounts of the process. Of the
"Maucaw tree" he writes that "the seeds being fully ripe are of a pure
crimson or reddish colour apt to dye the skin with a touch so that it
cannot quickly be washed off." The Red Indians used these seeds to dye
their skins, and Hughes remarks, "were some Ladies acquainted with
this Rarity, doubtless they would give much for it." The longest
section of the book deals with the cacao tree, its fruit and the
making of chocolate. Cacao kernels were used as tokens and cacao
plantations were entailed property. "In Carthagena, New Spain and
other adjacent places, they do not only entail their Cacao Walks or
Orchards on their Eldest Sons, as their Right of Inheritance (as Lands
here in England are settled on the next Heir), but these cacao kernels
have been, and are in so great esteem with them, that they pass
between man and man for any merchandise, in buying and selling in the
Markets, as the most current silver Coyn; as I have been told and as
some credible Writers do affirm." There is a notable description of
the making of chocolate by the servants "before they go forth to work
in the Plantations in a morning and without which they are not well
able to perform their most laborious employments in the Plantations,
or work with any great courage until eleven a clock, their usual time
of going to Dinner." A detailed account of the preparation of the
drink ends with this vivid picture: "and then taking it off the Fire
they pour it out of the Pot into some handsome large Dish or Bason:
and after they have sweetened it a little with Sugar, being all
together and sitting down round about it like good Fellows, everyone
dips in his Calabash or some other Dish, supping it off very hot." He
describes all sorts of ways of using the chocolate, the best in his
opinion being that of the "Maroonoes Hunters and such as have occasion
to travel the Country." They made it into "lozanges," which "exceed a
Scotch-man's provision of Oat-meal and Water, as much (in my opinion)
as the best Ox-beef for strong stomacks exceeds the meanest food."
Chocolate, it will be remembered, became a very fashionable drink in
England in the seventeenth century, but Hughes considers it inferior
to the genuine stuff made in the Plantations. In fact, he cautions
English people to procure their chocolate straight from Jamaica, and
then to see themselves to the making of it according to his
directions!
* * * * *
In spite of its impressive name, _The South-Sea Herbal containing the
names, use, etc. of divers medicinal plants lately discovered by Pere
L. Feuillee, one of the King of France's herbalists ... much desired
and very necessary to be known of all such as now traffick to the
South-Seas or reside in those parts_ (1715), is only eight pages long,
five of which are devoted to figures of the plants. Nevertheless this
now rare little pamphlet is valuable inasmuch as it is probably the
first account in English of the medicinal plants of Peru and Chili.
The writer--James Petiver--began life by serving his apprenticeship to
Mr. Feltham, apothecary to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London. He
afterwards qualified as apothecary and became demonstrator of plants
to the Society of Apothecaries. All his life he seems to have been
rather a recluse, devoting his time to the study of natural history
specimens sent him from all parts of the world. His herbarium, now in
the Sloane Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South
Kensington, is exceptionally interesting, for Petiver appears to have
had friends in all parts of the world, mostly sea-captains, who took
delight in sending him treasures. The value of his collection may be
judged from the fact that shortly before his death, Sir Hans Sloane
offered him £4000 for it. His _South-Sea Herbal_ is purely medicinal,
except for an appeal to anyone living in Quito who "would be pleased
to procure branches of the leaves of Jesuits' Bark or Quinquina with
its Flowers and Fruit, which Favour should be acknowledged and more
accurate Figures given of each if communicated to your humble
servant." There is unfortunately now no copy extant of another of
Petiver's pamphlets, _The Virtues of several Sovereign Plants found
wild in Maryland with Remarks on them_. Apparently not many were
printed, for there is a note to this effect at the end of the
advertisement: "Divers of these Tracts are now so very scarce that of
some of them there are not 20 left." Owing to the fact that nearly
every page of illustrations in Petiver's works is dedicated to some
friend who had sent him specimens, we have preserved for us the record
of his numerous correspondents. These dedications are very pleasant
reading:--
"To ye memory of y{t} curious Naturalist and Learned Father,
Geo Jos{ph} Camel for many Observations and Things sent me."
"To ye memory of my curious Friend Mr. Sam Browne, Surgeon
at Madrass, for divers Indian Plants, Shells, Seeds, etc."
"To Mr. George Bouchere, Surgeon, For divers Minorca Plants,
Seed, etc."
"To Mr. Alexander Bartlet, Surgeon, For divers Cape and Moca
Plants, Shells, etc."
"To Mr. George London, Late Gardiner to K. Will and Q.
Mary."
"To ye memory of Mr. Will{m} Browne, Surgeon, who Presented
me w{th} Divers Plants, Shells, etc."
"To His Hearty Friend, Mr. John Stocker, in gratitude for
divers Plants, Shells, etc."
"To Mr. Claud Joseph, Geoffroy, Apothecary Chymist and
Fellow of ye Academy Royall in Paris."
"To Mr. Charles Du-Bois, Treasurer of the East India
Company."
"To the Honourable Dr. William Sherard, Consul of Smyrna."
"To Captain Jonathan Whicker for Divers Shells from St.
Christophers."
"To his Curious Friend, Mr. John Smart, Surgeon, For Divers
Plants, etc., from Hudson's Bay."
"To his kind Friend, Capt. George Searle for divers Antego
Shells, Coralls, etc."
"To Capt. Thomas Grigg at Antego in gratitude for divers
Insects, Shells, etc."
"To that very obliging Gentlewoman, Madam Hannah Williams at
Carolina."
FOOTNOTES:
[86] _Joyfull Newes out of the newe founde worlde wherein is declared
the rare and singular vertues of diuerse and sundrie Hearbes, etc._
See Bibliography of English Herbals, p. 211. Nicolas Monardes was a
Spanish doctor living in Seville and his book was written in 1569 (see
p. 231).
[87] Published in London. See Bibliography, p. 217.
CHAPTER VI
JOHN PARKINSON, THE LAST OF THE GREAT ENGLISH HERBALISTS
"For truly from all sorts of Herbes and Flowers we may draw
matter at all times not only to magnifie the Creator that
hath given them such diversities of formes sents and
colours, that the most cunning Worke man cannot imitate, and
such vertues and properties, that although wee know many,
yet many more lye hidden and unknowne, but many good
instructions also to ourselves. That as many herbes and
flowers with their fragrant sweet smels doe comfort, and as
it were revive the spirits and perfume a whole house: even
so such men as live vertuously, labouring to doe good and
profit the Church of God and the Commonwealth by their
paines or penne, doe as it were send forth a pleasing savour
of sweet instructions, not only to that time wherein they
live, and are fresh, but being drye, withered and dead,
cease not in all after ages to doe as much or more."--JOHN
PARKINSON, _Paradisus_, 1629.
The last of the great English herbalists was John Parkinson, the
author of the famous _Paradisus_ and also of the largest herbal in the
English language, _Theatrum Botanicum_, which was published when the
author was seventy-three. The latter was intended to be a complete
account of medicinal plants and was the author's most important work,
yet it is with the _Paradisus_ (strictly not a herbal, but a gardening
book), that his name is popularly associated. Of Parkinson himself we
can learn very little. We know only that he was born in 1567, probably
in Nottinghamshire, and that before 1616 he was practising as an
apothecary and had a garden in Long Acre "well stored with
rarities."[88] He was appointed Apothecary to James I., and after the
publication of his _Paradisus_ in 1629 Charles I. bestowed on him the
title of Botanicus Regius Primarius. Amongst Parkinson's acquaintances
mentioned in his books were the learned Thomas Johnson, who in 1633
emended and brought out a new edition of Gerard's _Herball_, John
Tradescant,[89] the famous gardener, traveller and naturalist, and the
celebrated physician, Sir Theodore Mayerne. Parkinson died in 1650 and
was buried at St. Martin's in the Fields. There is a portrait of him
in his sixty-second year prefixed to his _Paradisus_, and a small
portrait by Marshall at the bottom of the title-page of his _Theatrum
Botanicum_.
The full title of Parkinson's _Paradisus_, which in the dedicatory
letter to Queen Henrietta Maria he truly describes as "this Speaking
Garden," is inscribed on a shield at the bottom of the frontispiece.
The first three words, "Paradisi in Sole," are a punning translation
into Latin of his own surname.
At the top of the page is the Eye of Providence with a Hebrew
inscription, and on each side a cherub symbolising the winds. In the
centre is a representation of Paradise with Adam grafting an apple
tree and Eve running downhill to pick up a pineapple. The flowers
depicted are curiously out of proportion, for the tulip flower is a
good deal larger than Eve's head, and cyclamen in Paradise seems to
have grown to a height of at least five feet.
The most interesting feature of this elaborately illustrated
title-page is the representation of the "Vegetable Lamb" growing on a
stalk and browsing on the herbage round about it.[90] This records one
of the most curious myths of the Middle Ages. The creature was also
known as the Scythian Lamb and the Borametz or Barometz, a name
derived from a Tartar word signifying "lamb." It was supposed to be at
once a true animal and a living plant, and was said to grow in the
territory of the "Tartars of the East," formerly called Scythia.
According to some writers, the lamb was the fruit of a tree, whose
fruit or seed-pod, when fully ripe, burst open and disclosed a little
lamb perfect in every way. This was the subject of the illustration,
"The Vegetable Lamb plant," in Sir John Mandeville's book. Other
writers described the lamb as being supported above the ground by a
stalk flexible enough to allow the animal to feed on the herbage
growing near. When it had consumed all within its reach the stem
withered and the lamb died. This is the version illustrated on
Parkinson's title-page. It was further reported that the lamb was a
favourite food of wolves, but that no other carnivorous animals would
attack it. This remarkable legend obtained credence for at least 400
years. So far as is known, the first mention of it in an English book
is the account given by Sir John Mandeville, "the Knyght of Ingelond
that was y bore in the toun of Seynt Albans, and travelide aboute in
the worlde in many diverse countries to se mervailes and customes of
countreis and diversiters of folkys and diverse shap of men and of
beistis." It is in the chapter describing the curiosities he met with
in the dominions of the "Cham" of Tartary that the passage about the
vegetable lamb occurs.[91] The origin of this extraordinary myth is
undoubtedly to be found in the ancient descriptions of the cotton
plant by Herodotus, Ctesias, Strabo, Pliny and others.[92] The
following passages in Herodotus and Pliny will suffice to show how
easily the myth may have grown. "Certain trees bear for their fruit
fleeces surpassing those of sheep in beauty and excellence"
(Herodotus). "These trees bear gourds the size of a quince which burst
when ripe and display balls of wool out of which the inhabitants make
cloths like valuable linen" (Pliny).
[Illustration: TITLE-PAGE OF PARKINSON'S "PARADISUS" (1629)]
In his _Theatrum Botanicum_ Parkinson describes the "Scythian Lamb,"
and one gathers that he accepted the travellers' tales about it. "This
strange living plant as it is reported by divers good authors groweth
among the Tartares about Samarkand and the parts thereabouts rising
from a seede somewhat bigger and rounder than a Melon seede with a
stalk about five palmes high without any leafe thereon but onely
bearing a certaine fruit and the toppe in forme resembling a small
lambe, whose coate or rinde is woolly like unto a Lambe's skinne, the
pulp or meat underneath, which is like the flesh of a Lobster, having
it is sayed blood also in it; it hath the forme of an head hanging
down and feeding on the grasse round about it untill it hath consumed
it and then dyeth or else will perish if the grasse round about it bee
cut away of purpose. It hath foure legges also hanging downe. The
wolves much affect to feed on them."
The preface to the _Paradisus_ is singularly beautiful, being typical
of the simple, devout-minded author, but it is too long to quote. The
book itself is truly "a speaking garden," a tranquil, spacious
Elizabethan garden, full of the loveliness, colour and scent of
damask, musk and many other roses; of lilies innumerable--the crown
imperial, the gold and red lilies, the Persian lily ("brought unto
Constantinople and from thence sent unto us by Mr. Nicholas Lete, a
worthy Merchant and a lover of all faire flowers"), the blush
Martagon, the bright red Martagon of Hungary and the lesser mountain
lily. Of fritillaries of every sort--of which Parkinson tells us that
"although divers learned men do by the name given unto this delightful
plant think it doth in some things partake with a Tulipe or Daffodill;
yet I, finding it most like unto a little Lilly, have (as you see
here) placed it next unto the Lillies and before them." Of gay tulips,
which were amongst his special favourites--"But indeed this flower,
above many other, deserveth his true commendations and acceptance with
all lovers of these beauties, both for the stately aspect and for the
admirable varietie of colour, that daily doe arise in them,"--and of
which he had a collection such as would be the glory of any
garden--the tulip of Caffa, the greater red Bolonia tulip, the tulip
of Candie, the tulip of Armenia, the Fool's Coat tulip, the Cloth of
Silver tulip and others too numerous to mention. ("They are all now
made denizens in our Gardens," he joyously tells us, "where they yield
us more delight and more increase for their proportion by reason of
their culture, than they did unto their owne naturals"). Of daffodils,
crocuses and hyacinths in boundless profusion, amongst which are to be
noted many pleasing names that we no longer use. Of asphodels, "which
doe grow naturally in Spaine and France and from thence were first
brought unto us to furnish our Gardens." Of many-coloured flags, which
he calls by the prettier name of "flower de luce," and amongst which
he gives pride of place "for his excellent beautie and raretie to the
great Turkie Flower de luce." Of gladioli, cyclamen and anemones. Of
the last-named he writes thus:--
"The Anemones likewise or Windeflowers are so full of variety and so
dainty so pleasant and so delightsome flowers that the sight of them
doth enforce an earnest longing desire in the mind of anyone to be a
possessoure of some of them at the leaste. For without all doubt this
one kind of flower, so variable in colours, so differing in form
(being almost as many sortes of them double as single), so plentifull
in bearing flowers and so durable in lasting and also so easie both to
preserve and to encrease is of itselfe alone almost sufficient to
furnish a garden with flowers for almost half the yeare. But to
describe the infinite (as I may so say) variety of the colours of the
flowers and to give each his true distinction and denomination it
passeth my ability I confesse, and I thinke would grauell the best
experienced in Europe." (Nevertheless he writes of about fifty
varieties.) Of fragrant crane's-bills, bear's-ears, primroses and
cowslips. Of violets, borage, marigolds, campions, snapdragons,
columbines and lark's-heels (delphiniums). Of gillyflowers (why have
we given up this old-fashioned English name?), and how pleasant is the
mere reading of his list of varieties--"Master Bradshawe his daintie
Ladie," "Ruffling Robin," "The Fragrant," "The Red Hulo," "John Witte
his great tawny gillow flower," "Lustie Gallant," "The fair maid of
Kent," "The Speckled Tawny." "But the most beautiful that ever I did
see was with Master Ralph Tuggie,[93] the which gilliflower I must
needes therefore call 'Master Tuggies Princesse,' which is the
greatest and fairest of all these sorts of variable tawnies, being as
large fully as the Prince or Chrystall, or something greater, standing
comely and round, not loose or shaken, or breaking the pod as some
other sorts will; the marking of the flower is in this manner: It is
of a stamell colour, striped and marbled with white stripes and veines
quite through every leafe, which are as deeply iagged as the Hulo:
sometimes it hath more red then white, and sometimes more white then
red, and sometimes so equally marked that you cannot discern which
hath the mastery; yet which of these hath the predominance, still the
flower is very beautifull and exceeding delightsome." Of peonies,
lupins, pinks, sea-holly and sweet-william. Of lilies of the valley,
gentian, Canterbury bells, hollyhocks and mallows ("which for their
bravery are entertained everywhere unto every countrey-woman's
garden"). Of foxgloves, goldilocks, valerian and mullein. Of
cuckoo-flowers, "or Ladies smockes," both the double and the trefoil.
The first kind, Parkinson tells us, "is found in divers places of our
owne Countrey as neere Micham about eight miles from London;" also in
Lancashire, "from whence I received a plant, which perished, but was
found by the industrie of a worthy Gentlewoman dwelling in those parts
called Mistresse Thomasin Tunstall, a great lover of these delights.
The other was sent me by my especiall good friend John Tradescant, who
brought it among other dainty plants from beyond the seas, and
imparted thereof a root to me." Of clematis and candytufts,
honeysuckles and jasmine. Of double-flowered cherries, apples and
peaches. "The beautiful shew of these three sorts of flowers," he
says, "hath made me to insert them into this garden, in that for their
worthinesse I am unwilling to bee without them, although the rest of
their kindes I have transferred into the Orchard, where among other
fruit trees they shall be remembered: for all these here set downe
seldome or never beare any fruite, and therefore more fit for a Garden
of flowers then an Orchard of fruite. These trees be very fit to be
set by Arbours."
In this garden of pleasant flowers we find also many fragrant herbs.
"After all these faire and sweete flowers," says Parkinson, "I must
adde a few sweete herbes, both to accomplish this Garden, and to
please your senses, by placing them in your Nosegayes, or elsewhere as
you list. And although I bring them in the end or last place, yet they
are not of the least account." He writes first of rosemary, the
common, the gilded, the broad-leaved and the double-flowered. Of
rosemary he tells us: "This common Rosemary is so well knowne through
all our Land, being in every woman's garden, that it were sufficient
but to name it as an ornament among other sweete herbes and flowers in
our Garden. It is well observed, as well in this our Land (where it
hath been planted in Noblemen's, and great men's gardens against brick
wals, and there continued long) as beyond the Seas, in the naturall
places where it groweth, that it riseth up in time unto a very great
height, with a great and woody stemme (of that compasse that--being
clouen out into thin boards--it hath served to make lutes, or such
like instruments, and here with us Carpenters rules, and to divers
other purposes), branching out into divers and sundry armes that
extend a great way, and from them againe into many other smaller
branches, whereon we see at several distances, at the ioynts, many
very narrow long leaves, greene above, and whitish underneath, among
which come forth towards the toppes of the stalkes, divers sweet
gaping flowers of a pale or bleake blewish colour, many set together
standing in whitish huskes ... although it will spring of the seede
reasonable well, yet it is so small and tender the first yeare, that a
sharpe winter killeth it quickly, unlesse it be very well defended;
the whole plant as well leaves as flowers, smelleth exceeding sweete."
Of sage and of lavender both the purple and the rare white[94] ("there
is a kinde hereof that beareth white flowers and somewhat broader
leaves, but it is very rare and seene but in few places with us,
because it is more tender, and will not so well endure our cold
Winters"). "Lavender," he says, "is almost wholly spent with us, for
to perfume linnen, apparell, gloues and leather and the dryed flowers
to comfort and dry up the moisture of a cold braine." Of French
lavender ("the whole plant is somewhat sweete, but nothing so much as
Lavender). It groweth in the Islands Staechades which are over against
Marselles and in Arabia also: we keep it with great care in our
Gardens. It flowreth the next yeare after it is sowne, in the end of
May, which is a moneth before any Lavender." Of lavender cotton, of
which he writes: "the whole plant is of a strong sweete sent, but not
unpleasant, and is planted in Gardens to border knots with, for which
it will abide to be cut into what forme you think best, for it groweth
thicke and bushy, very fit for such workes, besides the comely shew
the plant it selfe thus wrought doth yeeld, being alwayes greene and
of a sweet sent." Of basil, "wholly spent to make sweet or washing
waters, among other sweet herbes, yet sometimes it is put into
nosegayes. The Physicall properties are to procure a cheerfull and
merry heart"; and marjoram, "not onely much used to please the
outward senses in nosegayes and in the windowes of houses, as also in
sweete pouders, sweete bags, and sweete washing waters." Of all the
varieties of thyme and hyssop--and of the white hyssop he writes that
its striped leaves "make it delightfull to most Gentlewomen." Hyssop,
he tells us further, "is used of many people in the Country to be laid
unto cuts or fresh wounds, being bruised, and applyed eyther alone, or
with a little sugar." "And thus," he concludes this part of the book,
"have I led you through all my Garden of Pleasure, and shewed you all
the varieties of nature housed therein, pointing unto them and
describing them one after another. And now lastly (according to the
use of our old ancient Fathers) I bring you to rest on the Grasse,
which yet shall not be without some delight, and that not the least of
all the rest."
From his garden of pleasant flowers he leads us to the kitchen garden,
full not only of "vegetables" as we understand the term, of
strawberries, cucumbers and pompions, but also of a vast number of
herbs in daily use, many of them never seen in modern gardens. Besides
the familiar thyme, balm, savory, mint, marjoram, and parsley, there
are clary, costmary, pennyroyal, fennel, borage, bugloss, tansy,
burnet, blessed thistle, marigolds, arrach, rue, patience, angelica,
chives, sorrel, smallage, bloodwort, dill, chervil, succory, purslane,
tarragon, rocket, mustard, skirrets, rampion, liquorice and caraway.
But according to Parkinson they used fewer herbs in his day than in
olden times; for under pennyroyal we find, "The former age of our
great-grandfathers had all these pot herbes in much and familiar use,
both for their meates and medicines, and therewith preserved
themselves in long life and much health: but this delicate age of
ours, which is not pleased with anything almost, be it meat or
medicine, that is not pleasant to the palate, doth wholly refuse these
almost, and therefore cannot be partaker of the benefit of them." From
the kitchen garden with all these herbs, "of most necessary uses for
the Country Gentlewomen's houses," he leads us, finally, to the
orchard, with its endless varieties of apple and pear trees, of
cherries, medlars, plums, "apricockes" and nectarines, of figs and
peaches and almonds, of quinces, walnuts, mulberries and vines (ending
with the Virginian vine, of which he says, "we know of no use but to
furnish a Garden and to encrease the number of rarities"), until, like
the Queen of Sheba, we feel that, with all we have heard of the
comfortable splendour of Elizabeth's reign, the half has not been told
us. "And thus," Parkinson concludes, "have I finished this worke, and
furnished it with whatsoever Art and Nature concurring could effect to
bring delight to those that live in our Climate and take pleasure in
such things; which how well or ill done, I must abide every one's
censure; the iudicious and courteous I onely respect, let Momus bite
his lips and eate his heart; and so Farewell."
Parkinson's monumental work, _Theatrum Botanicum_, was completed, as
already mentioned, in his seventy-third year. In it about 3800 plants
are described (nearly double the number of those in the first edition
of Gerard's Herbal). In the _Theatrum_ he incorporated nearly the
whole of Bauhin's _Pinax_, besides part of the unfinished work by de
l'Obel mentioned before. The book remained the most complete English
treatise on plants until the time of Ray. Parkinson originally
intended to entitle it "A Garden of Simples"[95] and, had he done so,
it is at least possible that this work, to which he devoted the
greater part of his life, would have achieved the popularity it
deserved. Except in the illustrations, it is a finer book than
Gerard's, but the latter remained the more popular. In fact, this
herbal of Parkinson's is an outstanding proof that a good book may be
ruined by a bad title. _Theatrum Botanicum_ sounds hard and chilling,
whereas _Gerard's Herball_ has an attractive ring. The fact that the
former never attained the popularity achieved by the latter seems the
more pathetic when we read the author's own concluding charge to this
work of his lifetime:--"Goe forth now therefore thou issue artificial
of mine and supply the defect of a Naturall, to beare up thy Father's
name and memory to succeeding ages and what in thee lyeth effect more
good to thy Prince and Country then numerous of others, which often
prove rather plagues then profits thereto, and feare not the face of
thy fiercest foe."
The ornamental title-page of the _Theatrum Botanicum_ is both
interesting and impressive. The two most important figures are those
of Adam and Solomon (representing Toil and Wisdom respectively).
Solomon is dressed in a long coat with an ermine cape, and he wears
Roman sandals. At the four corners of the page are female
figures:--Europe driving majestically in a chariot with a pair of
horses; Asia clad in short skirts and shoes with curled points and
riding a rhinoceros; Africa wearing only a hat, and mounted upon a
zebra; and America, also unclothed, carrying a bow and arrow and
riding a sheep with surprisingly long ears. Each of these figures is
surrounded by specimens of the vegetation of their respective
continents.
It is curious to find in the dedicatory letter to Charles I. a touch
of the old belief that diseases are due to evil spirits:--
"And I doubt not of your Majesties further care of their
bodies health that such Workes as deliver approved Remedyes
may be divulged whereby they may both cure and prevent their
diseases. Most properly therefore doth this Worke belong to
your Majesty's patronage both to further and defend that
malevolent spirits should not dare to cast forth their
venome or aspertions to the prejudice of any well-deserving,
but that thereby under God and Good direction, all may live
in health as well as wealth, peace and godliness, which God
grant and that this boldnesse may be pardoned to
"Your Majestyes
"Loyale Subject
"Servant and Herbarist
"JOHN PARKINSON."
[Illustration: TITLE-PAGE OF PARKINSON'S "THEATRUM BOTANICUM"
(1640)]
There are letters extolling the Herbal from three Oxford doctors, two
of whom refer to the then newly-made physic garden on the Cherwell.
One writes thus: "Oxford and England are happy in the foundation of a
spacious illustrious physicke garden, compleately beautifully walled
and gated, now in levelling and planting with the charges and expences
of thousands by the many wayes Honourable Earle of Danby, the
furnishing and enriching whereof and of many a glorious Tempe, with
all usefull and delightfull plants will be the better expedited by
your painefull happy satisfying Worke.
"Tho. Clayton, His Majesty's prof. of Physicke, Oxon."
* * * * *
One who signs himself "Your affectionate friend John Bainbridge Doctor
of Physique, and Professor of Astronomy, Oxon" writes thus: "I am a
stranger to your selfe but not to your learned and elaborate volumnes.
I have with delight and admiration surveyed your _Theatrum Botanicum_,
a stately Fabrique, collected and composed with excessive paines....
It is a curious pourtrait and description of th' Earths flowred
mantle, the Herbarist's Oracle, a rich Magazin of soveraigne
Medicines, physicall experiments and other rarities."
Parkinson divides his plants into "Classes or Tribes":--
1. Sweete smelling Plants.
2. Purging Plants.
3. Venemous Sleepy and Hurtfull plants and their Counter poysons.
4. Saxifrages.
5. Vulnerary or Wound Herbs.
6. Cooling and Succory like Herbs.
7. Hot and sharpe biting Plants.
8. Umbelliferous Plants.
9. Thistles and Thorny Plants.
10. Fearnes and Capillary Herbes.
11. Pulses.
12. Cornes.
13. Grasses Rushes and Reeds.
14. Marsh Water and Sea plants and Mosses and Mushromes.
15. The Unordered Tribe.
16. Trees and Shrubbes.
17. Strange and Outlandish Plants.
Under "The Unordered Tribe" we find the naïve remark: "In this tribe
as in a gathering campe I must take up all those straglers that have
either lost their rankes or were not placed in some of the foregoing
orders that so I may preserve them from losse and apply them to some
convenient service for the worke"!
It is surprising how much folk lore survives even in Parkinson's
Herbal. Like Gerard, he pours scorn on a good many contemporary
beliefs, but many he accepts unquestioningly, especially those
concerning the use of herbs as amulets and also for the promotion of
happiness. He gives also some old gardening beliefs not to be found in
other herbals, but very common in contemporary books on gardening and
husbandry, and more bee lore than most herbals contain. Nearly all the
old herbalists believed in the value of growing balm near the
beehives, and also of rubbing the hive with this herb, but Parkinson
alone tells us of the harmful effects of woad:[96] "Some have sowen it
but they have founde it to be the cause of the Destruction of their
Bees, for it hath been observed that they have dyed as it were of a
Flix that have tasted hereof." Of balm,[97] however, he writes: "it is
an hearbe wherein Bees do much delight both to have their Hives rubbed
therewith to keepe them together and draw others and for them to suck
and feed upon." Elsewhere he tells us that "it hath been observed that
bees will hardly thrive well where many Elmes doe grow or at least if
they upon their first going forth abroad after Winter doe light on the
bloomings or seed thereof."[98] Of the sweet-smelling flag he says:
"it is verily believed of many that the leaves or roots of Acorus
tyed to a hive of Bees stayeth them from wandering or flying away and
draweth a greater resort of others thereto."[99]
Upon the use of herbs as amulets his views seem inconsistent. He is
scornful of the custom of hanging a piece of mistletoe to children's
necks "against witchcraft and the illusion of Sathan"; yet he gravely
informs us that "if the sope that is made of the lye of the ashes [of
glassewort] be spread upon a piece of thicke course brown paper cut
into the forme of their shooe sole, that are casually taken speechless
and bound to the soles of their feete it will bring again the speech
and that within a little time after the applying thereof if there be
any hope of being restored while they live: this hath been tried to be
effectuall upon diverse persons."[100] The custom of wearing
meadowsweet or hanging it up in living-rooms[101] he describes as a
"superstitious conceit," but he accepts without demur the
tradition[102] that a wreath of periwinkle "worne about the legs
defendeth them that wear it from the crampe." Bartholomæus Anglicus
tells us that Augustus Cæsar used to wear a wreath of bryony during a
thunderstorm to protect himself from lightning, but the story is not
repeated until, after the lapse of four hundred years, we find in
Parkinson the statement that "Augustus Cæsar was wont to weare bryony
with bayes made into a roule or garlande thereby to be secured from
lightening."[103] Parkinson regards the use of herbs against
witchcraft as sheer foolishness, but he is the only herbalist who
gives us a potion[104] which "resisteth such charmes or the like
witchery that is used in such drinkes that are given to produce love."
Like Gerard, he does not question the efficacy of borage, bugloss and
many other herbs to promote happiness. Of borage[105] he tells us:
"The leaves floures and seedes are very cordiall and helpe to expell
pensivenesse and melancholie that ariseth without manifest cause"; and
of a confection made from oak galls,[106] that it is "dayly commended
and used with good effect against Melancholy passions and sorrow
proceeding of no evident cause." Water yarrow "is taken with vinegar
to helpe casuall sighings also the Toothache."[107] Under
viper's-grass[108] we find "the water distilled in glasses or the
roote itself taken is good against the passions and tremblings of the
heart as also against swoonings sadnes and melancholy," and under
bugloss,[109] that "the rootes or seedes are effectuall to comfort the
heart and to expell sadnesse and causelesse melancholy." In common
with other herbalists he believed also that herbs could be used to
strengthen the memory, to help weak brains, to quicken the senses and
even to soothe "frenzied" people. Of eyebright,[110] used for so many
centuries, and even until recent times, to help dull sight, he says:
"it helpeth a weake braine or memory and restoreth them being decayed
in a short time." Fleabane "bound to the forehead is a great helpe to
cure one of the frensie," while "the distilled water of thyme applyed
with vinegar of Roses to the forehead easeth the rage of
Frensye."[111] Lavender is of "especiall good use for all griefes and
paines of the head and brain,"[112] and sage[113] is of "excellent
good use to helpe the memory by warming and quickening the senses."
Parkinson gives more beauty recipes than any other herbalist. For
those who wish to darken their hair he recommends washing it with a
decoction of bramble leaves.[114] The golden flowers of mullein[115]
"boyled in lye dyeth the haires of the head yellow and maketh them
faire and smooth." The ashes of southernwood[116] mixed with old salad
oil will cause a beard to grow or hair on a bald head, and yarrow is
almost as good; garden spurge, elder flowers, broom, madder, rue,
gentian, scabious, betony, elecampane, Solomon's Seal, the great
hawkweed and lupin are all excellent to "cleanse the skinne from
freckles, sunburn and wrinkles."[117] The French women "account the
distilled water of pimpernell mervailous good to clense the skinne
from any roughnesse deformity or discolouring thereof and to make it
smooth neate and cleere."[118] The Italian dames, however, "doe much
use the distilled water of the whole plant of Solomon's Seal."[119]
Lupin seems to have the most remarkable virtue, for not only will it
take away all smallpox marks, but it will also make the user "look
more amiable"! Many women, therefore, "doe use the meale of Lupines
mingled with the gall of a goate and some juyce of Lemons to make into
a forme of a soft ointment."[120] Parkinson is the only herbalist who
gives recipes to enable people to get thin and also to look pale. "The
powder of the seedes of elder[121] first prepared in vinegar and then
taken in wine halfe a dramme at a time for certaine dayes together is
a meane to abate and consume the fat flesh of a corpulent body and to
keepe it leane." For those who like to look pale he recommends cumin
seed and bishopsweed.[122] And "for a sweet powder[123] to lay among
linnen and garments and to make sweet waters to wash hand-gloves or
other things to perfume them" he recommends the roots of the
sweet-smelling flag.
It is, however, the curious out-of-the-way pieces of information on all
sorts of matters which are so interesting in Parkinson's Herbal. He
tells us that three several sorts of colours are made from the berries
of the purging thorn; that the yellow dye is used by painters, "and
also by Bookbinders to colour the edges of Bookes and by leather
dressers to colour leather"; that the green dye is "usually put up into
great bladders tyed with strong thred at the head and hung up untill
it is drye, which is dissolved in water or wine, but sacke is the best
to preserve the colour from 'starving,' as they call it, that is from
decaying, and to make it hold fresh the longer"; and that the purple
dye is made by leaving the berries on the bushes until the end of
November, when they are ready to drop off. That the best mushrooms grow
under oaks or fir trees. That spurry leaves bruised and laid to a cut
finger will speedily heal it, "whereof the Country people in divers
places say they have had good experience," and that it is also good for
causing "the Kine to give more store of milke than ordinary otherwise,
so it causeth Pullaine likewise to lay more store of egges." That the
fruit of the bead tree "being drilled and drawne on stringes serves
people beyond sea to number their prayers thereon least they forget
themselves and give God too many." That in Warwickshire the female fern
was always used "in steed of Sope to wash their clothes," and that it
was gathered about Midsummer, "unto good big balls which when they will
use them they burne them in the fire until it becomes blewish, which
being then layd by will dissolve into powder of itselfe, like unto
Lime: foure of these balles being dissolved in warme water is
sufficient to wash a whole bucke full of clothes." That the burning of
lupin seeds drives away gnats, and that half-sodden barley "given to
Hennes that hardly or seldome lay egges will cause them to lay both
greater and more often." That country housewives use that common weed
horsetail to scour their wooden, pewter and brass vessels, and
sometimes boil the young tops of the same weed and eat them like
asparagus. That bramble leaves do not fall until all the sharp frosts
are over, "whereby the country men do observe that the extremity of
Winter is past when they fall off." That every year sacks full of
violets are sent from Marseilles to Alexandria and other parts of
Egypt, "where they use them boyled in water which only by their
religion they are enjoined to drinke." That if you suspect your wine is
watered "you shall put some thereof into a cup that is made of ivie
wood and if there be any water therein it will remaine in the cup and
the wine will soak through, for the nature of Ivie is not to hold any
wine so great an antipathy there is between them." That skilful
shepherds are careful not to let their flocks feed in pastures where
mouseare abounds, "lest they grow sicke and leane and die quickly
after." That writing-ink can be made of the green fruit of alder trees.
That the bark of the same tree is useful for making "a blacke dye for
the courser sorts of things," and that the leaves put under the bare
feet of travellers are "a great refreshing unto them." That the rose of
Jericho opened the night our Saviour was born, and that placed in any
house it will open when a child is born. That mouseare if given to any
horse "will cause that he shall not be hurt by the Smith that shooeth
him." That purslane is not only a sovereign remedy for crick in the
neck, but also for "blastings by lightening, or planets and for
burnings by Gunpowder or otherwise." That country folk in Kent and
Sussex call sopewort "Gill-run-by-the-streete." That agrimony leaves
will cure cattle suffering from coughs, and that wounded deer use this
same herb to heal their hurts. That a decoction made of hemp will draw
earthworms out of their holes and that fishermen thus obtain their
bait. That crops of woad may be cut three times in the year, and that
dyers' weed will change to green any cloth or silk first dyed blue with
woad, "and for these uses there is great store of this herbe spent in
all countries and thereof many fields are sowen for the purpose." That
country-folk use goose-grass as a strainer "to clear their milke from
strawes, haires, and any other thing that falleth into it." That St.
John's wort is used by country-folk to drive away devils. That "Clownes
woundwort" owes its name to a labourer who healed himself therewith of
a cut with a scythe in his leg. That willow-herb, being burned,
"driveth away flies and gnats and other such like small creatures which
use in diverse places that are neere to Fennes, marsh or water sides to
infest them that dwell there in the night season to sting and bite
them, leaving the marks and spots thereof in their faces which beside
the deformity, which is but for a while, leaveth them that are thus
bitten not without paine for a time." That from turnesole
(heliotropium) are made "those ragges of cloth which are usually called
Turnesole in the Druggists and Grocers shoppes and with all other
people and serveth to colour jellies or other things as every one
please." That when French ladies coloured their faces with an ointment
containing anchusa the colour did not last long. That no "good
gentlewoman in the land that would do good" should be without a store
of bugloss ointment either for her own family "or other her poor
neighbours that want helpe and means to procure it," and that beyond
the sea in France and Germany it is a common proverb "that they neede
neither Physition to cure their inward diseases nor Chirurgion to helpe
them of any wound or sore that have this Bugle and Sanicle at hand by
them to use." That this is equally true of the herb self-heale. That
country-folk use sanicle to anoint their hands "when they are chapt by
the winde." That goat's rue is good for fattening hens. That Herbe True
love taken every day for twenty days will help those "that by
witchcraft (as it is thought) have become half foolish to become
perfectly restored to their former good estate." That the best starch
is made from the root of cuckoo-pint, and that in former dayes when the
making of our ordinary starch "was not knowen or frequent in use; the
finest Dames used the rootes hereof to starch their linnen, which would
so sting, exasperate and choppe the skinne of their servants' hands
that used it, that they could scarce get them smooth and whole with all
the nointing they could doe before they should use it againe." That the
root of this same herb, cut small and mixed with a sallet of white
endive or lettice, is "an excellent dish to entertain a smell-feast or
unbidden unwelcome guest to a man's table, to make sport with him and
drive him from his too much boldnesse; or the pouder of the dried roote
strawed upon any daintie bit of meate that may be given him to eate;
for either way within a while after the taking of it, it will so
burne and pricke his mouthe that he shall not be able either to eate a
bit more or scarce to speak for paine and so will abide untill there be
some new milk or fresh butter given, which by little and little will
take away the heate and pricking and restore him againe." That another
"good jest for a bold unwelcome guest" is to infuse nightshade in a
little wine for six or seven hours and serve it to the guest, who then
"shall not be able to eat any meate for that meale nor untill he drinks
some vinegar which will presently dispell that qualitie and cause him
to fall to his viands with as good a stomach as he had before." That
sufferers from toothache should rub the bruised root of crowfoote on to
their fingers; by causing "more paine therein than is felt by the
toothach it taketh away the pain." That the juice of fumitory, if
dropped in the eyes, will take away the redness and other defects,
"although it procure some paine for the present and bringeth forth
teares." That the hunters and shepherds of Austria commend the roots of
the supposed wolf's-bane "against the swimming or turning in the head
which is a disease subject to those places rising from the feare and
horroure of such steepe downfalls and dangerous places which they doe
and must continually passe." That scabious, if bruised and applied "to
any place wherein any splinter, broken bone, or any such like thing
lyeth in the flesh doth in short time loosen it and causeth it to be
easily drawen forth." That butcher's broom was used in olden times to
preserve "hanged meate" from being eaten by mice and also for the
making of brooms, "but the King's Chamber is by revolution of time
turned to the Butcher's stall, for that a bundle of the stalkes tied
together serveth them to cleanse their stalls and from thence have we
our English name of Butcher's broom." That the down of swallow-wort
"doth make a farre softer stuffing for cushions or pillowes or the like
than Thistle downe which is much used in some places for the like
purpose." That, if ivory is boiled with mandrake root for six hours,
the ivory will become so soft "that it will take what form or
impression you will give it." That fresh elder flowers, hung in a
vessel of new wine and pressed every evening for seven nights together,
"giveth to the wine a very good relish and a smell like Muscadine."
That the moth mullein is of no use except that it will attract moths
wherever it is laid. That if pennyroyal is put into "unwholesome and
stinking waters that men must drinke (as at sea in long voyages) it
maketh them the less hurtful." And to conclude, it is from Parkinson we
learn that "Queen Elizabeth of famous memorie did more desire
medowsweet then any other sweete herbe to strewe her chambers withall."
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF JOHN PARKINSON FROM THE TITLE-PAGE OF
THE "PARADISUS" (1629)]
FOOTNOTES:
[88] See _Theatrum Botanicum_, p. 609.
[89] Both John Tradescant and his son were gardeners to Charles I. and
Henrietta Maria. John Tradescant the elder is said by Anthony à Wood
to have been a Fleming or a Dutchman, but this is doubtful. The name
is neither Flemish nor Dutch but probably English, and in the
inscription on his tomb in Lambeth Churchyard he and his son are
described as "both gardeners to the rose and lily queen." This was
Henrietta Maria. Parkinson in his _Paradisus_ speaks of him as "that
painfull industrious searcher and lover of all nature's varieties."
Tradescant accompanied Sir Dudley Digges on his voyage round the North
Cape to Archangel, and on his return wrote an account of the plants he
had found in Russia--the earliest extant record of plants in that
part. It is interesting to note that in this he compares the soil of
Russia to that of Norfolk. In 1620 Tradescant joined an expedition
against the Algerine corsairs as a gentleman volunteer, and he also
accompanied the Duke of Buckingham (George Villiers), to whom he had
formerly been gardener, on the ill-fated expedition to La Rochelle. On
Buckingham's death he entered the royal service, and probably at this
time established his well-known physic garden and museum at Lambeth.
The house was called Tradescant's ark. There are three unsigned and
undated portraits of the elder Tradescant in the Ashmolean Collection
at Oxford.
[90] It also figures on the title-page of Parkinson's _Theatrum
Botanicum_.
[91] "Now schalle I seye you semyingly of Countries and Yles that bea
beyonde the Countries that I have spoken of. Wherefore I seye you in
pessynge be [by] the Lord of Cathaye toward the high Ynde and towards
Bacharye, men passen be a Kyngdom that men clepen Caldhille, that is a
fair contree. And there growethe a maner of Fruyt, as though it weren
Gowrdes, and when thei ben rype men kutten hem ato, and men fynden
with inne a lytylle Best, in Flesche, in Bon and Blode, as though it
were a lytylle Lamb withouten wolle. And men eten both the Frut and
the Best, and that is a great Marveylle. Of that Frute I have eaten,
alle thoghe it were wonderfulle but that I knowe wel that God is
marveyllous in his Werkes."
[92] See Herodotus (lib. iii. cap. 106); Ctesias (_Indica_); Strabo
(lib. xv. cap. 21); Theophrastus _De Historia Plantarum_ (lib. iv.
cap. 4); Pliny, _Naturalis Historia_.
[93] "Master Tuggie," who lived in Westminster, was a famous grower of
gilliflowers. See p. 116.
[94] White lavender was a favourite with Queen Henrietta Maria.
[95] This he tells us at the end of the preface to the _Paradisus_.
"Thus have I shewed you both the occasion and scope of this Worke, and
herein have spent my time, paines, and charge, which if well accepted,
I shall thinke well employed, and may the sooner hasten the fourth
Part, A Garden of Simples; which will be quiet no longer at home, then
that it can bring his Master newes of faire weather for the iourney."
[96] _Theatrum Botanicum_, p. 601.
[97] _Ibid._, p. 43.
[98] _Ibid._, p. 1405.
[99] _Theatrum Botanicum_, p. 144.
[100] _Ibid._, p. 281.
[101] _Ibid._, p. 265.
[102] _Ibid._, p. 384.
[103] _Ibid._, p. 181.
[104] _Ibid._, p. 422. Of this "Indian Spanish Counter poyson"
Parkinson gives us the further interesting information that "the
Indians doe not eate the bodies of those they have slaine by their
poysoned arrowes untill they have lyen three or foure dayes with their
wounds washed with the juice of this herbe; which rendereth them
tender and fit to be eaten which before were hard."
[105] _Theatrum Botanicum_, p. 767.
[106] _Ibid._, p. 1397.
[107] _Ibid._, p. 1259.
[108] _Ibid._, p. 410.
[109] _Ibid._, p. 518.
[110] _Ibid._, p. 1330.
[111] _Ibid._, p. 128.
[112] _Ibid._, p. 74.
[113] _Ibid._, p. 54.
[114] _Ibid._, p. 1016.
[115] _Ibid._, p. 63.
[116] _Ibid._, p. 95.
[117] _Theatrum Botanicum_, pp. 135, 191, 210, 233, 275, 408, 492,
613, 652, 693, 700, 790, 1075.
[118] _Ibid._, p. 559.
[119] _Ibid._, p. 700.
[120] _Ibid._, p. 1075.
[121] _Ibid._, p. 210.
[122] _Ibid._, pp. 888 and 913.
[123] _Ibid._, p. 144.
CHAPTER VII
THE LATER SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY HERBALS
"Come into the fields then, and as you come along the
streets, cast your eyes upon the weeds as you call them that
grow by the walls and under the hedge-sides."--W. COLES,
_The Art of Simpling_, 1656.
The later seventeenth-century herbals are marked by a return to the
belief in the influence upon herbs of the heavenly bodies, but it is a
travesty rather than a reflection of the ancient astrological lore.
The most notable exponent of this debased lore was the infamous
Nicholas Culpeper, in whom, nevertheless, the poor people in the East
End seem to have had a boundless faith. It is impossible to look at
the portrait of that light-hearted rogue without realising that there
must have been something extraordinarily attractive about the man who
was the last to set up publicly as an astrologer and herb doctor. He
was the son of a clergyman who had a living somewhere in Surrey. After
a brief time at Cambridge he was apprenticed to an apothecary near St.
Helen's, Bishopsgate, and shortly afterwards set up for himself in Red
Lion Street, Spitalfields, as an astrologer and herbalist. Culpeper
was a staunch Roundhead and fought in at least one battle. All through
the war, however, he continued his practice and he acquired a great
popularity in the East End of London. In 1649 he issued his _Physical
Directory_, which was a translation of the _London Dispensatory_. This
drew down on him the fury of the College of Physicians, and the book
was virulently attacked in a broadside issued in 1652, entitled "A
farm in Spittlefields where all the knick-knacks of astrology are
exposed to open sale." By this time his works were enjoying an
enormous sale. No fewer than five editions of his _English Physician
Enlarged_ appeared before 1698, and it was reissued even as late as
1802 and again in 1809. There is a vivid description of Culpeper in
_The Gentleman's Magazine_ for May 1797:--
"He was of a middle stature, of a spare lean body, dark
complexion, brown hair, rather long visage, piercing quick
eyes, very active and nimble. Though of an excellent wit,
sharp fancy, admirable conception and of an active
understanding, yet occasionally inclined to melancholy,
which was such an extraordinary enemy to him that sometimes
wanting company he would seem like a dead man. He was very
eloquent, a good orator though very conceited and full of
jest, which was so inseparable to him that in his most
serious writings, he would mingle matters of levity and
extremely please himself in so doing. Though his family
possessed considerable property it appears he was
exceedingly restricted in his pecuniary concerns, which
probably was the cause of his early leaving the University,
as he observes; though his mother lived till he was
twenty-three years of age and left him well provided, yet he
was cheated or nearly spent all his fortune in the outset of
life. Another author observes it is most true that he was
always subject to a consumption of the purse,
notwithstanding the many ways he had to assist him. His
patrimony was also chiefly consumed at the University.
Indeed he had a spirit so far above the vulgar, that he
condemned and scorned riches any other way than to make them
serviceable to him. He was as free of his purse as of his
pen.... He acknowledged he had many pretended friends, but
he was rather prejudiced than bettered by them, for, when he
most stood in need of their friendship and assistance they
most of all deceived him."
Culpeper wrote a number of medical works which do not concern us here,
but his name will always be associated with his Herbal. His reason for
having written it he affirms to be that, of the operation of herbs by
the stars he found few authors had written, "and those as full of
nonsense and contradiction as an Egg is full of meat. This not being
pleasing and less profitable to me, I consulted with my two brothers
Dr. Reason and Dr. Experience and took a voyage to visit my Mother
Nature, by whose advice together with the help of Dr. Diligence I at
last obtained my desire and, being warned by Mr. Honesty (a stranger
in our days) to publish it to the world, I have done it." It is
impossible to read any part of this absurd book without a vision
arising of the old rogue standing at the street corner and not only
collecting but holding an interested crowd of the common folk by the
sort of arguments which they not only understand but appreciate. In
his preface he warns his readers against the false copies of his book
"that are printed of that letter the small Bibles are printed with ...
there being twenty or thirty gross errors in every sheet." He is
withering in his criticism of those who quote old authors as
authorities. "They say Reason makes a man differ from a beast; if that
be true, pray what are they that instead of Reason for their judgment
quote old authors?" In his preface, as throughout his book, he affirms
his belief in the connection between herbs and stars. Diseases, he
asserts, vary according to the motions of the stars, "and he that
would know the reason for the operation of the herbs must look up as
high as the stars. It is essential to find out what planet has caused
the disease and then by what planet the afflicted part of the body is
governed. In the treatment of the disease the influence of the planet
must be opposed by herbs under the influence of another planet, or in
some cases by sympathy, that is each planet curing its own disease."
Elsewhere he directs that plants must always be picked according to
the planet that is in the ascendant. Culpeper asserts that herbs
should be dried in the sun,[124] his ingenious reasoning being
this:--"For if the sun draw away the virtues of the herb it must needs
do the like by hay, which the experience of every farmer will explode
for a notable piece of nonsense." He also pours scorn on those who say
that the sap does not rise in the winter. Here his argument is even
more remarkable, and yet one cannot help realising how effectual it
would be with the class of folk with whom he dealt. "If the sap fall
into the roots in the fall of the leaf and lies there all the winter
then must the root grow all the winter, but the root grows not at all
in the winter as experience teaches, but only in the summer. If you
set an apple kernel in the spring you shall find the root to grow to a
pretty bigness in the summer and be not a whit bigger next spring.
What doth the sap do in the root all the winter that while? Pick
straws? 'Tis as rotten as a rotten post." He gives as his own version
of what happens to the sap that "when the sun declines from the tropic
of cancer, the sap begins to congeal both in root and branch. When he
touches the tropic of capricorn and ascends to uswards it begins to
wax thin again." One cannot help suspecting that Culpeper knew
perfectly well what nonsense he was talking, but that he also realised
how remunerative such nonsense was and how much his customers were
impressed by it. In his dissertation on wormwood one feels that he
was writing with his tongue in his cheek, especially in the
conclusion, which is as follows:--
"He that reads this and understands what he reads hath a
jewel of more worth than a diamond. He that understands it
not is as little fit to give physick. There lies a key in
these words, which will unlock (if it be turned by a wise
hand) the cabinet of physic. I have delivered it as plain as
I durst ... thus shall I live when I am dead. And thus I
leave it to the world, not caring a farthing whether they
like it or dislike it. The grave equals all men and
therefore shall equal me with all princes.... Then the ill
tongue of a prating fellow or one that hath more tongue than
wit or more proud than honest shall never trouble me. Wisdom
is justified of her children. And so much for wormwood."
[Illustration: NICHOLAS CULPEPER FROM "THE ENGLISH PHYSICIAN
ENLARGED"]
Less popular than Culpeper's numerous writings, but far more
attractive and altogether of a different stamp, are Coles's two books,
_Adam in Eden_ and _The Art of Simpling_. The title of the latter runs
thus:--
"The Art of Simpling. An Introduction to the Knowledge and
Gathering of Plants. Wherein the Definitions, Divisions,
Places, Descriptions, Differences, Names, Vertues, Times of
flourishing and gathering, Uses, Temperatures, Signatures
and Appropriations of Plants are methodically laid down.
London. Printed by J. G. for Nath. Brook at the Angell in
Cornhill. 1656."
The preface is quaint and so typical of the spirit of the later
seventeenth-century herbals that I transcribe a good deal of it:--
"What a rare happiness was it for Matthiolus that famous
Simpler, to live in those days wherein (as he himself
reports) so many Emperors, Kings, Arch-Dukes, Cardinalls and
Bishops did favour his Endeavour, and plentifully reward
him! Whereas in our times the Art of Simpling is so farre
from being rewarded, that it is grown contemptible and he is
accounted a simple fellow, that pretends to have any skill
therein. Truly it is to be lamented that the men of these
times which pretend to so much Light should goe the way to
put out their owne Eyes, by trampling upon that which should
preserve them, to the great discouragement of those that
have any mind to bend their Studies this way.
Notwithstanding, for the good of my Native Countrey, which
everyone is obliged to serve upon all occasions of advantage
and in pitty to such Mistakers, I have painfully endeavoured
plainly to demonstrate the way of attaining this necessary
Art, and the usefulnesse of it, in hopes that this Embryo
thrown thus into the wide world, will fall into the Lap of
some worthy persons that will cherish it, though I knew not
any to whose protection I might commend it. However I have
adventured it abroad, and to expresse my reall affection to
the publick good have in it communicated such Notions, as I
have gathered, either from the reading of Severall Authors,
or by conferring sometimes with Scholars, and sometimes with
Countrey people; To which I have added some Observations of
mine Owne, never before published: Most of which I am
confident are true, and if there be any that are not so, yet
they are pleasant."
There is something very attractive in the last inconsequent remark!
Coles deals mercilessly with old Culpeper. "Culpeper," he says, "(a
man now dead and therefore I shall speak of him as modestly as I can,
for were he alive I should be more straight with him), was a man very
ignorant in the forme of Simples. Many Books indeed he hath tumbled
over, and transcribed as much out of them as he thought would serve
his turne (though many times he were therein mistaken) but added very
little of his own." He even comments on the fact that either Culpeper
or his Printer cannot spell aright--"sure he or the Printer had not
learned to spell."
The Doctrine of Signatures he accepts unquestioningly. "Though Sin and
Sathan have plunged mankinde into an Ocean of Infirmities Yet the
mercy of God which is over all his Workes Maketh Grasse to grow upon
the Mountaines and Herbs for the use of Men and hath not onely stemped
upon them (as upon every man) a distinct forme, but also given them
particular signatures, whereby a Man may read even in legible
Characters the Use of them. Heart Trefoyle is so called not onely
because the Leafe is Triangular like the Heart of a Man, but also
because each leafe contains the perfect Icon of an Heart and that in
its proper colour viz a flesh colour. Hounds tongue hath a forme not
much different from its name which will tye the Tongues of Hounds so
that they shall not barke at you: if it be laid under the bottomes of
ones feet. Wallnuts bear the whole Signature of the Head, the
outwardmost green barke answerable to the thick skin whereunto the
head is covered, and a salt made of it is singularly good for wounds
in that part, as the Kernell is good for the braines, which it
resembles being environed with a shell which imitates the Scull, and
then it is wrapped up againe in a silken covering somewhat
representing the _Pia Mater_."
Of those plants that have no signatures he warns the reader not to
conclude hastily that therefore they have no use. "We must cast
ourselves," he says, "with great Courage and Industry (as some before
us have done) upon attempting the vertues of them, which are yet
undiscovered. For man was not brought into the world to live like an
idle Loyterer or Truant, but to exercise his minde in those things,
which are therefore in some measure obscure and intricate, yet not so
much as otherwise they would have been, it being easier to adde than
invent at first." He then gives his own curious but naïvely
interesting theory of plants "commonly accounted useless and
unprofitable." "They would not be without their use," he argues, "if
they were good for nothing else but to exercise the Industry of Man to
weed them out who, had he nothing to struggle with, the fire of his
Spirit would be halfe extinguished in the Flesh." After pointing out
that weeding them out is in itself excellent exercise, he
proceeds:--"But further why may not poysonous plants draw to them all
the maligne juice and nourishment that the other may be more pure and
refined, as well as Toads and other poysonous Serpents licke the
venome from the Earth?... So have I seen some people when they have
burned their fingers to goe and burne them again to fetch out the
fire. And why may not one poyson fetch out another as well as fire
fetch out fire?" "For should all things be known at once," he wisely
concludes, "Posterity would have nothing left wherewith to gratifie
themselves in their owne discoveries, which is a great encouragement
to active and quick Wits, to make them enquire into those things which
are hid from the eyes of those which are dull and stupid."
Coles's _Art of Simpling_ is the only herbal which devotes a chapter
to herbs useful for animals--"Plants as have operation upon the bodies
of Bruit Beasts." This chapter is full of curious folk lore. He gives
the old beliefs that a toad poisoned by a spider will cure itself with
a plantain leaf; that weasels when about to encounter a serpent eat
rue; that an ass when it feels melancholy eats asplenium; that wild
goats wounded by arrows cure themselves with dittany; that the swallow
uses celandine ("I would have this purposely planted for them," he
adds); that linnet and goldfinch (and have any birds brighter eyes?)
constantly repair their own and their young one's eyesight with
eyebright; that if loosestrife is thrown between two oxen when they
are fighting they will part presently, and being tied about their
necks it will keep them from fighting; that cocks which have been fed
on garlick are "most stout to fight and so are Horses"; that the
serpent so hates the ash tree "that she will not come nigh the shadow
of it, but she delights in Fennel very much, which she eates to cleer
her eyesight;" that, if a garden is infested with moles, garlic or
leeks will make them "leap out of the ground presently." Perhaps the
most remarkable effects of herbs are the two following. "Adders tongue
put into the left eare of any Horse will make him fall downe as if he
were dead, and when it is taken out againe, he becomes more lively
than he was before." And "if Asses chance to feed much upon Hemlock,
they will fall so fast asleep that they will seeme to be dead, in so
much that some thinking them to be dead indeed have flayed off their
skins, yet after the Hemlock had done operating they have stirred and
wakened out of their sleep, to the griefe and amazement of the
owners."
There is one chapter--"Of plants used in and against Witchcraft"--in
which, amongst other things, we learn that the ointment that witches
use is made of the fat of children, dug up from their graves, and
mixed with the juice of smallage, wolfsbane and cinquefoil and fine
wheat flour; that mistletoe, angelica, etc. were regarded as being of
such sovereign power against witches that they were worn round the
neck as amulets. Also, that in order to prevent witches from entering
their houses the common people used to gather elder leaves on the last
day of April and affix them to their doors and windows. "I doe not
desire any to pin their Faiths upon these reports," says Coles, "but
only let them know there are such which they may believe as they
please." "However," he concludes, "there is no question but very
wonderful effects may be wrought by the Vertues which are enveloped
within the compasse of the green mantles wherewith many Plants are
adorned."
Coles, nevertheless, treats with scorn, and by arguments peculiarly
his own, the old belief in the connection between the stars and herbs.
"It [the study of herbs] is a subject as antient as the Creation, yea
more antient than the Sunne or the Moon, or Starres, they being
created on the fourth day whereas Plants were the third. Thus did God
even at first confute the folly of those Astrologers who goe about to
maintaine that all vegetables in their growth are enslaved to a
necessary and unavoidable dependence on the influences of the starres;
whereas Plants were even when Planets were not." In another passage,
however, he writes, "Though I admit not of Master Culpeper's
Astrologicall way of every Planets Dominion over Plants, yet I
conceive that the Sunne and Moon have generall influence upon them,
the one for Heat the other for Moisture; wherein the being of Plants
consists."
The most attractive parts of the _Art of Simpling_ are the chapters
devoted to the "Joys of Gardening." Coles tells us that "A house,
though otherwise beautifull, if it hath no garden is more like a
prison than a house." Of what he has to say about gardens and the
happiness to be found in gardening I quote much because it is all so
pleasant.
"That there is no place more pleasant [than a garden] may appear from
God himselfe, who after he had made Man, planted the Garden of Eden,
and put him therein, that he might contemplate the many wonderful
Ornaments wherewith Omnipotency had bedecked his Mother Earth.... As
for recreation, if a man be wearied with over-much study (for study is
a weariness to the Flesh as Solomon by experience can tell you) there
is no better place in the world to recreate himself than a Garden,
there being no sence but may be delighted therein. If his sight be
obfuscated and dull, as it may easily be, with continuall poring,
there is no better way to relieve it, than to view the pleasant
greennesse of Herbes, which is the way that Painters use, when they
have almost spent their sight by their most earnest contemplation of
brighter objects: neither doe they onely feed the Eyes but comfort the
wearied Braine with fragrant smells. The Eares also (which are called
the Daughters of Musick, because they delight therein) have their
recreation by the pleasant noise of the warbling notes, which the
chaunting birds accent forth from amongst the murmuring Leaves...."
"Of the profits" [of a garden] he says, "First for household
occasions, for there is not a day passeth over our heads but we have
of one thing or other that groweth within their circumference. We
cannot make so much as a little good Pottage without Herbes, which
give an admirable relish and make them wholsome for our Bodies....
Besides this inestimable Profit there is another not much inferior to
it, and that is the wholsome exercise a man may use in it.... If
Gentlemen which have little else to doe, would be ruled by me, I
would advise them to spend their spare time in their gardens, either
in digging, setting, weeding or the like, then which there is no
better way in the world to preserve health. If a man want an Appetite
to his Victuals the Smell of the Earth new turned up by digging with a
spade will procure it,[125] and if he be inclined to a Consumption it
will recover him.
"Gentlewomen if the ground be not too wet may doe themselves much good
by kneeling upon a Cushion and weeding. And thus both sexes might
divert themselves from Idlenesse and evill company, which oftentimes
prove the ruine of many ingenious people. But perhaps they may think
it a disparagement to the condition they are in; truly none at all if
it were but put in practise. For we see that those fashions which
sometimes seem ridiculous if once taken up by the gentry cease to be
so." He quotes the Emperor Diocletian, who "left for a season the
whole Government of the Empire and forsaking the Court betook himself
to a meane House with a Garden adjoyning, wherein with his owne hands,
he both sowed set and weeded the Herbes of his Garden which kinde of
life so pleased him, that he was hardly intreated to resume the
Government of the Empire." "By this time," he concludes, "I hope you
will think it no dishonour to follow the steps of our grandsire Adam,
who is commonly pictured with a Spade in his hand, to march through
the Quarters of your Garden with the like Instrument, and there to
rectify all the disorders thereof, to procure as much as in you lyes
the recovery of the languishing Art of Simpling, which did it but
appeare in lively colours, I am almost perswaded it would so affect
you that you would be much taken with it. There is no better way to
understand the benefit of it, than by being acquainted with Herballs
and Herbarists and by putting this Gentle and ingenious Exercise in
practise, that so this part of knowledge as well as others, may
receive that esteem and advancement that is due to it, to the
banishment of Barbarisme and Ignorance which begin again to prevaile
against it."
The real descendants, so to speak, of the herbal are the quaint old
still-room books, many of which survive not only in museums and public
libraries, but also in country houses. These still-room books, which
are a modest branch of literature in themselves, are more nearly akin
to herbals than to cookery books, with which they are popularly
associated. For they are full of the old herb lore and of the uses of
herbs in homely medicines. It must be remembered that even as late as
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries every woman was supposed to
have some knowledge of both the preparation and the medicinal use of
herbs and simples. When the herbal proper ceased and the first books
on botany began to make their appearance the old herb lore did not
fall into disuse, and the popularity of the still-room books in which
it was preserved may be gathered from the fact that one of the first
of these to be printed--_A Choice Manual of rare and select Secrets in
Physick & Chirurgerie Collected and practised by the Countesse of
Kent[126] (late dec'd)_--went through nineteen editions. There are
some old books which merely inspire awe, for one feels that they have
always lived in dignified seclusion on library shelves and have been
handled only by learned scholars. But there are others whose leaves
are so be-thumbed and torn that from constant association with human
beings they seem to have become almost human themselves. Of this type
are these old still-room books. They were an integral part of daily
life and their worn pages bear mute witness to the fact.
[Illustration: FRONTISPIECE OF "THE CURIOUS DESTILLATORY," BY
THOMAS SHIRLEY, M.D., PHYSICIAN IN ORDINARY TO HIS MAJESTY
(1677)]
One of the most interesting is the Fairfax still-room book.[127] Its
first owner was probably Mary Cholmeley, born during the closing
years of Elizabeth's reign, and married in 1626 to the Rev. the Hon.
Henry Fairfax (uncle of the great Parliamentarian General--Lord
Fairfax).[128] In common with the majority of MS. still-room books,
the Fairfax volume contains much that has no immediate connection with
a still-room, but is full of human interest. It is a curious medley of
culinary recipes, homely cures, housewifely arts such as bleaching,
dyeing, brewing and preserving, to say nothing of hastily scribbled
little notes regarding lost linen (including no fewer than "xxiii
handkerchares!") and the number of fowls, etc., in the poultry-yard.
This last entry, which runs all down one side of a page, is as
follows: "I Kapon, XVI Torkies, XVIII dowkes, IIII henes, II cokes, X
chekins, X giese, IV sowes."
But the most charming entry of all is: "A note of Mistress Barbara her
lessons on ye virginalle which she hath learned and can play them,"
followed by a list of songs, the majority of which have the entry "Mr.
Bird" beside them. William Bird was organist to Queen Elizabeth, and
he presumably was "Mistress Barbara's" music-master. She apparently
also had lessons from Dr. Bull, then at the height of his fame, for
his name appears in connection with some of the items. Amongst the
songs we find "My trew Love is to ye grene Wood gon," and there are
quite a number of dances--pavanes and courantes--which she played. One
feels very sure that "Mistress Barbara" was a fascinating person, but
she could not have been more lovable than her sister Mary, who married
Henry Fairfax. A love-letter, written in Charles I.'s reign, is
doubtless quite out of place in a book on old herbals, but I cannot
refrain from quoting the following, written by Mary to her husband
about six years after their marriage, because it very clearly reveals
the character of one of the many types of women who wrote these
still-room books.
"MY EVER DEAREST LOVE,
"I received a letter and horse from Long on Thursday (Jan.
31) and will use meine [endeavour] to send Procter's horse
to Denton. I did nott so much rejoys att thy safe passage as
at that Bleised and al suficiente gide whoss thou art, and
whom I know thou truely sarves yt hath for a small time
parted us, and I fearmly hope will give us a joyfull
meeting. Dear heart, take eassy jernays and preferr thy owne
heilth before all other worldly respects whatsoever.... I
pray y{u} beg a blessing for us all, for I must needs comitt
y{u} to his gracious protection yt will never fail us nor
forsake us. Thine ever,
"MARY FAIRFAX.
"_Ashton, February 2, 1632._"
I quote only three recipes from this attractive MS.: "A Bath for
Melancholy," "Balles for the face" and "For them theyr speech
faileth."
"To make a bath for Melancholy. Take Mallowes, pellitory of
the wall, of each three handfulls; Camomell flowers,
Mellilot flowers, of each one handfull; hollyhocks, two
handfulls; Isop one greate handfull, senerick seede one
ounce, and boil them in nine gallons of Water untill they
come to three, then put in a quart of new milke and go into
it bloud warme or somthing warmer."
"Balles for the face. Take greate Allecant reasons [raisins]
a quarter of a pounde, stone them but wash them not and
beate them in a morter very fine, take as many almonds, not
Jordans, but of ye comon sort and blanch them and drye them
in a cloth very well and beate them in a stone morter also
very fine, when you have done thus to them bothe, mingle
them bothe together and beate them againe, and putt to it
half a quarter of a pounde of browne leavened bread, wheaten
bread, and beate them altogeather and mingle them well
togeather and then take it and make it in little balles and
then wash yor face at night with one of them in fayre
water. Yf you will have this only to wash yor hands put in a
little Venice soape but putt none of that in for youre
face."
"For them theyr speech faileth. Take a handfull of ye cropps
of Rosemary, a handfull of sage and a handfull of Isop and
boile them in malmsey till it be soft, then put them into
Lynen clothes and laye about the nape of the neck and the
pulses of the armes as whott [hot] as it may be suffred
daily, as it shal be thought mete and it will help it by
God's grace. For the same. Take staves acre and beate it and
sowe it in a linnen cloth and make a bagg noe bigger than a
beane; if he can chow it in his mouth lett hym, if not then
lay it upon his tongue."
To the modern mind the medical recipes to be found in these still-room
books sound truly alarming, but in _The Lady Sedley her Receipt book_
they are not more so than the prescriptions which were contributed by
the most eminent physicians of that day. In his paper[129] on this MS.
Dr. Guthrie quotes many of these recipes, amongst them one from the
famous Dr. Stephens,[130] so frequently quoted by Sir Kenelm Digby and
in other still-room books of the period. In Lady Sedley's book his
recipe is introduced thus: "A copy to make the sovreigns't water that
ever was devised by man, which Dr. Stephens a physician of great
cuning and of long experience did use and therewith did cure many
great cases, and all was kept in secret until a little before his
death; when the Archbishop of Canterbury got it from him." Amongst the
other contributors to this MS. were no fewer than three of the doctors
who attended Charles II. in his last illness, and if they gave the
king even in a mild form medicines resembling those we find in this
book, Macaulay's description that "they tortured him for some hours
like an Indian at the stake" can hardly have been exaggerated. There
is a "Receipt for Convulsion Fitts" from Sir Edward Greaves (the first
physician to be created a baronet) consisting of peony roots, dead
man's skull, hoofs of asses, white amber and bezoar; and the famous
Dr. Sydenham contributed a "Prescription for the head" in which, not
content with the seventy-two ingredients of which Venice treacle
consisted, he added Wormwood, orange peel, angelica and nutmeg.
Another distinguished contributor to this MS. was the ill-fated Duke
of Monmouth. A prescription for stone from Judge Ellis consisted of
Venice turpentine distilled with various herbs and spices in small
ale. It was to be made only in June and taken "three days before the
full and three days before the change of the Moone" (incidentally a
survival of Saxon moon lore), but the Duke of Monmouth's prescription
for the same complaint is quite different and is compounded of ripe
haws and fennel roots distilled in white wine and taken with syrup of
elder. Lady Sedley, the first owner, and presumably author of the
book, was the wife of Sir Charles Sedley, one of Charles II.'s
intimate friends and notorious for his mad pranks. Between her husband
and her daughter her life must have been almost unbearable, and it is
not surprising that the unfortunate woman ended her days in a
mad-house.
Of the MS. still-room books in the British Museum undoubtedly the most
interesting is _Mary Doggett: Her Book of Receipts_, 1682.[131] On the
first page is affixed a note: "This Mary Doggett was the wife of
Doggett the Player who left a legacy of a yearly coat and badge to be
rowed for."[132] The MS. is beautifully written and contains an
astonishing amount of information on every housewifely art, from
washing "parti-coloured stockings" to making perfumes and "Sweete
Baggs." Indeed the reading of the headlines alone gives one some idea
of the multifarious duties of a mistress of a large house in those
days. We find--and I quote only a few--recipes "to make morello cherry
cakes," "apricock marmalett," "to preserve Cherrys white," "to candy
oranges or lemons or any kind of sucketts," "to preserve almonds," "to
preserve damsons," "orange butter," "pippin creame," "to make molds
for apricock Plumbs," "apricock wine," "to keep cherrys all the year,"
"to make cowslip wine," "cakes of clove gilly flowers," "curran wine,"
"grapes in jelly," "cleer cakes of goosberys," "fine cakes of lemons,"
"to preserve Rasps whole," "to make Lemon Creame," "lemon Syllibub,"
"orange biskett," "cheese caks of oranges," "to preserve pippins in
slices," "to make plumb biskett," "to pickle Quinces," "to preserve
Wallnutts," "to preserve double blew violetts for Salletts," "to candy
Double marygold, Roses, or any other flowers," "to make good sorrell
wine," "sweet powders for linnen," "to perfume gloves after the
Spanish maner," "to souse a pigg," "Almond milk," "to pickle
cucumbers," "drinks to cause sleep," "snaile broth," "plasters for
bruises," "to make pomades" and "past for the hands." The receipts for
"A Pomander," for "Balme water," "to dry roses for sweet powder," and
"a perfume for a sweet bagg" are particularly attractive, and I give
them below.
"A Pomander. Take a quarter of an ounce of Civitt, a quarter and a
half-quarter of an ounce of Ambergreese, not half a quarter of an
ounce of ye Spiritt of Roses, 7 ounces of Benjamin, allmost a pound of
Damask Rose buds cutt. Lay gumdragon in rose water and with it make up
your Pomander, with beads as big as nutmegs and color ym with Lamb
[_sic_] black; when you make ym up wash your hands wth oyle of Jasmin
to smooth ym, then make ym have a gloss, this quantity will make
seaven Braceletes."
"A receipt for Balme. Take 6 or 7 handfulls of balme, cut it a little,
put it in an Earthen pott wth a handfull of cowslip flowers, green or
dry, half an ounce of Mace, a little bruised pow[d]er in ym, 4 quarts
of strong ale, let ym stand a night to infuse: in ye morning put it
into your still, poure upon it a quart of brandy. Past up your Still;
you may draw about 2 quarts of water. Sweeten it with Sugar to your
Tast and tye up too pennyworth of Saffron in a ragg, put it into ye
water and let it lye till it be colored. Squeeze it out and bottle it
for your use."
"To dry Roses for sweet powder. Take your Roses after they have layen
2 or 3 days on a Table, then put them into a dish and sett ym on a
chafering dish of Charcole, keeping them stirred, and as you stir ym
strew in some powder of orris, and when you see them pretty dry put
them into a gally pot till you use them."
"A perfume for a sweet bagg. Take half a pound of Cypress Roots, a
pound of Orris, 3 quarters of a pound of Rhodium, a pound of Coriander
Seed, 3 quarter of a pound of Calamus, 3 orange stick wth cloves, 2
ounces of Benjamin, and an ounce of Storax and 4 pecks of Damask Rose
leaves, a peck of dryed sweet Marjerum, a pretty stick of Juniper
shaved very thin, some lemon pele dryed and a stick of Brasill; let
all these be powdered very grosely for ye first year and immediately
put into your baggs; the next year pound and work it and it will be
very good again."
The "Countesse of Kent's" still-room book, which was one of the first
to be published, contains more recipes against the Plague than most,
and with one of these we find the instruction that it must be taken
three times, "for the first helpeth not." Amongst much that is
gruesome there is a pleasant recipe entitled "A comfortable cordial to
cheer the heart," which runs thus: "Take one ounce of conserve of
gilliflowers, four grains of the best Musk, bruised as fine as flower,
then put it into a little tin pot and keep it till you have need to
make this cordial following: Viz.: Take the quantity of one Nutmeg out
of your tin pot, put to it one spoonful of cinnamon water, and one
spoonful of the sirrup of gillifloures, ambergreece, mix all these
together and drink them in the morning, fasting three or four hours,
this is most comfortable." The _chef d'œuvre_ of the collection, at
least in the author's opinion, is one introduced with this flourish,
but it is too long for me to quote more than the comprehensive
title:--"The Countesse of Kent's powder, good against all malignant
and pestilent diseases, French Pox, Small Pox, Measles, Plague,
Pestilence, Malignant or Scarlet Feavers, good against melancholy,
dejection of Spirits, twenty or thirty grains thereof being exhibited
in a little warm Sack or Hartshorn Jelly to a Man and half as much or
twelve grains to a Childe."
Far more attractive than the volume which bears the "Countesse of
Kent's" name are the little-known books by Tryon. They are full of
discourses and sermons, introduced at the most unexpected moments.
Indeed, there are few subjects on which Tryon does not lecture his
readers, from giving servants extra work on Sundays by having "greasy
platters and Bloody-Bones more on Sunday than any other Day," to
sleeping in feather beds. It is interesting to find that women had
already taken to smoking in the seventeenth century, and Tryon
admonishes them thus:--"Nor is it become infrequent, for women also to
smoak Tobacco. Tobacco being an Herb of Mars and Saturn, it hath its
fiery Quality from Mars, and its Poysonous fulsome attractive Nature
from Saturn: the common use of it in Pipes is very injurious to all
sorts of people but more especially to the Female Sex." Tryon seems to
have been somewhat of a Socialist, and he takes great delight in
commiserating "Lords, Aldermen, the Rich and the Great," who are
driven to "heartily envying those Jolley Swains, who feed only with
Bread and Cheese, and trotting up to the knees in Dirt, do yet with
lusty limbs, and vigorous stomach, and merry Hearts, and undisturbed
Heads, whistle out more sollid joys than the others, with all their
Wealth and State can purchase."
The most famous of all still-room books was that written by Sir Kenelm
Digby, the friend of Kings and philosophers and himself a man of
science, a doctor, an occultist, a privateer and a herbalist. Indeed
it would be impossible to catalogue his activities, and he has always
been recognised as the type _par excellence_ of the gifted amateur.
Sir Kenelm was the elder son of the Digby who was one of the leaders
in the Gunpowder Plot. Himself a man of European reputation, he
numbered among his friends Bacon, Ben Jonson, Galileo, Descartes,
Harvey and Cromwell. Queen Marie de' Medici was only one of many women
who fell in love with him, but his one love was his wife, one of the
most beautiful women of her day--Venetia Anastasia Stanley,
immortalised by Van Dyck and Ben Jonson. Sir Kenelm Digby was the
intimate friend of Charles I. and Henrietta Maria, and after the
Restoration he was a prominent figure at the Court of Charles II. When
the Royal Society was inaugurated in 1663, he was one of the Council,
and his house in Covent Garden was a centre where all the wits,
occultists and men of letters forgathered. Aubrey tells us that after
the Restoration he lived "in the last faire house westward in the
north portico of Covent Garden where my lord Denzill Hollis lived
since. He had a laboratory there."[133] One reads so much of the
extravagances and excesses of Restoration days that it is all the
pleasanter to remember the people of whom little has been written, the
thousands of quiet folk who loved their homes and gardens and took
delight in simple pleasures. It is of these people Sir Kenelm Digby's
book reminds us, and even the names of his recipes are soothing
reading--syllabubs, hydromel, mead, quidannies, tansies,
slipp-coat-cheeses, manchets, and so forth. Moreover, there is no
savour of the shop in these recipes, the book being full rather of
flowers and herbs. It is also very leisurely, and in these days that,
too, is soothing. Time we frequently find measured thus:--"Whiles you
can say the Miserere Psalm very slowly" or "about an Ave Maria while."
It takes us back to a simple old world when great ladies not only
looked well to the ways of their households, but attended themselves
to the more important domestic matters. Sir Kenelm collected these
recipes assiduously from his friends, and each housekeeper's pride in
her speciality is very evident. To mention only a few of these, we
find:--"Scotch Ale from my Lady Holmeby," "A very pleasant drink of
Apples," "Master Webb's Ale and Bragot," "Apples in Gelly," "To make
Bisket," "Sir Paul Neal's way of making Cider," "My Lord of St.
Alban's Cresme Fouettee," "The Queen's Barley Cream," "To pickle
capons my Lady Portland's way," "Pickled Champignons," "A
Flomery-Caudle," "My Lord Hollis Hydromel," "Master Corsellises
Antwerp Meath," "My own considerations for making of Meathe," "Meathe
from the Muscovian Ambassadors Steward," "White Metheglin of my Lady
Hungerford's which is exceedingly praised," "My Lord of Denbigh's
Almond March-pane," "My Lord Lumley's Pease-pottage," "Pease of the
seed, buds of Tulips," "A soothing Quiddany or Gelly of the Cores of
Quinces," "Sack with clove gilly-flowers," "My Lord of Carlile's
Sack-posset," "To make a whip Syllabub," "Sucket of Mallow-stalks,"
"The Countess of Newport's Cherry Wine." We may forget the recipes
themselves, but the memory of them is associated with the fragrance of
gillifiowers, roses, cowslips, elder flowers, violets, thyme, marjoram
and the like. I give but these few below, and I wish there were space
for more; for not only are they excellent in themselves, but, in
common with all those in Sir Kenelm Digby's book, they give more,
perhaps, of the atmosphere of the old still-rooms than is to be found
in any other collection.
"Sweet meat of Apples. My Lady Barclay makes her fine
Apple-gelly with slices of John apples. Sometimes she
mingles a few pippins with the Johns to make the gelly. But
she liketh best the Johns single and the colour is paler.
You first fill the glass with slices round-wise cut, and
then the Gelly is poured in to fill up the vacuities. The
Gelly must be boiled to a good stiffness. Then when it is
ready to take from the fire, you put in some juyce of Lemon,
and of Orange too, if you like it, but these must not boil;
yet it must stand a while upon the fire stewing in good
heat, to have the juyces incorporate and penetrate well. You
must also put in some Ambergreece, which doth exceeding well
in this sweet-meat."
"Wheaten Flommery. In the West Country they make a kind of
Flommery of wheat flower, which they judge to be more harty
and pleasant then that of Oat-meal, thus; take half, or a
quarter of a bushel of good Bran of the best wheat (which
containeth the purest flower of it, though little, and is
used to make starch), and in a great wooden bowl or pail,
let it soak with cold water upon it three or four days. Then
strain out the milky water from it, and boil it up to a
gelly or like starch. Which you may season with Sugar and
Rose or Orange-flower-water and let it stand till it be
cold, and gellied. Then eat it with white or Rhenish-wine,
or Cream, or Milk, or Ale."
"A Flomery Caudle. When Flomery is made and cold, you may
make a pleasant and wholesome caudle of it by taking some
lumps and spoonfuls of it, and boil it with Ale and White
wine, then sweeten it to your taste with Sugar. There will
remain in the Caudle some lumps of the congealed flomery
which are not ungrateful."
"Conserve of Red Roses. Doctor Glisson makes his Conserve of
red Roses thus: Boil gently a pound of red Rose-leaves (well
picked, and the nails cut off) in about a pint and a half
(or a little more, as by discretion you shall judge fit,
after having done it once; the Doctor's Apothecary takes two
pints) of Spring water; till the water have drawn out all
the Tincture of the Roses into itself, and that the leaves
be very tender, and look pale like Linnen; which may be in a
good half hour, or an hour, keeping the pot covered whiles
it boileth. Then pour the tincted Liquor from the pale
leaves (strain it out, pressing it gently, so that you may
have Liquor enough to dissolve your Sugar) and set it upon
the fire by itself to boil, putting into it a pound of pure
double refined Sugar in small Powder; which as soon as it is
dissolved, put into it a second pound, then a third, lastly
a fourth, so that you have four pounds of sugar to every
pound of Rose-leaves. (The Apothecary useth to put all the
four pounds into the Liquor altogether at once.) Boil these
four pounds of Sugar with the tincted Liquor, till it be a
high Syrup, very near a candy height (as high as it can be
not to flake or candy). Then put the pale Rose-leaves into
this high Syrup, as it yet standeth upon the fire, or
immediately upon the taking it off the fire. But presently
take it from the fire, and stir them exceeding well
together, to mix them uniformly; then let them stand till
they be cold, then pot them up. If you put your Conserve
into pots whiles it is yet thoroughly warm, and leave them
uncovered some days, putting them in the hot Sun or stove,
there will grow a fine candy on the top, which will preserve
the conserve without paper upon it, from moulding, till you
break the candied crust to take out some of the conserve.
"The colour both of the Rose-leaves and the Syrup about
them, will be exceedingly beautiful and red, and the taste
excellent, and the whole very tender and smoothing, and
easie to digest in the stomack without clogging it, as doth
the ordinary rough conserve made of raw Roses beaten with
Sugar, which is very rough in the throat. The worst of it
is, that if you put not a Paper to lie always close upon the
top of the conserve, it will be apt to grow mouldy there on
the top; especially après que le pot est entamé."
Under another "conserve of red roses" we find this note:--"Doctor
Bacon useth to make a pleasant Julip of this Conserve of Roses, by
putting a good spoonful of it into a large drinking glass or cup; upon
which squeeze the juyce made of a Lemon, and slip in unto it a little
of the yellow rinde of the Lemon; work these well together with the
back of a spoon, putting water to it by little and little, till you
have filled up the glass with Spring water: so drink it. He sometimes
passeth it through an Hypocras bag and then it is a beautiful and
pleasant Liquor."
These still-room books are as much part of a vanished past as the old
herb-gardens, those quiet enclosures full of sunlight and delicious
scents, of bees and fairies, which we foolish moderns have allowed to
fall into disuse. The herb garden was always the special domain of the
housewife, and one likes to think of the many generations of fair
women who made these gardens their own, tending them with their own
hands, rejoicing in their beauty and peace and interpreting in humble,
human fashion something of the wonder and mystery of Nature in the
loveliness of a garden enclosed. For surely this was the charm of
these silent secluded places, so far removed from turmoil that from
them it was possible to look at the world with clear eyes and a mind
undisturbed by clamour. And what of the fairies in those gardens? We
live in such a hurrying, material age that even in our gardens we seem
to have forgotten the fairies, who surely have the first claim on
them. Does not every child know that fairies love thyme and foxgloves
and the lavish warm scent of the old cabbage rose? Surely the fairies
thronged to those old herb-gardens as to a familiar haunt. Can you not
see them dancing in the twilight?
The dark elves of Saxon days have well-nigh vanished with the bogs and
marshes and the death-like vapours which gave them birth. With the
passing of centuries the lesser elves have become tiny of stature and
friendly to man, warming themselves by our firesides and disporting
themselves in our gardens. Perhaps now they even look to us for
protection, lest in this age of materialism they be driven altogether
from the face of the earth. As early as the twelfth century we find
mention of creatures akin to the brownies, whom we all love; for the
serious Gervase of Tilbury tells us of these goblins, less than half
an inch high, having faces wrinkled with age, and dressed in patched
garments. These little creatures, he assures us, come and work at
night in the houses of mankind; but they had not lost their impish
ways and elvish tricks, "for at times when Englishmen ride abroad in
the darkness of night, an unseen Portunos [Brownie?] will join
company with the wayfarer; and after riding awhile by his side will at
length seize his reins and lead his horse into the slough wherein he
will stick and wallow while the Portunos departs with mocking
laughter, thus making sport of man's simplicity." Perhaps they still
make sport of our simplicity, but we shall be the losers if they
vanish altogether from the earth. If in impish mood they lead the
wayfarer into sloughs, do not the sheen-bright elves lighten some of
the darkest paths of pain which human beings are forced to tread? Are
not these Ariel-like creatures links between the flowers of earth
which they haunt and the stars of heaven whence they seem to derive
their radiance? The fairies have almost deserted us, but perhaps they
will one day come back to our gardens and teach us that there is
something true, though beyond what we can know, in the old
astrological lore of the close secret communion between stars and
flowers. Do not flowers seem to reflect in microscopic form those
glorious flowers which deck the firmament of heaven? In many flowers
there is something so star-like that almost unconsciously our minds
connect them with the luminaries in the great expanse above us, and
from this it seems but a short step to the belief that there is
between them a secret communion which is past our understanding.
"This is the enchantment, this the exaltation,
The all-compensating wonder,
Giving to common things wild kindred
With the gold-tesserate floors of Jove;
Linking such heights and such humilities,
Hand in hand in ordinal dances,
That I do think my tread,
Stirring the blossoms in the meadow-grass
Flickers the unwithering stars."[134]
Mystics of all ages and of all civilisations have felt this secret
bond between what are surely the most beautiful of God's
creations--flowers and stars; and its fascination is in no small part
due to the exquisite frailty and short-lived beauty of the flowers of
earth and the stupendous majesty of the flowers in the heavens, those
myriad worlds in whose existence a thousand years is but as a passing
dream.
Goddis grace shall euer endure.
(_Inscription at the end of "The vertuose boke Of
Dystyllacyon of the waters of all maner of Herbes." 1527._)
FOOTNOTES:
[124] John Archer (one of the Physicians in Ordinary to Charles II.)
also asserts in his _Compendious Herbal_ (1673) that "the Sun doth not
draw away the Vertues of Herbs, but adds to them." Archer gives full
astrological directions for the gathering of herbs:--
"I have mentioned in the ensuing Treatise of Herbs the Planet that
Rules every Herb for this end, that you may the better understand
their Nature and may gather them when they are in their full strength,
which is when the Planet is especially strong, and then in his own
Hour gather your Herb; therefore that you may know what hour belongs
to every Planet take notice that Astrologers do assign the seven days
of the week to the seven planets, as to the Sun or ⊙ Sunday; to the
Moon or ☽ Monday; to Mars or ♂ Tuesday; to Mercury or ☿ Wednesday; to
Jupiter or ♃ Thursday; to Venus or ♀ Friday; to Saturn or ♄ Saturday.
And know that every Planet governs the first Hour after Sun Rise upon
his day and the next Planet to him takes the next Hour successively in
this order, ♄, ♃, ♂, ⊙, ♀, ☿, ☽, ♄, ♃. So be it any day every Seventh
Hour comes to each Planet successively, as if the day be Thursday then
the first hour after Sun Rising is Jupiter's, the next ♂, the next ⊙,
next ♀. So on till it come to ♃ again. And if you gather Herbs in
their Planetary Hour you may expect to do Wonders, otherwise not; to
Astrologers I need say nothing; to others this is as much as can
easily be learnt."--_The Compendious Herbal_, by John Archer, One of
his Majesties Physicians in Ordinary.
[125] In this connection he quotes Dr. Pinck, Warden of New College,
Oxford, who, when he was "almost fourscore yeares old, would rise very
betimes in the morning and going into his Garden he would take a
Mattock or Spade, digging there an hour or two, which he found very
advantageous to his health."
[126] Published 1651. The earliest copy in the British Museum is the
second edition, 1653.
[127] See _Arcana Fairfaxiana_.
[128] Lord Fairfax had only a daughter (who married the Duke of
Buckingham), and the son of Henry and Mary Fairfax succeeded to the
title.
[129] Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1913.
[130] Dr. Stephens was the author of the _Catalogue of the Oxford
Botanical Gardens_.
[131] Sloane 27466.
[132] The competition for "Doggett's Coat and badge" amongst Thames
Watermen still takes place every August.
[133] This house is to be seen in Hogarth's "Morning."
[134] Francis Thompson, _An Anthem of Earth_.
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
I
MANUSCRIPT HERBALS, TREATISES ON THE VIRTUES OF HERBS, ETC.
MANUSCRIPTS WRITTEN IN LATIN AFTER 1400 ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THIS LIST.
_9th (?) century._ Liber dialogorum Gregorii cum libro
medicinali in duabus partibus quarum altera tractat de
virtutibus herbarum et "Herbarium" vulgo dicitur altera de
virtutibus lapidum.
Hutton 76. Bodleian.
(This is the translation of Gregory's Dialogues made by
Bishop Werefirth of Worcester. The MS. formerly belonged to
Worcester Cathedral.)
_10th century (Lacnunga)._ Liber medicinalis de virtutibus
herbarum.
Harleian 585. British Museum.
_10th century._ S. Columbarii Epist. versibus Adonicis
scripta. Ad frontem prima paginæ hujus codicis scribuntur
manu contemporanea quæ dam de virtutibus herbarum et
versiculi nonnuli.
Harleian 3091. British Museum.
_10th century._ Leech Book of Bald.
Royal 12 D. British Museum.
_11th century._ Peri Didaxeon. (Saxon translation.)
Harleian 6258. British Museum.
_11th century._ Herbarium Apuleii Platonici quod accepit ab
Ascolapio.
Cott. Vit. C. III. British Museum.
_11th century._ Incipiunt Capites (capita) libri medicinalis.
Payne 62. Bodleian.
(This is a version of Herbarium Apuleii Platonici.)
_11th (?) century._ De herba Betonica. Apuleius or Antonius Musa.
CLXXXIX. Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
_11th century._ Herbarium Apuleius.
Ashmole 1431.
_11th (?) century._ Herbarium Apuleius.
CLXXX. Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
(This copy once belonged to John Holyngborne.)
_11th century._ Incipiunt nomina multarum rerum Anglice.
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
(In the list occurs Nomina herbarum.)
_12th (?) century._ Dioscorides de virtutibus herbarum.
Jesus College, Cambridge.
(Formerly at Durham.)
_12th century._ Exceptiones de libro Henrici de herbis variis.
Digby 13 (VIII). Bodleian.
(The above was compiled, according to Leland and others, by
Henry of Huntingdon.)
_12th century._ Herbarium Apuleius.
Harleian 4986. British Museum.
_12th century._ Herbarium Apuleius.
Harleian 5294. British Museum.
_12th century._ De virtutibus herbarum.
Sloane 1975. British Museum.
_Late 12th century._ Imago Medici Conjurantis Herbas.
Harleian 1585. British Museum.
_12th century._ De viribus herbarum.
Harleian 4346. British Museum.
(In verse, commonly ascribed to Macrus.)
_12th century._ Macer de viribus herbarum.
Sloane 84. British Museum.
_12th century._ De viribus herbarum. Liber Omad.
Digby 13 (VII). Bodleian.
(It is not known who Omad was.)
_12th century._ Macer de virtutibus herbarum.
Digby 4 (XI). Bodleian.
(The last folio is in thirteenth-century hand.)
_12th century._ Macer de virtutibus herbarum.
Library of Lincoln Cathedral.
_12th century._ Herbarium Apuleius.
Library of Eton College.
_12th or 13th century._ De negociis specierum. Inc. circa
instans negocium in simplicibus.
Trinity College, Cambridge.
_13th century._ Epistola antonii muse ad agrippam de herba
betonica.
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
_13th century._ Antonii Musæ libellus de virtutibus herbæ
betonicæ.
Ashmole 1462 (VIII). Oxford.
_13th century._ [Synopsis libelli Antonii Musæ.]
Ashmole 1462 (II).
_13th century._ Synopsis Herboralii Apuleii.
Ashmole 1462 (III).
_13th century._ Herboralium Apuleii Platonis.
Ashmole 1462 (IX).
(The names of the herbs are given in English in rubric by a
hand of the fourteenth century.)
_13th century._ Herbarium apuleii platonici.
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
_13th century._ Aemilii Macri de viribus Herbarum.
Royal 12 B. British Museum.
_13th century._ Aemilii Macri Carmen de viribus herbarum.
Ashmole (1398. II. v).
_13th century._ Liber Macri de viribus Herbarum.
Ee. VI. 39. II. Cambridge University Library.
_Late 13th century._ Aemilii Macri de Herbarum viribus.
(Formerly belonged to St. Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury.)
Royal 12 E. XXIII. (III). British Museum.
_Late 13th century._ Liber Macri de Naturis herbarum.
Kk. IV. 25. (XVI). Cambridge University Library.
_13th (?) century._ Liber Macri de viribus herbarum.
438 (III). Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
_13th century._ De simplicibus medicinis.
505 (II. 2). Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
_13th century._ Poema de virtutibus herbarum macro vulgo
adscriptum.
Arundel 283 (I). British Museum.
_13th century._ Aemilius Macri (Fragment).
Library of Lord Clifden, Lanhydrock, Cornwall.
_13th century._ Le livre de toutes herbes appele "Circa instans."
Sloane 1977. British Museum.
_13th century._ Le livre de toutes herbes appele "Circa instans."
Sloane 3525. British Museum.
Incipit [liber de simplicibus medicinis ordine alphabetico
qui appellatur] "Circa Instans" Platearii.
Ashmole 1428 (II).
_Late 13th century._ Circa Instans.
All Souls College, Oxford.
_13th century._ De medicinis simplicibus sive de virtutibus
Herbarum libellus.
Balliol College, Oxford.
_Late 13th century._ De simplicibus medicinis.
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
_13th-14th century._ Liber cogitanti michi de virtute
simplicium medianarum.
Trinity College, Cambridge.
_13th-14th century._ Herbarium.
Addit. 22636 (XIII). British Museum.
_13th-15th century._ [Lines on the virtues of the scabious
plant.]
Addit. 33381 (XXXVIII). British Museum.
_Late 13th century._ De collectione herbarum.
Arundel 369 (II). British Museum.
_13th century._ De Naturis Herbarum.
Royal 8c IX. (X). British Museum.
(From St. Mary's, Reading.)
_13th century._ De virtutibus herbarum rhythmice.
Sloane 146 (III). British Museum.
_13th century._ Præfatiuncula in totum præsens volumen.
_Inc._ In hoc continentur libri quattuor medicine Ypocrates
Platonis Apoliensis urbis de diversis herbis.
Ashmole 1462 (I).
_Late 13th century._ Hic sunt virtutes scabiose distincte.
Digby 86 (LXXXV). Bodleian.
_13th (?) century._ De proprietate herbarum.
Laud Latin 86 (XIII). Bodleian.
_13th-14th century._ Liber qui vocatur "Circa Instans."
Peterhouse College, Cambridge.
_13th-14th century._ Circa instans Platearii.
Trinity College, Cambridge.
_13th-14th century._ Versus de Ysope (Hyssop).
Harleian 524 (CLXI). British Museum.
_Circ. 1300._ De herba Basilisca seu Gentiana.
Harleian 2851 (XXIX). British Museum.
(Written in England.)
_13th century._ Beginning of a history of trees and plants
which ends abruptly on page 3.
Harleian 4751. British Museum.
_Late 13th-14th century._ [Verses--including 19 lines on
various herbs.]
Royal 12 c. VI. (VI). British Museum.
(Belonged to Bury St. Edmunds Abbey.)
_Circ. 1360-70._ Le liure de herberie en français qui est
apele "Circa Instans," translated from Johannes Platearius,
_De simplici medicina_.
Bodley 76 I. Bodleian.
_14th century._ MS. on the virtues of herbs.
Library of Eton College.
_14th century._ Macri pœma de Viribus herbarum;
præmittitur tabula.
Harleian 2558 (XXIV). British Museum.
_14th century._ De viribus herbarum pœma.
Sloane 420 (XL). British Museum.
_14th century._ De viribus herbarum.
Rawl. C. 630. British Museum.
_14th century._ Macer de virtutibus herbarum.
Sloane 340 (XV). British Museum.
_14th century._ De virtutibus herbarum.
Digby 95. Bodleian.
_Early 15th (?) century._ Macer. Of virtues of herbis.
Hutton 29. Bodleian.
_14th century._ Aemilii Macri de Herbarum viribus.
Royal 12 B. III (I). British Museum.
_14th century._ Aemilii Macri Carmen de viribus medicinalibus
herbarum cum nominibus earum Anglia explicatis.
Ashmole 1397 (E. XV). Oxford.
_14th century._ Macer de viribus herbarum.
Ff. VI. 53 (X). Cambridge University Library.
_14th century._ Macer de Herbarum viribus.
36 (I. i). Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
_Early 14th century._ Aemilius Macer. Carmen de viribus
herbarum.
Arundel 225 (II). British Museum.
_14th century._ De viribus herbarum.
Harleian 3353 (I). British Museum.
_14th century._ [De virtutibus Ros marine in English.]
759 (XI). Trinity College, Cambridge.
_14th century._ Herbal in alphabetical order with descriptions.
Arch. Selden 335. Bodleian.
_14th century._ On simples. Latin and English.
1398 (III). Trinity College, Cambridge.
_Late 14th century._ Herbarium.
C. XIII (IV). St. John's College, Oxford.
_14th century._ Here begynnyt a tretys of diverse herbis and
furst of Bytayne (Old English poem of 43 couplets).
Begins--
"To tellyn of bytayne I have grete mynde
And sythen of othur herbys os I fynde.
Furst at bytayne I wyl begynne
Yat many vertues berys wt inne."
Last line--
"Yche stounde whyle it mai on erthe be founde."
Ashmole 1397 (II-IV).
_Early 14th century._ Experimenta Alberti Magni de herbis
lapidibus et animalibus.
Addit. 32622. British Museum (III).
_14th century._ Secreta fratris Alberti de Colonia ordinis
fratrum predicatorum super naturis quarundum herbarum et
lapidum et animalium in diversis libris philosophorum
reperta et in unum collecta.
Digby 147 (XXIV). Bodleian.
_14th century._ Secreta fratris Alberti ordinis fratrum
predicatorum (i) de herbis xvi (ii) de lapidibus (iii) de
animalibus (xviii).
Digby 153 (IX). Bodleian.
_14th century._ Bartholomæus Anglicus de proprietatibus rerum.
Royal 12 E. III. British Museum.
_14th century._ Bartholomæi Mini de Senis Tractatus de herbis
figuris quam plurimis coloratiō instructus.
Egerton 747 I. British Museum.
_14th century._ ? Gardener. Of the virtues of the herb
rosemary, etc.
In the Earl of Ashburnham's library
at Ashburnham Place. 122 (2. II).
_14th century._ Diversitates herbarum omnium que ad
medicinas pertinent.
Addit. 29301 (III). British Museum.
(The above has fine pen-and-ink drawings of 68 English wild
plants, with their names written in English. The MS.
belonged to the Countess of Hainault, Philippa, Queen of
England, and, lastly, to Mr. Pettiford.)
_14th century._ Herbal.
Dd. VI. 29. VII. University Library, Cambridge.
_14th (?) century._ List of herbs: English names also given.
198 (III). Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
(The above once belonged to John Argenteux, Provost of
King's.)
_14th (?) century._ A list of remedies with English equivalents
and marginal additions in another hand.
200. Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
_14th century._ [Recipes in Physicke] Glossary containing
many herbs.
Pepys Library 1661. Magdalene College, Cambridge.
_14th century._ Here begynneth medecines gode for divers
euelys on mennes bodys be callen erchebysschopes auicenna
and ypocras Icoupon̄ (? cophon) _i. e._ de and on hole
materie aȝen brouȝt and ferst of herbis.
Pepys Library 1661. Magdalene College, Cambridge.
(Various simples are described. After the "vertues of rose
maryne" a series of sections in verse written as prose
beginning "I wil ȝou tellyn by & bi as I fond wretyn in a
book. Þat in borwyng I be took of a gret ladyes prest þat of
gret name þe mest." The following sections are on centaurea,
solsequium, celidonia, pipernella, materfemia, mortagon,
pervinca, rosa, lilium, egrimonye. Ends "Oyle of mustard
seed is good for ache and for litarge and it is mad on þe
same maner.")
_Circ. 1400._ A treatise in rhyme on the virtues of herbs.
Sloane 147 (V). British Museum.
It begins--
"Of erbs xxiiij I woll you tell by and by
Als I fond wryten in a boke at I in boroyng toke
Of a gret ladys preste of gret name she barest
At Betony I wol begyn at many vertuos het within."
_14th century._ De virtutibus herbarum quarundam.
Ashmole 1397.
(On the medical uses of some herbs. Begins, "Bytayne and
wormewode is gode for woundes.")
_14th (?) century._ List of names of herbs in Latin and
English.
1377 II. Trinity College, Cambridge.
Begins, "Apium Commune Smalache."
_1352._ De preperacione herbarum. A treatise on the medicinal
qualities of and modes of preparing herbs, quoting Serapion.
A short list giving first the Latin and then the Irish name, etc.
23 F. 19. Royal Irish Academy.
_14th century._ Vocabulary of herbs in Latin and Welsh.
Addit. 14912. British Museum.
_14th century._ Meddygon myddfai or the Practice of Physic
of the Myddvai Doctors: a collection of Recipes for various
diseases and injuries, prognostics, charms, virtues of
herbs, etc., by the physicians of Myddvai co. Caermarthen.
Addit. 14912 (I). British Museum.
(In Welsh.)
_14th century._ Nomina herbarum. Latin and English.
Addit. 17866. British Museum.
_14th century._ De virtutibus herbæ.
Arundel 507. British Museum.
(The above once belonged to Richard Seybrok, a monk of
Durham.)
_14th-15th century._ Nomina quarundam ... plantarum arborum.
Harleian 210 (XI). British Museum.
(In French and English.)
_14th-15th century._ Names of herbs in Latin and English.
Harleian 2558 (I). British Museum.
_14th century._ Herbal. Latin and English.
(Directions in gathering herbs, flowers, roots, etc.)
Sloane 2584. British Museum.
_14th century._ Liber cinomorum (synonomorum) de nominibus
herbarum.
(Latin, French, English.)
Bodleian 761.
_1360-70._ Nomina herbarum. (Latin, French, English.)
Bodleian 761 (VI. B.).
Two texts from this MS. were published by E. Mannele
Thompson, _Chronicon Galpedi de Baker de Swynebroke_.
Clarendon Press, 1889. He gives a list of the contents of
this volume, calling this item fol. 158, "Medicinal notes
from Roger Bacon in Latin." Interpolated by
fifteenth-century writer in spaces left vacant by the
fourteenth-century scribe are many recipes and much
astrology.
_14th century._ Virtues of rosemary in prose and verse.
Digby 95 (VII). Bodleian.
_14th century._ Of the virtues of herbs.
Digby 95 (VIII). Bodleian.
_Late 14th century._ Herbarium Anglo-Latinum, with many
recipes interpolated in a later hand.
MS. Grearerd. Bodleian.
_Late 14th century._ Names of herbs in alphabetical order
with a few English interpolations. The MS. comes from
Llanthony Priory and was given by R. Marchall.
312 (X). Library of Lambeth Palace.
_14th century._ De simplici medicina John Platearius.
(This MS. is supposed to have belonged to the Countess of
Hainault and subsequently to Queen Philippa of Hainault.)
Addit. 29301 (IV). British Museum.
_14th century._ Nomina Herbarum Medicinalium, with some
English and French names.
Phillipps MS. 4047 (II) now in the
library of T. Fitzroy Fenwick, Esq.,
Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham.
_14th century._ Here ben the virtues of Rosemarye
(purporting to be taken from "the litel boke that the scole
of Sallerne wroat to the Cuntasse of Henowd and sche sente
the copie to hir douȝter Philip the quene of England").
_Inc._ "Rosemarye is boþe tre and herbe hoot and drie."
_Exp._ "Wasche him þerwiþ and he schal be hool."
Royal 17 A. III. (III). British Museum.
_1373._ Translation of Macer _De viribus herbarum_ by John
Lelamour, Schoolmaster of Hereford.
Sloane 5. British Museum.
_14th century._ Particulars of simples arranged under the
various months.
754. Trinity College, Cambridge.
_14th century._ A herbal in Latin and English beginning with
Allium.
(Given by Thomas Gale Dean of York.)
759 (VII). Trinity College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ Aemili Macri de virtutibus herbarum. The
names of the plants are explained in English in the margins,
and there are also some remedies in English.
Ashmole 1481 (III).
_15th century._ Macer. De Virtutibus Herbarum. The English
names of the herbs are also given. (Written by Nicholas
Kyrkeby of Saint Albans.)
VI. 15. Bishop Cosin's Library, Durham University.
_15th century._ Herbal in three books.
_Inc._ "Mogworte or brotheworte ys clepid archemisia ... and
this medicine ys a nobil medycyne."
_Ends_, "Here endeth the third part of Macer. And here
begynneth a fewe herbes which Macer foryete noȝt nor thei
ben nort founden in his book."
Addit. 37786 (II). British Museum.
_15th century._ The treatise of Macer intitled "De viribus
Herbarum," translated into English.
"Here followeth the cunnynge and sage clerk Macer tretynge
and opynly shewy{th} the vertuys worthy and Commendable
propyrtes of many & dyuerse herbys and her vertuys of the
whyche the firste is mugworte or modirworte."
Sloane 393. British Museum.
_15th century._ The vertuys of Erbys aftyr Galyon Ypocras
and Socrates.
Lansdowne 680 I. British Museum.
_15th century._ Here folwythe the vertu of Erbis. Isop is
hoot and drie in ij degreis so seith Ipocrace if a man
drynke it fastynge.
Ashmole 1477 (III-IV).
_15th century._ Aemilius Macer. Of the virtues of herbs.
English translation.
Sloane 140. British Museum.
_15th century._ Aemilius Macer. Of the virtues of herbs.
English translation.
Sloane 2269. British Museum.
_15th century._ Aemilius Macer. De virtutibus Herbarum.
English translation.
In the library of the Right Hon. Lord Amherst
of Hackney at Didlington Hall, Norfolk.
_15th century._ List of herbs in Latin and English.
Sloane 3548. British Museum.
_15th century._ Herbal.
_Inc._ "Of herbys now I
Will you telle by and by.
As I fynde wryten in a boke
That in borrowyng I betoke
Of a gret ladyes preste," etc.
_Expl._ "It dryveth away all foul moysteris
And distroyeth venym and wykyd humours
It distroyeth the morfew
And dispoyling to the leper."
Dd. X. 44 (VIII). Cambridge University Library.
_15th century._ An Herbary þe whiche ys draw out of Circa
Instans and hyt towcherþ schortlyche þ{e} principal vertuys
and þ{e} special effectes of herbis and droggis þ{t} be þ{e}
most comyne in use, and her dyvers grees of qualites or yher
complexions and her propur and most special kynd of
worcheyng.
(At the end of every alphabetical division of this work is
left a page or more, blank, for the purpose of inserting
additional matter. There are several additions by old hands.
Some additions on the margins have been torn off.)
Ashmole 1443 (IV).
_15th century._ Treatise on herbs. 169 chapters, with table
of Contents prefixed.
_Inc._ "Agnus castus is a herbe that men clep Tutsayne or
Park levis."
Arundel 272 (II). British Museum.
_15th century._ An Herbal. Arranged alphabetically to the
letter P.
_Inc._ "Agnus castus is an herbe," etc. Breaks off in
"pulegium rurale." (Other copies--both ending with S--are in
Addit. 4698, f. 16_b_, and Arundel 272, f. 36.)
Royal 18 A. VI. (VI). British Museum.
_15th century._ A treatise on the virtues of Herbs;
beginning "Agnus castus ys Anglice herbe that men cally the
tutsayne or ells parkelenus."
Ashmole 1432 (V. i).
_Mid 15th century._ Herbal with book of recipes.
_Inc._ "Agnus castus is an herbe."
Bodleian 463 (A).
_15th century._ Liber de Herbarum virtutibus.
_Inc._ "Agnus castus ys an herbe that cleepeth Toussane."
Laud Misc. 553 (i). Bodleian.
_15th century._ An Herbal with the properties of the
different herbs in alphabetical order, with a table
prefixed.
_Inc._ "Agnus castus ys an herbe that me clapys Tustans or
Porke levys."
329. Balliol College, Oxford.
_15th (?) century._ "An English Herbal."
Begins, "Agnus Castus," etc.
Harleian 3840 (II). British Museum.
_15th century._ A treatise on the virtues of herbs.
Begins, "A bed ymade of Agnus Castus."
Sloane 297 (XVIII). British Museum.
_15th century._ Latin-English dictionary of herbs.
_Inc._ "Alleluya Wodsoure stubwort."
_Expl._ "Quinquefolium fyveleved gras."
Dd. XI. 45 (XII). Cambridge University Library.
_15th century._ A book of the medical virtues of herbs,
described in alphabetical order.
_Inc._ "Anet ys an herbe that ys clepyt anet oþer dylle."
_Expl._ "doyth a way the fowȝe or the fragelys."
Ashmole 1447 (IV. i).
_15th century._ "Yes ben y{e} vertuse of betayn."
Ashmole 1438 (II. vii).
_15th century._ A treatise of the virtues of certain herbs.
Begins, "Betaigne is hot and drie in þre degrees, and so
seyth Ypocras, and it is an herbe of many faire vertues."
Ashmole 1438 (XXV).
_15th century._ Aemilius Macer. De virtutibus herbarum. (In
French, Latin and English.)
Digby 29 (XXXVII). Bodleian.
_15th century._ Of the virtues of herbs--seemingly out of
Macer. The following verse is prefixed:
"This booke ys drawe be fesyke
That Macer made for hem that ben seeke
The vertu of herbis hēt descrieth ryght wel
And help of mannys helthe every del."
Sloane 963 (XVIII). British Museum.
_15th century._ Macer on the virtues of herbs.
_Inc._ "Mugworte or brotheworte is clepid Arthemisia."
_Exp._ "drynkys juse of thys erbe."
Ee. I. 15 (III_a_). University Library, Cambridge.
_15th century._ Macer. "Vertues worthe & commendable
propertees of many & diverse herbes." In three books.
Rawl. C. 81 (V). Bodleian.
_15th century._ Part of the poem De virtutibus Herbarum. The
English names of plants are occasionally given in the
margin. In the volume containing Froucestre's History of the
Monastery.
Library of Gloucester Cathedral.
_15th century._ A treatise of the medical properties of
herbs and other simples; arranged alphabetically, being a
translation from the treatise of Johannes Platearius, _De
medicinis simplicibus_.
Sloane 706 (IV). British Museum.
_15th century._ English Herbal, Secundum magistrum Gilbertum
Kemor, arranged alphabetically.
Sloane 770. British Museum.
_15th century._ Of the virtues of Rosmaryne.
_Inc._ "Rosmaryne is both tre and erbe."
Sloane 7 (VI). British Museum.
_15th century._ The virtues of Rosmaryn.
_Inc._ "Rosmaryn is bothe tre and herbe."
Sloan 962 (VI). British Museum.
_15th century._ These ben sum of þe vertues of Rosemary, as
the Clerke of Sallerne seyde and wrote tho the Cowntes of
Hynde, and sche sende hem tho here dowȝtur Phylype þ{t}
was weddyde tho þe Kyng of Engelond.
_Inc._ "Rosmary ys bothe tre and herbe."
Ashmole 1438 (II-XX).
_15th (?) century._ This is ye lityl boke of ye vertuys of
rosmaryn yt y{e} scole of Salerne gaderyd & compiled at
instance of ye Cowntese of Henowde.... I danyel bain
translatyd into vulgar ynglysch worde for werde as fonde in
latyn. (The translator adds that before 1432 Rosemary was
unknown in England and that it was first sent from the
Countess of Hainault to her daughter Queen Philippa.)
1037 (1) (XIV). Trinity College, Cambridge.
_15th or early 16th century._ The medical virtues of
Rosemary in prose. Begins, "Rosus marinus is called rose
mary, the virtue of this herbe is goode." Ends, "ne brennyng
of unkynd hete be at þi stomake ne at þ{e} hert." (At the
foot of page 3 is written "Robert Hychys is the ower of thys
boke.")
Ashmole 1379 (I).
_15th century._ Here is vertues and seltyng of Rosmary by
the ij doctours of fysyk followyng. per Galyen and Platery,
and a poem beginning "As in a booke wretyne y fownd Of wise
doctours in dyvers lond."
Ashmole 1379 (II).
_15th century._ Here follwyth y{e} wertues off ye rosses
mare.
_Inc._ "Take rosmare and bynd hem ynne a lynnene clothe."
_Exp._ "Allsso make a bathe off ye floure and y{t} wyll make
ye yonglyche."
Ashmole 1432 (V. iii).
_15th century._ The vertu of rose mary. Tak þe flower of þe
rose mary and bynd hem.
(The above is part of a series of herbal notes, etc.,
interspersed by a later hand in the course of and following
on a fifteenth-century book of medicine.)
Ashmole 1391 (VIII).
_15th century._ "Here men may see þe vertus of dyuerse
herbes, whiche ben hoot and whiche ben coold, and to how
many þinges they arne goode." (Other copies are in Sloane
393, f. 13; 1592, f. 39_b_; 3466, f. 78; Addit. 12056, f. 3;
Lansdowne MS. 680, f. 2 and 17 B., XLVIII, f. 2, where,
however, the arrangement is somewhat different. On page 2
there is the entry, "This is John Rice is boke, the which
cost him xxv d.")
_15th century._ "Here men may se the vertu of dyverse
herbes, and what thei be, and whiche ben hoote and which ben
colde. And for howgh many thynges they ben goode."
(This MS. ends abruptly in "Calamynte.")
Ashmole 1444 (I. iii).
_15th (?) century._ "The virtues of diuerse herbes which ben
hoote and which ben coolde." (With a large table of Contents
prefixed.)
Sloane 393 (I). British Museum.
_15th century._ Treatise on the virtues of herbs. Begins,
"Aristologia rotunda. The virtue of this herbe os Ypocras
says."
Sloane 962 (XII). British Museum.
_15th century._ An Herbary or alphabetical Materia Medica of
herbs & other drugs; beginning with Aloen, Aloes, Aurum, and
ending with Zelboarium.
_Inc._ "Aloen. To purge fleume and malancoly and colore."
_Exp._ "Zelboarium. To moysten and to norschen and to
clensen and wyth cold þinges to akelen. Amen."
Ashmole 1481 (II. ii).
_15th century._ An alphabeticall catalogue of Herbes.
_Inc._ "Aloen hath virtue to purge flewne."
Ee. I. 13 (I). Cambridge University Library.
_15th century._ A collection of remedies in English (with
additions in other handwritings). Begins with "Aloe" and
ends with "verveyn."
609 (II). Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ In Latin and English. Herbal.
Aloe--Zucarium, with notes on Egrimonia, Acacia, in Latin,
and on Cassia lignea and Castorium in English.
43. Jesus College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ The makynge of oyles of divers herbys.
905 (II. 4). Trinity College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ These ben the precious watris & vertuous
for diverse ejvellys.
_Inc._ "Water of wormode is gode ... grete lordes among the
Saracens usen to drink hitt."
Addit. 37786 (I). British Museum.
_15th century._ Of the Herb Moon-wort.
_Inc._ "I schal you tel of an Erbe þat men cal Lunarie,
He ys clepit Asterion; wych ys an Erbe þat men
calleth Lunarie."
Harleian 2407 (IX). British Museum.
_15th century._ Virtues of the onion, garlic and pennyroyal.
Begins, "Here beeth þe vertues of the Oynoun."
Royal 17 B. XLVIII. (II). British Museum.
_15th century._ Miscellaneous recipes and extracts from
herbals.
Begins, "Rosa rebia [_sic_] ys an herbe that men clepyth
rede rosys."
Royal 18 A. VI. (VII). British Museum.
_15th (?) century._ A treatise of herbs and the several
medicaments compounded from them.
Begins, "The roose as saith the philosopher Plinius hath
doble verteus."
Sloane 67 (II). British Museum.
_15th century._ A treatise of herbs, alphabetically
arranged. (Imperfect.)
Begins, "Carabana id est wylde hempe."
Sloane 297 (I). British Museum.
_15th century._ A treatise of the temperature and virtues of
simples alphabetically arranged.
Sloane 965 (VII). British Museum.
_15th century._ "Here men may se the vertues of herbes."
Bodley 463 (B. iii).
_15th century._ Liber de herbarum virtutibus.
_Inc._ "Here may men se the vertu of herbes which ben hot
and which ben colde."
Laud Misc. 553 (II). Bodleian.
_15th century._ Vertues of Herbes.
_Inc._ Apium is an herbe that men call smallache or marche.
Addit. A. 106 (A. IV). Bodleian.
_15th century._ "Here begynnythe to mak waters of erbys
sondry and þer vertues and howe þei schalle be made in
stillatorie."
_Inc._ "In þe fyrst of dyl. The water is of gret vertue."
Ashmole 141 B (II. v).
_15th century._ Instructions for the proper time of
gathering simples by name.
_Inc._ "Medysines ben done, some by leves [som] bi sedis,
som by flowres and some bi fretes."
Ashmole 1481 (II. iii). Oxford.
_15th century._ The medical use "Of waters distilled from
Sundry plants & flowers."
(The above belonged to Richard Saunders, the Astrologer.)
Ashmole 1489 (II. ii).
_15th century._ Alphabetical Herbary.
_Inc._ "Agrymonia is an herbe."
Bodley 463 (B. ii).
_Late 15th century._ Virtues of herbs.
_Inc._ "Here a man maye see."
Selden, _supra_ 75 (E. VI). Bodleian.
_Late 15th century._ A treatise on the properties of plants,
fruits, meat and drinks as food and medicine. (In Welsh.)
Jesus College, Oxford.
_15th century._ Names of herbs.
(Given by Humphrey Moseley, 1649).
69. Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ Verses in English and Latin on herbs and
spices.
(Given by W. Moore.)
176 (I. 2). Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ Recipes in English and Latin.
(Given by W. Moore.)
230 (II). Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ Herbes for a saled.
(This once belonged to Nicholas Butler.)
414 (_d_). Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ Collection of recipes in English, probably
all by John Ardern of Newark. Illustrated with rough
coloured drawings of herbs, instruments and patients. It
begins, "This is a mirrour of bloodletynge in þe weche þey
þt wolen beholden it diligently," etc. There is a recipe in
French for Greek fire. _Exp._ "tabula libri Sirurgice." Mag.
Joh. Arderne de Newerk.
(Given by Humphrey Moseley, 1649.)
69. Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ Here begynnythe an herball of namys &
vertues of diverse herbys aftyr letterys of the a, b, c,
etc.
905 (I). Trinity College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ Virtues of various plants.
905 (II. 4). Trinity College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ On the virtues of herbs.
_Inc._ "This booke is drawe be Fesyk. That Macer made for
hem þat been seck. Y{e} vertu of herbis it discryeth ryght
wel."
1637 (I. i). Trinity College, Cambridge.
_1485._ A collection of the Latin and English names of
plants with their descriptions and medical virtues.
National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
_15th century._ Alphabetical list of herbs. (Names partly in
Latin and partly in Irish.)
2306. Royal Irish Academy.
_15th century._ Alphabetical treatise on herbs and their
uses. In Latin and Irish.
1315. Trinity College, Dublin.
_15th-16th century._ List of plants used in medicine. (In
Latin and Irish.)
1334 (V). Trinity College, Dublin.
_15th century._ Vertues of rose maryne þat er contened &
compyled in þis space & ar gadirde out of bukes of gude
philosofirs & of oþer wyse clerkes.
V. IV. 1. Durham University, Bishop Cosins Library.
_Late 15th century._ Herbal in Welsh.
In Mr. Wynne's library at Peniarth, Merioneth.
_15th century._ The vertu of Rose-marry & other Secrets.
Harleian 1735 (XII). British Museum.
_15th century._ Verses on the virtues of Rosmaryne.
Sloane 3215. British Museum.
_15th century._ Vertues of the herb betayne.
Rawl. C. 211 (II). Bodleian.
_15th century._ Treatise on the vertues of herbs.
Addit. 12056. British Museum.
_15th century._ Treatise on the vertues of herbs & metals in
alphabetical order. In Irish.
Addit. 15403. British Museum.
_Late 15th century._ Herbal.
_Inc._ Agnus Castus is an herbe.
Harleian 3840 (III). British Museum.
_15th century._ A fragment of a treatise on the virtues of
herbs.
Sloane 7 (III). British Museum.
_15th century._ An alphabetical herbal.
Sloane 297 (VII). British Museum.
_15th century._ "Of the vyrtues of the Asche tree," etc.
Sloane 297 (XVII). British Museum.
_15th century._ The first part of an intended complete body
of Pharmacy in seven parts. The first part treats of herbs,
which are alphabetically arranged in 150 chapters.
Sloane 404 (I). British Museum.
_15th century._ On the virtues of herbs, with recipes for
various disorders. The last is a charm "for alle maner
woundys."
Sloane 540 (I). British Museum.
_15th century._ For to knowe the ix Sauge levys.
Sloane 706 (VIII). British Museum.
_15th century._ Treatise on the virtues of herbs
alphabetically arranged.
Sloane 1088 (I). British Museum.
_15th century._ Herbes necessarie for a Gardyn.
Sloane 120 (I). British Museum.
_15th century._ On the virtues of herbs.
Sloane 2403. British Museum.
_15th century._ Poem on the virtues of herbs.
Sloane 2457. British Museum.
_15th century._ Treatise on the virtues of herbs.
Sloane 2460. British Museum.
_Early 15th century._ A fewe othre dyverse herbes with her
vertues wich be not yfound in the bokes of Macer.
Rawl. C. 212 (II). Bodleian.
_15th (?) century._ A treatise on medicinal herbs. (In
Irish.)
Royal Irish Academy, 23 H 19.
_15th century._ A fragment of a treatise on the medicinal
properties of herbs. (In Irish.)
Royal Irish Academy, 2306.
_15th (?) century._ A treatise on herbs and their medicinal
qualities and the mode of preparing and administering them.
(In Irish.)
Royal Irish Academy, 2395.
_15th-16th century._ Alphabetical list of plants used in
medicine and the manner of preparing them. (In Latin and
Irish.)
1334 (II). Trinity College, Dublin.
_1415._ Alphabetical list of plants used in medicine. At the
end is the transcriber's name, "Aedh Buide O'Leigin," and
the date 1415. Also the name of the person from whom the
original MS. was purchased--"Tad hg O'Cuinn bachelor in
physic." (In Irish.)
1343 (II). Trinity College, Dublin.
_15th century._ A dictionary of herbs in Latin and English.
In the Marquis of Bath's library at Longleat, Wilts.
_15th century._ Treatise without title on the virtues of
herbs.
In Lord Leconfield's library
at Petworth House, Sussex.
_15th century._ Medicinal qualities of herbs.
Phillipps MS. 11077, now in the
library of T. Fitzroy Fenwick, Esq.,
Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham.
II
ENGLISH HERBALS
(Printed books)
The Herbals are listed according to authors, or, in the case of
anonymous works, according to the names by which they are usually
known, and all known editions are given. In cases where only one copy
of an edition is known the library where it is to be found is
indicated. Editions mentioned in Ames, Hazlitt, etc., but of which no
copies are now known, are listed, but in each case the fact that the
only mention of them is to be found in one of the above is stated. []
indicates books which are not strictly herbals, but whose omission
would make any bibliography of herbals incomplete.
_Bartholomæus Anglicus._
1495. [Bartholomæus Anglicus. De proprietatibus rerum.] The
seventeenth book of the above--containing nineteen
chapters--is on herbs. It was the first original work on
plants by an English writer to be printed, and the woodcut
at the beginning of the book was probably the first
botanical illustration to be printed in an English book.
There is the following note on a slip in the copy of this
edition in the British Museum. "This is generally considered
to be the finest copy known of a work which is certainly the
_chef d'œuvre_ of Winkin de Worde's press. The paper on
which it is printed is said to be the first ever made in
England for the press. See Douce, ii. 278. Dibdin, _Typt.
Ant._ ii. 310."
1535. Bartholomeus de Proprietatibus Rerum. Londini in
Aedibus Thomæ Berthelete. Regii Impressoris.
1582. Batman uppon Barthōlome His Booke De Proprietatibus
Rerum. Newly corrected, enlarged and amended: with such
Additions as are requisite unto every seuerall Booke: Taken
foorth of the most approved Authors, the like heretofore not
translated in English. Profitable for all Estates as well
for the benefite of the Mind as the Bodie. London. Imprinted
by Thomas East, dwelling by Paules Wharfe.
(For foreign editions, French, Dutch and Spanish
translations, see Bibliography of Foreign Printed Herbals,
p. 225.)
_Banckes's Herbal._
1525. ¶ Here begynnyth a new mater / the whiche sheweth and
| treateth of y{e} vertues & proprytes of her- | bes / the
whiche is called | an Herball | ['.'] | ¶ Cum gratia &
priuilegio | a rege indulto |
_Colophon._ ¶ Imprynted by me Rycharde Banckes / dwellynge
in | Lōdō / a lytel fro y{e} Stockes in ye Pultry /
y{e} xxv day of | Marche. The yere of our Lorde, M.CCCCC. &
XXV. Black-letter 4to.
1526. Second edition of above. Only known copy is in the
Cambridge University Library. Title and colophon identical
except for slight differences in spelling.
¶ Here begynneth a newe marer / y{e} whiche sheweth and |
treateth of the vertues & propertes of her- | bes / the
whiche is callyd | an Herball | [.'.] | ¶ Cum priuilegio. |
_Colophon._ ¶ Imprynted by me Rycharde Banckes / dwellynge
in | Lōdō / a lytell fro y{e} Stockes in y{e} Pultry /
ye xxv daye of June. The yere of our Lorde, M.CCCCC. & XXVI.
Black-letter 4to.
1530. (approximate date assigned in the catalogue of the
British Museum). A boke of | the propertyes | of herbes the
| whiche is | called an | Herbal | [~cross pattée~] |
_Colophon._ Imprynted at | London in Fletestrete at | the
sygne of the George by | me Robert Red- | man [.'.] |
[~cross pattée~] | Black-letter 8vo.
1532-1537 (approximate date assigned by Mr. H. M. Barlow).
"'A boke of the propertyes of herbes the which is called an
Herbal.' Contains k{4}. 'At the end, Imprynted at London by
me John Skot dwellynge in Fauster Lane.' This over his
device which is his cypher on a shield, hung on a rose-tree,
flowering above the shield, supported by two griffins: at
the bottom is a dog nearly couchant; I. S., the initials of
his name, one on each side of the trunk of the tree. In the
collection of Mr. Alchorne. Twelves."
The above is quoted from Herbert's edition of Ames, 1785. No
copy of the work can now be found in any of the chief
British libraries. Mr. Gordon Duff in his list of books
printed by John Skot mentions "The Book of Herbes. 12mo.
undated."
The following editions printed by Robert Wyer are all
undated. The dates assigned in the British Museum Catalogue
are 1530, 1535, 1540.
¶ If A newe Her- | ball of Macer, | Translated | out of
La- | ten in to | Englysshe.
_Colophon._ ¶ Imprynted by | me Robert wyer, | dwellynge in
saint Martyns pa | ryshe, at the sygne of saynt | John̄
Euangelyst | besyde Charyn | ge Crosse. | [~cross pattée~] |
Secretary type, 8vo.
¶ Hereafter folo | weth the know- | ledge, proper | ties,
and the | vertues of | Herbes.
_Colophon._ ¶ Imprynted by | me Robert Wyer, | dwellynge in
saynt Martyns pa- | rysshe, at the sygne of saynt | John̄
Euangelyst, | besyde Charyn | ge Crosse. | [~cross pattée~]
| Secretary type 8vo.
Macers | Herbal | Practy- | syd by | Doctor | Lynacro |
Translated out of laten, | into Englysshe, which | shewynge
theyr Ope- | raycions & Vertues, | set in the margent | of
this Boke, to | the extent you | myght knowe | theyr Ver- |
tues.
_Colophon._ Imprynted by | me Robert wyer | dwellynge in
seynt Martyns Pa- | rysshe at the sygne of seynt | Iohn̄
Euangelyst, besyde Charyn- | ge Crosse. Black-letter 8vo.
The only known copies of the two following editions are in
the Bodleian Library.
1541. A boke of | the propertyes | of herbes the whiche | is
called an Har | bal, MD. | XLI. |
_Colophon._ ¶ Imprynted at London | in Paules Churchyearde,
| at the Sygne of the may- | dens head by Tho- | mas Petyt.
| M.D.X.(I.) Black-letter 8vo.
1546. A boke of | the propertyes | of herbes the | whiche is
| called an | Herbal.
_Colophon._ Imprinted | at London in Fletstrete | at the
sygne of the George | nexte to seynt Dunstones churche | by
me Wyllyam Myddylton | in the yere of our Lorde |
M.CCCCC.XLVI. | The thyrde day | of July | Black-letter 8vo.
1548 (date assigned in the catalogue of the library of the
Manchester Medical Society. Only known copy.) ¶ A boke of |
the propertes | of herbes the | which is cal | led an her |
bal. | [~cross pattée~] |
_Colophon._ Imprynted at | London by | Johan Waley, |
dwellynge in | Foster Lane. | Black-letter 8vo.
1550 (date assigned in the British Museum Catalogue). A boke
of the | properties of Herbes called an her- | ball,
whereunto is added the tyme y{e} | herbes, floures and Sedes
shoulde | be gathered to be kept the whole ye- | re, with
the vertue of y{e} Herbes whē | they are stylled. Also a
generall rule | of al manner of Herbes drawen out | of an
auncient boke | of Physycke by | W. C. |
_Colophon._ Imprinted at London by Wyllyam | Copland. |
Black-letter 8vo.
1552 (date assigned in the British Museum Catalogue). A boke
of the | propreties of Herbes called an her | ball,
whereunto is added the time y{e} | herbes, floures and
Sedes shold | be gathered to be kept the whole | yere | wyth
the vertue of y{e} Her- | bes when they are stilled. Al- |
so a generall rule of all ma- | ner of Herbes drawen | out
of an auncyent | booke of Phisyck | by W. C. |
_Colophon._ ¶ Imprynted at London in the | Flete strete at
the sygne of | the Rose Garland by | me Wyllyam Copland. |
for John Wyght |. Black-letter 8vo.
The two following editions published by Anthony Kitson and
Richard Kele may be ascribed to Copland's press. No copies
exist in the chief British libraries. The titles are quoted
from Ames.
"A booke of the properties of Herbes, called an Herball.
Whereunto is added the tyme that Herbes, Floures and Seedes
should bee gathered to bee kept the whole yeare, wyth the
vertue of the Herbes when they are stylled. Also a generall
rule of all maner of Herbs, drawen out of an auncient booke
of Physicke by W. C. _Walter Carey._ Contains besides X{4}
in eights. For him."
1550 (date assigned by Mr. Gordon Duff, but in Ames 1552).
"The book of the properties of herbes, called an herball,
etc., drawn out of an ancient book of phisyck by W. C."
1550. A lytel | herball of the | properties of her- | bes
newely amended & corrected, | with certayne addicions at the
ende | of the boke, declaryng what herbes | hath influence
of certaine Sterres | and constellations, wherby may be |
chosen the beast & most luckye | tymes and dayes of their
mini- | stracion, accordynge to the | Moone being in the
sig- | nes of heauen, the | which is dayly | appoynted | in
the Almanacke, made & gathered | in the yere of our Lorde
god | M.D.L. the xii day of Fe- | bruary by Anthonye |
Askham Phi- | sycyon.
_Colophon._ Imprinted at | London in Flete- | strete at the
signe of the George | nexte to Saynte Dunstones | Churche by
Wylly- | am Powell. In the yeare of oure Lorde | M.D.L. the
twelfe day of Marche. Black-letter 8vo.
1550 A litle Her- | ball of the properties of Herbes, |
newly amended & corrected, wyth | certayne Additions at the
ende of | the boke, declaring what Herbes | hath influence
of certain Sterres | and constellations, whereby maye | be
chosen the best & most lucky | tymes & dayes of their
mini- | stracion, according to the Moone | beyng in the
signes of heauē | the which is daily appoī | ted in
the Almanacke, | made and gathe- | red in the yeare | of our
Lorde | God. | M.D.L. the xii daye of Febru | ary by Anthony
Askhā | Physycyon |
_Colophon._ Imprynted at London, in | Paule's churchyarde,
at the signe of the Swanne, by | Ihon Kynge. | Black-letter
8{vo}.
1555-1561 (approximate date assigned by Mr. H. M. Barlow).
¶ A boke of the | propreties of Herbes called an her | ball,
whereunto is added the time y{e} | herbes, floures and Sedes
shold | be gathered to be kept the whole | yere, with the
vertue of y{e} Her | bes when they are stilled. Al- | so a
general rule of al ma- | ner of Herbes drawen out of an
auncient | boke of Phisyck | by W. C. |
_Colophon._ ¶ Imprinted at London by | Iohn kynge, for |
Abraham Wely |. Black-letter 8{vo}.
_The Grete Herball._
1516. The Grete Herball. Imprented at London in Southwark by
me Peter Treveris. MD XVI. the xx day of June.
(Mentioned by Ames. No copy of this edition in any of the
chief British libraries and no other record of it.)
1525(?). The Grete herball, which is translated out ye
Frensshe into Englysshe. With the Mark of Peter Treveris.
Undated.
(Mentioned by Hazlitt, who ascribes the date 1525-6. There
is no other record of this edition.)
1527. The grete herball. MDXXVII. 18 April.
(Mentioned by Ames as having been printed by Treveris for
Laurence Andrew. No copy of this edition in any of the chief
British libraries and no other record of it.)
1526. The grete herball | whiche geueth parfyt knowlege and
under- | standyng of all maner of herbes & there gracyous
vertues whiche god hath | ordeyned for our prosperous
welfare and helth, for they hele & cure all maner | of
dyseases and sekenesses that fall or mysfortune to all maner
of creatoures | of god created, practysed by many expert and
wyse maysters, as Auicenna and | other &c. Also it geueth
full parfyte understandynge of the booke lately pryn | ted
by me (Peter treueris) named the noble experiens of the
vertuous hand | warke of Surgery.
_Colophon._ ¶ Imprentyd at London in South- | warke by me
peter Treueris, dwel- | lynge in the sygne of the wodows. |
In the yere of our Lorde god. M.D. | XXVI. the xxvii day of
July. Black-letter folio.
1529. Second edition of the above also printed by Treveris.
Wording of the title is the same.
_Colophon_ differs from the first edition in that it does
not contain the printer's address.
¶ Imprynted at London in South | warke by me Peter Treueris.
In | the yere of our Lorde god. M.D.XXIX. | the xvii day of
Marce. Black-letter folio.
1539. The great herball | newly corrected. | The contents of
this boke. | A table after the Latyn names of all | herbes,
| A table after the Englyshe names of all | herbes. | The
propertees and qualytes of all | thynges in this booke, |
The descrypcyon of urynes, how a man | shall haue trewe
knowledge of all seke- | nesses. | An exposycyon of the
wordes obscure and | not well knowen. | A table, quyckly to
fynde Remedyes | for all dyseases. | God saue the Kynge. |
Londine in Edibus Thome Gybson. | Anno | M.D.XXXIX.
Black-letter folio.
This edition contains no cuts.
1550. Edition of "The Grete Herball" mentioned in Ames and
Pulteney. No copy of this edition in any of the chief
British libraries.
1561. The greate Herball, which | geueth parfyte knowledge &
un- | derstandinge of al maner of her | bes, and theyr
gracious vertues, whiche God hath ordeyned for | our
prosperous welfare and health, for they heale and cure all
ma- | ner of diseases and sekenesses, that fall or
mysfortune too all | maner of creatures of God created,
practysed by many | experte and wyse maysters, as Auicenna,
Pandecta, | and more other, &c. ¶ Newlye corrected and dili
| gently ouersene. | In the yeare of our Lord | God.
M.CCCCC.LXI.
_Colophon._ Imprynted at London in | Paules churcheyarde, at
the signe of the Swane, | by Jhon Kynge. In the yeare of our
| Lorde God. M.D.LXI. Black-letter folio.
_"The vertuose boke Of Distyllacyon of the waters of all maner of
Herbes."_
1527. [The vertuose boke of Distyllacyon of the waters of
all maner of Herbes / with the figures of the styllatoryes /
Fyrst made and compyled by the thyrte yeres study and labour
of the most conynge and famous mayster of phisyke / Master
Jherom bruynswyke And now newly Translate out of Duyche into
Englysshe. Not only to the synguler helpe and profyte of the
Surgyens / Physycyens / and Pothecaryes / But also of all
maner of people / Parfytely and in dewe tyme and ordre to
lerne to dystyll all maner of Herbes / To the Profyte / cure
/ and Remedy of all maner dysseases and Infirmytees Apparant
and not apparant. ¶ And ye shall understand that the waters
be better than the Herbes / as Auicenna testefyeth in his
fourthe Conon saynge that all maner medicynes ysed with
theyr substance / febleth and maketh aged / and weke.
¶ Cum gratia et preuilegio regali.
_Colophon._ Imprinted at London in the flete strete by me
Laurens Andrewe / in the sygne of the golden Crosse. In the
yere of our lorde M.CCCC.XXVII (_sic_) the xvii daye of
Apryll.
Goddis grace shall euer endure.
Second edition. Title identical with above.
_Colophon._ Imprynted at London in the flete strete by me
Laurens Andrewe / in the Sygne of the golden Crosse. In the
yere of our Lorde MCCCCCXXVII, the xviii daye of Apryll.
¶ Goddys grace shall euer endure.]
(This edition, although professedly printed one day later,
varies considerably from the preceding.)
_William Turner._
1538. [Libellus de | re herbaria novus | in quo herbarum
aliquot no- | mina greca, latina & Anglica | habes, vna cum
nomini- | bus officinarum, in | gratiam stu- | diose |
iuuentutis nunc pri- | mum in lucem | æditus. Londini apud
Ioannem Bydellum | Anno dn̄i. 1538.]
1877. [Libellus de re herbaria novus by William Turner,
originally published in 1538. Reprinted in facsimile, with
notes, modern names, and A Life of the author, by Benjamin
Daydon Jackson, F.L.S. Privately printed. London, 1877.]
1544. Historia de Naturis Herbarum Scholiis et Notis
Vallata. Printed at Cologne.
(This book is mentioned by Bumaldus, but is not otherwise
known.)
1548. The na | mes of herbes in | Greke, Latin, Englishe, |
Duche, and Frenche wyth | the commune names | that Herbaries
| and Apoteca | ries use, | Gathered by Wil- | liam Tur |
ner.
_Colophon._ Imprinted | at London by John Day | and Wyllyam
Setes, dwel- | lynge in Sepulchres Parish | at the signe of
the Resur- | rection a litle aboue Hol- | bourne Conduite. |
Cum gratia & priuilegio | ad imprimendum solum.
1881. The names of Herbes by William Turner, A.D. 1548.
Edited (with an introduction, an index of English names, and
an identification of the plants enumerated by Turner) by
James Britten, F.L.S. London. Published for the English
Dialect Society, by N. Trübner & Co.
1551. A new Her- | ball, wherein are conteyned the names of
Herbes in Greke, La- | tin, Englysh, Duch, Frenche, and | in
the Potecaries and Herbari- | es Latin, with the properties
| degrees and naturall places of | the same, gathered & made
| by Wylliam Turner, | Phisicion unto the | Duke of So- |
mersettes | Grace. | Imprinted | at London by Steven |
Mierdman. | Anno 1551. | Cum Priuilegio ad imprimendum
solum. | And they are to be sold in Paules Churchyarde.
_Colophon._ Imprinted at London, By Steuen Myerdman, and
they are to be soolde in Paules | churchyarde at the sygne
of the sprede Egle by | John Gybken.
1562. The seconde parte of Vui- | liam Turners herball,
wherein are conteyned the | names of herbes in Greke, Latin,
Duche, Frenche, and in the | Apothecaries Latin, and somtyme
in Italiane, wyth the ver- | tues of the same herbes | with
diuerse confutationes of no small errours, that men of no
small learning haue committed in the intreatinge of herbes |
of late yeares |
Imprinted at Collen by Arnold Birckman | In the yeare of our
Lorde M.D. LXII. | Cum gratia et Priuilegio Reg. Maiest.
1568. The first and seconde partes of the Herbal of William
Turner Doctor in Phisick lately ouersene corrected and
enlarged with the Thirde parte / lately gathered / and nowe
set oute with the names of the herbes / in Greke Latin /
English / Duche / Frenche / and in the Apothecaries and
Herbaries Latin / with the properties / degrees / and
naturall places of the same.
God saue the Quene.
Imprinted at Collen by Arnold Birckman / In the yeare of our
Lorde M.D. LXVIII.
_Albertus Magnus._
1560 (?). [The boke | of secretes of Albartus Mag | nus, of
the vertues of | Herbes, stones and certaine beastes. | Also
a boke of the same au | thor, of the marvaylous thin | ges
of the world: and of | certaine effectes, cau | sed of
certayne | beastes.]
_Williyam Bullein._
1562. ¶ BVLLEINS | Bulwarke of defēce | againste all
Sicknes, Sornes, and woundes, that dooe | daily assaulte
mankinde, whiche Bulwarke is | kepte with Hillarius the
Gardiner, Health the | Phisician, with their Chyrurgian, to
helpe the | wounded soldiors. Gathered and pra- | ctised
frō the moste worthie learn- | ned, bothe old and newe:
to | the greate comforte of | mankinde: Doen | by Williyam |
Bulleyn, | and ended this Marche, | Anno Salutis. 1562 | ¶
Imprinted at London, by Jhon Kyngston.
1579. BVLLEINS | Bulwarke of Defence against | all
Sicknesse, Soarenesse | and VVoundes that | doe dayly
assaulte mankinde: Which Bulwarke is | kept with Hilarius
the Gardener, and Health | the Phisicion, with the
Chirurgian, to helpe the | Wounded Souldiours. Gathered and
practised from | the most worthy learned, both olde and new:
| to the great comfort of Mankinde: by | VVilliam Bullein,
Doctor of Phi- | sicke. 1562. Imprinted | At London by
Thomas Marshe, dwellinge | in Fleete streete neare unto
Saincte | Dunstanes Chur (_sic_)| 1579. | Eccle. 38.
Altissimus creauit de terra medicinam, & vir prudens non
abhorrebit illam.
_John Maplet._
1567. A greene Forest, or a naturall Historie, Wherein may
bee seene first the most sufferaigne Vertues in all the
whole kinde of Stones & Mettals: next of Plants, as of
Herbes, Trees, & Shrubs, Lastly of Brute Beastes, Foules,
Fishes, creeping wormes & Serpents, and that Alphabetically:
so that a Table shall not neede. Compiled by John Maplet M.
of Arte, and student in Cambridge: extending hereby y{t} God
might especially be glorified: and the people furdered. Anno
1567. Imprinted at London by Henry Denham, dwelling in
Pater-noster Rovve at the Starre. Anno Domini. 1567. June 3.
Cum Priuilegio.
(The dedicatory epistle is to the Earl of Sussex, "Justice
of the Forrestes & Chases from Trent Southward; and Captaine
of the Gentlemen Pensioners, of the house of the Queene our
Soueraigne Ladie, Eliz.").
_Pierre Pena and Matthias de l'Obel._
1571. Stirpium Adversaria Nova, | perfacilis vestigatio,
luculentaque accessio ad Priscorum, presertim | Dioscoridis
et recentiorum, Materiam Medicam. | Quibus propediem accedat
altera pars. | Qua | Coniectaneorum de plantis appendix, |
De succis medicatis et Metallicis sectio, | Antiquæ e[t]
nouatæ Medicine lectiorum remediorū | thesaurus
opulentissimus, | De Succedaneis libellus, continentur. |
Authoribus Petro Pena & Mathia de Lobel, Medicis. |
_Colophon._ Londini, 1571 | Calendis Januariis excudebat
prelum Tho- | mæ Purfœtii ad Lucretie symbolum. | Cum
gratia Priuilegii. |
1605. Petrus Pena & Matthias de L'Obel. Dilvcidæ simplicivm
medicamenorvm explicationes, & stirpivm adversaria,
perfacilis vestigatio, luculentaque accessio ad priscorum,
præsertim Dioscoridis & recentiorum materiæ medicæ solidam
cognitionem. Londini 1605.
1654. Matthiæ de l'Obel M.D. Botanographi Regii eximii
Stirpium Illustrationes. Plurimas elaborantes inauditas
plantas, subreptitiis Joh: Parkinsoni rapsodiis ex codice MS
insalutato sparsim gravatæ Ejusdem adjecta sunt ad calcem
Theatri Botanici Accurante Guil: How, Anglo. Londini Typis
Tho: Warren, Impensis Jos: Kirton, Bibliopolæ, in Cæmeterio
D. Pauli. 1654.
_John Frampton._
1577. Ioyfull | Nevves ovt of | the newe founde worlde,
wherein is | declared the rare and singular vertues of
diuerse | and sundrie Hearbes, Trees, Oyles, Plantes, and
Stones, with | their applications, as well for Phisicke as
Chirurgerie, the saied be- | yng well applied bryngeth suche
present remedie for | all deseases, as maie seme altogether
incredible: | notwithstandyng by practise founde out, | to
bee true: Also the portrature of the saied Hearbes, very
apt- | ly discribed: Engli- | shed by Jhon | Framp- | ton |
Marchaunt |
¶ Imprinted at London in | Poules Churche-yarde, by |
Willyam Norton. | Anno Domini. | 1577 |.
1580. Second edition.
1577. The Three | Bookes written in the | Spanishe tonge, by
the famous | Phisition D. Monardes, residēt in the |
Citie of Seuill in Spaine and | translated into Englishe by
| Jhon Frampton | Marchant |
¶ Imprinted at London in | Poules Churche-yarde, by |
Willyam Norton. | 1577 |.
(A duplicate of the preceding with a different title-page.)
1596. Ioyfull newes | out of the new-found | worlde |
Wherein are declared the rare and | singuler vertues of
diuers Herbs, Trees, | Plantes, Oyles & Stones, with their
ap- | plications, as well to the vse of phisicts, as of |
chirurgery, which being well applyed bring | a present
remedie for al diseases, et may | seeme altogether
incredible: Notwith- | standing by practice found out | to
be true. | Also the portrature of the said Hearbs | very
aptlie described: | by John Frampton, Marchant | Newly
corrected as by conference with | the olde copies may
appeare. Wher- | vnto are added three other bookes |
treating of the Bezaar-stone, the herb | Escuerconera, the
properties of Iron | and Steele in medicine and the be- |
nefit of snow. Printed by E. Allde by the assigne of |
Bonham Norton | 1596.
(For the Spanish original and Latin, Italian, French,
Flemish and German translations see Bibliography of Foreign
Herbals.)
_Henry Lyte._
1578. A Niewe Herball | or Historie of Plantes: | wherein is
contayned | the whole discourse and perfect description of
all sortes of Herbes | and Plantes: their diuers & sundry
kindes: | their straunge Figures, Fashions, and Shapes: |
their Names, Natures, Operations, and Ver- | tues: and that
not onely of those whiche are | here growyng in this our
Countrie of | Englande, but of all others also of forrayne
Realmes, commonly | used in Physicke. | First set foorth in
the Doutche or Almaigne | tongue, by that learned D. Rembert
Do- | doens Physition to the Emperour: | And nowe first
translated out of French into English, by Hen- | ry Lyte
Esquyer. | At London | by me Gerard Dewes, dwelling in |
Paules Churchyarde at the signe | of the Swanne. | 1578.
_Colophon._ Imprinted at Antwerpe, by me | Henry Loë
Bookeprinter, and are to be | solde at London in Powels
Churchyarde, | by Gerard Dewes.
1586. A New Herball or Historie of Plants: Wherein is
contained the whole discourse and perfect description of all
sorts of Herbes and Plants: their diuers and sundrie kindes:
their Names, Natures, Operations & Vertues: and that not
onely of those which are heere growing in this our Countrie
of England, but of all others also of forraine Realms
commonly used in Physicke. First set foorth in the Dutch or
Almaigne toong by that learned D. Rembert Dodoens Physition
to the Emperor: And now first translated out of French into
English by Henrie Lyte Esquier. Imprinted at London by
Ninian Newton. 1586.
1595. Title identical with above, except for the addition of
"Corrected and Amended. Imprinted at London by Edm:
Bollifant, 1595."
1619. A New Herbal or Historie of Plants: Wherein is
contained the whole discourse and perfect description of all
sorts of Herbes and Plants: their diuers and sundry kindes
their Names, Natures, Operations and Vertues: and that not
onely of those which are here growing in this our Country of
England but of all others also of forraine Realmes commonly
used in Physicke. First set forth in the Dutch or Almaigne
tongue by the learned D. Rembert Dodoens Physicion to the
Emperor; and now first translated out of French into English
by Henry Lyte Esquire. Corrected and Amended. Imprinted at
London by Edward Griffin. 1619.
_William Ram._
1606. Rams little Dodoen. A briefe Epitome of the New
Herbal, or History of Plants. Wherein is contayned the
disposition and true declaration of the Phisike helpes of
all sortes of herbes and Plants, under their names and
operations, not onely of those which are here in this our
Countrey of England growing but of all others also of other
Realmes, Countreyes and Nations used in Phisike: Collected
out of the most exquisite newe Herball, or History of Plants
first set forth in the Dutch or Almayne tongue by the
learned and worthy man of famous memory, D. Rembert Dodeon,
(_sic_) Phisicion to the Emperour; And lately translated
into English by Henry Lyte, Esquire; And now collected and
abbridged by William Ram, Gent. Pandit Oliua suos Ramos.
Imprinted at London by Simon Stafford, dwelling in the Cloth
Fayre, at the signe of the three Crownes. 1606.
_William Langham._
1579. The Garden of Health: containing the sundry rare and
hidden vertues and properties of all kindes of Simples and
Plants. Together with the manner how they are to bee used
and applyed in medicine for the health of mans body, against
diuers diseases and infirmities most common amongst men.
Gathered by the long experience and industry of William
Langham, Practitioner in Physicke. London. Printed by Thomas
Harper with permission of the Company of Stationers.
1633. Second edition. Identical title with the addition "The
Second edition corrected and amended."
_Thomas Newton._
1587. An | Herbal For | the Bible. | Containing A Plaine |
and familiar exposition | of such Similitudes, Parables, and
| Metaphors, both in the olde Testament and | the Newe, as
are borrowed and taken from | Herbs, Plants, Trees, Fruits,
and Simples, | by obseruation of their Vertues, qualities,
natures, proper- | ties, operations, | and effects: | And |
by the Holie Pro- | phets, Sacred Writers, | Christ
himselfe, and his blessed Apostles | usually alledged, and
unto their heauenly | Oracles, for the better beautifieng |
and plainer opening of | the same, profitably | inserted |
Drawen into English by Thomas | Newton. | Imprinted at
London by Ed- | mind Bollifant | 1587 |
(The dedicatory epistle is to the Earl of Essex.)
_John Gerard._
1596. [Catalogus arborum fruticum ac plantarum tam
indigenarum quam exoticarum, in horto Ioannis Gerardi civis
et Chirurgi Londinensis nascentium-Londini. Ex officina
Roberti Robinson 1596.]
1599. Second edition. Londini. Ex officina Arnoldi Hatfield,
impensis Ioannis Norton. (The only known copy of the first
edition is in the Sloane collection in the British Museum.)
1876. Modern reprint with notes, etc., by B. D. Jackson.
1597. The | Herball | or Generall | Historie of | Plantes. |
Gathered by John Gerarde | of London Master in |
Chirurgerie. | Imprinted at London by | John Norton. | 1597.
_Colophon._ Imprinted at London by Edm Bollifant, | for
Bonham & John | Norton M.D.XCVII.
1633. The | Herball | or Generall | Historie of | Plantes. |
Gathered by John Gerarde | of London Master in | Chirurgerie
| Very much Enlarged and Amended by | Thomas Johnson |
Citizen and Apothecarye | of London.
1636. Second edition of the above.
_John Parkinson._
1629. [Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris. A Garden of
all Sorts of Pleasant Flowers Which Our English Ayre will
Permitt to be noursed up: with A Kitchen garden of all
manner of herbes, rootes, & fruites, for meate or sause used
with us, and An Orchard of all sorte of fruit bearing Trees
and shrubbes fit for our Land together With the right
orderinge planting & preseruing of them and their uses &
vertues. Collected by John Parkinson Apothecary of London
1629.
_Colophon._ London. Printed by Humfrey Lownes and Robert
Young at the signe of the Starre on Bread-Street hill. 1629.
1656. Second edition. Title, etc., identical with above.
1904. Facsimile reprint. Paradisi in Sole. Paradisus
Terrestris by John Parkinson. Faithfully reprinted from the
edition of 1629. Methuen & Co.]
1640. Theatrum Bo | tanicum: | The Theater of Plants | or a
Herball of | a | large extent: | containing therein a more
ample and | exact History and declaration of the Physicall
Herbs | and Plants that are in other Authors, encreased by
the accesse of | many hundreds of newe, | rare and strange
Plants from all parts of | the world, with sundry Gummes and
other Physicall Materi | als than hath been hitherto
published by any before, and | a most large demonstration of
their Names and Vertues. | Shewing withall the many errors
and differences & | oversights of Sundry Authors that have
formerly written of | them, and a certaine confidence, or
most probable con | jecture of the true and Genuine Herbes |
and Plants. | Distributed into Sundry Classes or Tribes for
the | more easie knowledge of the many Herbes of one nature
| and property with the chief notes of Dr. Lobel, Dr. Bonham
| and others inserted therein. | Collected by the many
yeares travaile, industry and experience in this subject, by
John Parkinson Apothecary of London, and the King's
Herbalist. And Published by the King's Majestyes especiall
priviledge. London. Printed by Tho. Cotes. 1640.
_Leonard Sowerby._
1651. [The Ladies Dispensatory, containing the Natures,
Vertues, and Qualities of all Herbs, and Simples usefull in
Physick. Reduced into a Methodicall Order, for their more
ready use in any sicknesse or other accident of the Body.
The like never published in English. With An Alphabeticall
Table of all the Vertues of each Herb, and Simple. London.
Printed for R. Ibbitson, to be sold by George Calvert at the
Halfe-Moon in Watling Street. 1651.]
_Robert Pemell._
1652. [Tractatus, De facultatibus Simplicium, A Treatise of
the Nature and Qualities of such Simples as are most
frequently used in Medicines. Methodically handled for the
benefit of those that understand not the Latine Tongue. By
Robert Pemell, Practitioner of Physick, at Cranebrooke in
Kent. London, Printed by M. Simmons, for Philemon Stephens,
at the guilded Lyon in St. Pauls Church-yard. 1652.
1653. Second Part of the above "Treatise." London, Printed
by J. Legatt, for Philemon Stephens, at the guilded Lion in
Paul's Church-yard. 1653.]
_Nicholas Culpeper._
1652. The English Physician Or an Astrologo-physical
Discourse of the Vulgar Herbs of this Nation Being a
Compleat Method of Physick whereby a man may preserve his
Body in health; or cure himself, being sick, for three pence
charge, with such things one-ly as grow in England, they
being most fit for English Bodies.
Herein is also shewed,
1. The way of making Plaisters, Oyntments, Oyls, Pultisses,
Syrups, Decoctions, Julips, or Waters of all Sorts of
Physical Herbs, that you may have them ready for your use at
all times of the year.
2. What Planet governeth Every Herb or Tree used in Physick
that groweth in England.
3. The Time of gathering all Herbs, but vulgarly and
astrologically.
4. The way of drying and Keeping the Herbs all the year.
5. The way of Keeping the Juyces ready for use at all times.
6. The way of making and keeping all Kinde of usefull
Compounds made of Herbs.
7. The way of mixing Medicines according to Cause and
Mixture of the Disease, and Part of the Body afflicted.
By N. Culpeper, Student in Physick and Astrology.
London, Printed for the benefit of the Common-wealth of
England. 1652.
(This is the edition repudiated by the author in subsequent
editions as incorrect and unauthorised.)
Subsequent editions 1653, 1661, 1693, 1695, 1714, 1725,
1733, 1784, 1792, 1814, 1820.
1818. (_Welsh translation._) Herbal, Neu Lysieu-Lyfr. Y Rhan
Gyntaf, Yn Cynnwys Go o Gynghorion Teuluaidd Hawdd iw cael;
Wedi ei casglu allan o Waith. N. Culpeper. Ag amrywiol
eraill, a'r rhan fwyaf o honynt wedi eu profi yn rhinwellol
ac effeilhiol i symud yr amrywrol ddoluriau ac y mae ein
Cyrph llygredig yn ddarostyngedig iddynt: Ac y maent yn
hollawl ilw defnyddw o Ddail a Llysiau ein bwlad ein hunain.
Cewch hefyd gyfar wyddyd i ollwng Gwaed, ac y gymeryd Purge.
Yr ail argraphiad. Gan D. T. Jones. Caernarfon, Argraphwyd
Gan L. E. Jones. 1818.
1862. Second edition of the above.
_William Coles._
1656. The Art of Simpling. An Introduction to the Knowledge
and Gathering of Plants. Wherein the Definitions, Divisions,
Places, Descriptions, Differences, Names, Vertues, Times of
flourishing and gathering, Uses, Temperatures, Signatures
and Appropriations of Plants, are methodically laid down.
Whereunto is added A Discovery of the Lesser World. By W.
Coles. London. Printed by J. G. for Nath: Brook at the
Angell in Cornhill. 1656.
1657. Adam in Eden, or Nature's Paradise. The History of
Plants, Fruits, Herbs and Flowers. With their several Names,
whether Greek, Latin, or English; the places where they
grow; their Descriptions and Kinds; their times of
flourishing and decreasing; as also their several
Signatures, Anatomical Appropriations, and particular
Physical Vertues; together with necessary Observations on
the Seasons of Planting, and gathering of our English
Simples, with Directions how to preserve them in their
Compositions or otherwise. A Work of such a Refined and
Useful Method that the Arts of Physick and Chirurgerie are
so clearly Laid Open, that Apothecaries, Chirurgions, and
all other ingenuous Practitioners, may from our own Fields
and Gardens, best agreeing with our English Bodies, on
emergent and Sudden occasions, compleatly furnish themselves
with cheap, easie, and wholesome Cures for any part of the
body that is ill-affected. For the Herbalists greater
benefit, there is annexed a Latin and English Table of the
several names of Simples; with another more particular Table
of the Diseases, and their Cures, treated of in this so
necessary a Work. By William Coles, Herbalist. Printed by J.
Streater for Nathaniel Brooke.
_Robert Lovell._
1659. ΠΑΜΒΟΤΑΝΟΛΟΓΙΑ. Sive Enchiridion Botanicum. Or a
compleat Herball, Containing the Summe of what hath hitherto
been published either by Ancient or Moderne Authors both
Galenicall and Chymicall, touching Trees, Shrubs, Plants,
Fruits, Flowers, etc. In an Alphabeticall order: wherein all
that are not in the Physick Garden in Oxford are noted with
asterisks. Shewing their Place, Time, Names, Kindes,
Temperature, Vertues, Use, Dose, Danger and Antidotes.
Together with an Introduction to Herbarisme, etc. Appendix
of Exoticks. Universall Index of plants: shewing what grow
wild in England. By Robert Lovell. Oxford. Printed by
William Hall for Ric Davis. An. 1659.
1665. Second edition. ΠΑΜΒΟΤΑΝΟΛΟΓΙΑ. Sive Enchiridion
Botanicum. Or a compleat Herball, Containing the Summe of
Ancient and Moderne Authors, both Galenical and Chymical,
touching Trees, Shrubs, Plants, Fruits, Flowers, etc. In an
Alphabetical order: wherein all that are not in the Physick
Garden in Oxford are noted with Asterisks. Shewing their
Place, Time, Names, Kinds, Temperature, Vertues, Use, Dose,
Danger and Antidotes. Together with An Introduction to
Herbarisme, etc. Appendix of Exoticks. Universal Index of
Plants: shewing what grow wild in England. The second
Edition with many Additions mentioned at the end of the
Preface. By Robert Lovell.
Oxford. Printed by W. H. for Ric. Davis. 1665.
_John Josselyn._
1672. [New England's Rarities Discovered in Birds, Beasts,
Fishes, Serpents, and Plants of that country. Together with
the Physical and Chyrurgical Remedies wherewith the Natives
constantly use to Cure their Distempers, Wounds and Sores.
Also A perfect Description of an Indian Squa in all her
Bravery; with a Poem not improperly Conferr'd upon her.
Lastly A Chronological Table of the most remarkable Passages
in that Country amongst the English. Illustrated with Cuts.
By John Josselyn Gent.
London Printed for G. Widdowes at the Green Dragon in St.
Pauls Church-yard, 1672.]
_W. Hughes._
1672. The American Physitian; Or a Treatise of the Roots,
Plants, Trees, Shrubs, Fruit, Herbs, etc., growing in the
English Plantations in America. Describing the Place, Time,
Names, Kindes, Temperature, Vertues and Uses of them, either
for Diet, Physick, etc. Whereunto is added A Discourse of
the Cacao-Nut-Tree, and the use of its Fruit, with all the
ways of making Chocolate. The like never extant before. By
W. Hughes.
London, Printed by J. C. for William Crook, at the Green
Dragon without Temple-Bar. 1672.
_John Archer._
1673. A Compendious Herbal, discovering the Physical Vertue
of all Herbs in this Kingdom, and what Planet rules each
Herb, and how to gather them in their Planetary Hours.
Written by John Archer, One of His Majesties Physicians in
Ordinary. London, Printed for the Author, and are to be sold
at his House at the Sign of the Golden Ball in Winchester
Street, near Broad Street. 1673.
_Robert Morison._
1680. [Plantarum Historiæ Universalis Oxoniensis. Pars
Secunda seu Herbarum Distributio Nova, per Tabulas
Cognationis & Affinitatis Ex Libro Naturæ Observata &
Detecta. Auctore Roberto Morison. Medico & Professore
Botanico Regio, nec non Inclytæ & Celeberrimæ Universitatis
Oxoniensis P. B. ejusdemque Hort. Botan. Præfecto primo.
Oxonii, E Theatro Sheldoniano Anno Domini M.D.C.LXXX.
1699. Pars tertia. Partem hanc tertiam, post Auctoris
mortem, hortatu Academiæ explevit & absolvit Jacobus
Bobartius forte præfectus.]
(The first part was never published.)
_John Ray._
1686. [Historia Plantarum Species hactenus editas aliasque
insuper multas noviter inventas & descriptas complectens. In
qua agitur primo De Plantis in genere, Earumque Partibus,
Accidentibus & Differentiis; Deinde Genera omnia tum summa
tum Subalterna ad Species usque infimas, Notis suis certis &
Characteristicis Definita, Methodo Naturæ vestigiis
insistente disponuntur; Species Singulæ accurate
describuntur, obscura illustrantur, omissa supplentur,
superflua resecantur, Synonyma necessaria Adjiciuntur; Vires
denique & Usus recepti compendiò traduntur. Auctore Joanne
Raio, E Societate Regiâ & S.S. Individuæ Trinitatis Collegii
apud Cantabrigienses Quondam Socio.
Londini Mariæ Clark: Prostant apud Henricum Faithorne Regiæ
Societatis Typographum ad Insigne Rosæ in Cæmeterio. D
Pauli.
CIƆ IƆ CLXXXVL]
_Leonard Plukenet._
1690. [Leonardi Plukenetij Phytographia. Sive Stirpium
Illustriorum & minus cognitarum Icones, Tabulis Æneis, Summa
diligentia elaboratæ, Quarum unaquæg Titulis descriptorijs
ex Notis Suis proprijs, & Characteristicis desumptis,
insignita; ab alijs ejusdem Sortis facile discriminatur.
Pars prior Meminisse juvabit. Londini MDCXC, Sumptibus
Autoris.]
_William Westmacott._
1694. ΘΕΟΛΟΒΟΤΑΝΟΛΟΓΙΑ. Sive Historia Vegetabilium Sacra:
or, a Scripture Herbal; wherein all the Trees, Shrubs,
Herbs, Plants, Flowers, Fruits, &c., Both Foreign and
Native, that are mentioned in the Holy Bible, (being near
Eighty in Number) are in an Alphabetical Order, Rationally
Discoursed of, Shewing, Their Names, Kinds, Descriptions,
Places, Manner of Propagation, Countries, various Uses,
Qualities and Natural Principles, &c. Together with their
Medicinal Preparations, Virtues and Dose, Galenically and
Chymically handled and Performed according to the newest
Doctrines of Philosophy, Herbarism and Physick. The whole
being Adorned with variety of Matter, and Observations, not
only Medicinall, but Relating to the Alimental and
Mechanical Uses of the Plants. Fit for Divines, and all
Persons of any other Profession and Calling whatsoever, that
use to read the Holy Scriptures, wherein they find not only
Physick for the Soul, but also with the help of this Herbal,
(may the better understand the Bible, which also yields
them) safe Medicines for the Cure of their Corporal
Diseases. The like never extant before. By William
Westmacott of the Borough of Newcastle under Line, in the
County of Stafford, Physican. Adoro Scripturæ Plenitudinem.
Tertul. London, Printed for T. Salusbury, at the King's-Arms
next St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street. 1694.
_John Pechey._
1694. The Compleat Herbal of Physical Plants. Containing All
such English and Foreign Herbs, Shrubs and Trees, as are
used in Physick and Surgery. And to the Virtues of those
that are now in use, is added one Receipt, or more, of some
Learned Physician. The Doses or Quantities of such as are
prescribed by the London Physicians, and others, are
proportioned. Also Directions for Making Compound-Waters,
Syrups Simple and Compound, Electuaries, Pills, Powders, and
other Sorts of Medicines. Moreover, The Gums, Balsams, Oyls,
Juices, and the like, which are sold by Apothecaries and
Druggists, are added to this Herbal; and their Virtues and
Uses are fully described. By John Pechey, Of the College of
Physicians, in London. Printed for Henry Bonwicke, at the
Red Lyon in St. Paul's Church-yard. 1694.
_William Salmon._
1710. Botanologia. The English Herbal: or History of Plants.
Containing I. Their Names, Greek, Latine and English. II.
Their Species, or various Kinds. III. Their Descriptions.
IV. Their Places of Growth. V. Their Times of Flowering and
Seeding. VI. Their Qualities or Properties. VII. Their
Specifications. VIII. Their Preparations, Galenick and
Chymick. IX. Their Virtues and Uses. X. A Complete
Florilegium, of all the choice Flowers cultivated by our
Florists, interspersed through the whole Work, in their
proper Places; where you have their Culture, Choice,
Increase, and Way of Management, as well for Profit as for
Delectation. Adorned with Exquisite Icons or Figures, of the
most considerable Species, representing to the Life, the
true Forms of those Several Plants. The whole in an
Alphabetical Order. By William Salmon, M.D. London: Printed
by I. Dawks, for H. Rhodes, at the Star, the Corner of
Bride-Lane, in Fleet-Street; and J. Taylor, at the Ship in
Pater-noster-Row. M.DCC.X.
(The dedicatory epistle is to Queen Anne.)
_James Petiver._
1715. [Hortus Peruvianus Medicinalis: or, the South-Sea
herbal. Containing the names, figures, vse, &c., of divers
medicinal plants, lately discovered by Pere L. Feuillee, one
of the King of France's herbalists. To which are added, the
figures, &c., of divers American gum-trees, dying woods,
drugs, as the Jesuits bark-tree and others, much desired and
very necessary to be known by all such as now traffick to
the South-Seas or reside in those parts.]
(Undated.) Botanicum Londinense, or London Herbal. Giving
the Names, Descriptions and Virtues &c. of such Plants about
London as have been observed in the several Monthly
Herborizings made for the Use of the young Apothecaries and
others, Students in the Science of Botany or Knowledge of
Plants.
(Undated.) Botanicum Anglicum, or The English Herball:
Wherein is contained a curious Collection of Real Plants
being the true Patterns of such Trees, Shrubs and Herbs as
are observed to grow Wild in England. By which any one may
most easily attain to the Speedy and True Knowledge of them.
With an Account (affixed to each Plant) of their Names,
Places where Growing, and Times of Flourishing: As also what
Parts and Preparations, of Each Physical Plant, are most in
Use. And for the farther Instruction and Satisfaction of
such, who are Lovers of Plants, The Composer of this
Collection chose to make his chiefest References to the
General History, Catalogue and Synopsis of that Learned
Author, and most Judicious Botanist, Mr. John Ray: As also
to our Two most Esteemed English Herballs, Johnson upon
Gerard and Parkinson; and for your more speedy finding each
Plant, he hath quoted the Page, wherein you may observe its
Name, Figure or Description.
Sold by Samuel Smith at the Princes-Arms in St. Paul's
Church-yard, London.
[Undated. The Virtues of several Sovereign Plants found wild
in Maryland with Remarks on them.]
_Tournefort's Herbal._
1716. The Compleat Herbal: or, the Botanical Institutions of
Mr. Tournefort, Chief Botanist to the late French King.
Carefully translated from the original Latin. With large
Additions, from Ray, Gerard, Parkinson, and others, the most
celebrated Moderns; Containing what is further observable
upon the same Subject, together with a full and exact
Account of the Physical Virtues and Uses of the several
Plants; and a more compleat Dictionary of the Technical
Words of this Art, than ever hitherto published: Illustrated
with about five hundred Copper Plates, containing above four
thousand different Figures, all curiously engraven. A Work
highly Instructive, and of general Use.
In the Savoy: Printed by John Nutt, and Sold by J. Morphew
near Stationers-Hall, and most Booksellers in Great-Britain
and Ireland. 1716.
_Joseph Miller._
1722. Botanicum Officinale; or a Compendious Herbal: giving
an account of all such Plants as are now used in the
Practice of Physick. With their Descriptions and Virtues. By
Joseph Miller. London: Printed for E. Bell in Cornhill, J.
Senex in Fleet-Street, W. Taylor in Pater-noster-Row, and J.
Osborn in Lombard-Street. M.DCC.XXII.
(The book is dedicated to Sir Hans Sloane.)
_Patrick Blair._
1723. Pharmaco-Botanologia: or, An Alphabetical and
Classical Dissertation on all the British Indigenous and
Garden Plants of the New London Dispensatory. In which Their
Genera, Species, Characteristick and Distinctive Notes are
Methodically described; the Botanical Terms of Art
explained; their Virtues, Uses, and Shop-Preparations
declared. With many curious and useful Remarks from proper
Observation. By Patrick Blair, M.D., of Boston in
Lincolnshire and Fellow of the Royal Society. London:
Printed for G. Strahan at the Golden Ball over-against the
Royal Exchange in Cornhill; W. and J. Innys at the West End
of St. Paul's Church-yard; and W. Mears at the Lamb, without
Temple Bar. MDCCXXIII.
_Elizabeth Blackwell._
1737. A Curious Herbal, Containing Five Hundred Cuts, of the
most useful Plants, which are now used in the Practice of
Physick. Engraved on folio Copper Plates, after Drawings,
taken from the Life. By Elizabeth Blackwell. To which is
added a short Description of y{e} Plants; and their common
Uses in Physick. London. Printed for Samuel Harding in St.
Martin's Lane. MDCCXXXVII.
1757. Herbarium Blackwellianvm Emendatvm et Anetivm id est
Elisabethæ Blackwell Collectio Stirpium Qvæ in
Pharmacopoliis ad Medicvm vsvm asservantvr Qvarvm Descriptio
et Vires ex Anglico idiomate in Latinvm conversæsistvntvr
figuræ maximam partem ad naturale Exemplar emendantvr floris
frvctvsqve partivm repræsentatione avgentvr et Probatis
Botanicorvm nominibvs cum præfatione Tit. Pl. D.D.
Christoph. Iacobi Trew. Excvdit figvras pinxit atqve in æs
incidit Nicolavs-Fridericvs Eisenbergervs sereniss. Dvcis
Saxo-Hildbvrg. Pictor avlicvs Norimbergæ Degens. Norim bergæ
Typis Christiani de Lavnoy Anno MDCCLVII.
_Thomas Short._
1747. Medicina Britannica: or a Treatise on such Physical
Plants, as are Generally to be found in the Fields or
Gardens in Great-Britain: Containing A particular Account of
their Nature, Virtues, and Uses. Together with The
Observations of the most learned Physicians, as well ancient
as modern, communicated to the late ingenious Mr. Ray, and
the learned Dr. Sim. Pauli. Adapted more especially to the
Occasions of those, whose Condition or Situation of Life
deprives them, in a great Measure, of the Helps of the
Learned. By Tho. Short of Sheffield, M.D. London. Printed
for R. Manby & H. Shute Cox, opposite the Old Baily on
Ludgate-Hill. MDCCXLVII.
1748. [A complete History of Drugs. Written in French By
Monsieur Pomet, Chief Druggist to the late French King Lewis
XIV. To which is added what is farther observable on the
same Subject, from Mess Lemery and Tournefort, Divided into
Three Classes, Vegetable, Animal, and Mineral; With their
Use in Physic, Chemistry, Pharmacy, and several other Arts.
Illustrated with above Four Hundred Copper-Cuts, curiously
done from the Life; and an Explanation of their different
Names, Places of Growth, and Countries where they are
produced; with the Methods of distinguishing the Genuine and
Perfect, from the Adulterated, Sophisticated and Decayed;
together with their Virtues, &c. A Work of very great Use
and Curiosity. Done into English from the Originals. London.
Printed for J. and J. Bonwicke, S. Birt, W. Parker, C.
Hitch, and E. Wicksteed. MDCCXLVIII.]
(The above is dedicated to Sir Hans Sloane.)
_James Newton._
1752. A compleat Herbal of the late James Newton, M.D.,
Containing the Prints and the English Names of several
thousand Trees, Plants, Shrubs, Flowers, Exotics, etc. All
curiously engraved on Copper-Plates. London: Printed by E.
Cave at S. John's Gate; and sold by Mr. Watson, an
Apothecary, over-against St. Martin's Church, in the Strand;
Mr. Parker, at Oxford; Mr. Sandby, at the Ship, in
Fleet-street. M,DCC,LII.
_"Sir" John Hill._
1755. The Family Herbal, or an account of all those English
Plants, which are remarkable for their virtues, and of the
Drugs which are produced by Vegetables of other Countries;
with their descriptions and their uses, as proved by
experience. Also directions for the gathering and preserving
roots, herbs, flowers, and seeds; the various methods of
preserving these simples for present use; receipts for
making distilled waters, conserves, syrups, electuaries,
Juleps, draughts, &c., &c., with necessary cautions in
giving them. Intended for the use of families. By Sir John
Hill, M.D., F.R.A. of Sciences at Bourdeaux.
Subsequent editions, 1812, 1820.
1756. The British Herbal; An History of Plants and Trees,
Natives of Britain, cultivated for use, or raised for
beauty. By John Hill, M.D. London. Printed for T. Osborne
and J. Shipton, in Grays-Inn; J. Hodges, near London-Bridge;
J. Newbery in S. Paul's Church-Yard; B. Collins; And S.
Crowder and H. Woodgate, in Pater-noster-Row. MDCCLVI.
1769. Herbarium Britannicum Exhibens Plantas Britanniæ
Indigenas secundum Methodum floralem novam digestas. Cum
Historia, Descriptione, Characteribus Specificis, Viribus,
et Usis. Auctore Johanne Hill, Medicinæ Doctore, Academiæ
Imperialis Naturæ Curiosorum Dioscoride quarto, &c. Londini:
Sumptibus auctoris. Prostant apud Baldwin, Ridley, Nourse,
Becket, Davies, Cambell, Elmsly Bibliopolis. MDCCLXIX.
_Timothy Sheldrake._
1759 (_circ._). Botanicum Medicinale; An Herbal of Medicinal
Plants on the College of Physicians List. Describing their
Places of Growth, Roots, Bark, Leaves, Buds, Time of
Flowering, Blossoms, Flowers, Stiles, Chives, Embrio's,
Fruits, Farina, Colours, Seeds, Kernels, Seed-Vessels, Parts
used in Medicine, Preparations in the Shops, Medicinal
Virtues, Names in Nine Languages. Most beautifully engraved
on 120 Large Folio Copper-Plates, From the Exquisite
Drawings of the late Ingenious T. Sheldrake. English Plants
are drawn from Nature to the greatest Accuracy, Flowers, or
Parts, too small to be distinguished, are magnified. Nothing
in any Language exceeds this Thirty Years laborious Work, of
which may truly be said that Nature only equals it, every
Thing of the Kind, hitherto attempted, being trivial,
compared to this inimitable Performance. Designed to promote
Botanical Knowledge, prevent Mistakes in the Use of Simples
in compounding and preparing Medicines, to illustrate, and
render such Herbals as want the Just Representations in
their proper Figures and Colour more useful. Necessary to
such as practise Physic, Pharmacy, Chemistry, &c.,
entertaining to the Curious, the Divine and Philosopher, in
contemplating these wonderful Productions,--useful to
Painters, Heralds, Carvers, Designers, Gardeners, etc. The
Colours of every part are minutely described; for Utility it
must be esteemed to any Hortus Siccus extant. The Means to
preserve Fruits, or to dry Flowers, in their Native Form and
Colour are not yet discovered; Plants cannot be preserved
to Perfection. The Flowers, when coloured, are represented
in their original Bloom, and Fruits in the inviting Charms
of Maturity. To which is now added His Tables for finding
the Heat and Cold in all Climates, that Exotic Plants may be
raised in Summer, and preserved in Winter. London. Printed
for J. Millan, opposite the Admiralty, Whitehall.
_John Edwards._
1770. The British Herbal containing one hundred Plates of
the most beautiful and scarce Flowers and useful Medicinal
Plants which blow in the open Air of Great Britain,
accurately coloured from Nature, with their Botanical
Characters, and A short account of their Cultivation, etc.,
etc. By John Edwards. London: Printed for the Author; and
sold by J. Edmonson, Painter to Her Majesty in Warwick
Street, Golden Square; and J. Walter at Homer's Head,
Charing-Cross. MDCCLXX.
1775. A select Collection of One Hundred Plates; consisting
of the most beautiful exotic and British Flowers which blow
in our English Gardens, accurately drawn and Coloured from
Nature, with their Botanic Characters, and a short account
of their Cultivation, Their uses in Medicine, with Their
Latin and English Names. By John Edwards. London: Printed
for S. Hooper, No. 25 Ludgate-Hill. M.DCC.LXXV.
_William Meyrick._
1789. The New Family Herbal; or Domestic Physician:
Enumerating with accurate Descriptions, All the known
Vegetables which are any way remarkable for medical
efficacy; with an account of their Virtues in the Several
Diseases incident to the Human Frame. Illustrated with
figures of the most remarkable plants, accurately delineated
and engraved. By William Meyrick, Surgeon. Birmingham,
Printed by Pearson and Rollason, and Sold by R. Baldwin,
Pater-noster Row London. MDCCLXXXIX.
1790. Second edition--Title, etc., identical with above.
_Henry Barham._
1794. Hortus Americanus: Containing an account of the Trees,
Shrubs, and other Vegetable Productions, of South-America
and the West India Islands, and particularly of the Island
of Jamaica; Interspersed with many curious and useful
Observations, respecting their Uses in Medicine, Diet, and
Mechanics. By the late Dr. Henry Barham. To which are added
a Linnæan Index, etc., etc., etc. Kingston, Jamaica: printed
and published by Alexander Arkman, Printer to the King's
most Excellent Majesty, and to the Honourable House of
Assembly. MDCCXCIV.
_Robert John Thornton._
1810. A Family Herbal: a Familiar Account of the Medical
Properties of British and Foreign Plants, also their uses in
dying, and the various Arts, arranged according to the
Linnæan System, and illustrated by two hundred and
fifty-eight engravings from plants drawn from Nature by
Henderson, and engraved by Bewick of Newcastle. By Robert
John Thornton, M.D., Member of the University of Cambridge,
and of the Royal London College of Physicians; Lecturer on
Botany at Guy's Hospital; Author of a Grammar of Botany, the
Philosophy of Medicine, etc. London: Printed for B. & R.
Crosby and Co., Stationer's Court, Ludgate Street.
1814. Second edition.
_Jonathan Stokes._
1812. A Botanical Materia Medica, Consisting of the Generic
and Specific Characters of the Plants used in Medicine and
Diet, with Synonyms, And references to Medical authors, By
Jonathan Stokes, M.D. In Four volumes. London, Printed for
J. Johnson and Co. St. Paul's Churchyard. 1812.
_Thomas Green._
1816. The Universal Herbal; or, Botanical, Medical, and
Agricultural Dictionary. Containing an account of All the
known plants in the World, arranged according to the Linnean
System. Specifying the uses to which they are or may be
applied, whether as Food, as Medicine, or in the Arts and
Manufactures. With the best methods of Propagation, and the
most recent agricultural improvements. Collected from
indisputable Authorities. Adapted to the use of the
Farmer--the Gardener--the Husbandman--the Botanist--the
Florist--and Country Housekeepers in General. By Thomas
Green. Liverpool. Printed at the Caxton Press by Henry
Fisher, Printer in Ordinary to His Majesty. Sold at 87,
Bartholomew Close, London.
1824. Second edition.
_John Lindley._
1838. Flora Medica; A Botanical Account of all the more
important plants used in Medicine, in different parts of the
world. By John Lindley, Ph.D., F.R.S., Professor of Botany
in University College, London; Vice-Secretary of the
Horticultural Society, etc. etc. etc. London: Printed for
Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, Paternoster-Row.
1838.
* * * * *
The majority of sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century
gardening books devote considerable space to herbs. See
especially:--
1563. Thomas Hill. The proffitable Arte of Gardening.
1594. Sir Hugh Platt. The Garden of Eden.
1617. Gervase Markham. The Country Housewife's Garden.
1618. William Lawson. A new Orchard and Garden with the
Country Housewife's Garden.
III
FOREIGN HERBALS
(Printed books)
This list includes only the chief works, and those which have some
connection with the history of the herbal in England. With the
exception of the _Arbolayre_, copies of all the incunabula herbals
mentioned below are to be found in the British Museum. Copies in
American libraries are noted in the list.
_Bartholomæus Anglicus._
1470. Bartholomæus Anglicus. Liber de proprietatibus rerum.
Printed at Basle with the type used by both Richel and
Wensler.
1470(?) Liber de proprietatibus rerum Bartholomei Anglici.
Printed at Cologne by Ulrich Zell.
Subsequent editions, 1480, 1481, 1482, 1483, 1485, 1488,
1491, 1492, 1519, 1601.
(_French translation._)
(A translation was made by Fr. Jehan Corbichon in 1372 for
Charles V. of France.)
1482. Cy commence vng tres excellent liure nomme le
proprietaire des choses par Fr. Jehan Corbichon. Printed at
Lyons.
Subsequent editions printed at Lyons, 1485, 1491, 1498 (?),
1525, 1530 (?), 1539, 1556.
1485. (_Dutch translation._) Printed at Haarlem by Jacop
Bellaert.
1494. (_Spanish translation._) El libro de propietatibus
(_sic_) rerum trasladado de latin en romance por Vincente de
burgos.
1529. Another edition printed at Toledo.
_Das půch der natur._
1475. Konrad von Megenburg. Das půch der natur. Printed
at Augsburg by Hanns Bämler.
(There are a large number of MSS. of the above extant,
eighteen of them being in the Vienna library. Eighty-nine
herbs and their virtues are described. The woodcuts in this
book are exceptionally fine. (There is only one of plants.)
In some copies the woodcuts are coloured by a contemporary
artist, possibly Bämler himself, for he was well known as an
illuminator before he began printing. Though not strictly a
herbal, the above is included in this list, as this and
_Liber de Proprietatibus Rerum_ are the earliest printed
books containing a section on herbs.)
1478. Another edition.
1499. Another edition. Printed at Augsburg by Hanns
Schönsperger. Cuts are copies of those in the first edition,
with the addition of two others from the Strassburg Hortus
Sanitatis of _circa_ 1490.
_Albertus Magnus._
1478. Albertus Magnus. Liber aggregationis seu liber
secretorum. Alberti Magni de virtutibus herbarum animalium
et mirabilis mundi. (_Colophon_) per Johannem de Annunciata
de Augusta.
1500. Edition printed at Rouen by Thomas Laisne.
(This book claims Albertus Magnus as its author, but is
wholly unworthy of that great scholar.)
_Herbarium Apuleii Platonici._
1480 (_circ._). Incipit Herbarium Apuleii Platonici ad
Marcum Agrippam. Printed at Rome by Philippus de Lignamine,
courtier and physician to Sixtus IV. First impression
dedicated to Cardinal de Gonzaga. Second impression to
Cardinal de Ruvere. The copy in the British Museum has the
Ruvere dedication.
America: Library of Mrs. J. Montgomery Sears, Boston.
_The Latin Herbarius._
1484. Herbarius Maguntie impressus. Anno [et] CLXXXIV.
Printed at Mainz by Peter Schöffer.
(This is the book sometimes spoken of as Aggregator, but
this word was never used as the actual title in any edition.
The work is a Compilation from mediæval writers and consists
of homely herbal remedies. The figures of plants are
pleasing and decorative. The copy in the British Museum is
not perfect, but there is a perfect copy in the Kew
Library.)
America: Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis.
1485. Herbarius Pataviæ impressus Anno domi [et] cetera
LXXXV. Printed at Passau by Conrad Stahel.
(This edition is sometimes known as Aggregator Patavinus.)
America: John Crerar Library, Chicago.
1486. Another edition printed at Passau.
Undated editions. There are several in the British Museum.
It is believed that one of them belonged to Sir Thomas More.
America: J. P. Morgan Library, New York.
1484. (_Flemish translation._) Flemish translation printed
by John Veldener Kiulenborg.
1500. Edition evidently a reprint of above printed by W.
Osterman at Antwerp.
America: Hawkins Collection, Annmary Brown Memorial, Providence.
(_Italian editions._)
1491. Edition printed at Vicenza by Leonard of Basel and
William of Pavia.
America: Boston Medical Library, Boston.
1499. Edition printed at Venice by Simon of Pavia.
America: Surgeon-General's Library, Washington.
1502. Edition printed at Venice by Christ. de Pensa.
1509. Edition printed at Venice by W. Rubeum et Bernardinum
Fratres Vercellenses.
1534. (_Italian translation._) Herbolario Volgare nel quale
le virtu de la herbe, etc., con alcune belle aggionte noua
mētē de latino in Volgare tradulto. Printed at Venice.
Subsequent editions, 1536, 1539, 1540.
(In the Italian editions and translations the book is
erroneously attributed to Arnold de Nova Villa, whose name
is mentioned on the title-page with that of Avicenna. This
error is pointed out in the British Museum Catalogue.)
1485 (_circ._) (_French edition._) Printed at Paris by Jean
Bonhomme.
_Herbarius zu teutsch._
1485. Herbarius zu Teutsch. Printed at Mainz by Peter
Schöffer.
America: Surgeon-General's Library, Washington, and library
of Mrs. Montgomery Sears, Boston.
The illustrations in this herbal are evidently drawn from
nature, and are generally held to be only surpassed by those
in the herbals of Brunfels and Fuchs. The preface is
singularly beautiful. Though the preface enjoins the name
"Ortus Sanitatis, in German, a Garden of Health," the title
in this and subsequent editions is Herbarius zu teutsch.
1485 (a few months later than the above). Pirated edition
printed at Augsburg, probably by Schönsperger. It is
interesting to note that in this edition a pine cone, the
badge of Augsburg, appears on the title-page. Figures of
plants are very inferior to those in the first edition.
1486. Edition printed at Augsburg by Schönsperger.
Subsequent editions, 1487 (?), 1488, 1493, 1496, 1499, 1502.
There are several undated editions.
America: Copy of edition printed in 1493 in Library of the
College of Physicians, Philadelphia.
_Arbolayre._
1485 (_circ._) Arbolayre contenāt la qualitey et virtus
proprietey des herbes gômes et simēces extraite de
plusiers tratiers de medicine com̄ent davicene de rasis de
constatin de ysaac et plateaire selon le con̄u usaige bien
correct.
(Supposed to have been printed by M. Husz at Lyons. It is
believed that there are now only two copies of this book
extant. One is in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. The
other was sold in London, March 23, 1898.)
_Le Grand Herbier._
Before 1526. Le Grand Herbier en Francoys, contenant les
qualites vertus et proprietes des herbes, arbres gommes.
Printed at Paris by Pierre Sergent.
_Ortus Sanitatis._
1491. Ortus Sanitatis. Printed at Mainz by Jacob Meydenbach.
(This is often regarded as a Latin translation of the
Herbarius zu teutsch, but it is much larger and owes very
little to that work. The woodcuts are copied from the
Herbarius zu teutsch, but they are inferior.)
America: Surgeon-General's Library, Washington; John Crerar
Library, Chicago; Arnold Arboretum, Boston; Mrs. J.
Montgomery Sears Library, Boston; and J. P. Morgan Library,
New York.
1511. Edition printed at Venice.
There are several undated editions.
America: Library of Congress, Washington; Arnold Arboretum,
Boston; Surgeon-General's Library, Washington; Dr. G. F.
Kunz's Library, New York.
1500 (_circ._) (_French translation._) Ortus Sanitatis
translaté de Latin en francois. Printed at Paris by A.
Vérard.
(The copy in the British Museum belonged to Henry VII.)
1539 (?) Edition printed at Paris by Philippe le Noir with
the title "Le Jardin de Sante translate de latin en francoys
nouvellement Imprime a Paris. On les vend a Paris en la rue
sainct Jacques a lenseigne de la Rose blanche couronnee.
(_Colophon_) Imprime a Paris par Philippe le noir."
_Aemilius Macer._
1491 (?). Macer floridus De viribus herbarum. Printed at
Paris.
1500 (?). Another edition. (Paris?)
1506. Herbarum varias [qui] vis cognoscere vires Macer
adest: disce quo duca doct'eris. (_Colophon_) Impressus
Parisius per magistrum Johannem Ieune. Pro Magistro Petro
Bacquelier. 1506.
1588. (_French translation._) Les fleurs du livre des vertus
des herbes, composé jadis en vers Latins par Macer Floride.
Le tout mis en François par M. Lucas Tremblay, Parisien ...
Rouen.
_Jerome of Brunswick._
1500. Liber de arte distillandi de Simplicibus. Johannes
Grüeninger, Strassburg. 1500.
(_English translation._) See Bibliography of English
Herbals.
_Johann Czerny._
1517. Kineha lekarska kteraz slowe herbarz. Hieronymous
Höltzel. Nürnberg. 1517.
_Otto von Brunfels._
1530. Herbarum vivæ eicones ad nature imitationem, sum̄a
cum diligentia et artificis effigiate.... Argentorati apud
Ioannem Schottum.
Subsequent editions, 1530, 1531, 1532, 1536, 1537.
(The illustrations in this herbal are much superior to the
text, which is based chiefly on the writings of the Italian
herbalists. Brunfels was a Carthusian monk who turned
Protestant. Jacob Theodor (Tabernæmontanus) was a pupil of
Brunfels.)
_Eucharius Rhodion._
1533. Kreutterbůch von allem Erdtgewachs Anfenglich von
Doctor Johan Cuba zusamen bracht Jetzt widerum new
Corrigert.... Mit warer Abconterfeitung aller Kreuter.... Zu
Franckfurt am Meyn, Bei Christian Egenolph. 1533.
(The above was not an original work, but merely a revised
and improved edition of the German Herbarius. The
illustrations are copies of those in Brunfels's herbal.)
_Iean Ruel._
1536. De Nature stirpium libri tres, Ioanne Ruellio
authore.... Parisiis Ex officina Simonis Colinæi. 1536.
(Jean Ruel was a physician and a professor in the University
of Paris.)
_Leonhard Fuchs._
1542. De historia stirpium effectis & expressis Leonharto
Fuchsio.... Basileæ, in officina Isingriniana. Anno Christi
1542.
Subsequent editions, 1546, 1547, 1549, 1551, 1555.
1543. (_German translation._) New Kreüterbůch....
Bedruckt zu Basell durch Michael Isingrin.
1557. (_Spanish translation._) Historia de yeruas y plantas
de Leonardo Fuchsio.... En Anvers por los herederos de
Arnald Byrcman.
_Conrad Gesner._
1542. Catalogus plantarum.... Authore Conrado Gesnero....
Tiguri apud Christoph Froschouerum.
(Gesner's most important work--a general history of
plants--was never published, for he died of plague before it
was finished. The illustrations he had collected were
published by Christopher Jacob Trew 150 years later.)
_Hieronymus Bock._
1546. Kreuter Bůch. Darin Underscheid Würckung und Namen
der Kreuter so in Deutschen Landen Wachsen. Wendel Ribel.
Strasburg.
Subsequent editions, 1539, 1560, 1572, 1577, 1595, 1630.
(The first edition (1539) has no illustrations. The
illustrations in the second edition (1546) are generally
supposed to have been copied from Fuchs's Herbal (1542), but
many of them are original. Bock's Herbal is remarkable for
the accurate descriptions of the plants.)
_Rembert Dodoens._
1554. Kruydeboeck.... Rembert Dodoens Medecijn van der stadt
van Mechelen. Ghedruckt Tantwerpen by Jan vander Loe.
Subsequent editions, 1563, 1603, 1608, 1618.
1557. (_French translation._) Histoire des plantes....
Nouvellement traduite de bas Aleman en François par Charles
de l'Escluse. En Anvers De l'Imprimerie de Jean Loë.
1578. (_English translation._) See Henry Lyte in
Bibliography of English Herbals.
1566. Frumentorum, leguminum, palustrium et aquatilium
herbarum aceorum quæ eo pertinent, historia.... Antverpiæ Ex
officina Christophori Plantini.
Second edition, 1569.
1568. Florum et Coronarium odoratarumque nonnullarum
herbarum historia.... Antverpiæ Ex officina Christophori
Plantini.
1583. Remberti Dodonæi mechliniensis medici Cæsarei.
Stirpium historiæ pemptades sex sive libri xxx.... Antverpiæ
Ex officina Christophori Plantini.
Second edition, 1616.
_Pierandrea Mattioli._
1563. Neuw Kreüterbuch ... von dem Hochgelerten und
weitberümbten Herrn Doctor Petro Andrea Matthiolo....
Gedruckt zu Prag durch Georgen Delantrich von Auentin.
Subsequent editions ("gemehret unnd verfertigt Durch
Joachimum Camerarium"), 1590, 1600.
_Antoine Mizauld._
1565. Alexikepus, seu auxiliaris hortus.... Lutetiæ Apud
Federicum Morellum.
1575. (_German translation._) Artztgartem ... neuwlich
verteutschet durch Georgen Benisch von Bartfeld ... zu Basel
bey Peter Perna.
_Nicolas Monardes._
1569. Dos libros, el veno que trat a de tod as las cosas que
traen de nuestras Indias Occidentales.... Impressos en
Sevilla en casa de Hernando Diaz, en la calle de la Sierpe.
1571. Segunda parte del libro de las cosas que se traen de
nuestras Indias Occidentales. Sevilla en casa Alonso
Escriuano, Impressor.
1574. Primeray segunda y tercera partes de la Historia
medicinal de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias
Occidentales en Medicina.... En Sevilla. En casa de Alonso
Escriuano.
Second edition, 1580.
1574. (_Latin translation._) De simplicibus medicamentis ex
occidentali India delatis quorum in medicina usus est....
Interprete Carolo Clusio Atrebate. Antverpiæ Ex officina
Christophori Plantini. Subsequent editions, 1579, 1582,
1605.
1576. (_Italian translation._) Due Libri Dell' Historia de I
Semplici, Aromati, et altre cose, che Vengono portate dall'
Indie Orientali, di Don Garzia Dall' Horto ... et due Altri
libri parimente di quelle che si portano dall' Indie
Occidentali, di Nicolo Monardes, Hora tutti tradotti dalle
loro lingue nella nostra Italiana da M. Annibale
Briganti.... In Venetia.
Subsequent editions, 1582, 1589, 1605, 1616.
1600. (_Flemish translation._) Beschriivinge van het
heerlijcke ende vermaerde Kruydt wassende in de West Indien
aldaer ghenaemt Picielt, ende by den Spaenaerden Tabaco, en
van desselvē wonderlijcke operatien en̄ Krachtengemaert
by D. Monardes Medecijn dez stede Sivillen en̄ overgheset
Door Nicolaes Iansz vander Woudt. Tot Rotterdam, By Jan van
Waesberghe.
(The title-page has a charming illustration of a little
Indian boy smoking a long carved pipe, and a figure of the
tobacco-plant.)
1619. (_French translation._) Histoire des Drogues.... La
seconde composée de deux liures de maistre Nicolas Monard,
traictant de ce qui nous est apporté de l'Amerique. Le tout
fidellement translaté en François par Antoine Colin, maistre
Apoticaire juré de la ville de Lyon.... A Lyon, au despens
de Iean Pillehotte, à l'enseigne du nom de Iesus.
(_English translation._) See John Frampton in Bibliography
of English Herbals.
1895. (_German translation of the 1579 Edition._) Die
Schrift des Monardes über die Arzneimittel Americas nach der
lateinischen Übertragung des Clusius aus dem Jahre 1579.
Übersetzt und erläubert von Kurt Stünzner, Dr. med. Mit
einem Vorwort von Prof. Dr. Erich Harnack in Halle a S.
_Bombast von Hohenheim_ (Paracelsus).
1570. [Ettliche Tractatus des hocherfarnen unnd berumbtesten
Philippi Theophrasti Paracelsi.... I. Von Natürlichen
dingen. II. Beschreibung etlichen Kreütter. III. Von
Metallen. IV. Von Mineralen. V. Von Edlen Gesteinen.
Strassburg. Christian Müllers Erben.]
(The "doctrine of signatures" is usually associated with the
name of Paracelsus, but the greatest exponent of this theory
was Giambattista Porta.)
_Nicolaus Winckler._
1571. Chronica herbarum, florum seminum.... Authore Nicolao
Wincklero, Forchemio, Medico Halæ.... Augustæ Vindelicorum
in officina Typographica Michaëlis Mangeri.
(The above is an astrological calendar giving the times when
herbs should be gathered.)
_Bartholomaus Carrichter._
1575. Kreutterbůch des edlen vn̄ Hochgelehrten Herzen
Doctoris Bartholomei Carrichters von Reckingen.... Gedruckt
zů Strassburg an Kornmarck bey Christian Müller.
Subsequent editions, 1577, 1589, 1597, 1615, 1618, 1619,
1625, 1652, 1673, 1739.
(In this Herbal every plant is assigned to one of the signs
of the zodiac.)
_Charles de l'Escluse._
1576. Caroli Clusii atrebat. Rariorum aliquot stirpium per
Hispanias obseruatarum historia, Libris duobus expressa....
Antverpiæ, Ex officina Christophori Plantini.
1583. Caroli Clusii atrebatis. Rariorum aliquot Stirpium,
per Pannoniam, Austriam & vicinas quasdam Prouincias
obseruatarum Historia, Quatuor Libris Expressa: ...
Antverpiæ, Ex officina Christophori Plantini.
1601. Caroli Clusii Atrebatis.... Rariorum Plantarum
Historica.... Antverpiæ Ex officina Plantiniana Apud Joannem
Moretum.
(A republication of the two works cited above with some
additional matter.)
For De simplicibus medicamentes ex occidentali India, see N.
Monardes.
_Mathias de L'Obel._
1576. Plantarum seu stirpium icones. Antverpiæ Ex officina
Christophori Plantini.
1581. (_Flemish translation._) Kruydtboeck.... Deur Matthias
de L'Obel Medecyn der Princ' exc{en}. T'Antwerpen. By
Christoffel Plantyn.
(The Flemish translation is dedicated to William of Orange
and the Burgomasters of Antwerp.)
_Leonhardt Thurneisser zum Thurn._
1578. Historia sive descriptio plantarum.... Berlini
Excudebat Michael Hentzke.
Second edition, 1587.... Coloniæ Agrippinæ apud Joannem
Gymnicum.
1578. (_German translation._) Historia unnd Beschreibung
Influentischer Elementischer und Natürlicher Wirckungen,
Aller fremden unnd Heimischen Erdgewechssen ... Gedruckt zu
Berlin, bey Michael Hentzsken.
(Thurneisser was one of the foremost exponents of
astrological botany. He gives astrological diagrams showing
when the various herbs should be picked. The illustrations
are not particularly good, but they are attractive owing to
the quaint ornamental border which surrounds each figure.)
_Andrea Cesalpino._
1583. De plantis libri xvi. Florentiæ Apud Georgium
Marescottum.
_Geofroy Linocier._
1584. L'histoire des plantes traduicte de latin en françois:
... à Paris Chez Charles Macé.
(The above is based chiefly on the works of Fuchs and
Mattioli.)
_Castor Durante._
1585. Herbario nuovo di Castore Durante, medico et cittadino
romano.... In Roma. Per Iacomo Bericchia & Iacomo Tormerij.
Subsequent editions, 1602, 1617, 1636, 1667, 1684.
1609. Hortulis Sanitatis. Das ist ein heylsam[es] vnd
nützliches Gährtlin der Gesundheit.... Erstlich von Castore
Durante ... in Italianischer Sprach verfertigt. Nunmehr aber
in unsere hoch Teutsche Sprach versetzt, Durch Petrum
Uffenbachium Getruckt zu Franckfort am Mayn durch Nicolaum
Hoffman.
(It is uncertain whether this is a translation of Herbario
nuovo. See Meyer, _Gesch._, IV. p. 383.)
_Jacques d'Aléchamps._
1586-1587. Historia generalis plantarum ... Lugduni, apud
Gulielmum Rovillium.
_Joachim Camerarius._
1588. Hortus medicus et philosophicus.... Francofurte ad
Mœnum.
_Giambattista Porta._
1588. Phytognomonica.... Neapoli Apud Horatium Saluianum.
_Jacob Theodor_ (Tabernæmontanus).
1588. Neuw Kreuterbuch.... [Nicolaus Bassæus] Franckfurt am
Mayn.
1590. Eicones plantarum seu stirpium. Nicolaus Bassæus,
Francofurte ad Mœnum.
1613. Neuw Vollkommentlich Kreuterbuch ... gemehret Durch
Casparum Bauhinum.... Franckfurt am Mayn, Durch Nicolaum
Hoffman. In verlegung Johannis Bassæi und Johann Dreutels.
Subsequent editions, 1625, 1664, 1687, 1731.
_Fabio Colonna._
1592. ΦΥΤΟΒΑΣΑΝΟΣ sive plantarum aliquot historia.... Ex
officina Horatii Saluiana. Neapoli. Apud Io Jacobum Carlinum
& Antonium Pacem.
(This Herbal is the first in which copper-plate etchings
were used as illustrations.)
_Adam Zaluziansky von Zaluzian._
1592. Methodi herbariæ, libri tres. Pragæ, in officina
Georgii Dacziceni.
_Gaspard Bauhin._
1596. ΦΥΤΟΠΙΝΑΞ seu enumeratio plantarum ab Herbarijs
nostro seculo descriptarum, cum earum differentijs....
Basileæ per Sebastianum Henric petri.
1601. Animadversiones in historiam generalem plantarum
Lugduni editam.... Francoforti Excudebat Melchior Hartmann,
Impensis Nicolai Bassæi.
1620. ΠΡΟΔΡΟΜΟΣ Theatri Botanici.... Francofurti ad
Mœnum, Typis Pauli Jacobi, impensis Ioannis Treudelii.
Second edition, 1671.
1623. ΠΙΝΑΞ Theatri Botanici.... Basileæ Helvet. Sumptibus
et typis Ludovici Regis.
1658. Caspari Bauhini ... Theatri Botanici sive Historiæ
Plantarum.... Liber primus editus opera et cura Io Casp
Bauhini. Basileæ. Apud Joannem König.
_Claude Duret._
1605. Histoire admirable des plantes et herbes
esmeruillables & miraculeuses en nature.... A Paris Chez,
Nicolas Buon demeurant au Mont S. Hylaire à l'image S.
Claude.
_Jean Bauhin and J. H. Cherlerus._
1619. J. B.... et J. H. C.... historiæ plantarum generalis
... prodromus ... Ebroduni, Ex Typographia Societatis
Caldorianæ.
1650-51. Historia plantarum universalis. Auctoribus Johanne
Bauhino, Archiatro. Joh. Henrico Cherlero Doctore:
Basiliensibus Quam recensuit et auxit Dominicus Chabræus. D.
Genevensis Juris vero publici fecit. Fr. Lud. a
Graffenried.... Ebroduni.
_Johann Poppe._
1625. Kräuter Buch ... Leipzig, In Verlegung Zachariæ
Schürers und Matthiæ Götzen.
_Guy de la Brosse._
1628. De la nature, vertu et utilité des plantes. Divisé en
cinq livres.... Par Guy de la Brosse, Conseiler & Medecin
ordinaire du Roy. A Paris Ches Rollin Barragnes, au second
pillier de la grand' Salle du Pallais.
(This Herbal is dedicated to Cardinal Richelieu. It is the
only Herbal with mottoes on the title-page--"Chasque chose a
son ciel et ses astres"; "En vain la medicine sans les
plantes"; "De l'Esperance la connaisance.")
_Antonio Donati._
1631. Trallato de semplici ... in Venetia ... Appresso
Pietro Maria Bertano.
_Petrus Nylandt._
1670. De Nederlandtse Herbarius of Kruydt-Boeck ...
t'Amsterdam Voor Marcus Doornick.
(The original drawing for the frontispiece by G.v.d.
Eeckhout is in the Print room of the British Museum.)
1678. Neues Medicinalisches Kräuterbuch ... Osnabrück bey
Joh. Georg Schwandern.
INDEX
_Adam in Eden_, 167
Aemilius Macer, 42, 43, 228
_Aggregator de Simplicibus_, 8, 226
Agrimony, 43
Albertus Magnus, 45, 46, 63, 110, 209, 226
Aldrovandus, 111
Alfred, King, 3, 6, 7, 36
Alliterative lay in the _Lacnunga_, 18, 19, 35
_American Physitian, The_, 137, 217
Amulets, Herbs used as, 27 _et seq._, 72, 107 _et seq._, 155
Ander, George, 76
Andrew, Laurence, 69, 74, 208
Anemone, 146
Angelica, 108
Anglo-Saxon gardens, 9
---- herbals, 1 _et seq._
---- plant-names, 9
Animals, Herbs used by, 170
Anne of Denmark, 102
Antonius Musa, 29
Apple, 49, 50
Aquinas, Thomas, 45, 46
Arber, Dr., 67
_Arbolayre_, 227
Archer, John, 164, 217
Ariel, 15
Aristotle, 47, 71
_Art of Simpling, The_, 167 _et seq._
Artemisia, 72
Askham, Antony, 59, 61, 62, 206
Asser, 7
Assyrian eye-charm, 28
Asterion, 62
Astrological lore in herbals, 38, 43, 63, 165, 171
_Athenæ Oxonienses_, 76
Attila, 2
Avicenna, 66, 69
Babylonian incantation for toothache, 19
Bacon, Roger, 46, 110
Bald, 6 _et seq._
Baker, George, 102
Balm, 105
_Banckes's Herbal_, 44, 55 _et seq._, 204 _et seq._
Barber-Surgeons' Company, 101, 102
Barham, Henry, 223
Barlow, H. M., 59, 67, 204
Barnacle geese, 109
Bartholomæus Anglicus, 44 _et seq._, 66, 155, 203, 204, 225
"Bartholomæus minid senis," 67
Bartram, John, 77
Basil, 105
Bassæus, Nicolas, 103
Batman, 45
Bauhin, Gaspard, 234
---- Jean, 83, 93, 151, 235
Bay, 87, 155
Bearfoot, 90
Beauty recipes in herbals, 23, 90, 156, 157
Beauvais, Vincent de, 46
Bee-lore, 154, 155
Bede, 3, 7
_Beowulf_, 2
Berkeley, Lord, 46
Betony, 16, 22, 29, 72, 114
Birch, 53, 89
Birckman, Arnold, 82, 209
Blackwell, Elizabeth, 220, 221
Blair, Patrick, 220
Bock, Hieronymus, 83, 230
Boece, Hector, 111
_Boke of secretes of Albartus Magnus, The_, 63, 64
Bologna, 76
Boniface, 1
Borage, 106, 146, 156
Boston, 133
Botanic gardens, 77
Box, 51
Braunschweig, Hieronymus, 69, 74, 228
Bridwell, Stephen, 104
Britons, herb-lore of the ancient, 8
Broom, 50
Brunfels, Otto von, 229
Brunswick, Jherome of. _See_ Braunschweig.
Buckingham, Duke of, 143
Bugloss, 72, 106, 114, 160
Bullein, Williyam, 209, 210
Burleigh, Lord, 101, 102
Bydell, John, 81
Cacao kernels used as tokens, 138
---- plantations, 138
Cædmon, 15
Cæsar, Julius, 88, 91
Cambridge, 75, 76
Camomile, 9, 18, 24, 88
Camus, Professor Giulio, 66
Cary, Walter, 58, 59, 206
Caxton, 47, 154
Celandine, 43, 50, 63
Centaury, 43, 64
Ceremonies in picking and administering herbs, 36 _et seq._
Charles I., 142
Charms, 5, 31 _et seq._
Chervil, 106
Chocolate, 138, 139
Cholmeley, Mary, 174
Christian rites in picking and administering herbs, 3, 16, 17, 27,
34, 36
Cild, 5
_Circa Instans_, 66 _et seq._
Citron, 92, 93
Clayton, Thomas, 153
Cloudberry, 114
Coles, William, 105, 167, 215, 216
Cologne, 77, 78, 83, 91
Colonna, Fabio, 234
Columbus, Christopher, 122
Copland, William, 57 _et seq._, 63, 205, 206
Corbichon, Jehan, 46, 225
Cotton plant, 144 _et seq._
Counting out charms, 32, 33
Country customs recorded in herbals, 89, 90, 157 _et seq._
Cowslip, 90
Cratevas, 10
_Cruÿdtboeck_, 93, 94, 95
Cudweed, 89, 112
Culpeper, Nicholas, 163 _et seq._, 168, 214, 215
_Cynewulf_, 2
Daisy, 89, 113
"danyel bain," 44
_Das půch der natur_, 225
Delphinium, 114
Demeter, 5
Demoniac possession, herbs used against, 21
_De historia Stirpium_, 82
_De Proprietatibus Rerum_, 45 _et seq._, 203, 204, 225
Digby, Sir Kenelm, 177, 181 _et seq._
Dionysius, 10
Dioscorides, 8, 11, 47, 69, 85, 88, 94, 96
Dodoens, Rembert, 58, 83, 86, 93, 94, 96, 97, 98, 100, 103, 104,
211, 212, 230
Druids, Sacred herbs of the, 29, 30, 31
Dun, 7
Earth, prayer to, 40
Easter, 3
Edwards, John, 223
Egbert, Archbishop of York, 37
Elf-shot, doctrine of the, 14
Elizabeth, Queen, 78, 85, 86, 96, 101, 102, 114, 162
Ellacombe, Canon, 118
Eloy, Saint, 37, 38
Elves, 13 _et seq._, 37, 186, 187
_English Physician Enlarged_, 163 _et seq._
Eostra, 3, 37
Erce, 38, 39
Fairfax, Henry, 174, 175
Fairies, 187
Falconer, John, 84
Fennel, 18, 43, 150
Fetter Lane, 98, 101
Flax, 51, 52
Flemish herbals, 82, 83, 93
"Flying venom," 17 _et seq._
Formori, 15
Frampton, John, 121 _et seq._, 211
Fuchs, Leonhard, 82, 83, 86, 93, 95, 229
Fumigating with herbs, 26, 27, 72
Galen, 47, 69, 85
Gardening, joys of, 172, 173
Gariopontus, 12
Garret, James, 104, 105
Gerard, John, 29, 61, 71, 93, 98 _et seq._, 142, 151, 213
Gesner, Conrad, 77, 102, 229
Ghini, Luca, 76
Gibson, Thomas, 69
Gillyflowers, 147
Glastonbury, 5
Goats-beard, 113
Goblins, 16
Gourd, 91, 108
Gray's Inn Lane, 101
Green, Thomas, 224
_Grete Herball, The_, 55, 62, 65 _et seq._, 83, 207, 208
Guthrie, Dr., 177
Hainault, Countess of, 44, 56
Helenium, 16, 22
Helias, Patriarch of Jerusalem, 6
Henrietta Maria, Queen, 143
_Herba britannica_, 88
_Herball, The Grete_, 55, 62, 65 _et seq._, 83, 207, 208
_Herbarium of Apuleius_, 1, 8, 9, 21, 28, 29, 36, 226
_Herbarius, The Latin_, 8, 226, 227
_Herbarius zu Teutsch_, 8, 66 _et seq._, 83, 227
Herb bath, 22
Herbs, bound on with red wool, 28
---- ceremonies in picking and administering, 36 _et seq._
---- charms and incantations used with, 31 _et seq._, 37
---- Christian prayer for a blessing on, 38
---- Christian rites in picking and administering, 3, 16, 17, 27,
34, 36, 43
---- effect of, on the mind, 72, 156
---- fumigating the sick with, 26, 72
---- ---- cattle and swine with, 27
---- hung up over doors, etc., 28
---- introduced into America by the early colonists, 135
---- Old English names of, 9, 112 _et seq._
---- used as amulets, 27 _et seq._, 72, 107 _et seq._, 155
---- used by Red Indians, 125 _et seq._, 138
---- used by animals, 170, 171
---- used in beauty recipes, 23, 90, 156, 157
---- used in magic practices, 63, 64, 152, 171
---- used in sun worship, 38
Hesketh, Thomas, 104, 114
Hill, "Sir" John, 222
Holborn, 101, 103
Holly, 30
Honey, 71
Hound's tongue, 64
Hrede, 3, 37
Humphreys, A. L., 58
Hughes, William, 137, 217
Hyssop, 88, 150
Incantations, 31 _et seq._, 37
Italian herbalists, 93, 230, 233, 234
Jackson, B. D., Dr., 76, 104
James I., 94, 102, 103, 142
Johnson, Thomas, 142, 213
Josselyn, John, 133, 216
"Joy of the Ground," 9, 44
Kele, Richard, 59
Kent, Countess of, 174, 180, 181
Kitson, Anthony, 59
Knotweed, 9
_Kreüter Buch_, 83
Kynge, Jhon, 69
_Lacnunga_, 1, 12, 18, 19, 20, 27, 30, 32, 33, 34
_Lady Sedley, her receipt book, The_, 177, 178
Langham, William, 212
Larch, 91
Latimer, Hugh, 76
Laurel, 51
Lavender, 135, 136, 149, 156
_Leech Book of Bald_, 1, 5 _et seq._, 19, 20, 21, 32, 36
_Le Grant Herbier_, 66 _et seq._, 227
Lelamoure, John, 42, 43
Leleloth, 32
l'Escluse, Charles de, 93, 94, 121, 232
Lete, Nicholas, 104, 145
_Libellus de re herbaria novus_, 81
_Liber de arte distillandi_, 69
Lignamine, J. P. de, 9
Lilumenne, 32
Lily, 10, 43, 48, 86
Lindley, John, 224
l'Obel, Matthias de, 77, 93, 94, 103, 104, 111, 210, 232
Lodestone, 71
London gardens, 115
_L'Opéra Saleritana_ "_Circa Instans_," 66 _et seq._
Louis XIII, 94
Lovell, Robert, 216
Löwenbeck, M., 11
Lynacro, Dr., 57
Lyte, Henry, 58, 83, 93 _et seq._, 211, 212
Lytes Cary, 58, 96
Macer, _see_ Aemilius Macer.
Mallt-y-nos, 15
Mandeville, Sir John, 144
Mandrake, 11, 21, 50, 73, 91, 92, 109, 161
Maplet, John, 210
Marie de' Medici, 182
Marigold, 43, 90, 112, 113, 147
Marjoram, 105, 149
Marshall, William, 104
Mary, Queen, 78, 79
_Mary Doggett: Her Book of Receipts_, 178
Mason, Alexander, 101
"Master Tuggie," 116, 117, 147
Mattioli, Pierandrea, 83, 230
Mayerne, Sir Theodore, 143
Maythen, 9, 18, 24
Meadowsweet, 106, 107
"Mechoacan," 125 _et seq._
Melissus, 85
Melroset, 60
Metrodorus, 10
Meyrick, William, 223
Mierdman, Steven, 82
Miller, Joseph, 220
Mind, effect of herbs on the, 72, 105, 106, 156
Mistletoe, 30
Monardes, Nicolas, 120 _et seq._, 211, 231
Monmouth, Duke of, 178
Moray, Sir Robert, 111
Morison, Robert, 217
Mugwort, 18, 28, 29, 30, 108
Mullein, 114, 156, 162
"Mummy," 70
Munster, Sebastian, 110
Musk, 72
_Names of herbes, The_, 81
Narrative charms, 33 _et seq._
Nature worship, 36 _et seq._
Nettle, 9, 18, 31, 135
_Neue Kreuterbuch_, 82
_New England's Rarities discovered_, 133, 216
Newton, James, 221
Newton, Thomas, 213
Nicot, John, 131
Nidad, 35
_Niewe Herball_, 83
Nightmare, 16
_Noble experyence of the virtuous Handy-worke of Surgery, The_, 74
Northumberland, 88, 89
Norton, John, 103
_Notes and Queries_, 58
Numbers in herbal prescriptions, 35
Old English names of plants, 9, 112 _et seq._
_Ortus Sanitatis_, 66, 67, 228
Oxa, 7
Oxford, 77, 78, 143
---- physic garden, 153
Paracelsus, 231
_Paradisus_, 116, 142 _et seq._, 213
Parkinson, John, 29, 83, 90, 116, 142 _et seq._, 213, 214
Parsley, 90
_Passionarius_, 12
Payne, Dr. J. F., 6
Pechey, John, 218
Pemell, Robert, 214
_Pemptades_, 93, 98, 103, 104
Pena, Pierre, 93, 94, 210
Pennyroyal, 65, 87, 107
Peony, 29, 30, 107
Περὶ Διδαξέων, 1 _et seq._, 11
Periwinkle, 9, 21, 43, 44, 63
Petiver, James, 139 _et seq._, 219
Petrocellus, 11
Petronius, 11
Philippa, Queen, 44, 56
_Physical Directory, The_, 163
"Picielt," 128 _et seq._
Pimpernel, 43
_Pinax_, 151
Plantain, 9, 18, 29, 30, 135
_Plantarum seu Stirpium historia_, 94
Plantin, Christophe, 93, 94, 96
Platearius, Matthaeus, 66, 69
Pliny, 8, 10, 31, 88, 89
Plukenet, Leonard, 218
Pocahontas, Princess, 98
Porta, Giambattista, 233
Potato, 103, 116, 138
_Practica Petrocelli Salernitani_, 11
Priest, Dr., 98, 103
_Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine_, 59
Pulteney, Richard, 94
Purfoot, Thomas, 94
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 105
_Ram's little Dodoen_, 96, 212
Raspberry, 100
Ray, John, 81, 217
Red Indian plant-lore, 120, 125 _et seq._
Red wool, binding on herbs with, 28
Rhine, 77
Ridley, Nicholas, 76
"Rind from Paradise," 24
Robin, Jean, 102, 105
Rolfe, Dorothy, 98
Rose, 43, 48, 49, 60, 64, 117, 156, 180, 184, 185
Rose honey, 49
---- water, 61
Rosemary, 44, 56, 57, 72, 106, 135, 148
Roses, oil of, 61
---- syrup of, 60
Rue, 43, 108
Saffron, 92
Sage, 43, 44, 156
Salerno, 6, 11
Salimbene, 45, 46
Salisbury, Earl of, 102, 103
Salmon, William, 219
Samphire, 88
Sassafras, 132, 133
Scabious, 113, 114, 161
Scandinavian rune-lays, 32
Sceaf, 36
Scents, value of herbal, 61
Schott, Gaspar, 111
"Scythian Lamb," 143 _et seq._
Sedley, Lady, 177, 178
Selago, 30
"Sene," 63
Seville, 124, 131, 133
Shakespeare, 15, 118, 119
Sheldrake, Timothy, 222
Short, Thomas, 221
Signatures, doctrine of, 168 _et seq._, 231
Silverweed, 114
Singer, Dr. Charles, 19, 40
"Smell-feast," 160, 161
Smiths, 34, 35
Solomon, King, 84
Solomon's seal, 107, 157
Somerset, Duke of, 78, 83, 86
_Sorbus aucuparia_, 31
Southernwood, 73, 135, 136, 156
_South-Sea Herbal, The_, 139 _et seq._, 219
Sowerby, Leonard, 214
Spindle-tree, 90
Stars, mystic communion between flowers and, 187, 188
Stephens, Dr., 177
Still-room books, 174 _et seq._
_Stirpium Adversaria Nova_, 94, 103, 104
_Stirpium historiæ pemptades sex sive libri triginta_, 94, 111
Stokes, Jonathan, 224
Sugar, 138
Sun worship, 38
Sweet potato, 116
Swiss herbalists, 82, 83, 234, 235
Tabernæmontanus, 103, 234
Teazle, 75, 89
_Theatrum Botanicum_, 93, 142, 143, 144, 151 _et seq._, 214
Theobalds, 101
Thor, 3, 28
Thornton, Robert, 224
Thyme, 101, 150
Tiecon, 32
Tobacco, 128 _et seq._
---- origin of the name, 131
---- used as a wound herb in Europe, 131
---- used by American Indians in religious ceremonies, 129, 130
Tradescant, John, 143, 148
Treffry, Sir John, 70
Treveris, Peter, 65, 69, 70, 74, 207
Trevisa, John de, 46
Tryon, Thomas, 181
Tulip, 146
Tunstall, Thomasin, 148
Turner, Peter, 80, 81
Turner, William, 75 _et seq._, 208, 209
_Typographical Antiquities_, 58
"Unfortrædde," 9
Vapour bath, 22
"Vegetable Lamb," 143 _et seq._
_Vertuose boke of Distillacyon of the waters of all maner of
Herbes, The_, 69, 74, 208
Vervain, 29, 30, 43, 44, 64, 72, 106, 107, 113
Vineyards, 52
Violet, 43, 49, 61, 73, 99, 134, 147, 158
"Virginian potato," 103, 116
Walnut, 92
Water, 71
Water crowfoot, 62
Waybroad, 9, 18, 29, 30
Weeds introduced into America with the early colonists, 135
Wells, 78, 79
Wentworth, Lord, 75, 85
"Wergulu," 9, 18
Westmacott, William, 218
Weyland, 35
_Widsith_, 2
Wild flower life in London in Elizabeth's reign, 114
William the Silent, 94
Witchcraft, herbs and, 109
Woad, 89, 154, 159
Woden, 2, 3, 20, 35, 36, 37
Woods, 52, 53
Wood-sorrel, 62
Worde, Wynken de, 47, 54, 57
Worm, Doctrine of the, 20
Wormwood, 16, 24, 135, 167
Wyer, Robert, 57, 205
Wyrd, 37
Yarrow, 29, 30, 64
Yew, 16, 100, 101
Yule, 37
Zouche, Lord, 94, 104
Transcriber's Note
Archaic spelling is preserved as printed.
Inconsistent hyphenation is preserved as printed.
Minor punctuation and accent usage errors have been repaired.
The following amendments have been made:
Page 56--theee amended to thee--"... and it shale make
thee light and merrie."
Page 66--the footnote marker for note 53 was omitted. The
transcriber has added it in what appeared to be the
appropriate place.
Page 67--B. amended to M.--"... and Mr. H. M. Barlow[2]
supports the deduction that ..."
Page 104--Zouch amended to Zouche--"Lord Zouche sent him
rare seeds from Crete, Spain and Italy."
Page 178--presumaby amended to presumably--"Lady Sedley,
the first owner, and presumably author of the book, ..."
Page 234--ΦΥΤΟΒΑΣΑΝΟΣ originally had a roman C as the
final letter. This has been amended.
The following items were of note:
Page 197--the word 'me' in "Agnus castus ys an herbe that
me clapys Tustans or Porke levys" may be a typographic
error for mē. As it is quoted material, and the
transcriber has been unable to confirm one way or the
other, it has been preserved as printed.
Page 226--it appears that the word 'cetera' has been omitted
following a Tironian et. This has been preserved as
printed--"1484. Herbarius Maguntie impressus. Anno [et]
CLXXXIV."
The frontispiece has been moved to follow the title page. Other
illustrations have been moved where necessary so that they were not in
the middle of a paragraph.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Old English Herbals" ***
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