HANDWRITTEN HERBALS

HANDWRITTEN HERBALS

Before the invention of the printing press in mid-fifteenth century, books – including books about plants – were written by hand and kept in the form of bound codices, scrolls, or loose leaves. Such herbals were not only works of science but also of art because they were copied by hand and supplemented with often richly coloured miniatures. They usually described particular plants and listed their possible uses, including recipes for various remedies.

Most medieval and Early Modern herbals were based on two paradigmatic models from antiquity, in particular from the first century CE: Naturalis historia by Pliny the Elder (23–79) and De materia medica of Pedanius Dioscorides (approx. 40–90), physician of the Roman legions. The latter, a treatise in five volumes, became one of the most significant and longest used pharmacological and naturalist guidebooks in history. In fact, its influence on medicine and the natural sciences lasted, without interruption, for 1,500 years. De materia medica describes around 600 plants and about 1,000 medicinal preparations made from them. In the pages of an illuminated manuscript, plants and animals are depicted on parchment in beautiful colourful miniatures. The author of illustrations managed to capture the plants in extraordinary depth and with amazing attention to detail. Only during the Renaissance was this book gradually replaced by revised herbals.