THE BROUMOV HERBARIUM

THE BROUMOV HERBARIUM

The oldest herbarium (hortus siccus) in the territory of the Czech Republic was created in 1595 in the spa town of Überlingen in what in now Germany. It was the work of local barber, later surgeon, Johann Brehe (active in 1589–1606), and it served its maker as a practical guide for identifying plants and for their use in his medical practice.

Aside from 358 species of dried plants (on 103 leaves of the herbarium) with their names in Latin and German, it also includes brief texts, in German, focused on the range of diseases and ailments each particular plant could be used to treat. The author focused on plants growing in the vicinity of the Bodam Lake. An exception to this are three American plants, which were in late sixteenth century still rare in Europe: marigold, tomato, and tobacco.

At the beginning of the herbarium, we find plants which flower in the spring but elsewhere, Brehe grouped plants according to similarity of their medicinal use. In some places, we find alongside each other plants which look similar although they belong to different species or families. Other groupings are based on plants growing in a similar habitat: for instance, moisture-loving plants are depicted growing around a creek with crabs or around a pond with waterfowl.

A unique feature of the Broumov herbarium is its rich iconography. Most dried plant specimens are supplemented by drawings of those parts that could not be presented in a pressed form.

The journey of the herbarium from the Baden town of Überlingen to the Czech Lands remains shrouded in mystery. The herbarium so far does not feature in any published list of historical herbaria although given its dating and state of preservation it most likely belongs among the first thirty of the oldest surviving European collections of dried plants.