TRACES OF NATURE IN TIME  

TRACES OF NATURE IN TIME  

The earliest written testimonies about medicinal plants and important treatises on treatments of human diseases go back to ancient Mesopotamia, India, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The most important personages associated with these efforts include Hippocrates (approx. 460–377 BCE), who is commonly viewed as the founder of medicine as a science. His work influenced not only medical ethics but also how the effects of plants were viewed. Another important personage was Theophrastus (approx. 371–287 BCE), the author of Historia plantarum, who divided plants in trees, shrubs, and herbs but also described plants and their medical use. Hippocrates inspired generations to come, including Galen (219–287 BCE), a Greek physician who lived in Rome.

The Classical tradition was further developed by Arabic medicine. Its most important representatives include Avicenna, whose Canon medicine, a treatise in five volumes, drew from Hippocrates, Galen, and Dioscorides, and became a basic medical reference book in both Europe and the Islamic world for centuries to come.

In medieval Europe, it was the Church that played a key role: it influenced not only access to treatment but also the system of education of physicians. Monasteries became centres of education, of preservation of key texts, but also of actual healing.

In late fifteenth and early sixteenth century, overseas discoveries brought into Europe new plants. Thanks to both already existing and newly founded universities, natural sciences were experiencing a period of rapid development.