



Produced by Chris Curnow, Turgut Dincer and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive)









  HERBALS

  THEIR ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION

  A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF BOTANY

  1470-1670

  CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

  London: FETTER LANE, E.C.
  C. F. CLAY, Manager

[Illustration]

  Edinburgh: 100, PRINCES STREET
  London: WILLIAM WESLEY & SON, 28, ESSEX STREET, STRAND
  Berlin: A. ASHER & CO.
  Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS
  New York: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
  Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.

  _All rights reserved_


[Illustration: LEONHARD FUCHS (1501-1566).

[Engraving by Speckle in _De historia stirpium_, 1542.]]

  HERBALS

  THEIR ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION

  A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF BOTANY

  1470-1670

  BY

  AGNES ARBER

  (MRS. E. A. NEWELL ARBER)

  D.Sc., F.L.S., FELLOW OF NEWNHAM COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
  AND OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON

  Cambridge:
  at the University Press
  1912

  Cambridge:
  PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
  AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

  TO MY FATHER

  H. R. ROBERTSON


"Wherefore it maye please your... gentlenes to take these my labours
in good worthe, not according unto their unworthines, but accordinge
unto my good mind and will, offering and gevinge them unto you."

  WILLIAM TURNER'S _Herbal_, 1568.




PREFACE


To add a volume such as the present to the existing multitude of books
about books calls for some apology. My excuse must be that many of the
best herbals, especially the earlier ones, are not easily accessible,
and after experiencing keen delight from them myself, I have felt
that some account of these works, in connection with reproductions of
typical illustrations, might be of interest to others. In the words of
Henry Lyte, the translator of Dodoens, "I thinke it sufficient for any,
whom reason may satisfie, by way of answeare to alleage this action and
sententious position: _Bonum, quo communius, eo melius et praestantius_:
a good thing the more common it is, the better it is."

The main object of the present book is to trace in outline the
evolution of the _printed herbal_ in Europe between the years 1470 and
1670, primarily from a botanical, and secondarily from an artistic
standpoint. The medical aspect, which could only be dealt with
satisfactorily by a specialist in that science, I have practically
left untouched, as also the gardening literature of the period.
Bibliographical information is not given in detail, except in so
far as it subserves the main objects of the book. Even within these
limitations, the present account is far from being an exhaustive
monograph. It aims merely at presenting a general sketch of the history
of the herbal during a period of two hundred years. The titles of the
principal botanical works, which were published between 1470 and 1670,
are given in Appendix I.

The book is founded mainly upon a study of the herbals themselves. My
attention was first directed to these works by reading a copy of Lyte's
translation of Dodoens' Herbal, which happened to come into my hands
in 1894, and at once aroused my interest in the subject. I have also
drawn freely upon the historical and critical literature dealing with
the period under consideration, to which full references will be found
in Appendix II. The materials for this work have chiefly been obtained
in the Printed Books Department of the British Museum, but I have also
made use of a number of other libraries. I owe many thanks to Prof.
Seward, F.R.S., who suggested that I should undertake this book, and
gave me special facilities for the study of the fine collection of old
botanical works in the Botany School, Cambridge. In addition I must
record my gratitude to the University Librarian, Mr F. J. H. Jenkinson,
M.A., and Mr C. E. Sayle, M.A., of the Cambridge University Library,
and also to Dr Stapf, Keeper of the Kew Herbarium and Library. By the
kindness of Dr Norman Moore, Harveian Librarian to the Royal College
of Physicians, I have had access to that splendid library, and my best
thanks are due to him, and to the Assistant-Librarian, Mr Barlow. To
the latter I am especially indebted for information on bibliographical