Keywords

Herbals — Early works to 1800, Botany — Pre-Linnean works, Herbs — Early works to 1800, Medicinal plants — Early works to 1800, Human-plant relationships

Abstract

Humans have always had an intimate and complex relationship with plants. Plants provide many of the basic necessities for survival, such as food, clothing, and shelter. Plants also play an important and rich part in human culture. This fascination with plants has led to detailed studies of their natural history as well as explorations into their unique and useful properties. Throughout recorded history, philosophers, herbalists, botanists, and others have captured their observations about plants. From the Middle Ages through the Early Modern Period, herbalists compiled these collective observations into large printed volumes, referred to as herbals. With the Scientific Revolution came greater emphasis on taxonomy and natural history. Botanists during this period assembled their findings into detailed botanical texts on natural history and the taxonomic relationship between species. This session will showcase several herbal and botanical texts from the 16th through the 18th centuries and explore the impact these texts had on their own and later time periods.

Original Publication Citation

Goates, M. C. (2016, March). Influential herbal and botanical texts from the 16th through 18th centuries. Presentation at the A. Dean Larsen Book Collecting Conference, Provo, UT.