DID MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS USE WOODCUTS PROFESSIONAL

Left: The 6th-century Leiden manuscript of the “Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarius” (MS. While the elaborately illustrated manuscripts of medieval days have morphed into guides filled with photographs, the fascination with the uses of plants remains fundamental.Įxplore a few famous examples of herbals from different eras. Modern herbalists and those who use traditional medicines still turn to the healing properties of plants. Gardening as a hobby has produced useful guides to diverse flora. However, the herbal text has never vanished into complete disuse. Modern pharmacology-while greatly in debt to botanical knowledge-meant that medical textbooks replaced illustrated herbals. In the industrial age, growing herbs for medicinal uses became increasingly less critical to everyday life. Like other ancient works that survived, it is known through repeated medieval and early modern editions. While often cited as an herbal, the work is in fact a much larger attempt to synthesize knowledge of the natural world. For example, Pliny the Elder wrote Naturalis Historia in the 1st century CE. The ancients were very interested in medicine as part of natural history.

Their knowledge was preserved in the medieval manuscripts of the Byzantines, the Islamic lands, and even Dark Age Europe. The Greeks and Romans created some of the most influential herbal texts-although the originals do not survive. Other ancient compilations of herbal knowledge can be traced in ancient Indian, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian traditions. However, the 365 plants categorized within it are said to originate in the knowledge and work of the ancient (possibly mythical) ruler and herbalist Shennong. In Han dynasty China, Shennong Ben Cao Jing (also known as Shennong's Materia Medica) was written down for the first time. Medical in nature, these texts often codified knowledge that had long been orally passed on. Herbals are an ancient textual tradition. (Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public domain) While printing was new to Europe, the technology was well known in China where woodblock printing was both utilitarian and an art form.Ī bestiary and herbal from Iran, circa 1600. With the introduction to Europe of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century, herbals-like psalters and prayer books-began to be printed for wider distribution. This marginalia contributed to a living tradition of text. As the owner of a herbal learned more about remedies and plants, many made notations in the margins or kept pages of their own recipes. These manuscripts could be richly illuminated and illustrated.

DID MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS USE WOODCUTS PROFESSIONAL

These could be as simple as helping to cure a headache or as esoteric as encouraging a personality trait such as bravery.Įuropean herbals began in manuscript form and were painstakingly written by hand by professional scribes. The medical uses of a plant are often included as well. Each plant is typically listed with its physical description or an image to aid in identifying safe, poisonous, or benign flora.

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)Īt its most basic, an herbal is a written text about plants and their characteristics.

An Iris germanica shown in watercolor by Elizabeth Blackwell in “A Curious Herbal,” circa 1737 to 1739.

Did medieval manuscripts use woodcuts