The fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries were the great
age of herbals, many of them available in favor of the first time in English
and other languages rather than Latin or Greek.
The first herbal to be published in English was the anonymous
Grete Herball of 1526. The two best-known herbals in English wereThe herbal
or General History of Plants (1597) by John Gerard and The English Physician
Enlarged (1653) by Nicholas Culpeper.
Gerard's text was basically a pirated translation of a book
by the Belgian herbalist Dodoens and his illustrations came from a German botanical
work.
The original edition contained many errors due to faulty matching
of the two accomplishments.
Culpeper's blend of orally transmitted medicine through astrology,
magic, and folklore was ridiculed by the physicians of his day yet his book -
like Gerard's and other herbals - enjoyed phenomenal popularity.
The Age of Exploration and the Columbian Exchange introduced new
medicinal plants to Europe. The Badianus Manuscript was an illustrated Aztec
herbal translated into Latin in the 16th century.
