Order from Chaos: Linnaeus Disposes The birth of modern botany |
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Rembert Dodoens, 15171585.
Florum, et Coronariarum Odoratarumque Nonnullarum Herbarum Historia, altera editio (Antwerp, 1569). |
In addition to the great development of the German school of botany and medical botany and in parallel with the rise of the vernacular in Italy, a Flemish school developed in the Low Countries. Its first and probably best representative was the Belgian Rembert Dodoens (15171585). In 1554 (the year when Mattioli published the first Latin edition of his work), Dodoens published the first edition of his herbal in Dutch, titled Cruijde Boeck van den Cruyden, niet alleen Hier te Lande Wassende, maer oock van den Anderen Vremden (Herbal dealing with the plants growing not only here in the country, but also in other foreign countries ) (Antwerp, 1554). Later, he translated this work into Latin and expanded it, dealing with, among others, flowering plants, as in the present work. |
Cristóbal Acosta, ca.1515ca.1592.
Tractado de las Drogas, y Medicinas de las Indias Orientales ... (Burgos, 1578). |
Pedanius Dioscorides of Anazarbos, first century. Acerca de la Materia Medicinal, y de los Venenos Mortiferos, Traduzido ... por el Doctor Andres de Laguna ... (Salamanca, 1566). |
Two manuscript leaves from the so-called Macer Floridus De Viribus Herbarum, the famous medieval Latin poem on the properties of herbs. These leaves are believed to have been written in the mid-12th century. The text titled De Viribus Herbarum (On properties of plants) has been traditionally attributed to Odo de Meung (Odo Magdunensis), who is believed to have lived during the first half of the 11th century and was from Meung on the Loire. Recent research has shown, however, that the De Viribus Herbarum was probably written in an earlier version, perhaps during the tenth century in Germany. The text was further expanded, including new data from the translation of Arabic texts into Latin in Salerno from the end of the 11th century onward. If this is the case, this text is good evidence of the continuity of scientific activity in the Middle Ages: its most ancient parts come from a period when there was a revival of interest in botany and a recovery of the classical tradition, while the most recent additions integrate the contribution of the Arabic world. |