#herbals

botanical illustrations (aloe, dill, black henbane, rose, apium, mandrake, water lily, meadow sage)

from a manuscript of johann hartlieb’s kräuterbuch (book of herbs), a treatise dealing with the medicinal uses of various plants. this copy was created in northern bavaria, c. 1462

Peter Schoeffer – Scientist of the Day

Peter Schoeffer, a German printer, was born around 1425 and died in 1503.

The First Night of Yule is known in many Northern European traditions as Mother’s Night—a sacred evening devoted to honoring mothers, grandmothers, female ancestors, and the nurturing forces that sustain life through the darkest time of the year. Falling on the longest night, Mother’s Night marks the beginning of Yule, when darkness reaches its peak and the slow return of the sun begins. In…

Have you ever read a book talking about herbal associations and asked: "Where the fk do they even get this from?"

Well... the answer is history! Generally a mix of historical medical herbalism and herblore - although the line between those two categories gets fuzzier the farther back in history you go. 

As part of my quest to understand this history of herbalism, I've wound up spending the past 4 years lovingly creating my own edition of Culpeper's Complete Herbal (originally published in 1653)... which I'll be publishing this year! 

Without sacrificing Culpeper's trademark sass, this edition aims to make the famous text a little more accessible (for those not well-versed in Elizabethan England), while keeping his wit and wisdom intact. 

It will be released in 2 volumes, so that readers can choose between just the Herbal, and geeking out over the complete historical text (totalling over 1,000 pages). 

What makes this edition different?

Culpeper's Herbal has been in continuous publication since 1653 - which is no minor feat! - so what makes this edition different to all the others?

Excellent question!

I've put a ridiculous amount of research into identifying as many of the plants as possible, as accurately as possible. 

Yes, other editions have been released that include plant identifications, but if you look closely, you'll often find they'll let you down. 

Perhaps the common name matches, but when you read the description provided by Culpeper, he's very clearly describing a quite different plant. In other cases, I've seen folks just straight-up leave out plants they weren't able to identify (because of course 'Dragons' doesn't need a description)! 

There are definitely a few that I'm not 100% on, and a few others I'm more uncertain on (especially being located across the globe and not being able to investigate the flora of the London area first-hand), but I've trawled both modern and historical references to do the best job I possibly could - beating every other attempt I've been able to find by a significant margin. 

You'll also find high-quality, full-colour botanical illustrations of the plants mentioned. 

No, not crappy line-art that's challenging to match to its real-world counterpart. 

No, not that one set of illustrations from an 18th-century edition that you see included in most editions since then (which, again, often absolutely are not the plant described in the text). 

I genuinely couldn't answer which has taken more time between identifying the plants, vs sourcing and painstakingly restoring stunning, full-colour antique botanical illustrations of every plant highlighted in the Herbal... but honestly, it was probably restoring the illustrations. 

Spanning across a number of publications, artists, and centuries, these illustrations not only aid in recognising and identifying the plants discussed, but are works of art in their own rights. 

Why do I care about a 370-year-old medical text? Surely it's irrelevant and outdated?

Yes, it's outdated (as a medical text); no, it's not irrelevant!

Please, please, please do not take anything in this book as actual medical advice! While many of these plants are still used in modern medical herbalism, we're much more aware of safety, impacts, and interactions now, so if this is what you're looking for, there are other books on this topic, written by modern experts, who have an understanding of how to use herbs safely - and please consult with a suitably-qualified expert before starting any new medical treatments or regimens. 

However... 

Are you interested in plants and botanical history? 

Culpeper's Herbal is a marvellous reference of plants common in the London area in the 17th century, their names, and the beliefs surrounding them (plus you'll love the illustrations)! 

Are you interested in the history of medicine or medical herbalism? 

This book was used as a genuine medical resource until the advent of modern medicine almost 200 years later! 

Are you interested in herb-lore or magical herbalism? 

Culpeper was one of the leading medical astrologers (to the extent that he was actually accused of witchcraft in an attempt to discredit him), with each herb profile including astrological associations, temperaments, their actions within Hippocrates' humoural medical system, and a bunch of other beliefs and folklore mixed in. A huge portion of modern magical associations of plants derive directly from their histories of medical uses. 

Convinced? Curious?

You can head over to the website to sign up for updates! 👇🏻

hi! this is genuinely a hard task and i feel like the way you're doing it is already kind of the way to go? the one central database of illuminated manuscripts doesn't exist, and most library collections barely provide descriptions for the illustrations contained in their manuscripts. the british library used to have a fantastic image search function, but that's gone since the cyber attack in 2023.

what i would do if i was you is create a list of illuminated herbals by using various databases as well as scholarly works like Minta Collins (2000): Medieval Herbals. The Illustrative Traditions (at the end of collins' book there's an index of all the manuscripts she cited). when you make your list, always name the library + shelf mark + ideally include a permalink to the digitized manuscript. once you have the list, go look at the digitized herbals and see which ones are useful to you, i.e. which ones contain image descriptions and the plants you're looking for etc.

some useful databases for your purpose: Biblissima // Digital Bodleian // Heidicon // KdiH

for the iconographic history of individual plants you might find useful articles (with images) in the Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte (RDK Labor)

most of the databases i just listed are french or german, so the keywords you search for need to be in the right language. many of them can also be quite tricky to navigate. imo, biblissima (french) will be both the easiest to navigate and give you the best results.

gourd harvest

miniature from a medical manuscript (tractatus de herbis), illuminated by giovannino de' grassi and his workshop. milan, late 14th c.

This isn't so much an "I'm just checking this off before I publish" proof, as it is an "I've spent too many hours staring at this on a screen to edit it properly there" proof, but I've genuinely put thousands of hours of work into this and it's so surreal to hold it in my hands!

I've recently been considering adding a bunch of extra content to it, so it was surprising to see how chonky she already is (almost 500 pages, without front/back-matter, 3cm/1 ¼" thick)

So yeah, this'll be coming at some point this year 🥰