Herbs and Herbalism in the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Jerry Stannard, Katherine E. Stannard

• Contents: Introduction, John M. Riddle; Medieval Herbals: Medieval reception of classical plant names; The herbal as a medical document; Medieval herbals and their development; The theoretical bases of medieval herbalism; Magiferous plants and magic in medieval medical botany; Late Medieval Rezeptliteratur: Botanical data and late medieval ’Rezeptliteratur’; Rezeptliteratur as Fachliteratur; ...findet man in den apotecken: notices concerning the availability of medicamenta in medieval Fachliteratur; Renaissance Italy and Germany: Dioscorides and Renaissance materia medica; The botanico-medical background of Baptista Fiera’s Coena de herbarum virtutibus; Hans von Gersdorff and some anonymous Strassburg apothecaries; Camerarius’ contributions to medicine and pharmacy observations on his De theriacis et mithridateis commentariolus; P. A. Mattioli and some Renaissance editions of Dioscorides; P. A. Mattioli: sixteenth-century commentator on Dioscorides; Species Studies: The plant called Moly; Squill in ancient and medieval materia medica with special reference to its employment for dropsy; The multiple uses of dill (Anethum graveolens L.) in medieval medicine; Index.

'Ashgate Publishing managed to reproduce the rather difficult originals flawlessly, which hardly ever forces the reader to use a magnifying glass...We have to thank the editors and the publisher for making such groundbreaking and fundamental work by one of the most important scholars in this field easily accessible. Jerry Stannard's literary knowledge is stupendous and was and still is legendary.' Sudhoffs Archiv, Band 84, Heft 2 (2000) '...a fitting tribute to a gentleman and a scholar whose expectations of his readers are high.' Pharmacy in History 'Jerry Stannard's knowledge of the literature is stupendous and even in his lifetime he was legendary.' Translated from Sudhoffs Archiv