Herbal

Dioscorides', De Materia Medica, Byzantium, 15th century.

5th century AD, the oldest known surviving herbal illustration

A herbal is a collection of plant descriptions: Very often, it also lists the properties of each plant, or its use, for example for medicine or alchemy. A herebal can also classify the plants it describes. One of the oldest known herbals is the Vienna Dioscurides dating from the 6th century. Physicians and Apothecaries were the main users of such books. Herbals were also important for the study of botany. Hieronymus Bock descrived the plants of southwestern Germany, in his 16th century herbal; he was the first to mention certain morphological features.

Herbal Media

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  Statue of Theophrastus c. 371 – c. 287 BCE, Orto botanico di Palermo

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  A page from the Ebers Papyrus, the most complete and extensive of surviving ancient herbals

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  Arabic Book of Simple Drugs (c. 1334) from Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica. British Museum

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  Albertus Magnus c. 1193–1280, author of De Vegetabilibus

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  Illustration from Elizabeth Blackwell's A Curious Herbal (1737)

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  A Hans Weiditz hand-coloured woodcut from Otto Brunfels' Herbarum Vivae Eicones

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  Early Italian manuscript herbal, c. 1500. Plants illustrated are Appolinaris, Chamomeleon, Sliatriceo and Narcissus

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  An engraving of Parkinson from his work Theatrum Botanicum (1640), reprinted in Agnes Arber's Herbals

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  Back cover of the Chinese pharmacopoeia (1930)

Related pages

• Herbarium or Herbar - a collection of plant specimens