The important and ever-shifting role of medicinal plants in medieval science, art, culture, and thought, both in the Latin Western medical tradition and in Byzantine and medieval Arabic medicine, is the focus of this new collection. Following a general introduction and a background chapter on Late Antique and medieval theories of wellness and therapy, in-depth essays treat such wide-ranging topics as medicine and astrology, charms and magical remedies, herbal glossaries, illuminated medical manuscripts, women's reproductive medicine, dietary cooking, gardens in social and political context, and recreated medieval gardens. They make a significant contribution to our understanding of the place of medicinal plants in medieval thought and practice, and thus lead to a greater appreciation of how medieval theories and therapies from diverse places developed in continuously evolving and cross-pollinating strands, and, in turn, how they contributed to broader ideas concerning the body, religion, identity, and the human relationship with the natural world.
CONTRIBUTORS: ALAIN TOUWAIDE, LINDA EHRSAM VOIGTS, PETER DENDLE, TERENCE SCULLY, MARIA AMALIA D'ARONCO, PHILIP G. RUSCHE, MARIJANE OSBORN, PETER MURRAY JONES, GEORGE R. KEISER, EXPIRACION GARCIA SANCHEZ, DEIRDRE LARKIN
Reviews
This fascinating history shows how theories of health and disease evolved in the interplay of Western, Byzantine, and Arabic medicines and the relationship with the natural world. AMERICAN HERB ASSOCIATION QUARTERLYThis collection is [...] extremely welcome, not only in that it fills what might be a rather obvious gap in the literature, but also for bringing to the task some of the biggest names in medieval medicine. I recommend the collection as a whole not only to medievalists (both early and late), but to anyone who may believe that the classical legacy was neglected or unknown until humanists rediscovered it, and to all those interested in plant-based medicine. MEDICAL HISTORY
[A] fascinating collection. [...] On many different levels it opens up a new world of the association of plants to medicine. BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE on-line review