HERB - Good morning, all

[Roos cc]

Greetings from Alysoun in Midrealm,

I was delighted to hear about the list and look forward
to learning from the rest of you. 

I am interested in medieval plant use and try to
investigate it from a variety of perspectives. I'm a
die-hard gardener, have grown herbs for some 30
years now, but learn something new every season.

I confess to being appalled by the current popular
interest in herbal medicine. A few years ago I told 
people to approach period sources with the utmost
caution--I now advise that they approach all sources
with utmost caution. Compared to some of the claims
out there today, the medievals look downright
sensible.

The Rare Book Room at Notre Dame has many of the
great herbals. Unfortunately many of the medieval texts
in medicine and plant theory are not available in 
English. It's only been in the past few decades
that scholarly attention has begun correcting our
views on medieval agriculture and economics. (Who
would have thought there were professional nurseries
in the 13th century?)



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