HERB - Re: sources and names

[Gaylin Walli]

Lady Agnes deLanvallei wrote:
>No. I think we need to (gradually) write one.

But what's the best medium? Here's the sticky question
I've been struggling with for about a year. Paper seems to
work okay for general distribution of some of the information
but with the technology we have today, a detailed database file
(Geek alert: Oracle or maybe an X.500) seems ever-so-much more
appealing. Unfortunately, impractical for many people, I
think.

There was a document written by a gentleman in the SCA listing
period names for chemical compounds and the like. Forgive me
for not having more information than this, but I've only
seen the document once at a friends house. I don't own it
myself. The booklet was vaguely formatted like a Complete Anachronist,
though not published by the SCA, I think. It listed ingredients
like "saltpeter" and what we call it today.

I sort of envision a document similar to this, lacking anything
that we could put online. A document listing the current
botanical name, the common names we know it by, the names it
was known by, and most important of all, any period or pre-
period sources that we can find it listed in. This is the
information that I want the most. Where can I find it in
print or in positively ID'd pictorial work (art and architecture
count) so that I can reference it in something I'm writing
up?

>There is a book of English names of plant culled from the Period
>literature--written by a linguist with little serious interest in plants
>(i.e. goes to modern English common names not scientific names);

Oooh. Source? Author? Date? Anything? The bibliophile in me just
got intrigued. And I'm armed with a brand new library card!

>there are herbals annotated by good botanists to identify, where
>possible, the plant the Medieval writers meant.

Medieval herbals annotated? Or OOP herbals annotated with
references to "Galen believed..." or "Dioscorides stated..."?
I'd dearly love to see a list of some of these works and
compare to my stuff.

>I just ordered a folklore book (Oxford Dictionary of
>Plant Lore, R. Vickery) of which a Texas A&M reviewer wrote "the
>common... names are unfamiliar outside of [the British Isles] making it
>difficult to find anything..."

Do people regularly post reviews of books on the list? I confess
to not having been here long enough to see one if people do.

>In my opinion, putting it all together is no small task, but we could
>start

I would love to.

>There are lots of difficult questions, but we can certainly make it
>easier for the next person to work through this stuff.
>Sara/Evaine sounded like she volunteered! I volunteer to help.

I also volunteer to help or create, whichever works out best.

> I generated some lists for teaching at the Royal University and I
>imagine others have too.  Riddle (Dioscorides on Pharmacy and Medicine)
>lists the plants in Dioscorides' herbal, and that will cover a lot of
>the medicinal plants of Period, since they restated D. a lot (and its

What about Charlamagne's list? Does anyone know where this is?

>pretty big): I can get that to you.  Got a web site? (I don't).

No website that people can get to from outside our firewall, I
fear. Though I may be able to arrange something. Let me check into
it. If you already have this typed in, then I'd love to receive
it electronically. If you don't, then I'd be happy to supply a
SASE and money for copying the list if you'd be willing to share.

Jasmine de Cordoba, Midrealm
jasmine at infoengine.com
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