HERB - Jasmine's List of Online Primary Sources (long)

[Gaylin Walli]

As promised, here is a partial, personal listing of online sources
that I access when backing up my general knowledge and
meager paper library. This lsit is only partial because I
figured some of you might only have access to web stuff in
the evening and this was all I could complete in a half hour
before I got off work. :)

The list focuses on sources that are considered primary or
very-much-like primary sources (for example, the only known
translation of some mucky iberian manuscript that no-one else
has bothered to translate because arabic isn't traditionally taught
in US schools). The dates are somewhat in period and somewhat
out of period, depending on what you consider period for
the SCA. I include what I consider "near" period sources
in this list; that is, I include documents data between 1600
and ~1650.

Keep in mind that I did not simply include sites that were
nifty and about herbs. I have plenty of those. Tons as a
matter of fact. These are just the sites that you can use
as a primary source in, say, an A&S competition (depending
on the judge, that is) when you want to reference *any*
primary source that mentions an herb was actually used
(for whatever purpose, even avoidance).

Enjoy,

Jasmine
jasmine at infoengine.com

PS: If anyone knows of an online version of the text of Gerard's
Herbal, I'd love to hear from your!

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Jasmine's Biased Partial Bibliography of Primary Sources for
Herbal-Related Information that Exists On the WWW


Le Ménagier De Paris (c.1393)
a.k.a The Goodman of Paris
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/menagier/

Unabridged transcription of the food and cookery chapter of
Le Ménagier de Paris, edited by Jérome Pichon in 1846 for La
Société Des Bibliophiles François. The hosting parties for
this information are trying to obtain permission to reprint
a 1920's English translation of this French transcription.


The Miscellany (dates vary)
a.k.a Cariadoc's Miscellany
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/miscellany.html

The collected original and redacted recipes of David Friedman and
Elizabeth Cook as taken from 24 (as I count them) period sources
or facsimiles of periods sources.


Ein Buch von guter spise (c. 1345 to 1354)
a.k.a. Ein buch von guter spise
http://www.cs.bu.edu/students/grads/akatlas/Buch/buch.html

Portions of the earliest known German language cookbook. Some
are included in The Miscellany.


The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie Kt Opened (1669)
http://realbeer.com/spencer/Digby-recipes/

The transcripted brewing and vinting portions of the manuscript
by Digbie.


The English Physitian (c.1652)
a.k.a. Culpepper's Herbal
http://www.med.yale.edu/library/historical/culpeper/culpeper.htm

Culpepper's herbal marks a decided change in the medical
profession's attitude towards the knowledge made available
to commoners. Culpepper was strongly criticized for his work,
by peers and professionals alike. Many people who criticize
his work today do so because of that bias.


Giambattista della Porta's "Magiae naturalis" (1558)
a.k.a. John Baptista Porta's "Natural Magick"
http://www2.tscnet.com/pages/omard1/jportat2.html

Porta's work covers a wide range of topics that were popular
for the time, including many alchemical topics. The version
at this site is the original English translation done by
Porta of his original Latin work. The whole of the books
is not there yet, but the author of the website is gradually
adding to it each month.


The Cantegury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (late 1300's?)
gopher://ftp.std.com/00/obi/book/Geoffrey.Chaucer/canterbury.txt.Z

This is the original Middle English version of Chaucer's
Cantebury Tales. Chaucer was a great lover of food and some of
the tales included in his great work may be of use to the student
of how herbs and cooking and feasts were all wrapped up in the
beliefs of the time. There are plenty of e-text versions of
Chaucer's tales. This is simply one of them. There may be
better sites.


Miscellaneous alchemical texts (pre 1800s)
http://www.levity.com/alchemy/texts.html

A variety of texts, some quite period and some out of period, all
dealing with alchemy, rather than herbs. Although this listing
may seem out of place, I include it here because there are
often ideas of practices and mindsets of particular time
periods that are quite helpful in these docs for the researcher
trying to understand the "why" behind particular practices.
The documents here are NOT easy to follow, as they are written
using the styles of the time period. However, there are a
number in English and many in other languages as well.
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