HERB - Scholarly sources

[Jenne Heise]

> I am working on a project on european herbal history
> and was wondering if there were recommendations for
> titles, authors, etc.. of early herbals and
> translations of those not in modern english. I'm
> specifically looking for lore/folklore documented in
> original sources. Email me privately or post to the
> list, which ever is more appropriate.

If you are looking for good bibliographies of primary sources, you want:

Eleanor Sinclair Rohde, _The Old English Herbals_ published by Dover.
and/or
Agnes Arber, _Herbals : their origin and evolution : a chapter in the
history of botany, 1470-1670_

Period sources include:
Gerard, _A Herbal_.
Hill, _The Gardener's Labyrinth_.
_The Greek herbal of Dioscorides; illustrated by a Byzantine, A. D. 512;
Englished by John Goodyer, A. D.  1655; edited and first printed, A. D.
1933, by Robert T. Gunther_
Walfrid Strabo, _Hortulus_ (I don't know if there was an english
translation)
_An Herbal_ [1525] Also known as Banckes' Herbal. Author unknown,
published 1525. Facsimile & transcripted edition ed. by
Larkey & Pyles. (NY: Scholars' Facsimiles and Reprints, 1941) 
Hildegarde of  Bingen. _Hildegard von Bingen's Physica: the complete
English translatin of her classic work on Health and Healing._ Trans. from
the Latin by Patricia Throop. (Rochester, VT: Healing Arts, 1998). 
Nostradamus, _The Elixirs of Nostradamus: Nostradamus' original recipes
for elixirs, scented water, beauty potions and sweetmeats._ edited by Knut
Boeser. (Wakefield, RI: Moyer Bell, 1996) 
Tusser, _One hundred Good Points of Husbandry_ (also Five
Hundreth...etc)-- published as _His Good Points of Husbandry_ 1931 by
Country Life Limited, London; edited by Dorothy Hartley. 
The text of the Anglo-Saxon _Lacnunga_ was translated and published in
_Anglo-Saxon magic and medicine_ by J. H. G. Grattan and Charles Singer. 

Markham's _English Husbandman_ and _English Housewife_ are just past
period. So is John Parkinson's _Paradisi in Sole_ (1629) which was
republished by Dover as _A Garden of pleasant flowers_.

There's some stuff in _Le Menagier de Paris_ but it isn't in the online
translation, mostly-- try the translation in _A Medieval Home Companion_
by Tanya Bayard.

Does that help a bit?

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka
Jennifer Heise jenne at tulgey.browser.net disclaimer: i speak for no-one and
no-one speaks for me. "Our kingdom is a garden and such gardens are not
made/By singing "Oh how beautiful!" and sitting in the shade..."
--Kipling, "Glory of the Garden"
============================================================================
Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.