Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution

by Agnes Robertson Arber

Herbals deal primarily with medicinal and culinary herbs, their real and supposed properties and virtues, and in origin they go back at least to the Ancient Greeks. During the 16th and 17th centuries they developed into attractively illustrated printed books, the forerunners of modern botanical and pharmaceutical textbooks. Agnes Arber's Herbals (first published in 1912, much revised in 1938) stands as the major survey of the period 1470 to 1670 when botany evolved into a scientific discipline separate from herbalism, a development reflected in contemporary herbals. Every work on herbals since 1912 has been indebted to Arber's classic. The present volume in the Cambridge Science Classics series, while retaining her main text unaltered, supplements this with two of her later writings on herbals, provides a biographical introduction, greatly extends the bibliography and has annotations modifying the original text through later enquiry. This added material will make this re-issue invaluab

Genres: Literature, Medicine, Nonfiction, History

253 pages, Paperback

First published December 11, 1986

About the author

1879-1960 Wife of E.A. Newell Arber (qv)

Reviews

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unlike the previous review, I absolutely love reading about books of herbalism. I don't know why: it's been an obsession since I was a child, and I collect as many as my bank balance will stretch to! A perfect book for those people who share my odd obsession, and love these magnificent texts!
It makes a study of early herbals, and is an instant classic, much like Wilfred Blunt, Minta Collins and Eleanor Sinclair Rohde's studies.
Maybe I'll get to do that MA in the history of medicine one day: (I got my BA in History three weeks ago!)

[Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

看的1938那版。主要是草药学史相关的内容，从草药学科的兴起到后续发展。中间的传播与扩散都和印刷的出现密不可分，在不同地域与语言间流转，后面也涉及了植物的描述与插图相关的讨论。这之中几乎都是男性学者……比较感慨的反而是作者作为女性对这些进行的研究与梳理。总体不算非常有趣类型的博物志。

[Lionkhan-sama · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hardly ever come across a book I dislike. Seriously, I find almost any book a treat to read. However, I absolutely hated reading this book. With a passion.
An absolute waste of time in my opinion.

Although it is my own fault for assuming it is a book about herbs, I was most disappointed to read it and find that it was merely a book about books about herbs. Such disappointment! I was so eager to read about all sorts of various herbs throughout history, but alas this is not the book for that. It contains approximately 1% of information about actual herbs and their purposes.

By the way, the book DOES state that it is a book about books, but I seem to have overlooked that fact when I was buying it.
I cannot see why anyone would want to read about the the history of books written about herbs.. Honestly.

[Paolo Di nicola · Rating 2 out of 5]

L'argomento può interessare o meno, tratta degli erbari a stampa tra il 1470 e il 1670, le illustrazioni sono magnifiche il grosso difetto è che è scritto malino ( magari è un problema della tradizione in italiano non so) però ecco, non una prosa particolarmente brillante