Book List

Agnes deLanvallei

Annotated list of books I like for Medieval plant studies. The format is a hybrid of the preferences of historians and biologists


Hancock, James D. Plant evolution and the origin of crop species. 1992. Prentice-Hall


Lewis, Walter H. and Memory P. F. Elvin-Lewis. Medical Botany 2nd ed 2003 John Wiley and Sons NY


Simpson, Beryl B. and Molly Connor Ogorzaly. Economic Botany 3rd ed., 2001 McGraw Hill


Smartt, J. and N.M. Simmonds, 1995 The evolution of crop plants 2nd ed. Longman Scientific London


PDR (Physician's Desk Ref) for Herbal Medicines Medical Economics Company Montvale NJ 2nd ed 2000


USDA Plants data base. A good place to get scientific names http://plants.usda.gov/


Vaughan, J. G. and C. A. Geissler. 1997 The New Oxford Book of Food Plants Oxford U Press, Oxford.


Medieval References in Translation and Online


Culpeper, Nicholas. 1652. Culpeper's Complete Herbal; also called The English Physician. Reproduced online as Culpeper at Yale AND Also found online at Culpeper online at Wordsworth

Gerard, John. The Herbal or General history of plants. Complete 1633 edition as revised and enlarged by Thomas Johnson. Dover Publications, New York 1975.


Gunther, Robert T, editor. 1934. The Greek herbal of Dioscorides. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. {written approximately 64 AD, illustrated by a Byzantine A.D. 512. Englished by John Goodyer A.D. 1655]


Kiple, Kenneth F, and Kriemhild Cone Ornelas, editors. 2000. The Cambridge world history of food. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK.


Mabey, Richard, ed. 1987. The gardener's labyrinth Thomas Hill. Oxford University Press, Oxford UK.[reproduction of the first popular gardening manual, 1577).


O'Hanlon, David Patrick. 1981. Macer's Virtue of Herbs. Hemkunt Press, Delhi. Translation of 12th C. herbal.


Tacuinum sanitatis "Medieval Health Handbook" or "Health Tables", based on an Arab's work about 1100, reproduced in Europe 1300's to 1500's: at least 5 very distinctive editions survive. Online at Godecookery and Medieval Institute and pictures from another edition Arcor


Whipkey, Anne and Jules Janick. The Festoons of the Cupid and Psyche Loggia in the Villa Farnosina. festoons Identification of plants painted in 1515-1517 Italian frescos.

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