European Herbalism – by Jessica Lane
Archeological digs of ancient European graves yielded more than bodies; poppy seeds, flax seeds, juniper berries, and ferns were also found leading to the assumption that these plants were highly valued by ancient peoples.


The earliest records of herbalism date from Charlemagne’s court (AD 742-814). His “Capitulare de Villis” detailed seventy medicinal herbs he grew in his gardens and commanded his monasteries and subjects to plant “for the benefit of the nation”. Around 820AD at the St. Gallen monastery in Switzerland, sixteen beds of medicinal plants were prepared according to his instructions. Favorite herbs were sweet clover, mint, lilies, roses, rosemary, caraway, fennel, summer savory and sage, all well known medicinal plants. At same time (AD 809-849) Walafried Strabo, abbot of Reichenau monastery (Germany) wrote a gardening book which including the description of 23 medicinal plants.

The oldest surviving dedicated herbal in Europe dates from the earliest 10th century and includes remedies sent by the Patriarch of Jerusalem to King Alfred of England. Like all early herbals it contains a mixture of fact and myth. Many diseases of the times, especially ones that appeared suddenly, were blamed on “elfshot”, the “evil eye” or “flying venom”. Though favorite herbs were taken internally for treatment, they were as likely to be worn as amulets to ward off “evil spirits”. Medical schools spread throughout Europe during the 10th century but the monasteries largely administered to healing and herbalism who considered tending the sick part of their Christian duty. They cultivated ever larger herb gardens and used prayer alongside the herbs as it was considered equally important.

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), abbess of the Benedictine convent in Bingen, Germany, was considered one of the greatest early European healers. Later sainted by the Catholic Church, the writings and music of this wonderful healer have recently become popular in North America. She was a learned woman, leaving three major works, one of them “Causes and Cures”, describes healing plants using a combination of her own experience and German folklore. Von Bingen was also unique for writing her own books rather than copying from the masters like everyone else. Her knowledge was extensive and included are seventy nine heart remedies, ninety-nine remedies for arthritis, and sixty-two remedies for fever, most based on plants.

If Von Bingen had practiced and taught between the years 1300 to 1650 instead of the twelfth century, she would likely have burned at the stake for practicing witchcraft. In her time medicine had emerged from the monasteries and became secularized, and mainly dominated by men. A view held by modern scholars is that witch burnings resulted from a power struggle between these men and the perceived competition of “wise women”. Women’s knowledge of healing and plants gave them powerful positions and likely resulted in the campaigns to eradicate them as “witches”. The darkest years of the Inquisition and of witch trials saw millions of women arrested, tortured for “confessions” then killed as witches. The Burning Times did to women what the Plague did to Europe – devastated the population.

Towards the 15th century, advancement of scientific thought, new inventions and discoveries served to increase the popularity of herbalism. Master Ion Gardener of England wrote “The Feate of Gardening” in the early 1400’s and moved herbalism beyond folklore by providing a scientific base for serious herb gardeners. It included instruction on cultivating and grafting of herbs.

The invention of the Gutenberg press in 1440 produced a flood of medicinal herbal texts and made possible the widespread distribution of books. The first pictorial herbal was created circa 1500 by German physician and ex monk Otto Brunfels. His 3-volume work included life-size woodcuts. In 1543, Italian physician Petrus Andreas Mattioli published the most successful herbal of his day which he wrote in the vernacular instead of Latin. It was wildly popular with the public. Translated into four languages, it was reissued sixty times. Matiolli, like many of his contemporaries, tried to restore medicine to simpler origins. The Arabic influence with its alchemist component had distorted many of the old texts and Mattioli's commentary on Dioscoride's Materia Medica removed all falsifications, updated the information and added rich detail from Mattioli’s vast knowledge of healing herbs. He enlarged the MM by four hundred plants (mostly Alpine), many never described before. This work influenced the fields of medicine and botany for centuries and became the foundation for many herbal books that followed.

The great Swiss physician Philippus Theophristus became famous as Paracelsus. He was the leading medical personality who bridged the threshold from the Middle Ages to modern times. He revolutionized European attitudes toward healthcare, making knowledge accessible to ordinary folk German rather than Latin lectures. He thought most apothecaries and physicians to be crooked quacks intent on fleecing the public. Commonly prescribed purgatives of the day, complex and often lethal, were condemned and he strongly advocated a return to simpler medicine. He viewed healing in a holistic context believing that spirit and soul were in every living thing. He believed that for every illness there grows a curative herb. Paracelsus developed the “Doctrine of Signatures”, part science and part mysticism. The doctrine teaches the outward appearance of a plant provides clues to its medicinal uses, thus heart ills are helped with plants with heart shaped leaves, liver problems such as jaundice benefit from plants with yellow juices and walnuts or nutmeg, shaped like tiny brains, would be useful for mental functions. Common people embraced the doctrine with relish as it seemed to reveal the healing secrets of nature herself. The doctrine is still used by some modern healers, as the science method has failed to substantiate claims made for all but a few, the doctrine has fallen from wide favor. Paracelsus was a reformer, making medicine and herbs accessible to the common person and denouncing fraudulent and dangerous practices used in medicine of the day.

William Turner was the first English physician and herbalist to follow the lead of Paracelsus and write in English. He believed that English would “assist the apothecaries (drug stores) and old wives that gather herbs” to decipher the Latin used in doctor’s prescriptions. A major change in herbals took place during the 16th and 17th centuries. Botanical characteristics of plants were emphasized over the mystic properties.

Three major herbal works were published in England between 1597 and 1640, written by Culpepper, Gerard, and Parkinson. They were profusely illustrated. Gerard described and pictured 10 different types of medicinal Calendula alone, but unfortunately his “Great Herbal History of Plants” had inaccuracies and confused the reader by misplacing illustrations (A). Remarkable however was that all were all written in English, making the knowledge accessible to common people at a time when physicians were trying to take over the whole of medicine.

In 1629 and 1640 a set of books published by John Parkinson changed the entire face of herbalism. The two books “Paradisi Sole Paradisus Terrestris” and “Theatrum Botanicum” are considered by some the greatest English herbals ever written. Over three thousands plants are described and, unlike earlier herbals, combine history, horticulture, botany and pharmacology all in one book. Parkinson also undertook creating a system of botanical classification; he is the first writer to divide different plants into families and classes.

Nicholas Culpepper (1616-1654) was born an aristocrat. Born privileged, he attended Cambridge University to study medicine, Greek and Latin. Impatient with the snobbery of his former schoolmates, he incurred the wrath of the newly formed physician’s society, The College of Physicians by translating their Pharmacopeia Londinensis from Latin to English. Culpepper’s translation was called the “London Dispensatory and Physical Directory” allowing ordinary people with no knowledge of Latin to read herbal formulas and make their own remedies instead of paying the apothecaries.

In 1652 Culpepper published “The Compleat Herbal and English Physician”, his own herbal text. It has not been out of print since, and was truly radical for its time, giving respect to both country folk traditions and acknowledged herbal masters. His historical influence is tremendous though his utilization of astrological principles is ridiculed by modern scientists. The remedies presented must be evaluated carefully due to inaccuracies and exaggerations. Its true value is as an historical document rather than a reliable herbal.

In Culpepper’s time the newly formed College of Physicians persistently tried to establish itself as the sole caretaker and dispensary of medical knowledge, forcing out all other healers including herbalists. Fortunately for the herbalists and the population in general, they were prevented from achieving their goal by the king himself. Henry VIII was an avid herbalist. He protected the rights of herbalists to use plants and their parts in their healing practice and enshrined those rights in his Charter. He added a codicil preventing the right from ever being revoked by any other law “in all the King’s Dominions” Because of Henry the VIII herbal medicine has enjoyed an uninterrupted history in England and is today practiced in British hospitals alongside modern medicine.

The sixteenth century ushered in dramatic changes to all aspects of European life. Famous navigators and explorers were bringing back exotic goods from newly discovered territories including roots and seeds of native medicines with the instructions for preparation and application provided by the native population.

The most significant influx of the new plants and medicines was the America’s which created great public interest in the new lands. Nicholas Monardes (1493-1578) a physician in Seville Spain opened a museum showcasing medicinal plants with special attention given to plants from North America. Through his studies he created an entirely new herbal text “Joyful Newes Out of the Newe Founde Worlde”. Translated into English in 1577, it cataloged and described a treasury of medicinal plants from North America.

In England plants were pouring in from all over the globe. Yucca, sarsaparilla, nasturtium, nutmeg, saffron, and tea are but a few of the fabulous bounty that arrived. Of course, all manner of colorful and imaginative claims were made for the exotic plant materials. It is interesting to note that Tea was once considered to be a panacea for all ills and modern science has discovered that it is indeed a powerful antioxidant herb.

Meanwhile the battle for medical turf between herbal practitioners, apothecaries (modern day pharmacists) and physicians continued unabated. The study of plants became more scientific and the first botanic gardens were designed as places for research. Gardens were opened in Padua Italy in 1545 and Oxford England in 1621. These centers for study effectively took medicine forever out of the gardens of monasteries and the kitchen of common folk and placed it in the territory, and therefore control, of academic physicians. Doctors lectured about herbs from a botanical standpoint and ignored the astrological influences, systems of humors and signatures that had previously had been attached to the lore of plants. During this dawning of the age of science a Swedish scientist named Carl von Linne, better known as Linnaeus, introduced his system for organizing plants, animals and minerals. His nomenclature system used double Latin names to indicate the genus and species, e.g. tea (Camilla Chinensis). This method made the reliable identification of plants possible regardless of the language of country of origin or conflicting common names. The practice of modern botany and herbology was born.

(A: Author’s note: This still happens today; a popular modern herbal incorrectly identifies a toxic poisonous plant as one that is utterly harmless; in this case the illustration is accurate, the text is not--it’s a good idea to double check information against a different source).

Next issue we will look at North American Herbology and introduce our first individual plant(s) for closer scrutiny.

Until next month, health and happiness to you and your precious animal companions.  Jessica Lane

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