A Fifteenth Century Botanical Glossary (article)

A Fifteenth Century Botanical Glossary
By Jerry Stannard, for Isis (1964)

In this article Stannard discusses “a glossary of plants, minerals, and animal products used as drugs plus a few miscellaneous items denoting pharmaceutical equipment and other matters of interest to the physician and apothecary” (353-4). This glossary, contained in a manuscript dating to 1475, takes the form of columned entries that name and describe specific items (for example, a plant, and its corresponding medicinal properties, means of identification, provenance, synonyms, and other information).

Says Stannard, “Of the 309 entries, the majority, some 278, refer to plants” (354). Stannard then goes on to discuss some of the sources for the information contained in the botanical glossary and a brief timeline of the native Anglo-Saxon botanical tradition.

What interests me about this article is the mentions it makes of culture. For example, Stannard writes:

“To the rustic or to those who looked for edification from a world endowed with moral reminders, the shape of the leaves often suggested animal, bird, or human forms. From these resemblances, usually quite fanciful, moral allegories were often developed” (360).

I think we see this to some extent in the Travels, at least in the instances of moral nature that occur at reasonably frequent intervals. This explains, for example, the supposed cross-shape visible in the center of a banana cut cross-wise, which points us to the readiness of people in the region to receive the Christian faith.

Stannard also discusses “the doctrine of signatures. According to this belief, a plant indicates by its mere external appearance the disease or portion of the body for which it was intended and for which it was, for that reason, of special therapeutic value” (361). I’m not sure this has specific application to Mandeville, but it does give a name to a phenomenon of which I was already aware and struggled to communicate clearly on the surprisingly frequent occasions on which it arises in daily conversation. No, really – you’d be surprised how often I’ve discussed “the doctrine of signatures” and didn’t know what the hell to call it.

Later in the article, Stannard mentions analogy:

“The use of analogy in plant description is as old as Theophrastus and is a particularly common device in nonbotanical writings when mention of a plant is required, but where science can be, momentarily at least, ignored or subordinated to poetry” (362). Again, of no specific application to Mandeville (or at least nothing obviously striking), but I think this idea is present in the Travels: though SJM sometimes plays the naturalist, he plays just as often the poet and storyteller. Plants often become cultural objects, not scientific specimens.

Lastly, Stannard points to the medieval “belief that by examining the etymology of the name of a drug, something of value might be learned concerning its medicinal uses” (365). Such a practice might not point to the modern, scientifically proven properties of the plant, but it might well point to how the plants were received as useful, practicable cultural objects.

So, A Fifteenth Century Botanical Glossary. Though it is an examination of a primary text with no relation to the Travels, still it contains some interesting tools for thinking about how plants are given over to the audience by Mandeville.

Botanical Sources of Early Medicines (article)

Botanical Sources of Early Medicines
By William S. Keezer, for Bios (1963)

This article is a discussion of some early botanists and herbalists, with examples of common toxic, medicinal and sacred herbs that concern them in their work.

Regarding plants mentioned in the Travels and other useful things:
-Keezer discusses RHUBARB and its history as a medicinal plant (185)
-He discusses Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny the Elder, Ebers Papynus, and Rig-Veda as classical sources of plant information
-He discusses herbals and herbalists, including Apuleius Platonicus, Ortus Sanitatis, Herboarius Moguntinus, Tycharde Banckes, Peter Trevens, Leonard Fuch and John Parkinson
-The last of these herbalists – John Parkinson – apparently had an image of a vegetable lamb on the cover of his 1629 text Parasisi in sole, Paradisus Terrestris
-About the vegetable lamb, Keezer cites the following: [Guthrie, Douglas. A History of Medicine, J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1946].

Medicines and Spices (article)

Medicines and Spices, with Special Reference to Medieval Monastic Accounts
By Marjorie Jenkins, for Garden History (1976)

This article is very short but has a couple of interesting points. It is essentially a note on the importance and prevalence of spices in medieval monastic records. Marjorie Jenkins (based on notes from Nancy Jenkins) lists some common medieval spices in Europe, with reference to the Rule of St. Benedict. Then, she notes some evidence for the cultural importance of spices.

Interestingly, she points out the taxes that were levied on spices in the 1300s in order to raise funds for things like repairing London Bridge. That spices, along with known commodities of import, were subject to taxes points to their popularity and their increasingly consistent place in the medieval kitchen and apothecary.

Jenkins also points to the use of spices as a currency for things like the payment of rent: with standardized prices (which, per pound, could be easily converted to "sheep" or money) making them an acceptable form of payment. Lastly, she points to the place of spices in gifts and tribute to royalty and persons of import.

Brief though this article may be, it points to the use of monastic records as an indication of trafficking in spices in Europe - purchases by the Cellarer and Infirmarer reflect the popularity and trade of different spices/botanic commodities in the kitchen and infirmary.

What these accounts do not satisfactorily reflect is the cultivation and use of indigenous herbs in monastic gardens: says Jenkins, medicinal plants which are indigenous or easily cultivated in our climate are not mentioned in these accounts (48), and I suppose one (I) must look elsewhere for information on the popularity and use of indigenous plants.

Plant Folk Medicines (article)

Plant Folk Medicines among the Nicobarese of Katchal Island, India
By H. S. Dagar and J. C. Dagar, for Economic Botany (1991)

First, I am kind of offended by the idiotic point of view that one can stay with an indigenous community for “several days” (115) and in doing so “create confidence in them to reveal” (115) their ancient sacred practices.

That aside, this article details the folk medicinal use of plants naturally occurring on Katchal Island, India, by an indigenous group “living in complete geographical isolation” (115) with an unbroken history of interactions with local plants that date to time before memory.

For information on local use of plants encountered by Mandeville in India, I might refer to the significant list of plant species and usage summaries provided in the article. Given that the article only cites scientific names and I haven’t memorized the Latin for the plants Mandeville encounters, I probably won’t go ahead and do that for the hell of it, but for the record: note to self, this might be a helpful resource.