Volume 1

The herball, or general historie of plantes / Gathered by John Gerarde ... Very much enlarged and amended by Thomas Johnson.

  • John Gerard
Date:
1636
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The herball, or general historie of plantes / Gathered by John Gerarde ... Very much enlarged and amended by Thomas Johnson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    35/1748
    nl Spies a ee Lo the Reader. to be drawn. 7 Acophrajtus.as he followed 4rifforle in the Schoole, fo alfo in his manner of writing ; for according as 4rijfotle hath deliuered his i/loria'Animalinin, fo hath he fet . forth this of Plants, noc by writing ofeach /pecées in particular, butof their differences and ThephHif. mature,by their parss,aff ections,gencrationssand Life, VWhich how hard.a thing icwas he tells 241-7 you in his fecond chapter,and renders, you this reafon,Becanfethere ws nothing common to all Syusier 8 ua Plants.as the month aind belly 1s to other tiningtreatires,croe-Now by this mannet Of WritiN® cei menoe- you thay learne che general] differences.and afie ions of Plantsjbut cannot come to the paar particular knowledge of any,wichout much labor ; for you muft go to many places to ga- ther vp the de{cription of one plant : neithet doth he (nor is irneceffarie for any writing in this manner) make mention of any great numbet;and of many it may be but once. His Works being in Greeke were tran(lated into Latine by Theodore GaXa, who did them but Gracafide,for he omitted fome things,otherwhiles sendred them conttarietothe minde ofthe Author ; butaboue all, he took tohimfel fecoomuch libertie in giving of names: in imitation of the Greeke,or of his own inuention,when it had been betrer by much for his Reader tohaue had themin the Greeke; as when hee renders *menpoo, UA gitatorini : ‘bnscSmor, Solaris,erc. The learned Juliws Scaliger-hath fet forth Asimadverfiones vpon thefe Books,wherein he bath both much explained the minde of Taeophraflus, and thewed the errors Of GaXa, Some {ince his time hane promifed todo fomething to this Authour,as Daniel Heinfius and Spigélias,but twenty yearesare paft fince, and I haue not yet heard of any thing done in this kinde by either of them: Thus muth for Theophrajtas. oe Let me not pafle ouer 47i/tot/e in filence, thougirhis:bookes writ of chisfubie& wete ariporie. but two,and the{e according co the conjecture of fulins Scaliger: (who hath made a large ahd Curious exaniination of them,haue either perifhedjor come to vs not as they were 0- rigi nally written by, 474/torle, but as they haue been by fome later mian put into Greeke: Amongft other things Sca/izer hath thefe concerning thofe two bookes ; Redré textrind Theophrafti detract fila quadam,y/q;, clavos additostamet{i neque aurcosneque purpureos, Quod [Tprotinus autorem tibidarivs ad Arabum diligentiam propius accedit. And afterwards thas : Attribuere viri doiti, alins aly,at quidem qut alicrim viderem nihil Planudem antorem facienti _ wnalim alfentiri ; extant enim illius alys in libris fimilisveftiqia femsilatinietatis, ec. Thus much for .4ri/t,;whom as you fee I haue placed after his Scholler;becaufe there is fach doubt of thefe bookes caried about in his name,and for that Sealigér,as you fee,thinks them rather taken out of Theophra/tus,than written by his Matter. . | : The next that orderly followes is Pedacins Diofcorides Anszarbens, wholitied (accor- picfrorides. ding to Suidas)in the time of Clcopatra,which was fome few yeares before the birth ofour Savior. Now Suidas hath confounded * Disfcorides Anaxarbeus with Diofcorides Phacas-but ssonopidds Ara. by fome places in Galew you may fee they were different men: for our Anazarbean Diofco- Heel sdetg vides was of the Emperick Se@,but the other wasa follower of Herophylus and of the Ra- eaS#id, tional Se&. Hewrit not only of Plants,but ae rota materia medica, to which ftudy he was addicted euen from his childehood, which made him trauell much ground, and leade a military life,the better to accompli(h his ends: andiin this hee attained to that pérfe&i- on, that few or none {ince histime hane attained to. Of the exellencie of his work which is aS it were the foundation and ground-worke of all that hath bin finee delivered in this SEN had kinde, heare what Ga/en,one of the excellenteft of Phyfitians, and one wlio {pent no fmal facile fib.Ge : time in this ftudy,aftirmes: But ({aithhe) the AnaXarbean Diofcorides infine bookes hath procm. written of the necelfary maticr of Medicine, not onely taking mention of Herbes but alfo of Trees, myne opinion he hat hwith the createft perfection performed this worke of the matter of Medicine for although many before him hane written well upon this Subiect , yet none hanewrit fo well of all. Now Diofcorides follows not the method.of Theoph.but treats of each herb in particular, firft giuing the Names,then the defcription,and then the place where they vfually grow, and laftly their vertues. Yet of fome,which as then were as frequently known with them as Sape,Rofemary,an Afh or oke tree are with vs, he hdth omitted the defcriptions as yn- heceffaric,as indeed at that time when they were fo vulgarly knewn they might feeme fo to bee , but now wee know the leaft of chefe; and haue nocertaintie, but fome probable coniectures to direét vs to the knowledge of them. He was not curious about his words nor method,but plainly and truly deliuered that whereof he had certaine and experimén- tall knowledge, concerning the defcriprionand nature of Plants. But the generall me- thod he obfertied you may finde fet forth by Barhine,in his edition of Mafthiolus,imame- diatly after the Preface of the fir booke. whereto I refer che Curious , being too long for mein this place to infiftypom. His Works that are come to vs are fiue Books de ma- | teria Medica, One De letalibus. vencnis,corummq; pracautioné cr curatione, fxnother, De Cane | Hy; | rabide, ee
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