Centuries after Dioscorides wrote De Materia medica, and many, many years after Hildegard wrote her Physica, John Gerard wrote one of the greatest herbals of the English language- Herball.  Well, Gerard's name is on the original version as if he had written it, but it seems as if that is not entirely the case.  Much controversy surrounds the authorship of Herball, quite unlike De Materia medica and Physica.  But before we delve into discussions of plagiarism, let's first discuss Gerard himself.

    John Gerard was born in 1545 in Nantwich, which is in southern Cheshire, England.  He went to school at Willaston, which was known as Wisterson at the time.  Around the age of seventeen, Gerard became an apprentice of Alexander Mason.  Mason was a Warden of the Barber-Surgeons' Company.  Around this time, Gerard traveled along the Baltic coast as a ship's surgeon.

    After returning to London, Gerard was hired to act as the superintendent of the gardens for William Cecil.  William Cecil was Lord Burghley, and was a very powerful member in the court of Queen Elizabeth I.  Gerard took care of Cecil's gardens in the Strand in London and at Theobalds in Hertfordshire.  He is also famous for his own personal garden in Holborn.  While taking care of these three gardens, Gerard remained quite involved with the Barber-Surgeons' Company.  It would seem that all matters related to surgery and gardens took up the majority of Gerard's time.

    Gerard's employment as superintendent to Cecil's gardens put him in a unique position to study many different types of plants.  His personal garden overflowed with a multitude of plants native to England.  He also had many more exotic plants sent to him from overseas.  One of these exotic plants is the potato, which does not seem so exotic to us anymore.  Gerard's illustration of the potato is one of the earliest known of the vegetable, and it was probably the first time most English people had ever seen a potato.

    The Herball itself was published in 1597, and was actually more of a translation than an original piece of work.  John Norton, the Queen's printer, had asked a man called Dr. Priest to write a new translation of Rembert Dodoens' herbal, Pemptades.  Pemptades was a very well-known and popular Dutch herbal, familiarized in England through a translation by Henry Lyte.  However, this Dr. Priest character died before he completed the translation.  For some reason or another, Norton asked Gerard to help complete the project.  It seems that Gerard wanted to find a way to be able to claim all the work as his own, so he changed the formatting of the previously completed work to match the system of a botanist named L'Obel.  It is obvious now, though, that Gerard's work is too similar to the Lyte translation, and that the majority of Herball is plagiarized because it doesn't attribute anything to Dr. Priest, L'Obel, Dodoens, or Lyte.  Even with all of this confusion over authorship, Herball was then, and still remains to be, one of the most popular herbals written in the English language.  Gerard's writing style was very engaging and beautiful, and he was highly praised for his descriptions of plants and the names he gave to plants.

    My opinion regarding Gerard and the Herball are similar to my feelings about Dioscorides and De Materia medica, as well as Hildegard and Physica.  Herbals and their authors seem simply under-taught to me.  I read in many places that Herball is so well-known and popular, yet I had never even heard of it prior to this semester in History of Science.  It was also praised for how beautifully it was written.  Being so, isn't that the kind of thing science and history teachers should be wanting students to read in their classes?  Shouldn't they be having us read these types of original work that have great historical and scientific value that are engaging, rather than textbook bland?  I also realized while studying Gerard that people should be much more careful with who they attribute the Herball to.  Yes, Gerard finished it, but it is not a work solely of his mind and hand.  It is quite unfair to not mention the fact that Herball is more of a compilation than a work by Gerard himself.  It does a disservice to people like Dodoens, Priest, L'Obel, and Lyte when we don't owe them at least a little credit in Herball.  Because in truth, they should probably get all the credit for the content, while Gerard should only get the the credit for the style.

Plant and Herbal Remedies from Herball:

Garlic "yeeldeth to the body no nourishment at all."  However, it is great help for sore throats and coughs, and it "killeth worms in the belly, and driveth them forth, taketh away the morphew, tettars or ring-wormes, scabbed heads in children, dandraffe, and scurfe, tempered with honey, and the parts anointed therewith."

Agrimony was often used to heal wounds by the Anglo-Saxons.  Gerard suggested different uses for it, saying that if you boil it with wine, it could "inveterate hepaticke fluxes in old people."

Of Foxglove, Gerard said, "Fox-glove boiled in water or wine, and drunken, doth cut and consume the thick toughnesse of grosse and slimie flegme and naughty humours; it openeth also the stopping of the liver, spleene, and milt, and of other inward parts."

Basil juice, when "drunke in wine of Chios or strong Sacke" could cure a headache.  It could also be used as an anti-inflammatory and a snakebite antidote when mixed with barley meal, rose oil, and vinegar.

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Primary Source:
"Herball, Generall Historie of Plants." University of Virginia Health System 24 Nov 2008. Weblink: UVa.

Secondary Source:
Anderson, Frank J.. An Illustrated History of the Herbals. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.

Notes: My primary source provided me with the plant and herbal remedies I listed at the end of the episode.  The source is reliable because the information is from the University of Virginia Health Sciences Library.  The secondary source provided me with all the information about Gerard and the Herball.  It is a reliable source because author has direct, firsthand knowledge of the primary source and is a professor of the history of science.  The book was also published by a prominent university publishing company.

Image Information:
John Gerard.
Website: University of Virginia Health Sciences Library
Weblink: http://www.hsl.virginia.edu/historical/rare_books/herbalism/gerard.cfm

John Gerard, The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes (London, 1597)
Weblink: Exhibits Online. Courtesy History of Science Collections, OU Libraries.

Lily. John Gerard, The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes (London, 1597)
Weblink: Exhibits Online. Courtesy History of Science Collections, OU Libraries.

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