A Cultural History of Plants in the Early Modern Era (The Cultural Histories Series)

A Cultural History of Plants in the Early Modern Era covers the period from 1400 to 1650, a time of discovery and rediscovery, of experiment and innovation. Renaissance learning brought ancient knowledge to modern European consciousness whilst exploration placed all the continents in contact with one another. The dissemination of knowledge was further speeded by the spread of printing. New staples and spices, new botanical medicines, and new garden plants all catalysed agriculture, trade, and science. The great medical botanists of the period attempted no less than what Marlowe's Dr Faustus demanded - a book “wherein I might see all plants, herbs, and trees that grow upon the earth.” Human impact on plants and our botanical knowledge had irrevocably changed. The six-volume set of the Cultural History of Plants presents the first comprehensive history of the uses and meanings of plants from prehistory to today. The themes covered in each volume are plants as staple foods; plants as luxury foods; trade and exploration; plant technology and science; plants and medicine; plants in culture; plants as natural ornaments; the representation of plants. Andrew Dalby is an independent scholar and writer, based in France. Annette Giesecke is Professor of Classics at the University of Delaware, USA. A Cultural History of Plants in the Early Modern Era is the third volume in the six-volume set, A Cultural History of Plants , also available online as part of Bloomsbury Cultural History, a fully-searchable digital library (see www.bloomsburyculturalhistory.com). General Editors: Annette Giesecke, University of Delaware, USA, and David Mabberley, University of Oxford, UK. A Cultural History of Plants presents a global exploration of how plants have shaped human culture. Covering the last 12,000 years, it is the definitive history of how we have cultivated, traded, classified, and altered plants and how, in turn, plants have influenced our ideas of luxury and wealth, health and well-being, art and architecture. Chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the choice of reading about a specific period in one of the volumes, or following a theme across history by reading the relevant chapter in each of the six. The themes (and chapter titles) Plants as Staple Foods; Plants as Luxury Foods; Trade and Exploration; Plant Technology and Science; Plants and Medicine; Plants in Culture; Plants as Natural Ornaments; The Representation of Plants. The six volumes 1 Antiquity (10,000 BCE to 500 CE); 2 Post-Classical Era (500 to 1400); 3 Early Modern Era (1400 to 1650); 4 the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (1650 to 1800); 5 the Nineteenth Century(1800 to 1920); 6 Modern Era (1920 to the present). The page extent for the pack is 1744pp. Each volume opens with Notes on Contributors and an Introduction and concludes with Notes, Bibliography, and an Index. The Cultural Histories Series A Cultural History of Plants is part of The Cultural Histories Series. Titles are available both as printed hardcover sets for libraries needing just one subject or preferring a one-off purchase and tangible reference for their shelves, or as part of a fully-searchable digital library available to institutions by annual subscription or on perpetual access (see (http://www.bloomsburyculturalhistory.com) www.bloomsburyculturalhistory.com ). A Cultural History of Plants in the Early Modern Era covers the period from 1400 to 1650, a time of discovery and rediscovery, of experiment and innovation. Renaissance learning brought ancient knowledge to modern European consciousness whilst exploration placed all the continents in contact with one another. The dissemination of knowledge was further speeded by the spread of printing. New staples and spices, new botanical medicines, and new garden plants all catalysed agriculture, trade, and science. The great medical botanists of the period attempted no less than what Marlowe's Dr Faustus demanded - a book “wherein I might see all plants, herbs, and trees that grow upon the earth.” Human impact on plants and our botanical knowledge had irrevocably changed. The 6 volume set of the Cultural History of Plants presents the first comprehensive history of the uses and meanings of plants from prehistory to today. The themes covered in each volume are plants as staple foods; plants as luxury foods; trade and exploration; plant technology and science; plants and medicine; plants in culture; plants as natural ornaments; the representation of plants. Andrew Dalby is an independent scholar and writer, based in France. Annette Giesecke is Professor of Classics at the University of Delaware, USA. Volume 3 in the Cultural History of Plants set.General Editors: Annette Giesecke, University of Delaware, USA, and David Mabberley, University of Oxford, UK. "A Cultural History of Plants presents a global exploration of how plants have shaped human culture. Covering the last 12,000 years, it is the definitive history of how we have cultivated, traded, classified, and altered plants and how, in turn, plants have influenced our ideas of luxury and wealth, health and well-being, art and architecture. Chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the choice of reading about a specific period in one of the volumes, or following a theme across history by reading the relevant chapter in each of the six. The themes (and chapter titles) are: Plants as Staple Foods; Plants as Luxury Foods; Trade and Exploration; Plant Technology and Science; Plants and Medicine; Plants in Culture; Plants as Natural Ornaments; The Representation of Plants."-- Provided by publisher Cover 1 Contents 6 List of Illustrations 7 Series Preface Annette Giesecke and David J. Mabberley 13 Editors’ Note 14 Introduction: “I am sorry to say that I do not recognise them” Andrew Dalby with Annette Giesecke 16 1 Plants as Staple Foods: Europe in the Post-Classical Era Malcolm Thick 44 2 Plants as Luxury Foods: “And they germinated very well” Andrew Dalby 70 3 Trade and Exploration: Plant Hunting 1450–1650 David Marsh 92 4 Plant Technology and Science: Frondi tenere e belle Ingrid D. Rowland 112 5 Plants and Medicine Florike Egmond 132 6 Plants in Culture Luke Morgan and Elizabeth Hyde 152 7 Plants as Natural Ornaments Jill Francis 172 8 The Representation of Plants: More than Just a Pretty Face? Gillian Riley 192 Notes 212 Bibliography 222 Notes on Contributors 247 Index 249