Botanical Books

Botanical books bring together academic information, realistic images, and book art. This page mostly discusses botanical books from the Western world in a codex format.

History

The history of botanical books is the intersection of the history of books and the history of botany. Although plant taxonomies and different uses of plants were recorded as early as in ancient India, China, and Greece in Sanskrit hymns, medical texts, and Theophrastus's works, botanical books in a more modern sense came with the arrival of new printing technologies—such as movable type and woodcut illustrations—in the 15th and 16th centuries. Some of the first books made in this context were herbals.

Herbals

Herbals were botanical books that among the first books to be printed in Europe. At this point, plants were still studied primarily for medicinal use rather than for biological study, which meant that herbals were mostly focused on how they might be used for medicinal purposes. They often included recipes for herbal extracts and potions. Many curators of university gardens compiled classical texts such as De Materia Medica for a more complete collection of medicinal uses.

Herbals also assisted the reader in finding and identifying plants for these purposes.