The Lasting Presence of Gerard's Herball

infusion of certain plants in hot water. Why be at the expense of securing a
learned doctor? (p.103)
People experimented, talked about new knowledge and experience, and probably shared
any written information available, either through conversation or by passing a book
around. Such openness to learning was a necessary consequence of living conditions at
the time. Indeed, apothecaries like Johnson may have gathered information from their
rural, or urban, herbalist patients. Gerard himself, as head gardener for Lord Burghley,
worked with laborers who may have known as much about plants as he. Wright (1935)
suggests that inexpensive herbals were common household books, studied with a
“diligence” comparable to study of the Bible (p.574).
Openness to learning is also evident in 17 th century urban culture. Peter Burke
provides a vivid description of London in chapter 1 of Popular Culture in Seventeenth-
Century England. London was a somewhat unusual European city during this period.
Almost twice the size of other large cities (with a population of 200,000 people), London
was a diverse mix of classes, nationalities, and religions. Many people immigrated to
London because the city was Protestant and relatively tolerant. More than half the
population lived outside the city proper.
The traditional calendar festivals (and fairs) were open to all and did not revolve
around religious practice. Such festivals ran continuously for days and shops remained
open. Burke suggests that the religious festivals were in decline, allowing popular
culture to flourish (because “unlike learned culture [popular culture was] open to all,”
p.38). He notes that printers served as “intermediaries between learned and popular
culture” because of their involvement in the craft of putting together books (p.52). Thus,
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