The Lasting Presence of Gerard's Herball

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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, 14
a great mixing of people and ideas was taking place. One can easily imagine an apothecary making conversation with a farmer selling herbs at a market outside London. Perhaps the farmer would be offered a chance to look through Gerard’s Herball. The rural and urban conditions briefly described exemplify some of the same blending of influence seen between the botanists and the Herball. Botany pushed people to be more observant and to seek information; practicing botanists influenced Johnson’s work updating the Herball. And the Herball, with its delightful language, anecdote, and fine woodcuts encouraged people to observe and carefully describe plants and to record their locations. So, too, the imperative to care for oneself (while driven by economic necessity) endowed urban and rural people with stores of knowledge and experience, ripe for exchange with the “learned” and others exposed to printed information. In this manner, person-to-person, through conversation, experience, and shared observation, the “jewels” of Gerard have passed through nearly 400 years of history. While we cannot forget the practical motivation for much of that journey, I often return to some of Gerard’s most passionate prose for inspiration, addressed “to the courteous and well willing Readers”: Easy therefore is this treasure to be gained, and yet precious…nothing can be confected, either delicate for the taste, dainty for the smell, pleasant for sight, wholesome for body, conservative or restorative for health, but it borroweth the relish of an herb, the savor of a flower, the color of a leaf, the juice of a plant, or the decoction of a root. And such is the treasure that this my Treatise is furnished withall; wherein though myne art be not able to countervail Nature in her lively portraitures, yet have I counterfeited likeness for life, shapes and shadows for 15
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Page 3 and 4: years. I say “person to person”
Page 5 and 6: and botanist, to undertake the proj
Page 7 and 8: At the same time, Gerard’s Herbal
Page 9 and 10: additional information. Or perhaps
Page 11 and 12: The short answer is that we do not
Page 13: like. Wright (1935) notes that in t
Page 17 and 18: inding the signatures. I looked for
Page 19 and 20: their own. People like John Jossely
Page 21: Ioice Norton, and Richard Whitakers

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