A Cultural History of Plants in the Early Modern Era

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, PhD, is a specialist in the history, meaning, and representation of ancient gardens and designed landscapes at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

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, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and David Mabberley, University of Oxford, UK.