The Grete Herball 1526 Title page with frontispiece of garden scene,
from 1526 edition printed by Peter Treveris
The Grete Herball (The Great Herbal) is an Early Modern encyclopedia & the1st illustrated herbal produced in English. It is preceded by Richard Banckes's unillustrated Herball (1525), which was the first printed English herbal ever produced. The Grete Herball is a single volume compendium which details the medicinal properties (or virtues) of plants and some non-botanical items according to the system of humoralism. Its full title is "The grete herball: whiche geueth parfyt knowlege & under standyng of all maner of herbes & there gracyous vertues whiche god hath ordeyned for our prosperous welfare & helth: for they hele & cure all maner of dyseases & sekenesses that fall or mysfortune to all maner of creatoures of god created: practysed by many expert & wyse maysters, as Aucienna & other &c."
Like most medieval & early modern herbals, the Grete Herball is made up of information taken from earlier works. This literary tradition can be traced back to the second millennium b.c.e., but the number of herbals grew most in the 13C. De Materia Medica (Περὶ ὕλης ἰατρικῆς) of the 1st century Pedanius Dioscorides is considered one of the most important encyclopedias of plant knowledge from the time, but herbals became numerous & wholesale lifting of information common & expected. Authors & printers borrowed freely, often without the addition of any original content.
Instead, the Grete Herball is considered the only known translation from French of Le Grant Herbier (1498). Like contemporary herbals, Le Grant Herbier exhibits heavy borrowing. Over half of its chapters are lifted from Circa instans, a Salernitan work created between approximately 1130 & 1150. Similarly, the Grete Herball's numerous woodcuts are taken from Le Grant Herbier, but like the text these images are not original to the French Herbier. They are in fact copies of a series of woodcuts which first appeared in the German Herbarius zu Teutsch (also known as Der Gart). In the Grete Herball the same woodcut image is often reused for multiple entries. The Grete Herball contains extensive information on plant life as well as entries on animals, comestibles, & minerals. Each entry features an image of the plant or item, its Latin name, any known alternate names, its humoral categorization, any associated folklore, a list of its medical & practical applications, & instructions for use.
Peter Treveris, printer, is widely believed to be responsible for the 1st productions of the Grete Herball. His dates of birth & death are unknown, but it is estimated that he died in the mid-1530s. Though there is some evidence suggesting Treveris 1st printed the Grete Herball in 1516, the earliest verifiable edition dates to July 27, 1526. This edition was printed at Southwark, as was the 2nd edition in 1529. Treveris was active as a printer between approximately 1525 & 1532.
In many ways, the Grete Herball is inferior to Banckes’ Herbal, nevertheless, it achieved wider acclaim. Apart from an original introduction, the Grete Herball is a translation of the French herbal Le Grand Herbier, which itself was a translation of a German herbal printed in Mainz in 1485 or 1491. In many ways, the Grete Herball is a return to medieval lore. Beautifully detailed woodcut frontpiece and printer’s mark, but other illustrations are of poorer quality, being inferior copies of the earlier German herbal. There ae no scientific/taxonomic organization of herbs, merely alphabetical entries.
As an herbal text, the book's content is primarily on the medicinal uses & properties of the materials described. Exceptions to this rule are suggestions for cosmetic use or folklore associated with the item. One well-known entry concerns the Mandrake, an herb with the mythical human form of a man & a woman. Each plant & non-botanical is also described as being either hot or cold, dry or wet, & the "degree" of each. This categorization allowed doctors to prescribe a corresponding medicine for diseases, which were defined by the same system in a separate section of the book.
One well-known entry concerns the Mandrake, an herb with the mythical human form of a man & a woman. The title page is dominated by the printed full title of the Grete Herball, with a large frontispiece depicting a man & woman working in a garden. In each corner a mandrake root of each gender is depicted. The title is printed in both red & black ink.
There are approximately 400 entries for plants & non-botanical items. Of these, 150 plants are English natives. Some plant entries are mugwort, cypress, mandrake root, grapes, chamomile, muscat, & marrubium (horehound). Animals recommended for their medicinal value include hare, fox (fox grease is recommended for muscle cramps), goat, ox, elephant ivory, & beaver. Besides medical uses, these entries also provide information on cosmetic applications of items, such as the bones of sepia (cuttlefish) for whitening the teeth & complexion.
The Diagnosis guide contains information on physician's classifications of the humors & types of illness. This is according to the Galenic system of humors, with the four temperaments described according to the state of their "bryne" or humors. This is followed by instructions for diagnosis of illnesses, again by referencing the state of a person's "bryne." A catalogue of illnesses & their symptoms lists alopecia, asthma, worms, cramps, flesh wounds, fluxes, & gout.
The final index is an alphabetically organized list of various maladies, with reference to the entry number & first letter of appropriate medicines for each. The headings are often specific, such as "For wormes in the bely of chyldren" or "For broken synews."
