Herbal

Use in the book

Illustrated herbals enter the account of study as recreation. Travel books and pictures allow a reader to survey distant places without travelling; pictures of plants offer another absorbing pleasure of looking. Burton names several herbals before culminating in Besler’s large volume, praised for natural colours and for representing almost every plant at its actual size. Both the visual accuracy and the limiting almost matter. He is describing the appeal of the book, not claiming that every depicted plant is medicinal or that every illustration is life-size.

The genre also carries practical medical knowledge. In the criticism of elaborate compounds, Burton quotes Ricci’s account of Chinese practitioners, whose medicine is said to be almost entirely contained in an herbal. This is an attributed European observer’s generalization deployed against unnecessarily intricate mixtures. It is not a verified inventory of Chinese medical learning. A different use cites Turner’s Herball for a household hellebore recipe. Burton immediately distinguishes reported preparation and customary practice from the excessive, reckless dosing that he condemns. A book can preserve medical knowledge without making an untrained reader safe to administer it.

Related entries

Study and reading

Simples

Receipt

Experimental

Places to read

1. Member 4 Exercise of Body and Mind Regulated · paragraphs 4–8Illustrated herbals as absorbing visual recreation; workmanship, colour and qualified life-size scale.
2. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraphs 6–8Ricci’s attributed herbal-learning example within the critique of compound medicines.
3. Member 2 Subsection 1 Single Substances That Purge Upwards · paragraphs 39–41Turner’s herbal, a reported recipe and Burton’s warning about reckless handling.

In this edition

“a well cut Herbal” becomes “a well-engraved herbal”. The rendering clarifies the craft term while retaining herbal as the historical book genre. “almost every Plant is to his own bignesse” becomes “almost every plant is shown at its actual size”: the modern wording supplies the picturing relation implicit in the original description, and preserves its exception-bearing almost.

“all their Physick in a manner is comprehended in an herbal” becomes “almost their entire medicine is contained in a herbal.” In a manner qualifies the totalizing all; it does not mean that every kind of medical knowledge is literally a botanical book. Turner’s “Herball” remains “Herbal”, with the historical spelling regularized.

Herbal

Printed “Herbal” (English; family).

A book describing plants and their properties.

Here: The plant book is valued here as an absorbing visual object.

Context: Burton lists pleasures of study; he claims that almost every plant in Besler’s herbal is depicted at its actual size, without claiming this of every plate.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a well cut Herbal

Modern rendering: a well-engraved herbal

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “herbal” (English; family).

Here: The book represents an allegedly simple body of medicinal knowledge.

Context: Burton attributes this generalization about Chinese medicine to Matteo Ricci; in a manner qualifies comprehensiveness. It is not independently established as a description of the entire medical tradition.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: all their Physick in a manner is comprehended in an herbal

Modern rendering: almost their entire medicine is contained in a herbal

Sense relation: The same lexical sense in a further distinct local use or qualification.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “Herball” (English; family).

Here: An herbal is cited as a source for a household recipe.

Context: Burton reports Turner’s account, then condemns excessive and reckless administration; the book citation does not authorize self-treatment.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: D. Turner speaking of this plant, in his Herball

Modern rendering: Dr Turner, discussing this plant in his Herbal

Sense relation: The same lexical sense in a further distinct local use or qualification.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Own bigness

Printed “own bignesse” (English; phrase).

Its own natural size.

Here: The phrase describes the scale at which the plants are pictured.

Context: Almost limits every: Burton does not claim that all plants without exception are depicted life-size.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: almost every Plant is to his own bignesse

Modern rendering: almost every plant is shown at its actual size

Alignment scope: Corresponding complete clauses; the modern rendering explicitly supplies shown to clarify the representation implicit in the original.

Word and construction: Own bignesse supplies natural or actual size; almost every preserves the original limit.

Well cut

Printed “well cut” (English; phrase).

Well engraved or skillfully illustrated by engraved images.

Here: Cut describes the making of the book’s pictures, not cutting its plants.

Context: Burton praises the workmanship and lifelike appearance of illustrated books.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a well cut Herbal

Modern rendering: a well-engraved herbal

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.