A Cultural History of Plants in the Early Modern Era

About this book

A Cultural History of Plants in the Early Modern Era is the third volume in the six-volume set, A Cultural History of Plants 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.

Contents

Series Preface
List of Figures
Editors' Note

Introduction: "I am sorry to say that I do not recognise them" / Andrew Dalby and Annette Giesecke

1. Plants as Staple Foods: Europe in the Post-Classical Era / Malcolm Thick
2. Plants as Luxury Foods: "And they germinated very well" / Andrew Dalby
3. Trade and Exploration: Plant Hunting 1450-1650 / David Marsh
4. Plant Technology and Science: Frondi tenere e belle / Ingrid D. Rowland
5. Plants and Medicine / Florike Egmond
6. Plants in Culture / Luke Morgan and Elizabeth Hyde
7. Plants as Natural Ornaments / Jill Francis
8. The Representation of Plants: More than Just a Pretty Face? / Gillian Riley

Notes
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Andrew Dalby, once a librarian at Cambridge University Library, lives in France, writes on food history (Siren Feasts, 1996; Empire of Pleasures, 2000; Food in the Ancient World from A to Z, 2003; The Breakfast Book, 2015), and translates historical sources on farming and food (Cato on Farming, 1998; Tastes of Byzantium, 2010; Geoponika, 2011; The Treatise of Walter of Bibbesworth, 2012). His latest book, on which he collaborated with his daughter Rachel, is Gifts of the Gods: A History of Food in Greece (Reaktion Books, 2017).
 

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. She is the General Editor of the six-volume A Cultural History of Plants (Bloomsbury 2022) and editor of Volume 1 (Antiquity) and co-editor of Volume 3 (Early Modern). Her other works include Classical Mythology A to Z (2020) and The Mythology of Plants (2014). She is the General Editor of the six-volume A Cultural History of Nature (Bloomsbury, forthcoming).