Materia Medica
The Older Authorities
The physicians, naturalists, poets, scriptures, and folklorists the database draws on, from Homer to Grieve: who each was, when they wrote, and every substance they speak of.
Antiquity
Homerfl. c. 8th century BCThe poet of the Iliad and the Odyssey.8 entriesHesiodfl. c. 700 BCPoet of the Theogony and Works and Days.2 entriesHerodotusc. 484–c. 425 BCThe first historian, and a collector of travelers’ tales.12 entriesCtesias of Cnidus5th century BCGreek physician at the Persian court, and writer on India.1 entryHippocrates and the Hippocratic Writersc. 460–c. 370 BCThe physician of Cos and the corpus that bears his name.7 entriesPlatoc. 428–348 BCThe philosopher, who told of the death of Socrates.1 entryAristotle384–322 BCThe philosopher of nature.2 entriesTheophrastusc. 371–c. 287 BCAristotle’s successor, and the father of botany.10 entriesMithridates VI of Pontusc. 132–63 BCThe king who made himself proof against poison.8 entriesVirgil70–19 BCPoet of the Aeneid and the Georgics.1 entryHorace65–8 BCRoman poet of the Odes and Satires.2 entriesStraboc. 64 BC–c. AD 24Geographer of the Roman world.1 entryOvid43 BC–AD 17/18Poet of the Metamorphoses.6 entriesScribonius Largusc. AD 1–c. 50Physician at the court of Claudius.1 entryAndromachus the Elderfl. AD 60Nero’s physician, who made theriac.3 entriesDioscoridesc. AD 40–90Author of De materia medica, the standard work for fifteen centuries.57 entriesPliny the ElderAD 23/24–79Author of the Natural History, who died at Vesuvius.147 entriesFlavius JosephusAD 37–c. 100Historian of the Jews.3 entriesPlutarchc. AD 46–after 119Biographer and moralist.4 entriesGalenAD 129–c. 216The physician of Pergamon, whose system ruled medicine for 1,500 years.22 entriesZosimus of Panopolisfl. c. AD 300The first alchemist whose writings survive.1 entry
Middle Ages
The Herbal of Pseudo-Apuleius and the Old English Herbal4th century; English c. 1000The herbal of the early Middle Ages, in Latin and in English.2 entriesRhazesc. 865–c. 925Persian physician and chemist.1 entryAvicenna980–1037Author of the Canon of Medicine.2 entriesMesue11th–13th centuryThe name behind the Arabic-Latin books of compound medicines.10 entriesThe School of Salerno10th–13th centuryThe first great medical school of Europe.2 entriesThe Antidotarium Nicolai12th centuryThe Salernitan book of compound medicines.4 entriesHildegard of Bingen1098–1179Benedictine abbess, visionary, and writer on healing.6 entriesAlbertus Magnusc. 1200–1280Dominican philosopher of nature.5 entriesThomas Aquinas1225–1274The theologian, on amulets and the licit use of things.2 entries
Renaissance
Paracelsus1493/94–1541The rebel physician of chemical medicine.7 entriesGirolamo Fracastoroc. 1478–1553Physician of Verona, who named syphilis.1 entryGeorgius Agricola1494–1555The father of mineralogy.1 entryNicolás Monardes1493–1588The physician of Seville who described the drugs of the New World.2 entriesAmbroise Paréc. 1510–1590The barber-surgeon to the kings of France.4 entriesGiambattista della Portac. 1535–1615Neapolitan author of Natural Magic.2 entriesWilliam Gilbert1544–1603Physician to Elizabeth I, and the first student of magnetism.1 entryWilliam Shakespeare1564–1616The poet, and his herbs.5 entries
Early Modern
Basil Valentinepublished 1604 and afterThe legendary monk of the Triumphal Chariot of Antimony.1 entryJan Baptist van Helmont1580–1644Flemish chemist and physician.1 entryOle Worm1588–1654Danish physician and collector.1 entrySir Kenelm Digby1603–1665Courtier, natural philosopher, and champion of the powder of sympathy.1 entryNicholas Culpeper1616–1654Translator of the London pharmacopoeia.85 entriesJohn Evelyn1620–1706Diarist and writer on trees and salads.2 entriesThomas Sydenham1624–1689The English Hippocrates.3 entriesCarl Linnaeus1707–1778The Swedish naturalist who gave plants their scientific names.9 entriesEdward Stone1702–1768The clergyman who tried willow bark against fever.1 entryAnton von Störck1731–1803Viennese physician who tested the poisonous plants.2 entriesWilliam Withering1741–1799The physician who brought foxglove into medicine.1 entry
The Folklorists
Richard FolkardPlant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics, 1884Collector of the myths and superstitions of plants.43 entriesT. F. Thiselton-DyerThe Folk-lore of Plants, 1889Author of a handbook of the folk-lore of plants.26 entriesM. GrieveA Modern Herbal, 1931An herbal that sets each plant’s action beside its lore.40 entriesThe Catholic EncyclopediaNew York, 1907–1914The reference work for the sacramentals and amulets.59 entries
Scripture
Club members read, on each authority’s page, every passage in which the database cites them.