Book Review: The Illustrated College Herbal. Plants from the Pharmacopoea Londinensis of 1618

Today sees the book launch of The Illustrated College Herbal: Plants from the Pharmacopoea Londinensis of 1618 at the Royal College of Physicians.  I'll be there this afternoon!

This new illustrated herbal features watercolour paintings and woodcuts of nearly 200 plants from the Pharmacopoea Londinensis beds in the RCP’s Medicinal Garden at its home on the edge of Regent's Park.

The book has an interesting history and this book review precedes comments on its contents with a short history of its antecedents and the reasons why it has been published this year.

I recommend this book to all those interested in the history of medicinal plants and herbals in particular. In addition to the high quality content and production it also contains a lot of information about the plants identified for medicinal use

The Pharmacopoea Londinensis (1618) and the Royal College of Physicians

Title Page of the Pharmacopoea Londinensis 1618

The Pharmacopoea Londinensis was Britain’s first Pharmacopoeia. That is, an official publication containing a list of medicinal drugs with their effects and directions for their use. It was first published in 1618. (You can read a digital copy on the Wellcome Library website). It contained:

• 430 compound medicines
• a list of the plants, minerals and animal ingredients which were used to make them
• of the 774 ingredients listed, 634 are plants and 140 are minerals or animal products.  

The aim of publishing this new Pharmacopoeia was to provide the Worshipful Company of Apothecaries, newly formed in November 1617, with a standard set of guidelines on the formulation and administration of medicines and was intended for use across the kingdom.

​The Royal College of Physicians is an older institution and was founded in 1518. In 2018 it celebrates its 500th anniversary; marked in February by an official visit by HM The Queen and the publication of a modern day RCP500 charter.

The publication of the Illustrated College Herbal in turn marks:

• the 500th anniversary of the Royal College of Physicians
• the 400th anniversary of the publication of the Pharmacopoea Londinensis by the College.

About The Illustrated College Herbal

Tamus communis (Bryonia) by Beth Phillip

This book results from a collaboration between:

• the Garden Fellows of the RCP
• the Gardeners who look after the Medicinal Garden - where about 200 plants listed in the Pharmacopoea Londinensis are now grown.
• the botanical artists and illustrators commissioned to contribute to the book - who were mainly members of the Chelsea Physic Florilegium Society (founded 1995), the Hampton Court Florilegium Society (founded 2004) and others.

The book has been created by Jane Knowles (Head Gardener) and Henry Oakeley FRCP (Garden Fellow) who wrote the text. Gillian Barlow (artist in residence at the Medicinal Garden in 2012-13) commissioned the paintings - and created the painting for the front cover. ​Naturally a lot of people also contributed to the creation of the book - not least the botanical artists

The contents include:

• a preface regarding the reason for its production
• a brief history of the Pharmacopoea Londinensis 
• Illustrations and brief details of the plants currently grown in the Medicinal Garden which were included in the original herbal
• a Glossary of long forgotten medical terms
• a Catalogus Simplicium - which matches the name in the Pharmacopoea Londinensis  with the Current name - according to the way they were listed in the former eg Roots; Barks and Peels; Woods; Herbs; Flowers etc
• an Artist's Directory - which includes with a mini profile of both career and contact details which was very gratifying to see! I'd like to see this happening more in books about botanical art where the art has been donated.
• Bibliography - which provides a great list for those researching Herbals from the past! (Although I was a little surprised not to see the seminal works about Herbals by Arber, Blunt and Rohde on the list)

The one thing that's missing is an Index or a cross-reference from artist profile to pages on which their artwork appears. It's only after a while it dawned on me that artists other than Gillian Barlow had made a significant contribution - although I'm guessing this in part relates to which of the artists have also been previous artists in residence e.g. Mayumi Hashi in 2010.

Next more detailed comments on my real interest - the illustrations!

Taraxacum officinale (Taraxicon, i. Dens Leonis) from Matthiolu's Discorsi 1568

The book is large and its size and quality of the printing enables full appreciation of each illustration. The book contains:

• 118 paintings and drawings donated by the 80 botanical artists who contributed to this very special book
• 77 woodcuts from the folios of the greatest publishers of herbals in the 17th century

I think it's the first time I've seen contemporary botanical artwork systematically interspersed with a number of woodcuts and it's fascinating to review

• the very different approaches to designing a plate for publication ( with historical woodcuts aiming to fill a complete rectangle in many instances while contemporary botanical illustrations tend to make judicious use of white space and allow their paintings to 'breathe'; and
• the differences in how plants are portrayed. The emphasis in the woodcuts is on line and the use of hatching to suggest form and depth compared to contemporary illustrations which are much more focused on colour and a pleasing picture
• whereas the extent to which each illustration portrays all relevant botanical information for identification purposes varies as much today as it did in the past.
• It seemed to me that some artists had made a conscious effort to emulate the efforts of earlier botanical illustrators. While some of the woodcuts are pretty basic it's also an excellent opportunity to admire the intricacy of some of them

Features of each image in the book are:

• the correct botanical name - with the archaic pre-Linnean form translated by Jane Knowles to the current international name
• the name of the artist (and actually - small whinge - I'd have really liked to have known the medium and support for the contemporary works)
• medical notes about how the plant could be used according to the descriptions provided by Nicholas Culpeper (who also had a garden for medicinal plants in East Spitalfield) in his translation of the Pharmacopoeia

Plants are listed alphabetically. This means there is scope to match up contemporary and historical illustrations of plants from the same genus on facing pages (eg Citrus pages 48-9; Papaver pages 134-5); Plantago pages 144-5; Teucrium on pages 186-7; Thyme portrayed on pages 188-9; )

I particularly liked:

• Christine Battle's Helleborus niger (Black Helebore)
• Penny Gould's Euphorbia lathyris (Spurge)
• Mayumi Hashi's Hyoscymaus niger (Henbane) Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco) and Mandragora officinarum (mandrake)
• Sue Linton's painting of Rosemary - for including the growth habit as well as the detail
• Beth Phillip's Lamium Album (dead nettles) and Tamus communis (Black Briony)
• Shirley Slocock's Coriandrum sativum (Coriander)

How to get a copy
​

Many thanks to Dr Henry Oakeley for sending this book to me to review - it's been real pleasure!

Copies of the book can be ordered via email

• at [email protected] (please put ‘Illustrated College Herbal’ in the subject line, and your address in the text of the email)
• or publications@rcplondon.ac.uk. for £20 + p&p.

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More about the Medicinal Garden
​

The Royal College of Physicians' Medicinal Garden contains over 1,100 plants, all with links to medicine. The current garden was created in St Andrews Place in 1965. In 2005 it was extensively replanted. You can discover the history of the Medicinal Garden in a podcast. Plus can also read more about it in my page about Old Botanic Gardens in London

The plants offer an insight into the history, beliefs and culture of medicine through the ages. 

The plants tell the stories of modern-day medicines, of the Doctrine of Signatures, the humoural system of medicine of ancient Greece, herbal medicine, modern myths, hallucinogens and narcotics. All plants are labelled with their Latin names, their plant families, and the region of the world from which they come.

How to tour the garden

• Free tours of the medicinal gardens are held on the first Wednesday of each month at 2pm between March and October. To book please call +44 (0)20 3075 1200. 
• Group tours can be arranged with the social events manager by telephone on +44 (0)20 7034 4901 or by sending an email to [email protected].