An Illustrated History of the Herbals

While researching the oldest books in the Miller Library’s collection, I discovered a much more recent gem. An Illustrated History of the Herbals by Frank Anderson quickly became a valuable resource in my study of our rare books.

I say recent – but that is relative. Anderson’s book dates from 1977, when he was honorary curator of rare books and manuscripts for the New York Botanical Garden. Honorary, because this was his retirement career after many years working for the U.S. Postal Service. According to his obituary in the New York Times (August 20, 1994), he “had his first official link with the garden’s library in 1968 when he answered an ad seeking a ‘mature’ person to serve as book shelver.”

Although it was his second career, Anderson proved a talented student of ancient writings on botany. He was also a superb writer. I have read several other such histories; he often clarifies topics that I struggled to understand as presented by other authors. This is an easy book to read from cover to cover and along the way you’ll learn the history of plants and their uses from 70 to 1700 C.E.

He had great wit, too. In describing one book in the Miller collection: “The title page of the Theater of Plants, to use its English name, proclaims it as ‘An Herball of Large Extent.’ It is, for there are 1,755 folio sized pages…if a reader should happen to drop it on his foot he would be well advised to consult the passages on comfrey or other plants good for mending broken bones.”

Published in the Leaflet, Volume 6, Number 11, November 2019.