Christian of Prachatice’s Latin Herbarium and Its Adaptations in Old Czech Literature
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| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
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| Description | Christian of Prachatice is one of the most important authors of the Prague University at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, and his Latin “Herbarius” is the first handbook of simples compiled in medieval Bohemia. The chapter discusses Christian's compilation technique, which was very innovative both in the selection of sources and in the use of differentiated alphabetical ordering, and enabled knowledge about the medicinal use of plants to reach a wider range of readers. In the second part of the chapter, the author draws attention to the significance of Christian’s “Herbarius” for all Old-Czech herbals preserved today and to the various adaptations of this text within popularizing medical compendiums of which it became a part. Based on a thorough study of many medieval manuscripts, the author refutes the centuries-old assessment of Christian as the founder of Old-Bohemian medical terminology, the author of the Old-Bohemian herbal “O mocech koření” (“On the Powers of Spices”) and the author of another Old-Bohemian herbal, which was repeatedly published in the early modern period as part of the “Lékařské knížky” (“Medical Books”), although on this authorship the fame of the Christian as a doctor was established. The chapter describes the real impact of Christian’s “Herbarius” on this genre and gives a lot of details about its role in the development of Old-Bohemian “scientific” literature. |
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