When plants and animals were specifically studied in the Middle Ages, it was usually in the context of medicine, natural philosophy, or agriculture. Scientific knowledge about the natural world was passed down through the Middle Ages from a few written sources: Aristotle’s History of Animals, botanical works by Dioscorides and Theophrastus, and Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia, or Natural History. Pliny’s work was the first scientific book issued using the newly-invented printing press, in 1469.
Pliny, a Roman scholar, intended the Natural History as an encyclopedia of all the knowledge of the classical world. The 37 books of the Natural History cover astronomy, geography, zoology, botany, mineralogy, and contemporary technology. Pliny gathered his material from over 100 sources and his own observations, but he also included unsupported and pseudoscientific information. Despite what modern readers can easily identify as flaws and errors, since so much of the scientific knowledge of the ancient world was lost during the Middle Ages, the Natural History was one of the few reference works available to medieval scholars and they considered it to be an authoritative source. Pliny’s work even inspired encyclopedia projects by authors like Isidore of Seville in the 7th century and Vincent of Beauvais in the 13th century.
Pliny the Elder. Naturalis historia. Rome: Sweynheim and Pannartz, 1470.
This two-volume Rome edition of the Natural History is one of the first printings of the text. The Natural History was a popular work in the early years of printing; 18 known editions were produced before 1501.
Pliny the Elder. Historia naturale. Venice: Nicolas Jenson, 1476.
An Italian translation of the Natural History by Florentine scholar and poet Cristoforo Landino. This incunable (early printed book) was produced by one of the most famous 15th century printers, Nicolas Jenson, whose type forms are still used as a model by modern typographers.
Isidore of Seville. Etymologiae (Etymologies). Venice: Bonetus Locatellus, 1493.
Isidore of Seville, the author of this well-known medieval encyclopedia, borrowed heavily from Pliny in his discussion of the natural world.
Vincent of Beauvais. Speculum naturale (The mirror of nature). Strasbourg: Adolph Rusch, before 1478.
Medieval theologian Vincent of Beauvais wrote this summary of scientific knowledge about the natural world as an extended commentary on the Biblical account of the creation.
Pedanius Dioscorides of Anazarbos. De materia medica. Graz: : Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 19(65)-70.
This facsimile reproduces several Greek manuscripts of the works of Dioscorides, a 1st century physician. His writings were the most important medical texts to survive from the ancient world in the Middle Ages. One of the features of the original manuscript reproduced in the facsimile is an herbal with many color illustrations of medicinal plants.