THEOPHRASTUS ON HERBALS AND HERBAL REMEDIES

Theophrastus of Eresos (c. 370-288/85 B.C.) was the outstanding student of Aristotle, and is famed in the history of Western literature for his lampooning Characters, as well as numerous treatises on botany, petrology, and other subjects in natural history.’ Best known is the Historia Plantarum, which formed the base for all succeeding studies of plant lore and classification until the Linnaean system.2 Taking Aristotle’s methodologies, illustrated in the Historia Animalium, De Partibus Animalium, and other zoological works, Theophrastus produced a botanical guide that displayed the best in the Peripatetic approaches to the world of nature. There is some controversy over the authenticity of Historia Plantarum, IX, in which herbs and herbals appear. It is argued that there may be some genuine “Theophrastean” matter in Book IX, but that an unknown rhizotomos (“root-cutter”) was the author.3 In a recent survey of herbal documents, Stannard remains uncertain about Book IX, and his conclusion that “Book IX of Theophrastus’ History of Plants . . . is possibly spurious”‘4 is typical of most essays touching on the subject. The problem is centered on the topics in Book IX, which seem at variance with the remainder of the treatise, but Einarson has shown that the best witnesses in the MS tradition do include Book IX.5 Further-