# Herbals, Their Origin and Evolution: A Chapter in the History of Botany

An audiobook by Agnes Arber, read by LibriVox volunteers (5 h 26 min, English).

Eminent British botanist Agnes Arber provides an authoritative history of printed Herbals -- books widely used in early modern Europe to catalogue the uses of different kinds of plants. While Herbals often reflected pre-scientific and magical beliefs about the properties of plants, Arber's work reveals that they were also critical to the early development of botany and medicine as empirical sciences. A classic in the history of science. - Summary by Josh Leach

[Listen](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/books/librivox/13131)
[Read the book](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/books/gutenberg/46889/read)

## Chapters

0. Preface (9:36): https://archive.org/download/herbalsoriginevolution_2002_librivox/herbals_00_arber_64kb.mp3
1. I: The Early History of Botany (24:12): https://archive.org/download/herbalsoriginevolution_2002_librivox/herbals_01_arber_64kb.mp3
2. II: The Earliest Printed Herbals (Fifteenth Century) (27:58): https://archive.org/download/herbalsoriginevolution_2002_librivox/herbals_02_arber_64kb.mp3
3. III: The Early History of the Herbal in England (23:53): https://archive.org/download/herbalsoriginevolution_2002_librivox/herbals_03_arber_64kb.mp3
4. IV: The Botanical Renaissance of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, part 1. The Herbal in Germany (23:49): https://archive.org/download/herbalsoriginevolution_2002_librivox/herbals_04_arber_64kb.mp3
5. IV: The Botanical Renaissance of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, part 2. The Herbal in the Low Countries (15:59): https://archive.org/download/herbalsoriginevolution_2002_librivox/herbals_05_arber_64kb.mp3
6. IV: The Botanical Renaissance of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, part 3. The Herbal in Italy (10:36): https://archive.org/download/herbalsoriginevolution_2002_librivox/herbals_06_arber_64kb.mp3
7. IV: The Botanical Renaissance of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, part 4. The Herbal in Switzerland (13:11): https://archive.org/download/herbalsoriginevolution_2002_librivox/herbals_07_arber_64kb.mp3
8. IV: The Botanical Renaissance of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, part 5. The Herbal in France (3:28): https://archive.org/download/herbalsoriginevolution_2002_librivox/herbals_08_arber_64kb.mp3
9. IV: The Botanical Renaissance of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, part 6. The Herbal in England (31:36): https://archive.org/download/herbalsoriginevolution_2002_librivox/herbals_09_arber_64kb.mp3
10. IV: The Botanical Renaissance of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, part 7. The Revival of Aristotelian Botany (4:24): https://archive.org/download/herbalsoriginevolution_2002_librivox/herbals_10_arber_64kb.mp3
11. V: The Evolution of the Art of Plant Description (22:40): https://archive.org/download/herbalsoriginevolution_2002_librivox/herbals_11_arber_64kb.mp3
12. VI: The Evolution of Plant Classification (27:56): https://archive.org/download/herbalsoriginevolution_2002_librivox/herbals_12_arber_64kb.mp3
13. VII: The Evolution of the Art of Botanical Illustration (50:11): https://archive.org/download/herbalsoriginevolution_2002_librivox/herbals_13_arber_64kb.mp3
14. VIII: The Doctrine of Signatures and Astrological Botany (28:31): https://archive.org/download/herbalsoriginevolution_2002_librivox/herbals_14_arber_64kb.mp3
15. IX: Conclusions (7:51): https://archive.org/download/herbalsoriginevolution_2002_librivox/herbals_15_arber_64kb.mp3