–79 CE) encyclopaedic Naturalis Historia (c. 77–79 CE) is a synthesis of the information contained in about 2000 scrolls and it includes myths and folklore; there are about 200 extant copies of this work. It comprises 37 books of which sixteen (Books 12–27) are devoted to trees, plants and medicaments and, of these, seven describe medicinal plants. In medieval herbals, along with De Materia

ated herbal in the first century BCE.[33][34]


Arabic Book of Simple Drugs (c. 1334) from Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica. By Kathleen Cohen, in the British Museum.
Dioscorides - De Materia Medica[edit]
Main article: Materia Medica
The De Materia Medica (c. 40–90 CE; Greek, Περί ύλης ιατρικής) of Pedanios Dioscorides, a physician in the Roman army, was produced in about 65 CE. It was the single greatest classical authority on the subject and the most influential herbal ever written,[35] serving as a model for herbals and pharmacopoeias, both oriental and occidental, for the next 1000 years up to the Renaissance.[36] It drew together much of the accumulated herbal knowledge of the time, including some 500 medicinal plants. The original has been lost but a lavishly illustrated Byzantine copy known as the Codex Vindobonensis[disambiguation needed] dating from about 512 CE remains.[37]
Pliny - Naturalis Historia[edit]
Main article: Naturalis Historia
Pliny the Elder's (23–79 CE) encyclopaedic Naturalis Historia (c. 77–79 CE) is a synthesis of the information contained in about 2000 scrolls and it includes myths and folklore; there are about 200 extant copies of this work. It comprises 37 books of which sixteen (Books 12–27) are devoted to trees, plants and medicaments and, of these, seven describe medicinal plants. In medieval herbals, along with De Materia Medica it is Pliny's work that is the most frequently mentioned of the classical texts, even though the work De Simplicibus of Galen (131–201 CE) is more detailed and notable.[38] Another Latin translation of Greek works that was widely copied in the Middle Ages, probably illustrated in the original, was that attributed to Apuleius and this also contained the alternative names for particular plants given in several languages. It dates to about 400 CE and a surviving copy dates to about 600 CE.[39]
The Middle Ages and Arab World[edit]

During the 600 years of the European Middle Ages from 600 to 1200 CE, the tradition of herbal lore fell to the monasteries. Many of the monks were skilled at producing books and manuscripts and tending both medicinal gardens and the sick, but written works of this period simply emulated those of the classical era.[40]
Meanwhile, in the Arab world, by 900 CE the great Greek herbals had been translated and copies lodged in centres of learning in the Byzantine empire of the eastern Mediterranean including Byzantium, Damascus, Cairo and Baghdad where they were combined with the botanical and pharmacological lore of the Orient.[41] In the medieval Islamic world, Muslim botanists and Muslim physicians made a major contribution to the knowledge of herbal medicines. Al-Dinawari described more than 637 plant drugs in the 9th century,[42] in the 12th century Ibn Al-'Awwam described 585 fungi (55 associated with fruit trees),[43] and Ibn Al-Baitar described more than 1,400 different plants, foods and drugs, over 300 of which were his own original discoveries, in the 13th century.[44] Others associated with this period include Mesue Maior (Masawaiyh, 777–857 CE) who, in his Opera Medicinalia, synthesised the knowledge of Greeks, Persians, Arabs, Indians and Babylonians and this work was complemented by the medical encyclopaedia of Avicenna (Ibn Sina, 980–1037 CE).[45] Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine was used for centuries in both East and West.[46] During this