From Page to Pedestal: Literature in the Age of Collecting: ▬ Scientific & Naturalist Works

William Coles was an English botanist known for championing the “Doctrine of Signatures,” the belief that a plant’s physical resemblance to the human body suggest its potential utility. This book contains descriptions of 343 plants and their uses. Each plant is described under five headings: the Names, the Kinds, the Form, the Place and Time, and Signature and Virtues. The title page features ornate lettering in red ink, meant to convey importance and authority. The book also includes a lengthy dedication and introduction, which includes several poems honoring the author himself.

William Woodville was an English physician and botanist. This seminal work featuring 300 hand-colored engravings by James Sowerby, became the standard reference work of British pharmacology and the study of plants for medicinal purposes. The volumes were initially issued in monthly parts, a common publication model during the period. Woodville expanded upon the work with a 1795 supplement and in 1832 Dr. William Jackson Hooker revised and expanded it further. Woodville is best known for his groundbreaking research as Director of the Smallpox and Inoculation Hospital at St. Pancreas, London and was one of the first proponents of vaccination.

Bernadin de Saint-Pierre was a celebrated 18th-century French writer and botanist best known for his novel Paul et Virginie. Elected to the Institut de France in 1795, he later became manager of the Botanical Gardens in Paris. This study, translated only two years after its original publication in French, is renowned for its lyrical prose and vivid descriptions of the natural world. It includes observations of flora and fauna reflecting Europe’s growing interest in empirical science. Bernadin de Saint-Pierre was heavily influenced by intellectual contemporary Jean-Jacques Rousseau and was an advocate of vegetarianism.

John Parkinson was an influential English botanist and apothecary to Charles I known for his significant contributions to the field of botany during the 17th century. This seminal work of botanical literature is a comprehensive catalog of 3,800 plants with their listed medicinal properties. This work served as the premier botanical reference, playing a crucial role in advancing the understanding and utilization of medicinal plants, for over a century. The plants are classified according to their pharmacological properties, of which there is a comprehensive index.