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Stirpium icones et sciagraphia: cum scriptorum circa eas consensv et dissensv: ac cæteris plæarisque omnibus qvæ de plantarvm natvra, natalibus, synonymis, vsu & virtutibus, scitu necessaria. Authore Dominico Chabræo med. doctore.

Pharmacology Herbals

A work based fundamentally on images, which are clearly represented even without the use of color. Each drawing is accompanied by a descriptive entry, which, despite its brevity, allows the author to make comparisons, draw parallels and give bibliographical references. In less than 600 pages a very large number of species are described, subdivided into 40 classes according to taxonomic as well as practical criteria. The text is followed by a lengthy appendix which turns out to be a long list of addenda. The icons, despite their noticeable reduction with respect to the original, are realistic. Also interesting is the organization of the taxa, which almost certainly displays the influence of Bauhin, of whom Chabrey was a pupil. The first class is that of the pomiferae and pears, comparable to our modern Pomoideae, to which the author associates citruses, figs, exotic fruits and bananas. In the third class Chabrey inserts all those species whose fruits fall under the name of nuts, including the Juglans regia (English walnut) and nutmeg, the filbert, cacao, pistachios, nux vomica, cotton and palms. Next comes a class of aromatic plants (bay leaf, cherry laurel, cloves, cinnamon, cassia cinnamon, sandal, sassafras, etc.). Then small berry fruits, bacciferae, glandiferae, wild trees, resinifera, siliquifere and so on from frumentaceae to bulbous plants, capsuliferae, capitatae, corymbiferae, umbelliferae, verticiallatae, rotundifoliae, malignae (sic!) and poisonous plants, crassifoliae and succulents, saxatili and capillari (ferns), freshwater hydrophytes, marine hydrophytes (in which anomalous species are included such as corals and sponges, evidently thought to be plants), and, finally, the excrementa terrae, such as mushrooms and tubers. In the midst of what today might seem to be a chaotic jumble of species, one should see, instead, an attempt to lend some taxonomic order to the large number of species taken into consideration, nearly 3,500. It is easy to see how some of today’s families have maintained their name and the basic nucleus of the species over time.

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