A Pompeian Herbal: Ancient and Modern Medicinal Plants

Wilhelmina Feemster Jashemski

University of Texas Press, 1999 - Nature - 107 pages

When workmen excavating the ruins of Pompeii eagerly gathered the native medicinal plants growing there, Wilhelmina Jashemski discovered that this was another example of the continuity of life in the shadow of Vesuvius. Many of the plants used for herbal medicine around Pompeii today are the same ones that ancient authorities such as Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides recommended for treating the same types of disorders.

In this book, Jashemski presents an herbal of thirty-six medicinal plants, most of them known to the ancients and still employed today. She describes each plant's contemporary medicinal uses and compares them to ancient practices as recorded in literary sources. Scientific, English, and Italian names and the plant's mythological associations complete the entries, while elegant, full-page portraits depict each plant visually.

Contents

• THEN AND: 1
• THEN AND NOW 1 Adiantum capillusveneris L: 22
• Alcea rosea L: 24

About the author

Wilhelmina Feemster Jashemski (1910-2007) was internationally known for her work in Pompeii. She was a professor of ancient history at the University of Maryland, College Park, and author of the monumental The Gardens of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the Villas Destroyed by Vesuvius.

Bibliographic information

• Title: A Pompeian Herbal: Ancient and Modern Medicinal Plants
• Author: Wilhelmina Feemster Jashemski
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: University of Texas Press, 1999
• Original from: Indiana University
• Digitized: Jul 7, 2009
• ISBN: 0292740611, 9780292740617
• Length: 107 pages
• Subjects: Nature / General; Nature / Plants / General