A 15th century medical herbal etched in stone

Abstract

The medical armamentarium of the 15th century had a very strong reliance to plant products that were often identified as useful by a trial-and-error experimentation process. The corpus of experiential knowledge was passed on by word of mouth from one generation to the next until formal pharmacopoeias in the form of herbals were published. Another form of generational transmission was to etch the time-acquired knowledge in stone. The foliage carved on the Burton Lazar [Leicestershire, England] leprosarium stonework may have been one example of a medical herbal etched in stone.