The database "Herbaria manuscripta" contains an inventory of all medieval manuscript herbals preserved in libraries, archives, and museums in the Czech Republic. Medieval herbals were practical medical handbooks primarily describing the effects of plants, though animal or mineral medicines can also be found in them. Today, these texts are not only important sources for the history of phytotherapy but also serve as inspiration in the search for new remedies. The database tries to take both of these aspects into account.
Those interested in codicology, literary history, and linguistics will find basic codicological information on individual Latin and Old Czech manuscripts, a bibliography, and links to available digital copies. For selected herbals, the database sequentially records the medicines contained in them along with foreign language glosses and links to language dictionaries. This data is being added gradually.
For those interested in the content of the herbals, the medieval plant names are identified using modern botanical terminology and are supplemented with links to the Pladias database (Database of Czech Flora and Vegetation), and to the Atlas of Medicinal Plants database of the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University. A link to a search for medical studies of the plant in question in the PubMed database is also provided. Where possible, the database also links to the full text of the herbal.
Soon, 42 selected plants will be accompanied by the results of research carried out by experts from several faculties of Masaryk University, the aim of which was to test the reliability of information from two popular herbaria of the 14th and 15th centuries based on modern medical knowledge.
Creators of the database
Dana Stehlíková, Department of Classical Studies, Faculty of Arts
Veronika Bromová, Department of Czech Literature, Faculty of Arts
Dalibor Havel, Department of Auxiliary Historical Sciences and Archive Studies, Faculty of Arts
Soňa Hudíková, Department of Classical Studies, Faculty of Arts
Jiří Danihelka, Vegetation Science Group, Faculty of Science
Jana Pistovčáková, Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine
Jan Juřica, Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine
Illyria Brejchová, Digitalia, Faculty of Arts (data curation and technical implementation)