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Contents of the database

The main focus of this database is on recording copies of medieval herbals within manuscripts found in the collections of Czech heritage institutions. In this respect, the database aims to be comprehensive. Closely related texts are grouped under a common unified name (see Titles). The database also records the necessary metadata for identifying the manuscript the herbal is part of. If the manuscript has been digitalized and is available online, it is linked to.

The second part of the database consists of an analysis of the contents of the herbals. Currently, the scope of this section is limited to only a couple of copies of two herbal texts, De virtutibus herbarum (Galganum), and Herbarius, Cristannus de Prachaticz.

Medieval simple medicines group herbal entries referring to the same simple medicine under a unified name, even if variant spelling was used in the text.

Modern medicines represent our current scientific understanding of botany and attempt to map it to the contents of herbals. However, this is not always possible to do with 100% certainty. If the medicament is a plant, it refers to modern botanical databases.

Basic structure of the database

Institutions and their collections

└─ Manuscripts 

         └─ Texts in Manuscripts (Herbals)

                  └─ Herbal Entries

                            └─ Unified Medieval Name of Simple Medicine

                            └─ Modern Name of Simple Medicine

Refer to the documentation for a complete detailed overview of the data structure.

Browsing and searching the database

The contents of the database can be browsed in six main views: Copies of Herbal, Titles, Manuscripts, Institutions, Simple Medicines (medieval names), and Simple medicines (modern names). Most of these each provide additional search, filter, and order functionalities.

A full-text search of metadata relating to the contents of the database is also provided in the top right corner of the platform.

Exporting data from the database

The contents of the database can be exported as CSV files:

The content can also be exported via a GET request to the REST API. The data is labeled with machine names the semantics of which is described in the section on metadata in the documentation. Using the API, data can be filtered by ID and type. For detailed instructions, see the technical documentation. Several export formats are available - JSON, CSV, and XML.

Get all nodes:

Get all taxonomy terms:

A Dublin Core OAI-PMH endpoint is also available: https://herbaria.phil.muni.cz/oai/request?verb=ListRecords&metadataPrefix=oai_dc