An Herbal (1525)
One of my SCA projects, in an effort to add more to my list of things to do than sewing, is transcribing an herbal. An Herbal (1525), written by Bancke, is one that I found in the university library's cataloge over a year ago, and I have just recently gotten around to starting the transcription.
The book contains both a facsimile of the original herbal, which is currently located in the British Museum, and a version that has been "translated into modern English" by the editor. It was published in 1942.
I am unsure what the copyright laws are for this work. I am only working with the original text, not the translated part. If it turns out, after research, that this is not copyrighted by the publisher, then I will be webbing the contents exactly as they are, weird spelling and all, along with several different indexes to make finding things easier.
The book, you see, is organized in sort of alphabetical order. The plants are grouped by the letter their names start with, but are not organized after that. Also, at the time it was written, "J" and "I" were interchangable, as were "U" and "V". Sometimes "I" and "Y" are used interchangeably as well, though this has more bearing on the spelling of things like "if" and "will" rather than names.
At least one herb, wormwood, is listed twice under different names. Others might be as well. Many of the herbs are know by different names than they are today. The indexing section will include, hopefully, the modern scientific name, modern common name, period formal name, and period common name. The herbs at the beginning of each alphabetical section are refered to in the heading by their Latin name, which makes those, at least, easier to identify.
Later herbals, Gerald's in particular, are useful for figuring out which plant matches which description. His account is much more complete, and, for example, lists four kinds of madder (at least, I do not have the reference with me), rather than the two that Bancke's does. He also uses some of the actual scientific names, but includes some of the same period common names as Bancke, which makes this much easier.
A very useful side-effect of this project is that I am learing much more about herbs in general, or at least what they are called, in the process, which will likely make future projects with actual herbs easier.
Progress: So far I have identified roughly twenty of the herbs by their scientific and common names. All of the plants have been put into a spreadsheet and listed with their page number. All I have to do (where "all" means the "The exceedingly difficult part that I have left") on the index is go through and identify the herbs by their modern names.
The actual transcription part is going a bit more slowly. I have made it through most of the letter "A". I am keeping all of the spelling and the line breaks the way that they are, and I am trying to use the special characters that were in the original printing. Not all of them are available on my computer, however, so I am making do with what I have.
The book contains both a facsimile of the original herbal, which is currently located in the British Museum, and a version that has been "translated into modern English" by the editor. It was published in 1942.
I am unsure what the copyright laws are for this work. I am only working with the original text, not the translated part. If it turns out, after research, that this is not copyrighted by the publisher, then I will be webbing the contents exactly as they are, weird spelling and all, along with several different indexes to make finding things easier.
The book, you see, is organized in sort of alphabetical order. The plants are grouped by the letter their names start with, but are not organized after that. Also, at the time it was written, "J" and "I" were interchangable, as were "U" and "V". Sometimes "I" and "Y" are used interchangeably as well, though this has more bearing on the spelling of things like "if" and "will" rather than names.
At least one herb, wormwood, is listed twice under different names. Others might be as well. Many of the herbs are know by different names than they are today. The indexing section will include, hopefully, the modern scientific name, modern common name, period formal name, and period common name. The herbs at the beginning of each alphabetical section are refered to in the heading by their Latin name, which makes those, at least, easier to identify.
Later herbals, Gerald's in particular, are useful for figuring out which plant matches which description. His account is much more complete, and, for example, lists four kinds of madder (at least, I do not have the reference with me), rather than the two that Bancke's does. He also uses some of the actual scientific names, but includes some of the same period common names as Bancke, which makes this much easier.
A very useful side-effect of this project is that I am learing much more about herbs in general, or at least what they are called, in the process, which will likely make future projects with actual herbs easier.
Progress: So far I have identified roughly twenty of the herbs by their scientific and common names. All of the plants have been put into a spreadsheet and listed with their page number. All I have to do (where "all" means the "The exceedingly difficult part that I have left") on the index is go through and identify the herbs by their modern names.
The actual transcription part is going a bit more slowly. I have made it through most of the letter "A". I am keeping all of the spelling and the line breaks the way that they are, and I am trying to use the special characters that were in the original printing. Not all of them are available on my computer, however, so I am making do with what I have.
