Glossary
The following is a brief glossary of terms used or alluded to within the Dystillation of Plant Vapours paper. I
have given as short but I hope adequate explanation.
Antidotaria Latin - a list of antidotes
Armamentarium pigmentorum Latin – the armament of healing, those items used in treating the ill
Cubiculum infirmorum Latin - rooms within a religious house for the sick, ill and infirm
Destyllen ME: - to distill
Domus medicorum Latin- physicians quarters, most often associated with a religious house, abbey or
monastery.
Electuaries- thick heavily sweetened confections of herbs and spices, used as general or specific tonics.
Ethno-pharmacology – the folk healing tradition of any given area, taking the form of herbal remedies,
poultices, potions, ointments, and amulets. It can also include general procedures to procure a
Herbal - a written and sometimes illustrated book describing plants, in Medieval times used to describe
medical uses, methods of collection, and identification for plants.
Herbarium - a collection of dried plant specimens used to teach identification and systematics to students,
used to identify unknown samples.
Herbularius Latin- herbal garden, most often associated with a religious house, abbey or monastery.
Leech –from Laece OE – common term for a healer of any kind; is not connected to the leech which is a
bloodsucking parasite. Compounds from laece include laecedom – leechdom or remedy, laeceiren Latin or
lancet and laecefinger or healing finger, now known as ring-finger.
Lykour ME - a liquor
Materia Medica - a written account for the manufacture of medicines from raw ingredients, primarily plant,
animal and mineral in origin. These texts were for teaching pharmacy to apothecaries and medical students.
Organoleptic - properties of herbs, described in adjectival terms without noting the chemical basis of
action, such as: hot, biting, clammy,
Quid Pro Quo Latin - an herbal book, written in Midieval period, of cross referencing providing for
replacement herbs when the practitioner could not acquire the herb called for in the formula. I was not aware
that there was an actual book published under this title prior to my research on this project.
Physic garden: a planned herb garden, generally attached to a university, hospital, or religious house for
the purpose of providing locally grown medicinal materials.
Receptaria Latin - a list of herbal recipes, precursor to the material medica, or an herbal brevis.
Smellynge ME - smelling
Treacle: a panacea medicine of the 1400's.
Theriac: see Treacle
Ylfa gescot OE – elfshot, a common cause of disease and suffering, explanation for rheumatism, arthritis and
stitch.
Additional Notes from the Dystillation of Plant Vapours paper.
Footnotes:
1. Saint Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179): “the light of her people and of her time”-Marcia Ramos-e-
Silva; International Journal of Dermatology 1999; 38 (4):315-320.
2. Bingen, H. Holistic Healing. Translation of Causae et curae. Pawlik M, Madigan P, Kulas J.
translators. Kulas J, Palmquist M eds. Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1994.
3. http://www.ummah.org.uk/history/scholars/HAIYAN.html
4. http://www.levity.com/alchemy/ John French’s Art of Distillation text online.
5. Junius, Manfred M., Practical Handbook of Plant Alchemy, Inner Traditions, New York, 1985
Period Distillation Texts
Braunschweig, Heironymus [Jerome of Brunswick]. Liber de arte distillandi. de Simplicibus. Johannes
Grueninger, Strassburg, 1500.
Braunschweig, Heironymus. The vertuose boke of Distyllacyon of the waters of all manner of Herbes,
Laurence Andrewe trans., London, 1527
French, John; Art of Distillation, London, 1651.
Period Medical -Botany Texts
Boeser, Knut, ed., The Elixirs of Nostradamus, Nostradamus’ Original Recipes for Elixirs, Scented Water,
Beauty Potions and Sweet Meats, Moyer-Bell, London, 1996.
Hunt, Tony, Anglo-Norman Medicine (two volumes), D. S. Brewer, Cambridge, 1997.
Academic Texts
Arber, Agnes; Herbals, Their Origin and Evolution, A Chapter in the History of Botany, 1470- 1670, 3rd ed.,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990.
Collins, Minta; Medieval Herbals, The Illustrative Traditions, The British Library and University of Toronto
Press, London, 2000.
E. A. Hammond, “The Westminster Abbey Infirmarers’ Rolls as a Source for Medical History” Bulletin of the
History of Medicne, XXXIX, (1965)
L. G. Mathews, The Royal Apothecaries, London, 1967
L. G. Mathews, The Spicers and Apothecaries of Norwich, Phamaceutical Journal, CXCVIII, 1967.
G. E. Trease; “The Spicers and Apothecaries of the Royal Household in the Reigns of Henry III, Edward I, and
Edward II” Nottingham Medieval Studies, III (1959).
G. E. Trease, “Pharmacy in History,” London, 1964.
Rawcliffe, Carole; Medicine for the Soul, The Life, Death and Resurrection of an English Medieval Hospital,
St. Giles’s, Norwich, c. 1249-1550, Sutton Publishing,
Bodmin, Corwall, Great Britain, 1999.
Rawcliffe, Carole; Medicine & Society In Later Medieval England, Sandpiper Books, Sutton Publishing,
Trowbridge, Wiltshire, Great Britain, 1995.
Records of the Wardrobe and Household 1285-1286, ed. B. F. Byerly and C. R. Byerly (London, 1986), no
24.
Secretum Secretorum, ed M. A Manzalaoui, (Early English Text Society, CCLXXVI, 1977.
Stannard, Jerry; Herbs and Herbalism in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Ashbate Varioum, Aldershot,
Great Britain, 1999.
Stannard, Jerry, Pristina Medicamenta, Ancient and Medieval Medical Botany,
Ashgate Varioum, Aldershot, Great Britain, 1999.
Notes from Dystillation of Plant Vapours