Heal Thyself by Mr. Benjamin Woolley
As Heard on The Daily Gardener Podcast:
Heal Thyself by Benjamin Woolley
This book came out in 2004, and the subtitle is Nicholas Culpeper and the Seventeenth-Century Struggle to Bring Medicine to the People.
Benjamin brings us the first full biography of the great botanist and herbalist Nicholas Culpeper in this book.
Culpepper was a non-conformist, and he was also a business owner. Ten years before his death, he found a spot in East London and opened the doors to his own apothecary.
Culpeper catered to the people's needs. He translated medical books written mainly in Latin into English, which the masses were grateful for. However, the medical and academic communities frowned on Culpeper’s work because they had a monopoly on training doctors and reserving medical information for their paying students.
Publisher’s Weekly wrote this about Benjamin’s biography of Culpeper,
“Culpeper is best known today for Culpeper's Complete Herbal, a comprehensive listing of English medicinal herbs along with directions on their use. Still in print after more than 350 years, the Herbal is, in Woolley's words, "one of the most popular and enduring books in publishing history, perhaps the only non-religious book in English to remain longest in continuous print."
...In a time preoccupied with empowering patients and making information available on the Internet, this tale has particular resonance.”
This book is 416 pages of the fascinating story of a rebellious botanist and doctor who changed medicine forever.
SI HORTUM IN HORTORIA PODCASTA IN BIBLIOTEHCA HABES, NIHIL DEERIT.