Hardy Gavin - Ancient Botany

Gavin Hardy and Laurence Totelin

Maps

Figures

This book was a long time in the making. In 2000, Roger French and Gavin Hardy planned to write a book on Ancient Botany for the Routledge Series on Ancient Science. Unfortunately, Roger French passed away shortly after work was initiated on the project, on May 14, 2002. Gavin Hardy produced a first draft of the book, but felt the project would benefit from the skills of a historian of ancient science. In 2010, Laurence Totelin came on board and added her classical expertise to the project. She gave the book its current chapter organisation and integrated Gavins initial draft into the book you are now reading.

Many people contributed to the writing of this book. Our heartfelt thanks go to Liba Taub, who put us in touch and offered detailed comments on the entire manuscript. Philip van der Eijk, Michael Herchenbach, James Longrigg, Dunstan Lowe, Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis, Vivian Nutton, Thomas Rtten and John Scarborough answered numerous questions and provided information on various points of detail. Caroline Musgrove read through the entire manuscript, smoothing out style and checking references. We are extremely thankful for her help. Philip Hughes assisted with the drawing of the maps.

Laurence presented papers that became chapters of this book to audiences at Newcastle, School of History, Classics and Archaeology; at Cambridge, Department of History and Philosophy of Science; at the Annual Colloquium of Classics and Ancient History at Gregynog Hall, Wales; at the Ancient Greek and Roman Scientific, Medical and Technical Writing workshops, organised by the Excellence Cluster Topoi, Berlin; and at Princeton, Department of Classics. We wish to thank these audiences for their perceptive questions.

Our thanks also go to our students: students attending Gavins courses on Ancient Botany and The Development of Medical Botany in the Office of Lifelong Learning at the University of Edinburgh; and students attending Laurences course on Greek and Roman Medicine and Science and Technology in the Graeco-Roman World in the School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University.

We benefited immensely from the help of the staff at the numerous libraries where we conducted our research, and at the libraries and museums where we ordered the images that illustrate this book. Particular thanks go to the staff at the Wellcome Library, London and at the sterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna.

On a more personal note, our thanks go to our colleagues who discussed our ideas on a more informal basis. In particular, Gavin wishes to thank Martin Wheeler, and Laurence wishes to thank Guy Bradley, Kate Gilliver, Fay Glinister, Stephen Lambert, Shaun Tougher, Ruth Westgate and James Whitley. Laurence is also grateful to Thomas and Gwilym for their patience.

Finally, when writing this book, we terribly missed the input of two scholars: Roger French and Robert (Bob) Sharples. This book is dedicated to their memory.