Richard Bell's nature sketchbook since 1998
Rosemary officinalis
The Sun claims dominion over it . . .
the dried leaves shred small, and smoked as tobacco, helps those that have any cough* . . .”Culpeper’s Herbal, Nicholas Culpeper, 1616 – 1654
*Please don’t try this at home!
This morning I bought an attractive 1983 Culpeper’s Colour Herbal from a charity bookstall but I’m sticking with my old version as it includes the full text, including the advice to smoke rosemary like tobacco if you have a cough!
When rhubarb arrived in Europe, it was prized as a medicine:
“It is under the dominion of Mars . . . It is good against venomous bites.”
Nicholas Culpeper, 1653
In my Rhubarb Festival animation, A Brief History of Rhubarb, herbalist Nicholas Culpeper will be giving the 17th century equivalent of a TED Talk. In the final version he’ll have his own version of a Power Point slide to point at: a scroll nailed to the wall. I’ll record a line of dialogue, so his mouth and eyes will be animated and, yes, that impressive moustache will twitch expressively too.