The Naming of Names: The Search for Order in the World of Plants

Front Cover
Bloomsbury Publishing USA, Dec 7, 2008 - History - 480 pages
The Naming of Names traces the search for order in the natural world, a search that for hundreds of years occupied some of the most brilliant minds in Europe, reaching its apex during the renaissance.
Anna Pavord takes us on a thrilling adventure into botanical history, travelling from Athens in the third century BC, through Constantinople, Venice, the medical school at Salerno to the universities of Pisa and Padua. The journey, traced here for the first time, involves the culture of Islam, the first expeditions to the Indies and the first settlers in the New World.
Gradually, over a long period in Europe, plants assumed identities and acquired names. Artists painted the first pictures of them. Plants acquired the two-part names that show how they are related to other plants. But who began all this work, and how was it done?
Sumptuously illustrated in full colour, The Naming of Names gives a compelling insight into a world full of intrigue and intensely competitive egos.
 

Contents

II
44
IV
62
V
71
VI
82
VII
93
VIII
109
IX
125
X
143
WEAVING THE WEB
252
PROTESTANTS PREVAIL
272
GESNERS MASTERPIECE
285
PLANTINS TEAM
313
THE LAST OF THE HERBALS
331
ENGLISH ACHIEVEMENTS
347
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
372
EPILOGUE
395

XI
161
XII
175
XIII
205
XIV
221
XV
243
CAST LIST
417
BIBLIOGRAPHY
439
INDEX
457
Copyright

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About the author (2008)

Anna Pavord is the gardening correspondent for the Independent and the author of eight previous books, including the bestselling The Tulip. She contributes to a number of magazines, both in the US and the UK and regularly fronts programmes for BBC Radio 3 and 4. She chairs the Gardens Panel of the National Trust and sits on the Parks and Gardens Panel of English Heritage.

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