2007
Dimensions 24 x 28.5 cm.
Paperback with cover with long flaps
ISBN 978-88-95642-07-9
pp. 406, ill. 168

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M. Breccia Fratadocchi, S. Buttò

HERBS AND SPICES
Health Workshops


The work Herbs & Spices: Health Workshops, containing essays and writings by numerous specialists from this sector, traces the history of medicinal plants, and offers actual cases highlighting the therapeutic value of plants through the centuries.
A fascinating journey into the documents and works held in the National Library in Rome, which takes us back to the very dawn of modern medicine, beginning with the renowned Salerno Medical School – many of the health and hygiene principles established by the said school are still recognized today – via the substantial contribution made by lay and religious institutions to the development of modern medicine, the religions institutions always in keeping with a medical tradition dating back to the Middle Ages, and which in the 16th century (that of the Jesuits, the Carmelites, etc.) was provided with renewed vigour by the discovery of new plants from those far-off lands that had recently been conquered, first and foremost China.
A true rollercoaster ride of documentary information of considerable historical and cultural importance, which reveals that the historical pursuit of the secret powers of plants is a precious thing of which humanity should be proud, and which must be preserved at all costs for future generations.


Margherita Breccia Fratadocchi and Simonetta Buttò are civil employees at the Central National Library in Rome.