'Medieval plants and their uses' is an overall pleasant experience if you are interested in the topic, and even if you're not, this could be considered a good beginner's guide to the subject.
This book is clearly well-researched, there is a LOT of information, and I feel that that was also its downfall. There are some fascinating recipes throughout (that you should NOT try at home) but most information is thrown at you in a rapid-fire style. I feel like this could have benefitted from some storytelling techniques. Even though it's a nonfiction book, it can still tell a story. Don't get me wrong tho, there is some humour sprinkled here and there, and some anecdotes to keep you reading.
4 stars because it could've been presented differently, but in the end, it's full of information and I learned a lot - which is all I expect from any nonfiction.

If everyone in the medieval age walked around holding yarrow to squash fears, chewed on oregano for nearly all ails, made ink for writing, crafted horsetails for brushes and varied their pottage for every meal (love the monk quip!) surely there would have been no mental or physical health issues at all. After all, very few plants and their parts were not used. But. There is so much more to life...and this book...than that. Cosmetics, dyes, poultices, sweetener (sweet cicely...honey only used by the wealthy), dental hygiene, instruments, hair loss prevention, symbolism, seasoning and cough relief are other uses.

Not only are there loads of illuminative photographs and illustrations, there are recipes and projects to make yourself. The one I want to try in particular is the mustard balls, though not everyone could procure the ingredients to make the Relief of Earache recipe. "Worms" were blamed for many health problems. Poor kids must have been terrified of the thought of worms in their gums! I learned about Gromwell seeds, that garden peas were stored in their shells until use, that inexpensive oyster shells were used for melting ingredients for medications and that rush was for candles which was new to me. Animals were cared for (their bread and butter) and as humans were said to have four humours. Only the wealthy could afford to have plants purely for pleasure.

Author Michael Brown has researched this topic well...and it shows. The variety of topics is brilliant and the writing easy and enjoyable.

My sincere thank you to Pen & Sword and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this splendid book, one I recommend to everyone fascinated with the Medieval Age, especially everyday life and plant uses.

So almond milk isn't a modern day trendy thing after all! Just one of the many fascinating things I learned from this wonderful book.

​For anyone interested in food, gardening or Medieval lifestyle, this is a essential addition to any collection. Sits neatly alongside Michael Brown's book A Guide to Medieval Gardens as it explains the uses of many of the plants mentioned in the gardens. There are plenty of full colour photographs of plants and Medieval scripts to illustrate the plants and fruits discussed as well as coloured boxes containing recipes from the times - including how to make almond milk. The language is easy to follow so accessible to everyone not just historians, botanists and chefs.

Mythology, folklore and the history surrounding the uses (and the non-use) of certain plants is very interesting, such as warning not to sit under walnut trees because of the noxious fumes they gave out. However, the patterns of the walnut indicated that they would be good for the head. Makes sense. There are discrete chapters about Symbolism and Superstition, and Magical and Mysterious as well as practical uses such as clothing, beauty, animal care, childbirth and medicinal. Some great tips too.

The book can be used as a reference because of the way the chapters and information are organised, but it's far too ornate for that. Alongside the photography, the borders are attractively designed with illustrations of plants making this a very pleasant book indeed.

Medieval Plants and Their Uses gives the reader a sense of what life was like in the middle ages through cultivation of plants for various purposes. The book has a lot of excellent photographs that coincide with history, lore, and recipes that would have been used at the time for everything from food to medicine. It is a very quick read, because Michael Brown writes in a very conversational way that is both informative and shows an obvious passion for the time period and plants as well. As Brown points out in the book, there has been a transition away from the naturopathic ways of the past, but as we start to have a resurgence in interest in growing our own crops for medicine and food, we would do well to be informed and make sure that we aren't blindly re-adopting ways that are best left behind.

I'll start with the good: this book is GORGEOUS. From the cover to the images to the layout to the font, it's extremely pleasant to look at. I found myself at turns fascinated, disgusted, and amused by the many uses of plants in the Medieval European world. That said, the content could have been organized better. Some chapters felt like the author was throwing interesting but random facts at the reader one after another. It needs a good couple of passthroughs from a reliable copy editor. A clunky but interesting read.

Definitely A Great Reference Book

Very informative on the history of medieval plants and their uses, especially, the old traditional way of countering the unfortunate side effect of flatulence that so many of us get when we eat bean. It is believedthat cooking bean with the evergreen herb Winter Savory, would counter the flatulence that one may experience.

I love the many recipes provided and the enormous amount of health remedies used throughout the medieval period; such as nightshade, hemlo, henbane, mandrake and opium poppy. These herbs were poisonous and very deadly, if taken in large quantities. This book contains herbal remedies from urinary problems, stings and bites, haemorrhoids (commonly known as piles) to problems dealing with the head, eyes, ears, skin, and may other common ailments and cures.

While it is written that herbs have countless medicinal benefits, they are also said to be magical and mysterious. In medieval times, plants were not exempt from the influences of being both good and evil. Some plants are poisonous and have been used to destroy life and other the other hand to save a life.

I feel this book is a great reference source for anyone dealing with medieval plants and their uses. Not only are the various plants listed throughout this book, but general guidelines are provided for harvesting and preserving plant msaterial.

I truly enjoyed reading and being made aware of the many herbs and how they can be used to benefit one’s life, when used properly. I highly recommend to like individuals.

Thanks to Net Galley for this Amazing Book.
Oh, my goodness, this is simply beautiful. It has an overview of each plant rather than loads of detail, but it is the sort of book which makes you feel enriched just to have it in your possession. Much larger than I expected, and I actually want to stroke it. The Photos & illustrations are gorgeous and beautifully laid out, the information interesting and very readable.

As a biology teacher I’m always interested in improving my botanical knowledge (not my strongest subject area). This book fulfils that and gives lots to bring to future lessons. It also gives some ancient recipes, which are interesting. Finally I’m also interested in how plants have for so long been part of medicinal treatments long before the particular compounds within them were known. I enjoyed reading all the topic areas in the book. I can see myself coming back to this many times. Thank you to Pen and Sword and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

A simply gorgeous book for gardeners who love British medieval history, the book is stuffed full of gorgeous color photos of plants in bloom, and many facts and history on the cultivation and use of these plants that have been around for centuries, still growing in humble English gardens just as they did six centuries ago.

I love this type of book that takes a subject and gives you so much information about it in depth that you learn everything you wanted to know and everything that you didn’t know you wanted to know!

The title very much explains what this book is about; plants and how they were used during medieval times. Split into chapters covering topics such as medicinal uses, folklore, practical uses in the home, and food and drink the subject is covered comprehensively. I especially enjoyed learning about beliefs in medicine of why each plant was used to cure certain illnesses. In many ways we have forgotten a lot of the knowledge, though equally it does mean we don’t use some of the horrible remedies either! The book finishes with a couple of practical things you can try including making a flower crown and instruments.

I really enjoyed this and found the author got the writing tone just right so that while it remained factual and informative it didn’t take on a dry, textbook style form either. I’ll definitely be reading it again in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC of “Medieval Plants and Their Uses” from NetGalley and Pen & Sword Books in exchange for an honest review.

When I review a book, I spend a few days foregoing all other books and focus on the book at hand. For me, the reason is simple: I want to give each book the consideration that authors deserve. But before I discuss Michael Brown’s work, though, I do need to mention the book’s graphic designer(s).

I don’t know who designed the book, only that SJmagic Design Services of India was responsible for the typesetting. And let me tell you, they did a beautiful job with the type. The author included his own color photographs, with many of them being full-page images. But whoever was responsible for the actual graphic design of the book—the placement of photographs, the design of the plants next to the page numbers, and etc.—did a fantastic job. The minute that I opened it, I said to myself: Now THIS is what I expect from a non-fiction book on herbs and plants. All of the pages are 100% full color, and it is this color—along with the small plant images sitting next to the page numbers—that impresses readers and sells books. This made me read on and on.

The author, Michael Brown, is a really good, solid writer. He wrote about plants, herbs, and trees that were used during the medieval era interspersed with fascinating tales of medieval life, along with cultural bits about what the plant was historically used for. But Brown didn’t limit his discussion to just herbs, but also trees, bushes, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and grains like spelt, wheat, and barley. He also included information that a lot of people don’t consider when they think about medieval life. For example, that the average agricultural worker required a staggering 5,000 calories per day just to survive! (Pp. 34).

I really love how Brown wove in writing from the medieval era, especially at various times when he provided snippets from Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales.” When the author did this, he revealed how important his book is, because in order to really understand Chaucer’s writing, one needs to fully understand the world in which he lived, and this includes both food ways and herbal lore, much of which is included in the Tales.

The author includes information on both Arab and African herbalists, but focuses primarily on how medieval British used plants and herbs. But this was not surprising given the British love of gardening. In fact, the only place in the world where gardeners are superstars and national heroes is in the United Kingdom (e.g., think of Monty Don and the BBC half-century-long series ‘Gardener’s World’).

Brown didn’t limit his text to just describing the plants and how they were used, but even discussed the 4 humours and the Doctrine of Signatures in detail in an easy-to-read, non-academic way. The author brilliantly included lists of herbs, plants, trees, and etc., and included the modern common names, botanical (scientific) names, their uses, and also the medieval names and spellings (I would have never guessed that the medieval British called French Lavender ‘stickadove’!). With the inclusion of these charts, the author guarantees that this book will become an important reference to anyone doing research into old archives or reading old documents or old books.

After reading the book in its entirety, I could only find two major problems: 1. There are no citations, either as footnotes or endnotes; and 2. There is no bibliography. The author did include a Further Reading section and listed a few internet sources, but this was not a true bibliography because nothing was cited in the text. This is extremely important because, as the author plainly states on page 40:

“The medieval writers initially took earlier herbals at face value, without questioning even the most obvious delusions and mistakes of previous writers. Many of the early myths about plants would continue to be repeated as fact into the Renaissance, regardless that they had been disproved by later authors.”

Citations and bibliographies are not just important to academics. Everyone needs to know where information came from; without citations, nothing you write about can be supported and it all becomes nothing more than opinions. Not only does a bibliography and citations assure readers of a writer’s integrity, it also makes the writing—and the book as a whole—more reliable.

Despite these (important!) omissions, Brown did a fantastic job writing this book, and the publishers did equally well by recruiting talented graphic designer(s). I recommend this book not only to people interested in gardening and natural cures, but also to anyone interested in history and particularly to those who are reading older texts that were written during the medieval era.

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. This was a very fasinating book! I really really enjoyed reading a lot! The author did a great job in the research and ideas on how to use herbs. If you find herbs and how they used them throughout history, you might want to check this book out! I will be reading it over and over.

3***

A history of plants from the medieval period- however, the author also describes how some plants were not mentioned and would’ve been introduced far later.

My main interest from this book came from plants used for medical treatments etc. rather than for food.
People who would like to have an introduction for the uses of different plants (eg as food) will probably get more joy out of this.

Thank you for the E- Arc

This book is fascinating and really relevant to anyone with an interest in herbs or home medical techniques. Te pictures are superb and easy to tell what is being described as the leaves are shown along with the fruits. I never knew that the old world had such a large understanding of herbs and their usages. My favorite part of this book beside the many recipes and ways to use the plants was the explanation about the Doctrine of Signatures. I actually understood it and have used it to look at nearby herbs and weeds and discover what they are good for. Lots of common sense in this books teachings as its important to be sure in what you are doing with the plants you discover. This book is fun and really informative!

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review this book.

An interesting, easily to read, steady paced information about a interesting topic. Great for learning more or just starting to learn about this topic.

This review was originally published on NetGalley.com. I was given an ebook freely by NetGalley and the book’s publisher in return for a voluntary and honest review.

Medieval Plants and their Uses
By Michael Brown

I was really excited to read this. As a lover of both Medieval history and gardening it had to be a winner. The information Michael Brown shares in his book is great. You can tell he took the time to do the research. However the layout feels all wrong. He breaks the book down by the following chapters;Medieval Vegetables, Medieval Fruits and Nuts, Grains Plants and Medicine, Symbolism and Superstition, Magical and Mysterious, Love Seduction and Beauty, Childbirth Babies and Nursemaids, Clothing Laundry and other Household Tips, Dyes Inks and Paints, Animal Healthcare, Harvesting and Preserving Plant Material, Fun Things to Do, Plant Lists. For each chapter Brown writes an engaging essay on the topic and brings up multiple examples of plants. The problem is there’s no easy way to find the information you might want to access easily afterwards.

An index or encyclopedia layout would have been so much better so you could easily find your plant and see how it relates to the different topics found in the chapter headings. Even the plant index in the back of the book is not very helpful as it gives only the most generic information that was covered in depth in the many chapters.

It’s a wonderful book that I wish I could recommend for everyone’s personal reference section in their homes but the layout doesn’t make it a very useful reference tool for future use.

'Medieval Plants and their Uses' does exactly what it says: it breaks down the plants that were likely to have been available in Medieval Britain (writer's rejoice) into their uses in the home, in recipes, and in superstition. Peppered throughout with suggestions and examples of medieval recipes (did you know almond milk was almost more common than cow's milk in the period?), Brown uses sources from the time to support his explanations and suggestions of plant specialties from dyes to the casting out of spirits.

This is an excellent writer's resource for quick reference, albeit a little short. A great starting point, and reading it gave me plenty of ideas for characters and their quirks. It's an interesting and often amusing read, too. A very entertaining non-fiction book.

Love these sorts of informative books…… Plants were an essential part of medieval life. Most people lived in houses made of wood and thatch, which often accidentally burned down when they cooked their food or huddled over wood fires to keep warm. People wore linen clothing dyed with plants. They drank ale, cider and wine as they danced to music played on wooden instruments. Beauty, love and seduction could all be made easier with a few herbal preparations. If you became ill, plants provided many of the cures. The unwary may have mistaken a poisonous plant for one that was good to eat, with fatal consequence. Others may have used the poisonous plant to remove an unwanted rival. Some plants had magical properties. The mysterious mandrake could kill anybody who tried to dig it up without taking the appropriate precautions. Demons could be summoned or dismissed by the aid of plants. The church used powerful incense to clean the air and induce a sense of religious euphoria.

This was a fun, informative read!

I enjoyed learning not only about how people used plants in the medieval period, but also what they believed about them. There were some really interesting, sometimes entertaining, facts throughout the whole book. And being someone who finds language fascinating, I loved learning the history of some names and words.

I was confused as to why the book focused so strongly on England when the title does not specify it's focused on only one country. Significance was typically only granted to a fact or a plant if it was used in medieval England.

I also noticed that sometimes ideas or topics were treated as if they were part of the same thought (either through formatting or association) when they were two very separate thoughts. That felt jarring.

Overall though, I really enjoyed this book. It covered a lot of topics and didn't feel like a dry list of facts. It had a good balance of stories, information, and fun facts!

Fantastically interesting for lovers of plants and history! Not only is there a description of the plants and how they were used, but also gives recipes on how to make historic dishes.