I found several aspects of this reading to be fascinating and surprising. Debus begins by describing theoretical accounts of how the earth is impregnated by "astral seeds" that cause metal to grow in veins. He states the earth was considered to be alive by many people at the time. This made me think about how if one steps back and looks at the vegetation rising from the earth it is almost like an orange or someother fruit with mold taking root and growing into and out of it. I can understand how people at that time had some of the ideas they did. They even thought the metals would grow back like grain in a field, to be harvested again and again. My interest was piqued again at the beginning of the chapter when Debus mentions Robert Fludd's search for the spiritus mundi, or unknown factor in the air and water that made life and spontaneous generation possible. The documentation of fantastical beasts such as the sphinx, lamia, satyr, dragon, and mantichora along with the elephant, rhinocerus, and orangutan demonstrates that the reality can be just as bizarre and amazing as the myth. Then again, species become extinct all the time, and there is more often than not a grain of truth in even the most incredible claims, so it would be enlightening to know the basis of the ideas of legendary animals like unicorns and centaurs, and how grounded in reality they actually are. It also noted that many such animals were included because they had been mentioned in the Bible.
This reading reinforces some points from some of the essays I have read the past few days as well as reminding me of some of the laboratory and field work I have been fortunate enough to be involved with previously. I, like most biology teachers, always reference Carolus Linnaeus as the creator of our modern system of classification, but this reading goes into great detail about previous classification systems, whether they contributed to Linnaeus' work or not. One project I worked on was to isolate chloroplast DNA from species of Penstemen for systematic and classification purposes, and this article was intriguing as it related other methods of grouping plants and in some ways how far we have come in a few hundred years, and yet in other ways we haven't. Debus also discusses the distillation and isolation of plant biochemical products, mainly for medicinal purposes. Another project I played a small part in was concerned with the preparation from Astragalus or loco weed, the alkaloid active ingredient for further study, so again I was struck by the familiarity with which I viewed the work of these scientists centuries removed from me.
I feel this reading benefits me as teacher because of the instances I cited above, and also because it gave me a broader and more general understanding of how botany and zoology were developing in this time frame. It actually made me feel closer to understanding how these early thinkers were working, and my overall perspective of the development of biology is continuing to grow. I would like to finish this book as time permits, and I would enjoy viewing as many of the original drawings, wood-cuttings, and paintings as are available in the collections.
Bibliographic Note:
Allen G. Debus, Man and Nature in the Renaissance, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1978). This is a detailed book about how the Renaissance helped lead into the Scientific Revolution.
Further Reading Note:
Agnes Arber, Herbals : Their Origin and Evolution
Karen M. Reed, "Renaissance Humanism and Botany", Annals of Science, 33, 1976
Edward Topsell, Historie of Four-Footed Beastes and Historie of Serpents, (1600's)
Herbarius (1485)
Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 1st century A.D.
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