A Pompeian Herbal: Ancient and Modern Medicinal Plants [Paperback]

Wilhelmina Feemster Jashemski (Author), Victoria I (Illustrator), Lillian Nicholson Meyer (Illustrator), Stanley A. Jashemski (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1999

When workmen excavating the ruins of Pompeii eagerly gathered the native medicinal plants growing there, Wilhelmina Jashemski discovered that this was another example of the continuity of life in the shadow of Vesuvius. Many of the plants used for herbal medicine around Pompeii today are the same ones that ancient authorities such as Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides recommended for treating the same types of disorders. In this book, Jashemski presents an herbal of thirty-six medicinal plants, most of them known to the ancients and still employed today. She describes each plant's contemporary medicinal uses and compares them to ancient practices as recorded in literary sources. Scientific, English, and Italian names and the plant's mythological associations complete the entries, while elegant, full-page portraits depict each plant visually.Wilhelmina Feemster Jashemski is internationally known for her work in Pompeii. She is Professor Emerita of Ancient History at the University of Maryland, College Park, and author of the monumental "The Gardens of Pompeii", "Herculaneum", and the "Villas Destroyed by Vesuvius".

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The appeal of such a work will be wide, encompassing professionals and laymen alike. The book is the type which a visitor to Pompeii, or to Italy generally, would want to take along as a vade mecum [guidebook]." --Robert I. Curtis, Professor of Classics, University of Georgia "Wilhelmina Feemster Jashemski... the leading authority ... in her latest study, provides an evaluation of thirty-six plants at Pompeii, "then and now"... an introduction traces the ancient background, from Hippocrates, Diocles of Carystus and Theophrastus to the likes of Pliny the Elder and Diosorides, while Pompeii and the other Vesuvian sites provide the material remains. Description is accompanied by a facing "portrait" of each plant. The touch is light throughout."--Times Literary Supplement, 30 June 2000

Review

The appeal of such a work will be wide, encompassing professionals and laymen alike. The book is the type which a visitor to Pompeii, or to Italy generally, would want to take along as a vade mecum [guidebook]. (Robert I. Curtis, Professor of Classics, University of Georgia )

Product Details

• Paperback: 123 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292740603
• ISBN-13: 978-0292740600
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,932,471 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative, beautiful book with lovely photos/illustrations, May 11, 2005

By 

Dianne Foster "Di" (USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: A Pompeian Herbal: Ancient and Modern Medicinal Plants (Paperback)

My boss, who teaches graduate studies at UMD where Professor Jashemski also taught for many years recommended her works to me because he knew I had a keen interest in herbal medicine as well as archeology. A POMPEIAN HERBAL was published in 1999, a few short years after THE GARDENS OF POMPEII, HERCULANEUM, AND THE VILLAS DESTROYED BY VESUVIUS, which Jashemski co-edited with Frederick Meyer -- and a masterpiece on this topic and era -- was published.

The Pompeii Herbal demonstrates that medicinal plants have been around thousands of years, and in use until modern petrochemical compounds came on the scene. Furthermore, when Jashemski was working at Pompeii, she discovered the locals around and near Pompeii continued to use medicinal plants noted by the Romans, demonstrating yet again that herbal medicine and homeopathic remedies in use to day are not new. The book includes an informative text about ancient Roman medicinal uses of plants, many lovely photos of the work site and micron photos of seeds, pollens, etc., as well as illustrations of the noted plants.

I discovered reading Jashemski's book that many of the plants used by the ancient Romans grow in my own back yard or in pots - under my care of course, as they are not native to my area: Artemesia, Calamintha nepeta (cat mint), Centranthus ruber, Citrus limon. Foeniculum vulgare (Fennel) and Petroselinum crispum (Parsley) to name a few.