HISTORY OF BOTANY
ANCIENT TIMES
RENAISSANCE PERIOD
In Ancient Greece around 2,400 years
ago, Theophrastus, a Greek
philosopher who studied under
the supervision of Aristotle,
wrote dozens of books about plants
which considered him the “Father of Botany.” The
books recorded extensive knowledge about plant
identification, herbal medicines, use of plants, and
others. Thus, his books helped develop botany in
different aspects.
Luca Ghini is a well-known as the creator of the first
recorded herbarium (1523) in Europe. In 1523 at
Bologna, he perfected the method of preserving
plants by drying them under pressure which marked
the start of herbarium which is considered a basic
tool in botany.
MEDIEVAL TIMES
The first botanical garden was founded by the
Venetian Senate in July 1545 at Padua. After that,
number of botanical gardens increased rapidly. The
most significant being those of Florence and Ferrara
(1550) and one in Bologna (1567).
In A.D 60, Pedanius Dioscorides, a Greek
physician and pharmacologist, wrote a
book titled “De Materia Medica.” The
book contained thousand records of
medicines that mostly came from plants.
The book remained as a guidebook for 1,500 years
Abu Hanifa Dinawari wrote an
extensive
plant guide of 637 plant species
and notes on the ecology of each species. This was
considered a huge advancement in plant
classification around year 300.
Rishi Parashara is the first
person to elaborate plant structure in
Sanskrit work titled “Vrkhsa Ayurveda”
that included explanations about processes of
photosynthesis and plant classification.
In the Middle Ages, Europe saw development of
botanical works after several years because of the
printing press that botany became mainstream. The
citizens received botanical writings on medical
plants which helped ignite more interest.