"The Apothecary's Notebook: Plant Lore from the Medieval Ages"​

During Classical and Medieval times, vast trading networks connected Asia, Africa and Europe supplying the markets of the old world with all manner of flora for culinary, medicinal and magical uses.  Often, specimens from distant lands accrued fantastical origin stories that formed the basis for later folklore and magical correspondences.  The Medieval European worldview was a continuation of the Classical, and the world was understood to contain all manner of miraculous and magical plants from the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, to the Lamb of Tartary originating somewhere on the Russian steppes, to the common mandragora whose scream could kill.  In this presentation, we will explore the lore of plants one might expect to find in a medieval market or apothecary, and those legendary plants believed to exist both within the known world and just outside.