Abstract
New Netherland documents record elaborate gardens and the collection of American and European plants. A description of the Manhattan garden of “a certain surgeon,” where “many medicinal things from the wild were planted,” dates to 1649. Seeds and an herbal were sent to the colony by the Dutch West India Company. Was there a hortus medicus (medicinal garden), where was it, and what was being grown? What native plants were incorporated into the pharmacopoeia? Using contemporary medical, herbal, and gardening sources, as well as the available archaeological evidence, this article explores the practice of medicine in New Amsterdam.
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Notes
- 1.
Gerard’s Historie of Plants of 1597 was extensively corrected, revised, and expanded by Thomas Johnson, and republished in 1633, in what came to be its “standard” form (Gerard 1998:xvi).
- 2.
Gerard’s Historie was an English translation of a later edition of Dodoens, with added commentary by Gerard (Gerard 1998:xv,xvii).
- 3.
A cauterizing salve used to stop bleeding and burn away putrid tissue, as opposed to cauterization by hot metal implements.
- 4.
The identifiable authors include the famous French surgeon Ambrosius Paré (1517–1590); Giovanni de Vigo (1450–1525), the pope’s personal surgeon; and what appears to be a translation into Dutch of Nicolaes Tulp’s 1641 Observationes Medicae (Medical observations). The medicijn boecken were not limited to surgery, and the works of Christopher Wirtsung (ca. 1505–1570), and Quintus Apollinarem (Walter Hermann Ryff, active 1539–1549), included herbal remedies as well.
- 5.
“Alle jonge Chyrurgijns seer nut, endienstigh, insonderheyt die haer naer Oost-ofte West Indien begeven.”
- 6.
Recorded in separate court cases as ƒ9, and ƒ8 in 1661, ƒ6 11st in 1662.
- 7.
Despite the “equivalency,” coins were more valuable: ƒ1 sewant = ƒ5/16 specie (Gehring and Schiltkamp 1987:xxix).
- 8.
Literally, Hendrik the sewan (wampum) stringer, that is, a man who strings sewan beads.
- 9.
Unfortunately, recovery was not proceeding quickly enough for Hendrik’s friends, and they gave him a half-pint of goat’s blood to drink. He died the next morning (Eekhof 1914:166).
- 10.
Singleton (1909:241) suggests this refers to Rev. William Leverich.
- 11.
A popular, dramatic account of Bogaert’s history has been published by Russell Shorto (2004).
- 12.
Angelica, Aloë, Byvoet, Camillen, Carde Benedict, Centaurea, Galligan, Gentian, Haselwortel, Heemstwortel (Althea), Holwortel (Corydalis), Hipericon, Lepelbladen, Malve/Pappelen, Schelkruyt, Sinnau, Wintergroen, and Walwortel (Nylandt 1683).
- 13.
“Identifiable” is the operative term here, since Rois Virginarium, obviously a New World native, may be the Virginia rose, or it has been suggested that “Rois” may be Rhus, and therefore a species of sumach.
- 14.
“met Kryden Wortelen/ Bladen en diergelijcke dat het Landt haer gheeft/ en sy de krachten van kennen/ zonder compositen te maecken”
- 15.
“houdenoock van geen Medicineren en Purgeren”
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Schaefer, R.G. (2013). A Manhattan Hortus Medicus?: Healing Herbs in Seventeenth-Century New Amsterdam. In: Janowitz, M., Dallal, D. (eds) Tales of Gotham, Historical Archaeology, Ethnohistory and Microhistory of New York City. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5272-0_3
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