1471 CRESCENZI, Pietro de' (Petrus de Crescentiis) (1230 – 1320)

Ruralia commoda.

The most famous medieval agricultural treatise, and, apart from the Bartholomaeus Anglicus's De proprietatibus rerum, the earliest non-classical work to deal with agriculture and viticulture. The author, a successful …

GMN 11746 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13946

1558 BELON, Pierre [Pierre Belon du Mans; Petrus Bellonius Cenomanus] (1517 – 1564)

Les remonstrances sur le default du labour et culture des plantes, et de la cognoissance d'icelles, contenant la maniere d'affranchir et appriuoiser les arbres sauuages.

The first work on agriculture written in French. As an apothecary, Belon was especially interested in the pharmaceutical value of plants. Having learned about them on his travels, he introduced numerous foreign plants…

GMN 8984 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11163

1731 –1747 CATESBY, Mark (1683 – 1749)

The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands: Containing the figures of birds, beasts, fishes, serpents, insects, and plants: Particularly, the forest-trees, shrubs, and other plants, not hitherto described, or very incorrectly figured by authors. Together with their descriptions in English and French. To which are added observations on the air, soil and waters: With remarks on agriculture, grain, pulse, roots &c. To the whole is prefixed a new and complete map of the countries treated of. 2 vols.

The only attempt to record the natural history of a region of America during the colonial period. Includes 220 fine handcolored etched plates after and by Catesby and mostly signed with his cipher, excepting plates 61…

GMN 9571 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11758

1731 MILLER, Philip (1691 – 1771)

The gardeners dictionary: Containing the methods of cultivating and improving the kitchen, fruit and flower garden. As also, the physick garden, wilderness, conservatory and vineyard, according to the practice of the most experienc'd gardeners of the present age. Interspers'd with the history of the plants, the characters of each genus, and the names of all the particular species, in Latin and English, and an explanation of all the terms used in botany and gardening.

Miller was chief gardener and curator (or 'Hortulanus') at the Apothecaries' (later Physic) Garden in Chelsea. Besides covering methods of cultivation, Miller's Dictionary provided a systematic botanical compendium of…

GMN 13393 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15664

1740 SÉGUIER, Jean-François (1703 – 1784)

Bibliotheca botanica sive catalogus auctorum et librorum omnium qui de re botanica, de medicamentis ex vegetabilibus paratis, de re rustica, & de horticultura tractant. Accessit bibliotheca botanica Jo. Ant. Bumaldi seu potius O. Montalbani.

Organized in three parts: floras, medical botany, and horticultural and agricultural works. Séguier includes books, pamphlets, and references in the periodical literature. "The entries for the publications contain usu…

GMN 8856 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11034

1753 –1761 KALM, Pehr [Pietari; Peter] (1716 – 1779)

En Resa til Norra America. 2 vols.

Between 1748 and 1749, Kalm, a Swedish naturalist and student of Linnaeus, traveled throughout northeast America, specifically in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Canada, surveying the countryside, an…

GMN 9923 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12111

1754 CATESBY, Mark (1683 – 1749); EDWARDS, George (1693 – 1773)

The natural history of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, containing the figures of birds, beasts, fishes, serpents, insects, and plants, particulary the forest trees, shrubs, and other plants, not hitherto described, or very incorrectly figured by authors. Together with their descriptions in English and French. To which are added, observations on the air, soil, and waters with remarks upon agriculture, grain, pulse, roots, &c. To the whole is prefixed a new and correct map of the countries treated of / by the late Mark Catesby; revised by Mr. [George] Edwards. 2 vols.

Second edition, edited by ornithologist George Edwards. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

GMN 7678 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9850

1775 ADAIR, James (1709 – 1793)

The history of the American Indians; particularly those nations adjoining to the Missisippi [sic] East and West Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, and Virginia: containing an account of their origin, language, manners, religious and civil customs, laws, form of government, punishments, conduct in war and domestic life, their habits, diet, agriculture, manufactures, diseases and method of cure... With observations on former historians, the conduct of our colony governors, superintendents, missionaries, & c. Also an appendix, containing a description of the Floridas, and the Missisippi [sic] lands, with their productions--the benefits of colonizing Georgiana, and civilizing the Indians--and the way to make all the colonies more valuable to the mother country....

The author characterized himself on the title page as "a Trader with the Indians and a Resident in their Country for Forty Years." Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

GMN 7505 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9677

1789 FALCONER, William (1744 – 1824)

An essay on the preservation of the health of persons employed in agriculture, and on the cure of the diseases incident to that way of life.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

GMN 10387 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12579

1790 CASTIGLIONI, Luigi (1757 – 1832)

Viaggio negli Stati Uniti dell' America settentrionale fatto negli anni 1785, 1786, e 1787. 2 vols.

Castiglioni was one of very few Italians to make the journey to America and to produce a detailed day-to-day account of his observations in the young country. His "Viaggio" is a systematic compendium of information dr…

GMN 11229 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13426

1802 RAUCH, François Antoine (1777 – 1837)

Harmonie hydro-végétale et météorologique, ou recherches sur les moyens de recréer avec nos forêts la force des températures et la régularité des saisons, par des plantations raisonnées. 2 vols.

Rauch was particularly concerned with deforestation, which not only affected the agriculture and scenery of the countryside, but also the whole ecological balance of crops, flora and fauna, and human interaction with …

GMN 7067 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9234

1810 MUSSET-PATHAY, Victor-Donatien de (1768 – 1832)

Bibliographie agronomique, ou dictionnaire raisonné des ouvrages sur l'économie rurale et domestique et sur l'art vétérinaire ... par un des collaborateurs du Cours complet d'agriculture pratique.

Second edition, Paris: Institut Agronomique, 1991. Digital facsimile of the 1810 edition from BnFGallica at this link.

GMN 10136 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12325

1826 AINSLIE, Whitelaw (1767 – 1837)

Materia Indica; or, some account of those articles which are employed by the Hindoos and other eastern nations, in their medicine, arts, and agriculture; comprising also formulae, with practical observations, names of diseases in various eastern languages, and a copious list of oriental books immediately connected with general science. 2 vols.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

GMN 8523 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10700

1826 GRIFFITH, Mary (1772 – 1846)

Observations on the May-Bug, and its ravages on plum and other trees, and also on the means of preventing the mischief.

Griffth was probably the first American woman to publish in the sciences outside of materia medica and childcare. This article was probably her earliest non-geological publication. See Robt S. Cox, "A spontaneous flow…

GMN 11415 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13614

1875 ROSE, Valentin (1829 – 1916); MARTIALIS, Quintus Gargilius (250 – )

Plinii Secundi quae fertur una cum Gargilli Martialis medicina: Nunc primum edita a Valentino Rose.

Fragments of Martialis's work (probably called De hortis), which treated of the cultivation of trees and vegetables, and also of their medicinal properties, survived, chiefly in the body of and as an appendix to the M…

GMN 8443 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10620

1876 NOBBE, Friedrich (1830 – 1922)

Handbuch der Samenkunde: physiologisch-statistische Untersuchungen über den wirthschaftlichen Gebrauchswerth der land- und forstwirthschaftlichen, sowie gärtnerischen Saatwaren.

In 1869 Nobbe set up the first seed control station, establishing the science of seed testing. He set out to improve seed quality in a sustainable way, through systematic inspection. In his Handbuch der Samenkunde he …

GMN 11222 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13419

1887 BALFOUR, Edward Green (1813 – 1889)

The agricultural pests of India, and of eastern and southern Asia, vegetable and animal, injurious to man and his products.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

GMN 11756 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13956

1911 HARRIS, Henry Fauntleroy (1867 – 1926)

Health on the farm: A manual of rural sanitation and hygiene.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

GMN 11837 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14041

1968 KEYNES, Sir Geoffrey Langdon (1887 – 1982); EVELYN, John (1620 – 1706)

John Evelyn: A study in bibliopphily with a bibliography of his writings

Second edition, revised. First published in 1937 by The Grolier Club and Cambridge University Press.

GMN 11230 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13427

1976 NASR, Seyyed Hossein (1933 – )

Islamic science: An Illustrated study.

Includes chapters on natural history, medicine and pharmacology, agriculture and irrigation, man and the natural environment.

GMN 8193 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10369

1984 EVENARI, Michael (1904 – 1989)

Seed physiology: Its history from antiquity to the beginning of the 20th century.

GMN 11225 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13422

2006 STAPLES, Amy L. S.

The birth of development: How the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization, and World Health Organization changed the world, 1945–1965.

GMN 9265 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11447

2010 FORMIGA, Alice Krinsky

A short history of the seed & nursery catalogue in Europe & the U.S.

http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/seed/introduction/collection/ "The OSU Seed and Nursery Trade catalogue collection contains over 2,000 items from 1832 to 1966. While the collection is most com…

GMN 11971 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14178