Renaissance Botanical and Zoological Gardens
Overview
Throughout the Middle Ages, Europeans regarded plants and animals from a very pragmatic viewpoint. Plants were seen as sources of food, medicines, and wood. Animals were valued as food and as aids to mankind by providing power (oxen and horses) and help in hunting (dogs). But neither plants nor animals were studied scientifically until the dawn of the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration. As thousands of previously unknown specimens poured into Europe from around the world, the science of botany began to evolve. Plants were carefully examined, classified, and exchanged between scholars. Scores of new animal species were discovered and brought back to Europe. One result of this activity was the founding of numerous botanical and zoological gardens, establishments that introduced these exotic species to the general public and helped break down many medieval myths.
Background
In medieval Europe, botany (the science of plants) was essentially limited to the study and copying of writings from the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. In particular, scholars relied heavily on the work of Pedanius Dioscorides, a Greek doctor who served in the Roman army, about whom virtually nothing more is known today. Sometime around A.D.
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