Lucie Čermáková - Jan Janko:
From Medicine to Botany – Milestone Zalužanský

Abstract

A number of Czech researchers have been devoting their attention to the personality and work of Adam Zalužanský of Zalužany, yet the examination and evaluation of his most interesting work – the botanical treatise Methodi herbariae libri tres – is still insufficient. Somehow the chapter on plant sexuality has been overestimated, although it does not hold any outstanding position either in the treatise itself or in the realm of Renaissance botany.
This paper outlines the state of botanical knowledge in the sixteenth century and discusses Zalužanský’s work in this context. It introduces authors and concepts that could have inspired or influenced the work of Adam Zalužanský. Concerning the treatise itself, we focus on features that are considered new and progressive in the realm of botanical inquiry – the methodological approach to the botanical subject, its emancipation from medicine and other disciplines, and the attempt to systematize particular plant species.

Language: czech

Keywords: Adam Zalužanský of Zalužany; Renaissance; history of botany; plant systematic