Abstract

The aim of this paper is to show how sensory qualities were used to identify, observe, and describe plants in the sixteenth century. Mattioli’s herbal is an example of Renaissance natural history, which was based on Dioscorides’ classical text. Each step of constructing a chapter of the herbal required a different approach to sensory qualities. The identification of the plants described by Dioscorides called for detailed philological work and a good knowledge of the meaning of each term used for tastes, smells or colours. Descriptions were compared with living plants, while all plant parts and their properties had to be thoroughly examined. Taste was an important tool in establishing an affinity of a new plant with a plant from Dioscorides’ text, because gustatory qualities were regarded as closely related to plant nature. Visual qualities such as shape and colour were then especially useful in distinguishing varieties of particular plants.

中文翻译：

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感官品质在文艺复兴自然历史中的作用：以马蒂奥利的草药为例

摘要

本文的目的是展示在16世纪如何使用感官品质来识别，观察和描述植物。马蒂奥利的草药是文艺复兴时期自然历史的一个例子，它是基于迪奥斯科里德斯的古典文字。构建草药一章的每个步骤都需要采用不同的方法来提高感官品质。对Dioscorides所描述的植物进行鉴定需要进行详细的文字研究，并且要对用于味觉，气味或颜色的各个术语的含义有充分的了解。将描述与活植物进行比较，同时必须彻底检查所有植物部分及其特性。品味是建立新植物与Dioscorides文本中植物的亲和力的重要工具，因为人们将其味觉品质与植物性质紧密相关。