Product Description

The Naming of Names traces the search for order in the natural world, a search that for hundreds of years occupied some of the most brilliant minds in Europe. Redefining man's relationship with nature was an important feature of the Renaissance. But in a world full of plaques and poisons, there was also a practical need to name and recognise different plants: most medicines were made from plant extracts. Anna Pavord takes us on a thrilling adventure into botanical history, travelling from Athens in the third century BC, through Constantinople, Venice, the medical school at Salerno to the universities of Pisa and Padua. The journey, traced here for the first time, involves the culture of Islam, the first expeditions to the Indies and the first settlers in the New World. In Athens, Aristotle's pupil, Theophrastus, is the first man ever to write a book about plants. What should these things properly be called, he asks. How can we sort and order them? The debate continues still, two thousand years later. Gradually, over a long period in Europe, plants assumed identities and acquired names. Artists painted the first pictures of them. Plants acquired the two-part names that show how they are related to other plants. But who began all this work, and how was it done? Sumptuously illustrated in full colour, The Naming of Names gives a compelling insight into a world full of intrigue and intensely competitive egos.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #75468 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 480 pages

Review
'A passionate masterpiece' MAIL ON SUNDAY on THE TULIP 'Written by a scholar, reads like a thriller' DAILY TELEGRAPH on THE TULIP

About the Author
Anna Pavord is the gardening correspondent for the Independent and the author of eight previous books, including the bestselling The Tulip. She contributes to a number of magazines, both in the US and the UK and regularly fronts programmes for BBC Radio 3 and 4. She chairs the Gardens Panel of the National Trust and sits on the Parks and Gardens Panel of English Heritage. She lives in Dorset, England, where she spent thirty years restoring the garden of an old rectory. She has recently moved to a new house and started another garden. She is married and has three daughters.

Customer Reviews

The Naming of Names
Having read Anna Pavord's "The Border Book", which is interesting and easy to follow, I felt that she would be an excellent person to write a down to earth, yet compelling book on how plants got their names.
This is not a book that does that. Anna writes beautifully about her travels and passion for the pioneers in plant naming. She also gives a great deal of detail as to how the process of plant naming has evolved through the ages, but this is a book on the process of naming, not the plants themselves.
That said I am enjoying the book and it is easy to read. My only real criticism is that she has an annoying habit of quoting in Italian or Latin, pre-supposing that the reader is familiar/fluent with these languages. A revised edition would do well to give the translation in brackets alongside the quote.
In summation. If you want a good bedside read about the people who gave birth to the process of classifying and standardising plant nomenclature, then this is great bedside or coffee table read. If you're interested in the plants themselves, this may not be for you. For all that it is a good book all the same.

Who is this book for?
I would wholeheartedly recommend this book but have one big question. Anna Pavord cannot write a dull sentence, the book is a beautifully produced and it provides a truly in-depth treatment of its subject; but who exactly is it aimed at?
For the general reader there is probably just too much information on the arcane development of plant nomenclature; yet it is insufficiently referenced and rigorous to have serious academic pretensions (which, to be fair, it doesn't claim to have).
Please don't let me put you off trying the book. I learned a huge amount about a subject I would previously have found deathly-dull. And it's a lovely object to have and to hold. It's just that all the while I couldn't help feeling it should have been conceived as a rather different book.