08-01-2012, 09:19 PM
I'm still fascinated by what Rembert Dodoens (1517-1585) knew about the estrogenic and anti-androgenic properties of hops. He was a physician by profession, and wrote on botany as a hobby. I checked Pliny the Elder yesterday: almost nothing on hops. The 1554 edition of Dodoens'"Cruijdeboeck" is very close to what Dioscorides wrote on hops. The 1563 edition is not very different:
http://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/dodoens/
Scan 388 and 389.
His life is here (in Dutch):
http://plantaardigheden.nl/dodoens/over_...uijdeboeck
He lived to see the first French (1557) and English (1578) editions. He wrote the Latin edition himself, published the books separately between 1566 and 1580, and the whole set of six volumes "Stirpium historiae pemptades sex" in 1583. Starting from this edition, a completely revised and extended Dutch language edition "was prepared", the text doesn't say who wrote it. It appeared in 1608 as "Cruydt-Boeck", was adapted in 1618, and again in 1644 (last edition).
The interesting bits about estrogenic and anti-androgenic properties of hops are in an appendix in the 1644 edition. It wasn't added in the 1563 edition yet. I couldn't find whether Dodoens added it himself though, because on-line versions of the editions and translations between 1563 and 1644 are not indexed electronically. The Clusius mentioned in the post above is Carolus Clusius (Charles de l'Escluse) who worked with Dodoens on the French edition of 1557, which was also extended. He could have added the appendix as well.
http://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/dodoens/
Scan 388 and 389.
His life is here (in Dutch):
http://plantaardigheden.nl/dodoens/over_...uijdeboeck
He lived to see the first French (1557) and English (1578) editions. He wrote the Latin edition himself, published the books separately between 1566 and 1580, and the whole set of six volumes "Stirpium historiae pemptades sex" in 1583. Starting from this edition, a completely revised and extended Dutch language edition "was prepared", the text doesn't say who wrote it. It appeared in 1608 as "Cruydt-Boeck", was adapted in 1618, and again in 1644 (last edition).
The interesting bits about estrogenic and anti-androgenic properties of hops are in an appendix in the 1644 edition. It wasn't added in the 1563 edition yet. I couldn't find whether Dodoens added it himself though, because on-line versions of the editions and translations between 1563 and 1644 are not indexed electronically. The Clusius mentioned in the post above is Carolus Clusius (Charles de l'Escluse) who worked with Dodoens on the French edition of 1557, which was also extended. He could have added the appendix as well.