Culpeper's Herbal

When seeking inspiration for naming her herbs and potions, J.K. Rowling used the herbal of the apothecary Nicholas Culpeper. The book was first published in 1652 as The English Physician. It has subsequently appeared in over 100 editions, and was the first medical book to be published in North America. Culpeper's herbal provides a comprehensive list of native medicinal herbs, indexed against specific illnesses, and prescribes the most effective forms of treatment and when to take them. Culpeper was an unlicensed apothecary, disliked by the medical profession who jealously guarded their monopoly to practise medicine in London. He came into conflict with the College of Physicians, and in 1642 was apparently tried, but acquitted, for practising witchcraft.

CULPEPER’S ENGLISH PHYSICIAN; AND COMPLETE HERBAL (LONDON, 1789)

British Library

“Culpeper was concerned to inform the less educated members of society, and so he wrote in English rather than the traditional Latin.”

Alexander Lock
Curator

Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learnt how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi and found out what they were used for.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

CULPEPER’S ENGLISH PHYSICIAN; AND COMPLETE HERBAL (LONDON, 1789)

British Library