എന്താണ് ഹോര്‍ത്തൂസ് മലബാറിക്കസ്? | What is Hortus Malabaricus ? | S Ramakrishna Kini

Hortus Malabaricus (transl. The Garden of Malabar) is a 17th-century Latin botanical treatise documenting the varieties and medicinal properties of the flora of the Malabar coast.

This treatise was based on earlier documentation by Itty Achudan,a distinguished herbalist among the traditional Ezhava physicians of Kerala, was Van Rheede's key who disclosed the traditional Ayurvedic knowledge about the plants of Malabar to him. It was compiled in 12 volumes by Hendrik van Rheede, the Governor of Dutch Malabar from 1669 to 1676. Fr. Matheus of St. Joseph OCD a distinguished herbalist, was an Italian Carmelite Missionary and Van Rheede's friend.

Hortus Malabaricus was published posthumously in Amsterdam between 1678 and 1693. English and Malayalam translations of Hortus Malabaricus were published by University of Kerala in 2003 and 2008, respectively, which was largely due to the efforts of Professor K. S. Manilal, an Emeritus of the University of Calicut (since he didn’t know Latin he received the help of Catholic priests and bishops who were experts in Latin) who devoted over 35 years of his life to research for the translation and annotation work of the original text of Hortus Malabaricus in Latin.

#hortusmalabaricus #KeralaUniversity #CalicutUniversity