A is for Artemisia

Abstract

Historical Pharmacopeias (HP) is a digital collection of historical sources documenting natural products and pharmaceutical preparations used from antiquity to 1850. The collection features inventories from apothecaries and medicament lists spanning Europe, its imperial dominions, and other regions. While current strengths lie in Western Europe—particularly Provence, Barcelona, and Rome—and Latin America, HP’s digital tools are adaptable to any list format. This article traces HP’s development from 2022 to 2024, emphasizing the contributions of undergraduate and graduate researchers in building the baseline corpus. Adopting a laboratory model within a liberal arts environment, the process of building HP has immersed students in archival research, provides basic paleographic training and allowed them to exercise their language skills, and fostered outcomes like essays, posters, and symposia. By integrating health-related histories into undergraduate instruction, HP not only enhances student learning but also advances research in the history of science. Pharmacopeias—rich records of material culture—offer unique insights into past embodiments, bridging natural history, human ingenuity, and archival exploration.