Plural of herbal; books or collections describing medicinal plants, their properties, and how to use them.
From 'herbal' (a book about herbs), which comes from Medieval Latin 'herbale' (of plants). Herbals became extremely popular printed books in Renaissance Europe, among the first illustrated reference books ever mass-produced.
The most famous herbal was Dioscorides' 'Materia Medica' (1st century AD), which was copied and recopied for over 1,500 years and shaped all of Western medicine. Some herbals had such beautiful hand-drawn illustrations that they're now worth millions of dollars.
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