Szymon Syreński (Syreniusz)

Simon Syrenius () (1540–1611) was a pre-Linnean Polish botanist and academic. A native of Oświęcim, he taught at the Jagiellonian University. Anna Vasa served as his patron, and with her help, Syrenius published a botanic atlas in five volumes consisting of 1,540 pages describing 765 plants.

Zielnik (Herbarium)

The first edition of Syrenius' botanical atlas was published by Bazyli Skalski in Cracow in 1613 under the title:

The ''Zielnik'' is an illustrated atlas of practical plants, which includes information about the most important known and used plants in central and southern Europe in the sixteenth century. The work describes 765 plants, primarily medicinal ones, and their usage in the home, in industry, and in veterinary medicine. The recipes explain how to prepare plant medicines and food, as well as methods of pest control, how to treat farm animals, etc. It also records old folk traditions related to flora. Most of these descriptions are accompanied by woodcuts illustrating both the flowering plant and its roots, and sometimes its fruit and seeds as well.

The ''Zielnik'' was widely cited by Polish horticulturalists until the nineteenth century. The work was also popular in Russia, as evidenced by seventeenth-century translations now preserved in the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg.

Contents

The ''Zielnik'' includes the following sections:

* dedication by the publisher, Gabriel Joannicy to Queen Anna Vasa;
* poem titled "Do Czytelnika" o the Readerby Jan Achacy Kmita;
* register of medicines;
* the primary text of the atlas, in five books (pp. 1–1533);
* supplemental woodcuts (s. 1533-1535);
* text "O Żydach rzecz krótka," written partly by Syrenius and added to the ''Zielnik'' by the printer Skalski (s. 1536-1539);
* errata, under the title "Omyłki" (s. 1540);
* index of plant names in Latin, Polish, and German.

Bibliography

* Briuchin, Władimir, and Alicja Zemanek. "Rękopisy rosyjskich przekładów Zielnika (1613) Syreniusza w Petersburgu." In ''Kwartalnik Nauki i Techniki'' 41, nos. 3-4 (1996), 189-195;
* Rostański, Krzysztof. "Szymon Syreniusz i jego dzieło." In ''Wiadomości Botaniczne'' 41, no. 2 (1997), 7-12;
* ''Słownik biologów polskich.'' 'Dictionary of Polish Biologists.''Warsaw, 1987;
* Zemanek, Alicja. "Szymon Syreński (Syreniusz, Syrennius) (ok. 1540-1611). Przyrodnik, zielnikarz, lekarz." In ''Złota Księga Wydziału Biologii i Nauk o Ziemi,'' edited by Alicja Zemanek, vol. 1, pp. 27–36. Cracow, 2000;
* Zemanek, Alicja. "Z dziejów botaniki renesansu – padewskie inspiracje polskich zielnikarzy." In ''Kwartalnik Nauki i Techniki'' 41, no. 1 (1996), 31-58;
* Żurkowa, Renata. "Wokół Zielnika Szymona Syreniusza." In ''Rocznik Biblioteki PAN w Krakowie'' 30 (1985), 169-183;
* Żukow-Karczewski, Marek,
Zielnik Szymona Syreńskiego (Szymon Syrenski's herbarium)
', "Aura" 1, 1993, 23-24.

External links

Scans and indexes of the ''Zielnik'' from 1613 (Polish)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Syrenius, Simon
1540 births
1611 deaths
Academic staff of Jagiellonian University
People from Oświęcim
16th-century Polish botanists
17th-century Polish botanists
Scientists from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth