An exhilarating new book from the author of the worldwide bestsellerThe Tulip. The Naming of Namestraces the search for order in the natural world, a search that for hundreds of years occupied some of the most brilliant minds in Europe. Redefining man's relationship with nature was a major pursuit during the Renaissance. But in a world full of poisons, there was also an urgent practical need to name and recognize different plants, because most medicines were made from plant extracts. Anna Pavord takes us on a thrilling adventure into botanical history, traveling from Athens in the third century BC, through Constantinople, Venice, the medical school at Salerno to the universities of Pisa and Padua. The journey, traced here for the first time, involves the culture of Islam, the first expeditions to the Indies and the first settlers in the New World. In Athens, Aristotle's pupil Theophrastus was the first man ever to write a book about plants. How can we name, sort, and order them? He asked.

The debate continues still, two thousand years later. Sumptuously illustrated in full colour,The Naming of Namesgives a compelling insight into a world full of intrigue and intensely competitive egos. Anna Pavordis the gardening correspondent for theIndependentand the author of eight previous books, including the bestsellingThe Tulip. She contributes to a number of magazines, both in the United States and in the United Kingdom, and regularly hosts programs for BBC Radio. She chairs the Gardens Panel of the National Trust and sits on the Parks and Gardens Panel of English Heritage. She lives in Dorset, England, where she spent thirty years restoring the garden of an old rectory. She is married and has three daughters, and has recently moved to a new house and started another garden. The Naming of Namesis about the men who searched for the rules of nature's game.

What were plants to be called? What were their similarities and differences? How should they be grouped and ordered? The world was surely more than a random, chaotic jumble, if only the right key could be found to unlock the puzzle. For centuries, this search for order occupied some of the most brilliant minds in Europe. Beginning in Athens, where Aristotle's pupil Theophrastus was the first person ever to write a book about plants, the story then moves to the Italian Renaissance, when man's relationship with nature was radically redefined. Gradually, over a long period in Europe, plants gathered identities. In a world full of plagues and poisons, there was, of course, a practical need to recognize and differentiate between one plant and another: many medicines were made from plants' extracts. But alongside this pharmaceutical reason for wanting to pin the right labels on plants was an urgent desire to make sense of the natural world. Aided by the artists who painted the first pictures of plants, scholars set out along the long road to consensus. Gradually a pan-European network was established, an information exchange that functioned as a kind of early Internet connecting all those who were interested in a better understanding of nature's gifts.

But two thousand years of looking, writing, and theorizing passed before the rules began to emerge. The Naming of Namesis a thrilling adventure into botanical history. Anna Pavord travels from.