Bright tears on Brunfelsia. KLCC Public Park, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The clouds wept lightly on this beautiful Brunfelsia in the marvellous park and gardens on the edge of which stand those imposing Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A little sad because the Pharmacist from V. - whom I mention sometimes in my descriptions - had to leave for Cold Europe, I thought it fitting to look a bit into the history of Otto Brunfels (1488-1534). After all, Charles Plumier (1646-1704) and after him the great Linnaeus (1753), named this plant for him.
Otto Brunfels had been a Carthusian monk and was also an avid theologian and pedagogue. Soon after Martin Luther's break with the Church (1517-1521), Brunfels also became a Protestant and he continued his theological and didactical writings, but now in a new vein. Our convert also developed a passion for botany and pharmacy. This passion earned for him Linnaeus's honorific: "a Father of Botany" of the modern sort.
Interestingly, Brunfels described his botanical and apothecary work in terms also used in the religious practice of his times. Just as the religious Reformation sought to return to the earliest texts of purest Christianity and direct, personal experience, thus too, pharmacy and botany should be based upon the most trustworthy ancient texts and direct, scientific observation. Tellingly, a posthumous work of his is entitled 'The Reformation of Pharmacies' (1536).
In the park, it continued to calmly drizzle...
Bright tears on Brunfelsia. KLCC Public Park, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The clouds wept lightly on this beautiful Brunfelsia in the marvellous park and gardens on the edge of which stand those imposing Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A little sad because the Pharmacist from V. - whom I mention sometimes in my descriptions - had to leave for Cold Europe, I thought it fitting to look a bit into the history of Otto Brunfels (1488-1534). After all, Charles Plumier (1646-1704) and after him the great Linnaeus (1753), named this plant for him.
Otto Brunfels had been a Carthusian monk and was also an avid theologian and pedagogue. Soon after Martin Luther's break with the Church (1517-1521), Brunfels also became a Protestant and he continued his theological and didactical writings, but now in a new vein. Our convert also developed a passion for botany and pharmacy. This passion earned for him Linnaeus's honorific: "a Father of Botany" of the modern sort.
Interestingly, Brunfels described his botanical and apothecary work in terms also used in the religious practice of his times. Just as the religious Reformation sought to return to the earliest texts of purest Christianity and direct, personal experience, thus too, pharmacy and botany should be based upon the most trustworthy ancient texts and direct, scientific observation. Tellingly, a posthumous work of his is entitled 'The Reformation of Pharmacies' (1536).
In the park, it continued to calmly drizzle...