Herbarium Apuleius (480–1050), one of the most copied manuscripts with uses of over 100 herbs, and the Leech Book of Bald are some of the Herbals of ‘Leech’ craft—the collective English word for medical practitioners. Some of the earliest herbals known are listed below:

1. Ornus Sanitatus (1491) by an unknown author, having many wood cut illustrations copied from an older German work known the Herbarius Zu Teutsch, was used in England during much of 16th century as the standard textbook of medicine. It contains quotations from the writings of Arabian (Rhazes and Avicenna), Greek (Dioscorides and Galen) and Roman (Pliny and Cato) authors.
2. De Historia Stirpium (1542) by Leonhart Fuchs contains illustrated plant descriptions for the correct identification of plants arranged alphabetically under their Latin names.
3. A New Herbal (1551) by William Turner has a scientific account of plants used as ‘simples’ (plants as drugs in their unprocessed form).
4. Materia Medica (1839) by Pereiras was an encyclopedic collection of information on all available details of actions and descriptions of the then existing drugs of plant, mineral and animal origin.