Crocologia

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Crocologia is a 1671 botanical science book by the German physician and writer Johann Ferdinand Hertodt. Hertodt devotes the entire book to the study and examination of saffron; the subtitle is: "A Detailed Study of Saffron, the King of Plants". He discusses the origin, cultivation, and medicinal properties of the plant. Hertoldt's rival Wenzel Maximilian Ardensbach wrote a contemporary animadversion against the book. [1]

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"Saffron, for example, was once less regarded than it is today because the crocus from which it is extracted was not particularly mysterious. It flourished in European locations extending from Asia Minor, where it originated, to Saffron Walden in England, where it was naturalised. Only subsequently, when its labour-intensive cultivation became largely centred in Kashmir (India), did it seem sufficiently exotic to qualify as one of the most precious of spices."

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