The Florilegio Medicinal: Source of Southwest Ethnomedicine

In 1711, a Jesuit lay brother who had been sent to the Order's College at Chihuahua to care for the old or ailing missionaries wrote the Florilegio Medicinal. This book compiled the herbal lore of various Indians missionized by the Jesuits, combined it with the materia medica of Europe and attached these cures to disease conditions that were scientifically recognized in the 18th century. It is suggested that this book has served to standardize herbal therapy throughout the Greater Southwest.