Home / Education and Outreach / Interpretative Signs / Doctrine of Signatures
Doctrine of Signatures
Doctrine of signatures: an ancient belief that plants are marked with a divine sign indicating their purpose.
For example, the white spotted leaves of the lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis) resemble a diseased lung and so indicate the use of the plant for pulmonary complaints. Although precursors are found in the writings of Galen (131-200) and in medieval Islamic medicine, the doctrine of signatures as a mature philosophy is usually credited to the book "Signatura Rerum" (Signature of All Things) by Jakob Boehme (1575-1624), a master shoemaker of Goerlitz, Germany.
