Henrik Harpestræng was a Danish botanical

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

 and medical

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

 author. He was a canon

Canon (priest)

A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....

 at the Roskilde Cathedral

Roskilde Cathedral

Roskilde Cathedral , in the city of Roskilde on the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark, is a cathedral of the Lutheran Church of Denmark. The first Gothic cathedral to be built of brick, it encouraged the spread of the Brick Gothic style throughout Northern Europe...

. His name literally means harp string.
His greatest work was a urtebog (book of herbs), written in Danish

Danish language

Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...

. The book consists of 150 chapters dealing with plants and plant parts. The main body of text is probably translations from two Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 works, De viribus herbarum by a person who calls himself Aemilius Macer

Aemilius Macer

Aemilius Macer of Verona was a Roman didactic poet. He authored two poems, one on birds and the other on the antidotes against the poison of serpents , which he imitated from the Greek poet Nicander of Colophon. According to Jerome, he died in 16 BC. It is possible that he wrote also a botanical...

, but is rather Odo Magdunensis, and De gradibus liber by Constantinus Africanus. However, there is a good deal of sections of which Henrik Harpestræng is undoubtedly the original author. In addition, the book is an invaluable source to Danish medieval plant names.
The best preserved copy of this manuscript dates from the 13th Century - now kept in Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

.

Henrik Harpestræng is by all likelihood identical to the Henricus Dacus or Henricus de Dacia, who authored a Latin essay on plants, Liber de simplicibus medicinis laxativis, and to the Maistre Henry de Danemarche, of 1181, whom a manuscript in the National Library in Paris designates as "excellent medecin à Orleans et grant astrologicien". This probably witnesses that Henrik studied in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

Sources

• Hauberg, Poul (1932) Henrik Harpestræng, pp. 9–11 in: Meisen, V. Prominent Danish Scientists through the Ages. University Library of Copenhagen 450th Anniversary. Levin & Munksgaard, Copenhagen.