Historical
F
or much of recorded Western history, fungi have been viewed with suspicion and connected to the supernatural. Mushrooms, the most visible fungi, seemed to mysteriously erupt from the earth overnight and were believed to be the work of the devil. They were associated with the spirit world in other ways. Fairy rings, a circle of mushrooms formed by the growth pattern of certain species, were seen as the work and domain of the “little people,” who danced around them at midnight, performing magical rituals.
Two of the earliest books to depict mushrooms point to mycology’s diverse future directions. Theatrum Fungorum (1675) is a popular guide to the pleasures of finding and eating mushrooms. Nova Plantarum Genera (1727) is a scientific work, the first of a long line to employ a microscope to reveal mycological mysteries.
