Basil
Basil names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Basil a basilicum, a native of India
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a basilicum, a native of India, much used in cookery, especially in France, and known more particularly as sweet or common basil. Bush or lesser basil is O. miniinum; wild basil belongs to a different genus, being the calamintha clinopodium. BASIL I., The Macedonian, Emperor of the East, was of low origin, but obtained employment at the court of the Emperor Michael III., became his chamberlain, murdered his rival, Bardas, then Michael, and succeeded him in 867. He wisely, and compiled a body of laws called the Basilica, which, augmented by his son and successor, Leo the Philosopher, were in force till the fall of the empire. Basil I. deprived Photius of the See of Constantinople, and restored Ignatius, on whose death he recalled Photius. He successfully carried on war with the Saracens. Died in 886. BASIL II., Emperor of the East, was son of Romanus II., and with his brother, Constantine, was first associated in the empire by John Zimisces, and succeeded him in 976. His long reign was a series of wars with his rivals, Bardas, Sclernus, and Phocas, with the Saracens and . The war ended in 1019, by Bulgarians. ns the complete conquest of Bulgaria. Died in 1025.
Basil ST., surnamed THE GREAT
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
ST., surnamed THE GREAT, Bishop of Cæsarea, in Cappadocia, where he was born about 326. He was studying at Athens in 355. After extensive travels, St. Basil retired to the Desert of Pontus, and there founded an order of monks. He succeeded Eusebius in the See of Cæsarea in 370, and by his opposition to Arian doctrines greatly offended the Emperor Valens. He died in 380.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's called basil "a native of India, much used in cookery, especially in France" — the Indian origin still stands, but the cookery has shifted decisively: since the 1980s basil has been identified in most Western kitchens with Italian pesto and with the Thai and Vietnamese cooking that reached Europe and America after 1975, while holy basil (tulsi) is sold as a herbal tea. The botany has been tidied: the "bush or lesser basil" Collier's listed as O. minimum is now usually treated as a variety of Ocimum basilicum, and wild basil has moved again, from Calamintha clinopodium to Clinopodium vulgare. On the Byzantines, the main correction is that the great law code, the Basilika, is now credited chiefly to Leo VI rather than to Basil I, who issued the shorter Eisagoge and Prochiron; Basil II's conquest of Bulgaria is conventionally dated to 1018, not 1019. For St Basil the Great, modern scholarship places his birth about 329 or 330 and his death on 1 January 379, a year earlier than Collier's 380.
Written for this edition, 2026.