Text-fig. 23. “Helleborus Niger” = Helleborus viridis L., Green Hellebore [Brunfels, Herbarum vivæ eicones, Vol. I. 1530]. Reduced.
A new era in the history of the herbal may be said to date from the year 1530, when the first part of Brunfels’ work, the ‘Herbarum vivæ eicones,’ was published by Schott of Strasburg. In this book, with its beautiful and naturalistic illustrations, there is, as the title indicates, a real return to nature; the plants are represented as they are, and not in the conventionalised aspect which had become traditional in the earlier herbals, through successive copying by one artist from another, without reference to the plants themselves. The blocks for the ‘Herbarum vivæ eicones’ were executed by Hans Weiditz, who was probably also the draughtsman. Examples are shown in Text-figs. [22], [23], [24], [25], [82], [83] and [84.]
The illustrations of Brunfels’ herbal are incomparably better than the text, which is very poor, and largely borrowed from previous writers. Brunfels’ knowledge of botany was chiefly derived from the study of certain Italian authors, Manardus and others, who spent their time in trying to identify the plants they saw growing around them with those described by Dioscorides. This was by no means unreasonable in their case, since it was the plants of the Mediterranean region that Dioscorides had enumerated. When, however, Brunfels attempted to employ the same methods in his examination of the flora of the Strasburg district, and the left bank of the Rhine, many difficulties and discrepancies arose. He had no understanding of the geographical distribution of plants, and did not realise that different regions have dissimilar floras. It is curious that this should have been so, when we remember that Theophrastus, more than eighteen hundred years earlier, had clearly pointed out that the provinces of Asia have each their own characteristic plants, and that some, which occur in one region, are absent from another.
Hieronymus Bock, who in his Latin writings called himself Tragus (Text-fig. [26]), was a contemporary of Brunfels, though his botanical work was somewhat later in date. He was born in 1498, and destined by his parents for the cloister. But he proved to have no vocation for the monastic life, and, having passed through a university course, he obtained, by favour of the Count Palatine Ludwig, the post of school teacher at Zweibrücken, and overseer of the Count’s garden. After his patron’s death he removed to Hornbach, where he preached the gospel, and also had an extensive medical practice, devoting his spare time to botany. But he got into some trouble, apparently owing to his protestantism, and was obliged to leave Hornbach. He was in serious straits until Count Philip of Nassau, whom he had previously cured of a severe illness, gave him shelter and support in his own castle. He was eventually able to return to Hornbach, where he filled the office of preacher until his death in 1554.
Text-fig. 24. “Synnaw” = Alchemilla, Ladies’ Mantle [Brunfels, Herbarum vivæ eicones, Vol. II. 1531]. Reduced.
