Text-fig. 78. “Alkekengi” = Physalis, Winter Cherry [Herbarius zu Teutsch, Mainz, 1485].
Text-fig. 79. “Alkekengi” = Physalis, Winter Cherry [Ortus Sanitatis, Mainz, 1491].
A pirated second edition of the ‘Herbarius zu Teutsch’ appeared at Augsburg only a few months after the publication of the first at Mainz. The figures, which are roughly copied from those of the original edition, are very inferior to them. In fact, the Mainz wood-cuts of 1485 excel those of all subsequent issues.
In the ‘Ortus Sanitatis’ of 1491, about two-thirds of the drawings of plants are copied from the ‘Herbarius zu Teutsch.’ They are often much spoiled in the process, and it is evident that the copyist frequently failed to grasp the intention of the original artist. The wood-cut of the Dodder (Text-fig. [80]), for instance, is lamentably inferior to that in the ‘Herbarius zu Teutsch’ (Text-fig. [77]). There is often a tendency, in the later work, to make the figures occupy the space in a more decorative fashion; for instance, where the stalk in the original drawing is simply cut across obliquely at the base, we find in the ‘Ortus Sanitatis’ that its pointed end is continued into a conventional flourish (cf. the figures of the Winter Cherry in the two works, Text-figs. 78 and 79). Among the original figures many, as we have already indicated, represent purely mythical subjects (e.g. Text-figs. 13 and 17).
