When Konrad von Megenberg published his Buch der Natur within the mid-fourteenth century, he received the distinction of having assembled the first actual natural history in Gerguy. Greater than part a millennium later, the e-book nonetheless fascinates — now not least for its depictions of cats, previously featured right here on Open Culture. Even the works derived from it have charms of their very own: take the Kräuterbuch (or “E-book of Herbs”) from 1462, wherein Duke Albrecht III of Bavaria’s in keeping withsonal physician Johannes Hartlieb adapts a section of the Buch der Natur with its personal complete complement of 160 illustrations.
“Hartlieb’s subject is crops, maximumly herbs, and their medical makes use of,” says the Library of Congress, on whose web site you’ll be able to view and download the e-book. “What makes the Kräuterbuch special is the side-by-side presentation of textual content and pictures. The top value of this sort of wealthyly decorated e-book makes it in contrast toly that it was once actually utilized by documenttors or pharmacists of the time.”
However even supposing they lack a certain scientific practicality, those botanical presentations have a vibrant, simple daringness that, in some admire, fits our visual aesthetics right here within the early twenty-first century; it’s worthwhile to name it a renaissance equivalent of flat design.
“Every chapter of the Kräuterbuch follows a traditional system of botanical classification derived from the Greek philosopher Theophrastus,” writes Hunter Dukes on the Public Area Evaluation, which additionally gives a gallery of the e-book’s illustrations. “Animals are portrayed as pharmacologically knowledgeready, reminiscent of in an account of deer rubbing themselves on pepin keeping withweed (Lepidentityium latifolium) to take away hunters’ arrows”; another section holds that “lifelessly automotiverots (Thapsia) help beggars of their deceptions — rubbed at the face, they’ll professionalduce indicators of leprosy, which may also be cured with vinegar.” Discussing the poisonous guydrake (see symbol immediately above), Hartlieb automotiveries forward von Megenberg’s suggestion “that its magazineical properties must be stored secret from commoners,” who, naturally, would never be in possession of this sort of lavish tome. Now all people can get right of entry to the Kräuterbuch — and maximum people know that we’d be guesster off now not messing round with guydrake in any respect.
by the use of the Public Area Evaluation
Related content:
The New Natural: A Masterpiece of Renaissance Botanical Illustrations Will get Republished in a Beautiful 900-Web page E-book
Hortus Eystettensis: The Beautifully Illustrated E-book of Crops That Modified Botanical Artwork In a single day (1613)
A Curious Natural: 500 Beautiful Illustrations of Medicinal Crops Drawn by way of Elizabeth Blacksmartly in 1737 (to Save Her Family from Financial Destroy)
Behold a Fifteenth-Century Italian Guyuscript Featuring Medicinal Crops with Fantastical Human Faces
The Surprising Map of Crops: A New Animation Displays How The entire Different Crops Relate to Every Other
Based totally in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and extensivecasts on towns, language, and culture. His tasks come with the Substack newsletter Books on Towns and the e-book The Statemuch less Town: a Stroll via Twenty first-Century Los Angeles. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Facee-book.