Folio
1560 · Strasbourg
by BOCK, Hieronymus (1498-1554), KANDEL, David (1520-1592, Engraver)
Strasbourg: [Josiam Rihel], 1560. Folio. (12 1/2 x 8 inches). a6 b5 c8 A-Zz6 Aaa5. 466 pp. Title, Armorial woodcut, Vorrede / Preface, Index, Register, Woodcut author portrait, Theils I-III, Register. Around 530 woodcuts in the text, several colored or partially colored. Two pages in older ink manuscript facsimile. Ink manuscript amendations to the index. Text in German; type in blackletter fraktur. Bound to style in tan full calf, five raised bands forming six compartments on spine with blind-stamped author in second and title in third, and blind-paneled tool in rest
One of the most popular herbal books of the Renaissance by a seminal botanist who was the first person to use the word "Reisling," with over 500 woodcuts, some of which are scatological and curious.
The Kreuter-Büch is a landmark in the field of botany. Bock is lauded for his careful study of German plants, the quality and clarity of his descriptions, and his discovery of plants never before described. Botanist Edward Lee Greene judges Bock to be "the first father of phytography after Theophrastus." Bock, a German botanist, physician, and Lutheran minister, is considered one of the three fathers of botany, alongside Leonhart Fuchs (1501-1566) and Otto Brunfels (1488-1534). Instead of following Dioscorides, as was traditional, Bock catalyzed the transition from medieval botany to a more modern scientific worldview by developing his own taxonomic system to classify over 700 plants by arranging them by their similarities. He was the first to provide precise textual descriptions of plants and their effects, while Brunfels and Fuchs were more concerned solely with their identification. Bock had traveled widely throughout the German-speaking region observing plants for himself, and includes his own ecological and distributional observations in the text; he was the first of the three botanists whose text was based on his own notes from personal observation. And, for the first time, the entire life-cycle of a plant was taken into account, not just its flowering period. Hunt comments in regard to Bock's new classification of plants into trees, shrubs, and herbs, that he was probably the first to even realize the need to classify plants. Bock recognized the reproductive organs of many flowers and thus saw connections that had remained unclear to his predecessors. The first edition of Bock's Kreuter-Büch appeared in 1539 and, because Bock could not afford it, was unillustrated. He compensated for the lack of visuals in the book by describing each plant specimen with marked clarity in a vernacular German spoken by the common man. Due to this, the Kreuter-Büch is recognized as significant not just for the study of botany but as a dialectical record of the German language as it was spoken and written in the 16th century. Subsequent editions, starting with the 1546, were illustrated, borrowing herbal images from Brunfels and Fuchs, and complementing them with hundreds of woodcuts by Kandel, identified by the initials "D. K." he used to sign his engravings. These woodcuts of Kandel's include the beautiful author's portrait of Bock, and the humorous figurative illustrations toward the rear of the book. Extensive registers of plant names in Latin and German and their applications enrich the work.
Arber, Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution, passim. Falk, Hollstein's German Engravings, Etchings, and Woodcuts: 1400 - 1700, Vol. 15B, pp. 217-245. Greene, Landmarks of Botanical History, p.311. Heilmann pp. 198-203. Hunt 66. Nissen BBI 182. OCLC 16950047. Pritzel 866. Stafleau C576. (Inventory #: 40207)
One of the most popular herbal books of the Renaissance by a seminal botanist who was the first person to use the word "Reisling," with over 500 woodcuts, some of which are scatological and curious.
The Kreuter-Büch is a landmark in the field of botany. Bock is lauded for his careful study of German plants, the quality and clarity of his descriptions, and his discovery of plants never before described. Botanist Edward Lee Greene judges Bock to be "the first father of phytography after Theophrastus." Bock, a German botanist, physician, and Lutheran minister, is considered one of the three fathers of botany, alongside Leonhart Fuchs (1501-1566) and Otto Brunfels (1488-1534). Instead of following Dioscorides, as was traditional, Bock catalyzed the transition from medieval botany to a more modern scientific worldview by developing his own taxonomic system to classify over 700 plants by arranging them by their similarities. He was the first to provide precise textual descriptions of plants and their effects, while Brunfels and Fuchs were more concerned solely with their identification. Bock had traveled widely throughout the German-speaking region observing plants for himself, and includes his own ecological and distributional observations in the text; he was the first of the three botanists whose text was based on his own notes from personal observation. And, for the first time, the entire life-cycle of a plant was taken into account, not just its flowering period. Hunt comments in regard to Bock's new classification of plants into trees, shrubs, and herbs, that he was probably the first to even realize the need to classify plants. Bock recognized the reproductive organs of many flowers and thus saw connections that had remained unclear to his predecessors. The first edition of Bock's Kreuter-Büch appeared in 1539 and, because Bock could not afford it, was unillustrated. He compensated for the lack of visuals in the book by describing each plant specimen with marked clarity in a vernacular German spoken by the common man. Due to this, the Kreuter-Büch is recognized as significant not just for the study of botany but as a dialectical record of the German language as it was spoken and written in the 16th century. Subsequent editions, starting with the 1546, were illustrated, borrowing herbal images from Brunfels and Fuchs, and complementing them with hundreds of woodcuts by Kandel, identified by the initials "D. K." he used to sign his engravings. These woodcuts of Kandel's include the beautiful author's portrait of Bock, and the humorous figurative illustrations toward the rear of the book. Extensive registers of plant names in Latin and German and their applications enrich the work.
Arber, Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution, passim. Falk, Hollstein's German Engravings, Etchings, and Woodcuts: 1400 - 1700, Vol. 15B, pp. 217-245. Greene, Landmarks of Botanical History, p.311. Heilmann pp. 198-203. Hunt 66. Nissen BBI 182. OCLC 16950047. Pritzel 866. Stafleau C576. (Inventory #: 40207)
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