Plants and their names

Leonhard Fuchs (1501–1566)
De historia stirpium
Basel: Officina Isingriniana, 1542

Fuchs’s herbal is regarded as perhaps the most beautiful ever published in the genre; with over 500 woodcuts, many of the illustrations are based on plants grown in Fuchs’s own garden. The 54 surviving hand-coloured copies of the first edition, as here, were coloured according to his own specific guidelines, and based on a set of original drawings now lost. This copy also bears annotations by an early English owner, adding the vernacular names for plants, here Night shade and Winter cherry.

This volume has been digitised in full: to view this, click ‘Open Digital Library’.

Sel.2.81, pp. 686–687 (Royal Library)

Leonhard Fuchs was took some thirty years to write the Historia Stirpium, and clearly it was an effort he greatly enjoyed. His aim was to provide information about the medical properties of plants, to assist his fellow physicians. As well as purely medicinal plants (such as the Night shade shown here) he included the new and exotic, such as chilli peppers. The illustrations show the plants with remarkable accuracy, considering that they were carved on woodblocks. A team of three artists was involved: Albrecht Meyer drew them, Heinrich Füllmaurer drew these onto the wooden blocks, and Veit Rudolf Speckle carved them ready for printing. Their role in the project was considered so important that their portraits were also included in the book.

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