Leonhart Fuchs, De historia stirpium, Basel: in off. Isingriniana, 1542, α1 verso, author portrait, coloured woodcut, leaf height 36.4 cm, Sel.2.81.

In 1542 Leonhart Fuchs (1501-1566), a professor of medicine at Tübingen, published De historia stirpium, a richly illustrated book on medicinal plants. At the beginning of the book, Fuchs is shown in a full-length portrait at the age of 41, wearing a brocaded cape lined with fur and holding a plant in his hand. This was a somewhat unusual portrait of an author at the time in its size (most portraits were of the head or half length) and its lack of traditional props such as books or writing implements. Fuchs is shown holding a plant, embodying what the ancient author Dioscorides (first century AD) urged for the study of medicinal plants – frequent first-hand examination – autopsia. This book included a few plants from the New World (e.g. maize, called ‘Turkish corn’) that were assimilated into an existing taxonomy of plants.