Hunt Institute Archives Text Discovery Platform

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first herbal, which was also the first that
appeared in Germany, contains descriptions
and figures of 150 plants. The book became
popular at once and was very frequently
pirated. No sooner had it appeared, how-
ever, than Georgius Eysenhardt embarked on
a much more extensive scheme of the same
sort. This was a greatly modified and much
extended version of the same work in the
German language, and the title of which
leads us is of the German "Gart der Gesundheit," which deals with
nearly 400 plants. This remarkable book was
effectively a new work and marks a period alike in the history of botany and of book
illustration. It appeared in 1485 at Mainz,
and is known in stages of its printing by
several titles, the variety of which has helped
to confuse the discussion of its relation to
kindred works. Confusion in nomenclature
is best avoided by referring to the work as the
"Gart der Gesundheit," rather than by the
title which the later Schreiber has rather un-
fortunately attached to it. The reader should
remember that in the early days of printing
books often appeared without titles, and that
the names by which many of them are known
have sometimes been attached to them for
purposes of distinction, by modern bibliographers.
The "Gart der Gesundheit" makes many
claims upon the attention of students. Apart
from its other points of interest, it is an im-
portant source of information on German and
of German folklore. For us it is interesting
as the direct ancestor of a whole host of herbals
in many languages. It is also indirectly
responsible for our English word "herbal."
The names of the "Gart der Gesundheit"
were used for a French work which appeared
in many editions under the name "Arbolyare."
This was translated into English and appeared
in London in 1526 as "The Grete Herball," the
first record of the appearance of the word in
our language.

But to turn to the "Gart der Gesundheit"
of Peter Schoeffner. The text of the
book is a compilation and can hardly be
said to have had an author. It is based on
a variety of medical works, and though the
pursuit of these sources attracts the curiosity
of medievalists, yet the student of the following
age regards this text as but the representative
of a dying phase of thought. The value
and interest of the work is in its figures. Many
of these, like the text, are, it true, merely
copied from medieval predecessors in manuscript.
Dr. Klebs has shown, however, that
this is the case only, or at least chiefly, for
those plants which were unknown in Central
Europe. The figures of other plants represent
in many cases real nature studies, though the
artist is handicapped by his imperfect com-
mand of the technique of woodcutting. The
method of presenting the blocks still permitted
only a very limited line.

Peter Schoeffner's "Gart der Gesundheit"
opens with a fantastic scene. Aristotle sits
in the centre, wearing a costume that
would do honour to a pantomime prince.
Before him stand two sages who are dis-
coursing on the virtues of herbs. The more
unimpressive of the two wears a turban,
indicating that he is a Moslem. His com-
panion is of another faith, as is made clearly
indicated by the expression of Christian
resignation with which he submits to the
lecture. Around the three sages crowd a