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Page 42 · DO #1810 · 142_Payne_Schreiber_Vol.1_r
- Collection
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Payne, Joseph Frank (1840–1910 and Schreiber) manuscript of speech "On the 'Herbarius' and 'Hortus Sanitatis'" (Payne) and "The Herbals of the XVth and XVIth Centuries"
- Item/Folder
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Manuscript, 1901, 21 January 1901
- Digital Object
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DO #1810,
page 42
- Collection-level dates
- 21 January 1901
Page transcription
[Choulant, "Graphisch Incunabeln", p.39.] It is
hardly necessary to say that Johann de Cube had
nothing to do with the earlier Latin "Herbarius".
THE ILLUSTRATIONS
The woodcuts of this edition are very remarkable. They form a marked contrast with the
rude cuts of the Latin "Herbarius", being in many
cases evidently direct studies from nature, and
drawn with much skill. Such figures as the Yellow
Flag (Acorus), the Winter Cherry (Alkekengi), and
the Dodder, climbing on a plant with flowers and
pods, show this clearly enough. They formed the
basis of nearly all botanical figures for nearly
half a century, being copied into all succeeding
editions with ever-increasing badness and degeneration.
It has not been sufficiently noticed how
far superior are these fine cuts to all those found
in later works in German, French, Italian, or
English, till a new period of Botanical illustration
began with the work of Brunfels, published in 1530.
Some of them, representing native plants, are quite
comparable to those of Brunfels @or fidelity of
drawing, though very inferior in wood-cutting.
It will naturally be asked whether the botan-
ical travels of the anonymous originator of the
