When Konrad von Megenberg published his Buch der Natur within the mid-fourteenth century, he received the distinction of having assembled the very first natural history in German. Greater than half a millennium later, the ebook nonetheless fascinates — not least for its depictions of cats, previously featured right here on Open Culture. Even the works derived from it have charms of their very own: take the Kräuterbuch (or “Guide of Herbs”) from 1462, through which Duke Albrecht III of Bavaria’s personal physician Johannes Hartlieb adapts a section of the Buch der Natur with its personal full complement of 160 illustrations.
“Hartlieb’s subject is vegetation, mostly herbs, and their medical makes use of,” says the Library of Congress, on whose web site you possibly can view and download the ebook. “What makes the Kräuterbuch special is the side-by-side presentation of textual content and pictures. The excessive value of such a wealthyly decorated ebook makes it not likely that it was actually utilized by doctors or pharmacists of the time.”
However even when they lack a certain scientific practicality, these botanical presentations have a vibrant, simple daringness that, in some respect, fits our visual aesthetics right here within the early twenty-first century; you may name it a renaissance equivalent of flat design.
“Every chapter of the Kräuterbuch follows a traditional system of botanical classification derived from the Greek philosopher Theophrastus,” writes Hunter Dukes on the Public Area Evaluation, which additionally gives a gallery of the ebook’s illustrations. “Animals are portrayed as pharmacologically knowledgeready, comparable to in an account of deer rubbing themselves on pepperweed (Lepidium latifolium) to take away hunters’ arrows”; another section holds that “uselessly automobilerots (Thapsia) assist beggars of their deceptions — rubbed on the face, they are going to professionalduce indicators of leprosy, which can be cured with vinegar.” Discussing the poisonous mandrake (see picture immediately above), Hartlieb automobileries forward von Megenberg’s suggestion “that its magazineical properties must be saved secret from commoners,” who, naturally, would never be in possession of such a lavish tome. Now all of us can entry the Kräuterbuch — and most of us know that we’d be guesster off not messing round with mandrake in any respect.
by way of the Public Area Evaluation
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Primarily based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His tasks embody the Substack newsletter Books on Cities and the ebook The Statemuch less Metropolis: a Stroll by means of Twenty first-Century Los Angeles. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Faceebook.