This page looks at:
  • a brief biography of the German herbalist Leonhart Fuchs
  • his famous Herbal book called "De  commentary insignias" - usually shortened to 'Historia Stirpum' which translated means Notable commentaries on the history of plants
  • the roles of the artists who helped create the images in the book

The banner image above includes Image(s) courtesy History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries; copyright the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma. This includes a digitised collection of Fuch's books and this wonderful resource at the History of Science Libraries is highly recommended as a way of seeing his work.

German herbalist Leonhart Fuchs
​

Leonhart Fuchs (1501 - 10 May 1566) is best known for the development and publication of one of the very important early Herbals in 1543.

Biography

He was born in Bavaria in Germany in 1501 at the height of the German Renaissance.
  • 1513; Enrolled at the the University of Erfurt
  • 1514: He was a serious student and matriculated at at the age of fourteen. He developed his knowledge of classic and Latin and then took a medical degree.  He was able to read the ancient medical texts with ease because of his knowledge of Greek.
​He subsequently became both a physician and a botanist and is now regarded as one of the three German fathers of botany
  • 1524: He started to practice medicine in Munich
  • 1526: He became a Professor of Medicine at Ingolstadt
  • 1528: became the physician of Margrave George of Brandenburg.
  • 1529: became well known for successful treatment of plague victims in Prague
  • 1535 : He was appointed to the Chair of Medicine at Tübingen. He continued in this position for the remainder of his life - and created on of the first botanical gardens in the world.

His primary purpose was the rediscovery of the ancient  sources of information about medicine.

Publications

With the publication of The New Herbal he also became a noted and important author .

Prior to Fuch's Great Herbal, the illustrations used in the early Herbals were quite crude and of limited use from the perspective of finding and selecting the correct plant for medicinal use.
  • 1542: De Historia Stirpium was published
  • 1543: a German translation was published
  • smaller picture only versions were published.
  • versions for use by those involved in botany were also published

​Fuchs's name is commemorated in the naming of the Fuchsia.

In total, he wrote more than 50 books and polemics
'there is nothing in this life pleasanter and more delightful than to wander over woods, mountains, plains, garlanded and adorned with flowerlets and plants of various sorts, and most elegant to boot, and to gaze intently on them. But it increases that pleasure and delight not a little, if there be added an acquaintance with the virtues and powers of these same plants'
Portrait of Leonhart Fuchs (1501-1566)
​Portrait of Leonart Fuchs By Heinrich Fllmaurer (c. 1530/40) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
BIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES
  • Leonhart Fuchs - Wikipedia - Leonhart Fuchs (1501 - 10 May 1566), sometimes spelled Leonhard Fuchs was a German physician and botanist. He is best known as the author of a large book about plants and their uses as medicines, i.e. a Herbal Book.
  • The Three Founders of Botany - Leonhart Fuchs - 
  • Leonhard Fuchs | Encyclopædia Britannica - German botanist and physician
  • Leonhard Fuchs | Botany at the Edward Wentworth Library - 

The Great Herbal - De historia stirpium commentarii insignes 
(Notable commentaries on the history of plants)

Only some 150 copies of the herbal are known to survive in rare book collections, and in the antiquarian book market it commands high prices (a copy was sold at Christie's for $17,000 in 1997).

Publication date: 1542.

Printed:  at the print shop of Michael Isengrin in Basel.
​
Purpose: ​
  • The book is intended as a guide to plant collection. 
  • ​"De historia stirpium commentarii insignes" illustrates those plants identified by Dioscorides, Hippocrates and Galen, the classical Greek and Roman writers in their writings on medicine and materia medica.
  • ​In total 497 plants - comprising a mix of wild and domestic species - were illustrated using over 500 woodcuts.
Picture
Mandragora (Mandrake) plant from 'De historia stirpivm commentarii insignes
Leonhart Fuchs: The New Herbal of 1543
by Leonhart Fuchs (Author)
with Klaus Dobat and Werner Dressendorfer

A new edition of a facsimile of the Great Herbal by Taschen - based on Fuch's original and own copy of the Herbal 

​It's quite remarkable that:
  • first - Fuch's original and own copy of the Herbal should survive
  • second - it was in immaculate condition
  • third - Taschen should decide to reprint it in its entirety!
However that's what has happened to create this very fat new book. You can view the book online - however in my experience you can't beat actually turning the pages and looking at a high quality facsimile!

I've got the highest regard for Taschen. They always do a wonderful job of reproductions of historical books.
Hardcover: 960 pages
Publisher: Taschen GmbH
NEW edition! 
Publication date: 25.05.16
​What makes it special
  • The importance of this particular herbal is that it set new standards for botanical illustration. In particular it highlighted how paying attention to the quality of the illustration was vital when illustrating plants used for medicine - so that these can be correctly identified.
  • More than 100 species were illustrated for the first time, including 12 New World plants such as maize, kidney bean, chili pepper, cactus, and tobacco.
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Fuchs made sure that all the plants were alphabetically according to their names in Greek. Botanical Latin hadn't yet been invented!

Did you know? 
  • ​It took Fuchs over 30 years to compile this book. This included developing and stocking a garden with rare specimens and developing a large botanical library.
  • This book - as a Herbal and its various abridgements - was printed a total of some 39 times in Fuch's own lifetime. These included printings in Latin, German, French, Spanish, and Dutch

The botanical artists

De Historia Stirpium uniquely included images of the artists (see image):
  • Albrecht Meyer - who drew the illustrations (top right)
  • Heinrich Fullmaurer - who transferred the illustrations to wood blocks (top left)
  • Veit Rudolf Speckle - which created the woodcuts and prints included in the book. (bottom)
​The images were also hand-colored after printing.
Picture
The botanical artists involved in creating images for the Great Herbal. Image courtesy History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries; copyright the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma.
HISTORIA STIRPUM - REFERENCES:
PUBLICATIONS - REFERENCES: 
Picture
Lilium bulbiferum (1543) by Leonhart Fuchs