The Libn 1'itturari'Pitturari watercolours and early botanical illustrations

Andrea Ubrizsy Savoia and Luis Ramon·LacaRamon-Laca

I n the fifteenth century the study of plants and animals was built de Villanova). In fact, it was an anonymous compilation of texts on a medieval tradition of herbals and bestiaria. Illustrations and from classical, Arabic and medieval sources. The Latin text contains descriptions were often faithfully (though sometimes incorrectly) German vernacular plant names. copied from earlier codices, and scholars tried to fit in their in• Some of the later editions bear different titles or incipit, such as digenous plants with the plants from mostly Mediterranean origins Aggregator practicus de simplicibus,simp/icibus, Herbarius in Latino, Herbolarium described in these herbals. In the sixteenth century, naturalists de virtutibus herbarum or the Herbarius in latino (printed in Louvain started to describe and depict plants as they were, which laid the by J. Veldener in 1485). These were printed in different regions and foundations for the modern scientific approach of botany. Standard countries, and each features the names of the plants in the vernacular works on botanical illustration have been published by Blunt & Stearn of the region concerned. The illustrations in the Herbarius Latinus are (1994) and Lack (2001). schematic and lack the distinguishing characteristics necessary to identify the plants. The 'true' Herbarius Arnaldi de nova villa was been Herbaria printed only in 1499, in Venice by Aldus Manutius. Although printing with moveable type had been invented in eleventh• The second herbal published in Mainz was the German Herbarius century China, in Europe the technology was not developed until the (Mainz, 1485) - not to be confused with the above-mentioned mid-fifteenth century. The first full-scale book was printed in 1455 by Herbarius Latinus, although it was based on the latter. It describes 150 Johann Gutenberg of Mainz. The earliest printed pages dealing with different medicinal plants from Germany, and also includes animals mainly medicinal plants and animals are the chapters dedicated to and stones, unlike the Latin Herbarius. The German Herbarius, like them in medieval encyclopedias. Already in 1470 in Basle, Berthold the Latin one, was printed by Peter Schaffer. It has been attributed Ruppel published the encyclopedic compendium De Proprietatibus by some authors to the German physician Johann Wonnecke von Rerum by Bartholomaeus Anglicus (first half of the thirteenth Kaub (Latinized version: Johannes de Cuba), who compiled it from century) containing chapters ('libri')('/ibri') dedicated to plants and animals. older works by Hippocrates, Galenus, Plinius, Dioscorides and others. There is also an edition by Johann Schilling in Cologne, published in It is written in the Bavarian dialect and has become known under the the same year. Another well-known encyclopedia, the Etymologiae by title fin Gart der Gesuntheyt or Gart der Gesundheit. Isidore of Seville (ca. 560-636) has been printed in Augsburg in 1472. Das Buch der Natur, which is believed to have been written by Konrad von Megenberg around 1350, was modelled after the Liber de Figure 1 Rembert Dodoens (Rembertus Dodonaeus, 1518-1585), author natura rerum (circa 1228-1244) by the Flemish Dominican Thomas of the CrUljdeboeckCruydeboeck (1554) of Cantimpre (Thomasius Brabantinus) and the compendium by the English Franciscan monk Bartholomaeus Anglicus. Megenberg's Buch (or Puch) der Natur was first published in 1475 in Augsburg and is richly illustrated with woodcuts. It is regarded as the oldest illus• trated printed book on botany. Only two years later (1477) De viribus herbarum, attributed to Macer Floridus; its text, based on Pliny and on Greek sources, was published in Naples in a non-illustrated version. A subsequent edition was printed in Milan in 1482 and comprised 77 stylized illustrations. Shortly after this, three herbals were published in Mainz (Germany), which represent the first three types of botanical writings. The first was the Herbarius Latinus (the Latin herbal), printed in 1484 by Peter Schaffer, Gutenberg's principal assistant. It is also known as the Herbarius Moguntius, and often incorrectly attributed to the Spanish physiCian Arnau de Villanova (Latinized version: Arnaldus

Plate 1 (A30.048)(A30.048) Wild daffodil and Pale-floweredPale·flowered daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus and N. pseudonarcissus subsp.subsp_ pallidijlorus)pallidif/orus) 61