Special Collections Exhibit Catalogs

Special Collections and University Archives

2013

The Three Founders of Botany: Rare Works from Special Collections Rebecca E. Dickman Iowa State University, [email protected]

Follow this and additional works at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/speccoll_exhibits Part of the Archival Science Commons, and the Botany Commons Recommended Citation Dickman, Rebecca E., "The Three Founders of Botany: Rare Works from Special Collections" (2013). Special Collections Exhibit Catalogs. Book 3. http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/speccoll_exhibits/3

This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Special Collections and University Archives at Digital Repository @ Iowa State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Special Collections Exhibit Catalogs by an authorized administrator of Digital Repository @ Iowa State University. For more information, please contact [email protected].

The Three Founders of Botany: Rare Works from Special Collections

Exhibit Catalog

2013 Iowa State University Library Special Collections Department

The Special Collections Department has many wonderful herbals in its rare book collection. In 2012, the department received Hieronymus Bock’s New Kreuter Buch. This completed former Department Head Tanya Zanish-Belcher’s dream of having an herbal written by each of the three founders of botany. The department decided to highlight these three herbals through an exhibit. The exhibit was on display from May 3 through October 15, 2013. Catalog text by Rebecca Dickman

Introduction The three founders of botany are considered to be Otto Brunfels, Leonhart Fuchs, and Hieronymus Bock. These three German physicians established botany as a discipline independent of medicine in the sixteenth century. Up to this point, many medicines were derived from plants, so it was natural that botany and medicine were linked. Botanical historians called them the three German fathers of botany. The creation of botany separate from medicine was due to the importation of plants from the New World, the study of regional plants, and the increasing importance of personal observation. Scientists and physicians stopped simply depending on folk lore and knowledge passed down from ancient scholars, such as Theophrastus and Dioscorides (see below). The three founders spread their knowledge through the publication of herbals. Herbals were books written to identify plants and explain their medical uses. In the sixteenth century, woodcut illustrations began to be included in the herbals to more easily identify plants. Woodcut illustrations were made by taking a flat piece of wood, cutting out pieces unnecessary for the image, rolling

ink over the wood, and then pressing the wood on paper to make an impression. Many herbals published throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries pirated woodcuts from the three founders’ books. Before the use of woodcuts, artists copied and recopied pictures from classical and medieval authors, which led to less precise and distorted drawings. Ancient Contributors to Botany Theophrastus (circa 372-288 BC) was a student of Aristotle. His writings Enquiry into Plants and On the Causes of Plants were the most important to the creation of botany during ancient times. He created new botanical terms and organized plants by their practical uses. Dioscorides (circa 40-90) was a physician with the Roman Army. His book, De Materia Medica, was the most widely used botanical book for 1,500 years. It was translated into many languages. De Materia Medica was organized into eight volumes and included over 1,000 medicinal uses for plants. The three founders of botany owed much of their knowledge of plants to him.

Otto Brunfels Otto Brunfels was born near Mainz, Germany in 1488 or 1489. He was a monk in a Carthusian monastery in Strasbourg (today on the FrenchGerman border) from 1514 to 1521, but in 1521 he converted to Lutheranism. Following his conversion, he became a schoolmaster and preacher in Strasbourg. As a preacher he wrote theological works. In 1530 he entered the University of Basel to study medicine. In 1532 he was named the town physician of Bern, Switzerland. Around 1532 he made a journey from Strasbourg to Hornbach to urge Jerome Bock to write a botany book in the German language. Brunfels died in 1534. The genus Brunfelsia, in family Solanaceae, was named for him. Brunfelsia are shrubs that are also called yesterday-today-tomorrow. This is because the flowers emerge as purple or lavender before turning to white the next day.

http://ihm.nlm.nih.gov/luna/servlet/detail/N LMNLM~1~1~101411139~170756:OttoBrunsfeld-Medicus?qvq=q:B03782;lc:NLMNL M ~1~1&mi=0&trs=1

Herbarum Vivae Eicones

(Living Portraits of Plants) Herbarum Vivae Eicones was written from 1530-1536. The most important thing to take from it is the use of images. The book’s revolutionary idea to include new botanical illustrations drawn from nature helped botany become a separate discipline. Brunfels compiled existing information from classical and medieval authors, some of which was inaccurate. He did not include information about new plants. Gill Saunders writes, “Ironically Brunfels himself dismissed the illustrations as no more than ‘dead lines,’ convinced that they were inferior to the ‘right-truthful descriptions’ in his text” (Picturing Plants, 20). However, he was the first botanist to give equal interest to wild plants. Brunfels worked on the book in his leisure time. He intended it to be used by scholars. Brunfels organized the herbal by the medicinal use of the plant. He used the plants’ common German names, which was a revolutionary move.

Iowa State University Library Special Collections Vault QK41 .B835h

This copy was published in 1536 and written in Latin.

Text from Dioscorides in the Herbal Full-page plate

Hans Weiditz created the revolutionary illustrations for the herbal. He painted specific plant specimens from nature and did not idealize them. This was unique in herbal history. Subsequent herbals, beginning with Fuchs’ De Historia Stirpium, included generalized illustrations that looked like ideal specimens without flaws. The artists drew perfect specimens to show a characteristic example of each species.

Papauer rubrum (Red poppy)

Leonhart Fuchs Leonhart Fuchs was born in Wemding or Memmingen, Bavaria (now part of Germany) in 1501. He enrolled at the University of Erfurt at the age of 12 or 14. He was so intelligent he opened his own school at the age of 16. At 18 he attended Ingolstadt University in Ingolstadt, Bavaria to study classics, philosophy, and medicine. He became a physician in Munich in 1524 and later in 1526 returned to Ingolstadt as a professor. Then in 1528 he became the physician of Margrave George of Brandenburg, a Lutheran ruler of the territory of Brandenburg-Ansbach. He became well known among his contemporaries for his successful treatments during the Plague in 1529. In 1535, he became the Chair of Medicine at the University of Tübingen in Germany. There he created one of the first botanical gardens in the world. His first writing was “Leonard Fuchs’ Notes on certain Herbs and Simples not yet rightly understood by the Physicians,” published as an appendix to the second volume of Brunfels’ Herbarum Vivae Eicones. He wanted physicians and pharmacists to use the same botanical names as the ancient philosophers.

Fuchs was honored by having the plant genus and color fuchsia named after him. Fuchsias are ornamental shrubs with pink, purple, and red flowers.

Leonhart Fuchs as depicted in De Historia Stirpium

De Historia Stirpium

(Notable Commentaries on the History of Plants) De Historia Stirpium was published in Latin in 1542. A German translation named New Kreuterbuch was released in 1543. An edition containing only plates was published in 1545 for the illiterate. The herbal was printed thirty-nine more times before Fuchs’ death in 1566. The folio editions of the book weighed about 11 lbs., but smaller pocket editions were later printed for use by field botanists. His book was intended for doctors and the general public. Fuchs was inspired by Brunfels’ book Vivae Herbarum Eicones. He hoped to outdo Brunfels. His introductory chapter “An Explanation of Difficult Terms” was the earliest botanical vocabulary list. Some of the plates from his book were pirated for use in later herbals, including Bock’s New Kreuter Buch. His book was one of the first to include images drawn from nature. His artists generalized plants from nature to show the standard of a plant species. One image showed the different seasonal stages of the plant; this was done for economic reasons. He mistakenly thought some of the German plants he saw were the same plants described by Greek authors since he had never visited the Mediterranean.

Iowa State University Library Special Collections Vault QK41. F951d This copy is a first edition of De Historia Stirpium from 1542 written in Latin. It is from the library of the Jesuit College in Paris.

De Historia Stirpium was a “history” book. Wilfrid Blunt and Sandra Raphael write in The Illustrated Herbal, “Though Fuchs railed against the botanical ignorance of the medical men of his day, alleging that it was ‘almost impossible to find even one in a hundred who has any accurate knowledge of even a few plants’, much of his own text was derived from Dioscorides” (123). In the book he included the Greek, German, and Latin names of plants. Turcicum (Corn)

De Historia Stirpium was the first herbal to illustrate native plants from the Americas. The book includes illustrations of pumpkins, chili peppers, and corn, among others.

The three artists

De Historia Stirpium uniquely included images of the artists: Albrecht Meyer, Heinrich Fullmaurer, and Veit Rudolf Speckle. Meyer drew the illustrations, Fullmaurer transferred them to wood blocks, and Speckle created the woodcuts. The images were handcolored after printing.

Cucumis turcicus (Pumpkin)

Hieronymus Bock Hieronymus Bock was born in Heidelsheim or Heidersbach, Germany in 1498. His parents intended for him to become a monk, however he became a schoolmaster instead. He later managed the gardens for Count Palatine Ludwig in Zweibrucken from 1523 to 1533. He lost his job when Ludwig died; Ludwig’s predecessor did not want a Lutheran working for him. Bock became a Lutheran pastor at Hornbach until his death in 1554. He also was a physician. He knew Brunfels and was asked by him to write a botany book in German.

Hieronymus Bock as depicted in New Kreuter Buch

He wrote under various names, including Tragus, Hieronymus Herbarius, and Jerome Bock. An essay of his, “Apodixis Germanica,” was included in the second volume of Brunfels’ Herbarum Vivae Eicones.

The genera Tragus (grass family) and Tragia (spurge family) are named after him. Essay of Bock’s (here written Hieronymus Tragus) in Brunfels’ herbal

New Kreuter Buch (New Plant Book)

New Kreuter Buch was first published in 1539 in German and did not include illustrations because Bock could not afford them. Following editions beginning in 1546 did include illustrations. It became widely known after its publication in Latin in 1552. It used some woodcut blocks from Fuchs’ Herbarum Vivae Eicones. Bock was one of the first botanists to excel at writing descriptive records of plants (phytography). He went out and observed nature to write his own descriptions instead of relying on historical descriptions. He was also the first to recognize the need for botanical classification. He organized his herbal by the resemblance of the plants. At least twelve more editions were printed.

Iowa State University Library Special Collections Vault QK41 B632x 1552

This copy is a first edition of New Kreuter Buch from 1552 written in Latin. The front and back covers are made of wooden boards covered in pigskin.

Galiopsis (Hemp nettle) and Lamium (Dead nettle)

Balsamina agrestis (Wild balsam) and Nepeta agrestis (Wild catmint)

David Kandel was the artist of the New Kreuter Buch. He created over 500 new illustrations for the book. Other images were taken from woodcuts used in Brunfels’ and Fuchs’ herbals.

Melissa

Conclusion

Thanks To

Otto Brunfels, Leonhart Fuchs, and Hieronymus Bock deserve to be called “The three founders of botany.” Botany had made little progress since ancient times, but the efforts of these three men in the sixteenth-century helped it advance. The fact that these herbals created by these three physicians, scholars, and Protestants still exist is a testament to their importance in the field of botany and science. Monks, scholars, and collectors have saved and treasured these herbals over the years because of their artistic, historic, and scientific value. These sixteenth-century herbals can be used to study the history of botany, medicine, art, collaboration between authors and artists, and printing.

Iowa State University Special Collections Department Iowa State University Preservation Department Iowa State University Honors Program Michele Christian for being my honors project advisor. Brad Kuennen for helping me format the exhibit catalog. Mindy McCoy for helping put together book cradles for the exhibit. Laura Sullivan for proofreading exhibit labels. Melissa Tedone for helping create book cradles for the exhibit. Bill Yungclas for scanning images from the rare books. Tanya Zanish-Belcher for having the original idea for the exhibit.

Behind the Exhibit I curated the exhibit as my honors project. The project includes the physical exhibit in the Reading Room of the Special Collections Department, this catalog, and an online exhibit. To begin the project, I read numerous books and visited many websites to learn everything I could about the three botanists and herbals. I then wrote exhibit labels and used my creativity to make them look interesting. I visited the Preservation Department to make Plexiglas cradles for the books while they were on display. On May 3, I finally installed the exhibit. The next step was to photograph and scan the books. To scan the large and unwieldy herbals, we had to use a BookDrive Pro Scanner. Following that, I wrote the text of the exhibit catalog and added the images. My next steps are to create an online exhibit and present at the Honors Poster Presentation in December 2013. So far it has been a valuable and enjoyable learning experience.

Making the Plexiglas book cradles

Scanning images from the herbals

The finished exhibit

Bibliography Books Arber, Agnes Robertson. Herbals, Their Origin and Evolution: A Chapter in the History of Botany, 1470-1670. Cambridge: University Press, 1912. Blunt, Wilfrid and Sandra Raphael. The Illustrated Herbal. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1979. Blunt, Wilfrid and William T. Stearn. The Art of Botanical Illustration. Rev. ed. 1994. Reprint, Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Antique Collector’s Club, 2000. Greene, Edward Lee. Landmarks of Botanical History: A Study of Certain Epochs in the Development of the Science of Botany: Part I-Prior to 1562 A.D. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1909. King, Ronald. Botanical Illustration. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1978. Rix, Martyn. The Art of the Plant World: The Great Botanical Illustrators and Their Work. Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 1980. Saunders, Gill. Picturing Plants: An Analytical History of Botanical Illustration. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. Websites Botany Department in Trinity College Dublin. “1711-2011 Botany: 300 Years of Growth.” Trinity College Dublin. http://www.tcd.ie/Botany/tercentenary/origins/ (accessed June 25, 2013). Cincinnati History Library and Archives. "From Seed to Flower: Selected Books from the Cornelius J. Hauck Botanical Collection Hieronymus Bock, 1498-1554." Cincinnati Museum Center. http://library.cincymuseum.org/bot/bock.htm (accessed February 6, 2013). Curators of the University of Missouri. "De Historia Stirpium by Leonhart Fuchs." Special Collections and Rare Books, MU Libraries, University of Missouri. http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/specialcollections/fuchs.htm (accessed February 6, 2013).

Gardham, Julie. "Book of the Month October 2002: Leonhart Fuchs De Historia Stirpium." Glasgow University Library Special Collections Department. http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/oct2002.html (accessed February 6, 2013). Gilman, Edward F. “Publication # FPS77 Brunfelsia grandiflora Yesterday-Today-andTomorrow.” Environmental Horticulture, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fp077 (accessed July 21, 2013). Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. "Plant Memory: Images from the Exhibition." Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. http://www.rcpe.ac.uk/library/ exhibitions /crowe/index.php (accessed February 6, 2013). Special Collections & University Archives. "Otto Brunfels." University of Massachusetts Amherst. http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/exhibits/herbal/brunfels.htm (accessed February 6, 2013). Yates, Stanley. Illustrated Botanical Books, Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth Centuries. Ames, IA: Special Collections Department, Iowa State University Library, 1974. http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/speccoll_exhibits/2/ (accessed February 6, 2013).