FUCHS, LEONHARD | New Kreüterbuch, In Welchem Nit Allein Die Gantz Histori, Das Ist, Namen, Gestalt, Statt Vnd Zeit Der Wachsung, Natur, Krafft Vnd Würckung. Basel: Michael Isingrin, 1543

FUCHS, LEONHARD
New Kreüterbuch, In Welchem Nit Allein Die Gantz Histori, Das Ist, Namen, Gestalt, Statt Vnd Zeit Der Wachsung, Natur, Krafft Vnd Würckung. Basel: Michael Isingrin, 1543

Folio (14 1/2 x 9 1/2 in.). Woodcut printer's device on title, full-page woodcut portrait of Fuchs on title verso, 517 full-page botanical woodcuts by Viet Rudolph Speckle after Heinrich Fullmaurer and Albert Meyer, woodcut portraits of the three artists with woodcut number 100 "Traubenkraut" on recto tipped in after o4 in numerical sequence with the other woodcut illustrations, woodcut historiated initials in several sizes; lacks text leaf Hh4 and the final text leaf with printer's device. Eighteenth century calf.

First edition in German of "perhaps the most celebrated and most beautiful herbal ever published" (PMM).

The first edition in German, augmented with six additional woodcut figures of plants. Fuchs planned this German edition, printed the year after the first Latin edition, to reach an audience broader than the Latinate scholars. He also appended a new index of illnesses which could be treated with herbs, thereby further ensuring its popular appeal. The woodcuts are those used in the 1542 edition, plus an additional five, depicting Hunerbis, Spitziger Wegerich, klein Schlangen Kraut, Knabenkrautweible, das Mittel, and Kuchenschell. The Latin and German editions are closely associated: printed at the same press, on the same paper stock, and with the same fine woodcut botanical illustrations (augmented in 1543). The artists responsible for the illustrations are depicted in portraits in the work, one of the earliest examples of such an honor accorded contributing artists.

The illustrations depict over 400 German and 100 foreign plants, including the first description of some recently discovered American plants. The drawings were made from life by Albert Meyer, largely based on plants in Fuch's medicinal garden at Tübingen.

REFERENCE:
Adams F-1107; Johnston, Cleveland Collections 62; Nissen, BBI 659; Pritzel 3139; Stafleu & Cowan, TL2 1910; Printing and the Mind of Man, 69 (Latin edition)

Condition Report:
Condition as described in catalogue entry.