LEONHART FUCHS

PRECISE WOODCUTS

The first German edition of the "Kreuterbuch" by Leonhart Fuchs contains 512 woodcuts. They illustrate known medicinal herbs in a way that is very close to nature. Over 400 of the pictures illustrate local plants. Others come from the "new" continent of America. About a hundred plants were presented for the first time in a written document.

The precision of the illustrations, which was new at this level of quality, was intended to rule out erroneous medical applications. In addition to two directories of plant names in German and Latin, an index of known diseases facilitates the finding of each presented remedy.

The book is divided into 346 chapters, each introducing a specific genus of plants with multiple "genders". The descriptions follow a strict pattern. First, the name is listed in German with its Latin and Greek equivalents. The term "gender" is used to describe different species within a superordinate family of plants. This is followed by the "Gstalt", the places where the plant usually grows, the flowering period and their characteristics and use in the medicine of the time.