EUCHARIUS ROESSLIN
KREUTERBUCH, 1538
AN UNUSUAL HERBAL BOOK
The title of the work is "Herbal, of All Herbs, Animals, Stones and Metal, Nature, Value and Use". It was published by Christian Egenolff in Frankfurt am Main in 1538. The title already makes it clear that this work is not a herbal in the classic sense.
With the first edition of 1533, Roesslin intended to combine two important works in one handy book and make the contents accessible to a wide readership. The book is divided into four parts and covers the art of distillation, then animals, inanimate nature, and finally plants. Their uses follow each description. The more than 300 pages contain almost 250 old-coloured woodcuts, as well as a title woodcut and a title-page border. The binding of the present example consists of a two-column, medieval manuscript on parchment with a coloured initial H.
The woodcuts represent plants, animals, and the processing of mineral soils using alchemy. The work also contains famous images of a physician at a patient's bedside, an apothecary and herb collectors at work.