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, rdickman@iastate.edu
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. 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 Iowa State University Digital Repository. It
has been accepted for inclusion in Special Collections Exhibit Catalogs by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For
more information, please contact digirep@iastate.edu.
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).