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Historical Bibliography Updated: May 5, 2018

Hortus sanitatis.

HORTUS SANITATIS

Publication Details

Mainz: Jacob Meydenbach, 1491 CE.

First edition of an herbal and general treatise on natural history which became very popular; based on the unusually large number of surviving copies in institutions it must have also been a bestseller. The plant illustrations in this work are for the most part copied from the Gart der Gesundheit (No. 1796). 150 illustrations of animals and minerais are new or borrowed from models in manuscripts or playing cards, etc. Despite its quaint and often fanciful woodcuts of animals and plants, it stimulated other more scientific treatises on botany and zoology. Available in facsimile in W. L. Schreiber’s Die Krauterbücher des XV und XVI Jahrhunderts, Munich, 1924. An English translation of circa 1521 (S.T.C. 22367) was reprinted London, Quaritch, 1954, edited by N. Hudson. ISTC No. ih00486000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerisches Staatsbibliothek at this link. The ISTC lists 7 editions, including a French translation.

 

 

Catalog MetadataReference Information
Entry Number#1797
Permanent Linkhttps://hom-sveltekit.fly.dev/entry/1481
External URLortus-sanitatis

Geographic Context

Publication place: Mainz

Mentioned in annotation: London; Munich