Unlike in Asia & the Middle East, papermaking only reached Europe in the12C. And even though woodcut had already been in use for centuries in China & Japan, the oldest known European woodcut dates from the beginning of the 15C. Books in Europe, prior to the mid-15C, were commonly written by scribes in a long & laborious process.
Michael J. North, Head, Reference & Reader Services, Rare Book & Special Collections Division, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., tells us that barely 20 years after Johann Gutenberg (c 1400-467 or 68) invented printing using a press & movable metal types in the 1450s, printers began publishing herbals.
Most of the several dozen herbals which came out before 1500 were amalgams of anonymous herbals produced in manuscript during the middle ages (about 700 to 1400 C.E.), often containing information from ancient sources such as Pliny the Elder, Dioscorides, Hippocrates, & Galen. These manuscripts were sometimes copied & handed down verbatim, & often they combined texts from many different sources.
Many of these herbals were intended to be reference books for people who did not have easy access to a physician. Printing reduced the price of books from the hand-copied manuscript era, making the information in them more widely available, & publishing in vernacular languages like German or Italian rather than Latin or Greek also broadened the market & spread this... knowledge further.
The 1st herbal off the printing press in Europe was De Viribus Herbarum (On the Powers of Herbs), ascribed to “Macer Floridus,” whom some believed to be Odo, Bishop of Meung in the 11C. This first herbal was published in Naples in 1477 & the text of this herbal was strongly based on Pliny, Dioscorides, Galen, & Hippocrates & described only 77 plants. It was written in Latin verse, which made it easier to memorize & may have helped make it so popular.
Peter Schöffer (1425–1503),
The 1st herbal off the printing press in Europe was De Viribus Herbarum (On the Powers of Herbs), ascribed to “Macer Floridus,” whom some believed to be Odo, Bishop of Meung in the 11C. This first herbal was published in Naples in 1477 & the text of this herbal was strongly based on Pliny, Dioscorides, Galen, & Hippocrates & described only 77 plants. It was written in Latin verse, which made it easier to memorize & may have helped make it so popular.
An important figure in the production of 2 of the next most famous herbals was printer Peter Schöffer (1425–1503), who had apprenticed with Johann Gutenberg in Mainz. Peter Schöffer or Petrus Schoeffer (c. 1425 – c. 1503) studied in Paris & worked as a manuscript copyist in 1451 before apprenticing with Johannes Gutenberg. Schöffer appeared to be a savvy businessman who is said to have owned a large collection of manuscripts on many different topics. It is speculated that he commissioned an editor to draw materials from several sources to create the Herbarius Latinus, published in 1484 & the German Herbarius, Gart der Gesundheit, the following year. Herbarius - Rogatu plurimorum... (1484), usually referred to as the "Herbarius latinus". The Herbarius was compiled from older sources & was popular enough to go through 10 reprints before 1499. It illustrates & describes 150 plants & 96 medicines commonly found in apothecaries
Herbarius Latinus was originally published in 1484 in Latin with German terms listed for each plant, & the text was derived from a smattering of ancient & medieval sources, mainly dating before 1300. Most of the 150 plants cited could be found in Germany, & each was accompanied by a woodcut illustration with little detail. It came out in 11 editions before 1501, including translations in Dutch & Italian, with the latter containing an added section dealing with ingredients you could get at the apothecary’s shop.
The work was pirated by other printers almost immediately. The German Herbarius, known as Gart der Gesundheit (Garden of Health), or sometimes Herbarius zu Teutsch, was printed by Peter Schöffer in Mainz the following year in 1485. It was a more ambitious project than the Herbarius Latinus, written in German vernacular (in a Bavarian dialect) rather than Latin & describing more than double the number of plants with over 435 chapters mainly dealing with plants. The woodcuts were larger, which allowed them to include more detail: of 379 illustrations, 65 are considered drawn from nature. Schöffer made another important innovation to the herbal by printing indexes of both ailments & drug recipes, pointing to the place in the main text where they could be found. The text was immensely popular & came out in 14 editions before 1501. The Gart der Gesundheit was plagiarized within 5 months of its release by printer Johann Schönsperger in Augsburg, who eventually issued 8 more printings through 1502.
Historical illustration of the Mandrake as male & female humans. Mandrake is the common name for the plant genus Mandragora. All parts of the mandrake are poisonous, though its roots have been used in magic rituals. Mandrake roots appear to have arms and legs and resemble the human body. In fact, in many botanical texts, the mandrake root is drawn in the form of a human. Legend also says that when a mandrake root is pulled from the ground, it releases a scream fatal to any listener. This illustration is from the 1491 text, 'Hortus Sanitatis' (Garden of Health), published by Jacob Meydenbach 1491. which was another landmark herbal produced in the era of early printing It too was anonymous, & its core consisted of a modified Latin translation of Gart der Gesundheit, however it was nearly doubled in size with 1066 chapters & 1073 woodcut illustrations.
Two thirds of the woodcut illustrations were copied outright from Gart der Gesundheit, but one third were new, created to accompany the many new plants added to the text. As with the other herbals mentioned above, Hortus Sanitatis was alsp extremely popular, eventually translated into French, Dutch, English, & German & reprinted numerous times into the 1530s.
In fact, herbals did not evolve significantly until the first “modern” herbal was published in 1530…
Two thirds of the woodcut illustrations were copied outright from Gart der Gesundheit, but one third were new, created to accompany the many new plants added to the text. As with the other herbals mentioned above, Hortus Sanitatis was alsp extremely popular, eventually translated into French, Dutch, English, & German & reprinted numerous times into the 1530s.
