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Natural History
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The Most Important Medical Woodcut 1500
[BOTANY/MATERIA MEDICA] Anonymous. Ortus Sanitatis. De Herbis et Plantis. De Animalibus et Reptilibus. De Avibus et Volatilibus. De Piscibus et Natatilibus. Strasbourg, Reinhard Beck, 1517.
Folio [30 x 20 cm], 356 ff. Bound in 18th century vellum, rebacked preserving original spine with stenciled titling and “P.A.I.P.T.” and “1721” stamped in blind on front cover; clasps and catches present. Title printed in red and black with figurative woodcut border, two scored ownership inscriptions (a third partially abraided) & gutter reinforced; finger soiling in margins of some leaves & repairs to paper flaws on final three leaves of index with occasional loss to letters; otherwise a fresh and crisp unwashed copy. Excellent.
$40,000 An unusually fresh example of this early augmented Strasbourg edition of “the most important medical woodcut book printed before 1500” (Hunt) giving descriptions of medicinal plants and medicinal stones, instructions on animal husbandry, and a treatise on urine. The Ortus Sanitatis was one of the most popular herbals of its time, reissued in several editions after its first publication in 1491, and offers an encyclopedic view of the late medieval understanding of the natural world. The work is richly illustrated with two or three woodcuts on nearly every page. Among the descriptions of animals and minerals are many engaging scenes of agricultural and domestic life. Mythological creatures are given the same scholarly treatment as real animals with illustrated entries on dragons, winged serpents, mermaids, an Ethiopian ant the size of a dog, and a narcissus with human heads as flowers.
The Ortus Sanitatis is the third and most extensive of the fundamental botanical compilations that began with the Herbarius of 1484 and continued with the expanded German edition entitled Gart der Gesundheit. “The third form, though based in part on the Gart der Gesundheit, was almost entirely rewritten and elaborated upon, especially in the parts on animals, birds, fishes, stones and minerals (all of which were but sketchily represented in the earlier work), and in the treatise on urines; the text on herbs too is quite different, each chapter beginning with a description of the plant, its synonyms, and often something about its geographical origin, and ending with a list of the plant’s medicinal virtues in a separate section headed ‘Operationes.’” (Hunt)
The large woodcut of the human skeleton which precedes the section on animals is taken from Brunschwig’s Cirugia. The present edition is the sixth edition overall and is augmented from the prior three Strasbourg editions including both new as well as re-cut woodcuts. The new woodcuts appear mostly in the sections on animals and minerals and show Alsatian characteristics particularly in the depiction of clothing. Many of these images appear to be derived from playing cards. The elaborate title border, with cherubs and monkeys on a grape arbour, has been variously attributed to Hans Baldung Grien, Urs Graf, and Hans Wechtlin.
* Hunt, 18 (8 on the first edition of the Ortus).
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