Episode 2 - Speaking with a 16th
century German doctor
Leonhart Fuchs - De Historia Stirpium, 1546
Weblink: Exhibits
Online Images courtesy
History of Science Collections,
University of
Oklahoma Libraries
The next expert we will visit on our journey of the
herbals through
history is Leonhart Fuchs. In his time he found the need for
reform in medicine and pharmacy. There was a
need because so few doctors even knew a handful of plants and a patient
could easily get poison instead of cured from the botanical
remedy. Can you imagine today going to the doctor and he/she not
having a good understanding of the medicine being prescribed. I
cannot imagine something like that taking place, so we can see why it
was important to Fuchs to arm doctors with a book that gave good
illustrations and descriptions of plants with medicinal
properties. Fuchs sought to
provide his readers with plants descriptions bases on Dioscorides,
Pliny and Galen.
The texts Fuchs is going to discuss with us today is
called De Historia Stirpium
which was
first published in 1542. As on our previous stop with Pliny the
Elder,
let us get to know a little bit about the background of our herbals
expert first.
Fuchs was born at Wemding in Bavaria in 1501.
He went to the
University of Erfurt in 1513. In 1519 he went to Ingolstadt where
he got his doctorate in 1524. Soon after this time he went to
Munich and practiced medicine. He became professor of medicine at
the University of Tubingen, he remained there until his death in
1566.
One of the really neat things to note about Fuchs
book before we speak
with him is that his book was the first kind of field guide
created. The French edition of the book was an early example of a
field guide because it was portable and could be carried in the
voluminous costumes of the time. Let us have a talk with
Leonhart Fuchs now.
Traveler: Leonhart, we are travelers from the
21st century and we
would like to know more about your book De Historia Stirpium. What
kinds of things can you tell us about it?
Fuchs: Of course there are so many
extraordinary things about my
book........where shall I start. Well my book is quite
revolutionary because of its illustrations. Did you know that
there were 509 wood cuts made for the text and all of the illustrations
were hand-colored.
Traveler: Hand-colored! Wow! That
must have taken a
lot of skill and effort to hand-color all of those Illustrations.
Asparagus
- De Historia Stirpium, 1546
Weblink:
Exhibits
Online Images
courtesy History of Science Collections,
University of Oklahoma Libraries
Fuchs: Yes, it is quite amazing isn't
it. I oversaw
the design of all illustrations. Also my text described 100 new
plants never described before. A lot of these plants were plants
introduced into Germany.
Traveler: Being a plant lovers ourselves we
really appreciate all
of the work you did in describing and illustrating plants. It
helped a lot of people recognize plants that they would have otherwise
not known existed. Did you know that you were the first to
describe a plant that is very important in our home country, which is
America?
Fuchs: What plant would that be you are
talking about?
Traveler: Maize, or as we commonly call it
corn.
Fuchs: Ah, yes. But I believed that plant to be
Turkish in origin
rather than American.
Traveler: Well from what we know in the 21st
century, its
scientific name is Zea mays and
it is thought to have been domesticated in Mexico over 7000 years
ago.
Traveler: Thanks for speaking with us
Leonhart, we really like
your book, it is so beautiful to look at.
References
Frank J. Anderson, An Illustrated
History of the Herbals (New York:Columbia University Press,
1977).
H.G. Baker, Plants and Civilization
(Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1970).
Anna Lewington, Plants for People
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).
* For notes about
the authors see web project introduction page.
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