New perspectives on early Renaissance herbals: Otto Brunfels, Euricius Cordus, Leonhart Fuchs

Several illuminated copies of Herbarum vivae eicones (1530–1536) and its free German version, Contrafayt Kreüterbuch (1532–1537), by Otto Brunfels with images by Hans Weiditz, stem from Johann Schott’s printshop. In these copies the hand-colouring occasionally introduces peculiar features, such as leaf maculation, which for us represent a different species. The survival of an in-house illuminated copy of the first two volumes of Herbarum vivae eicones purchased by Johannes Ralla in 1532 indicates that these coloured copies were for sale. Ralla was a noted Leipzig apothecary figuring prominently in Euricius Cordus’s Botanologicon (1534), a work in the form of a conversation between five characters during a botanical excursion. The extensive discussion of Herbarum vivae eicones in Botanologicon provides early documentation of how the herbal was used. Lastly, a brief reassessment of De historia stirpium commentarii insignes (1542) and its German version, New Kreüterbuch (1543), by Leonhart Fuchs, casts doubt on the standard characterization of those works and argues that there were closer connections with Brunfels’s herbal than has been recognized.