The Hortus Sanitatis (also written Ortus; Latin for The Garden of Health), a Latin natural history encyclopaedia,[1] was published by Jacob Meydenbach in Mainz, Germany in 1491.[2]
It describes species in the natural world along with their medicinal uses and modes of preparation. It followed the Latin Herbarius moguntinus (1484) and the German Gart der Gesundheit (1485), that Peter Schöffer had published in Mainz. Unlike these earlier works, besides dealing with herbs, the Hortus sanitatis deals with animals, birds, fish and stones too.[3] Moreover the author does not restrict himself to dealing only with real creatures, but also includes accounts of mythical animals such as the dragon, harpy, hydra, myrmecoleon, phoenix, and zitiron.[4]
The author is unknown. Occasionally the Frankfurt physician Johann Wonnecke von Kaub is incorrectly named as the author.
Set in two columns, the work contains five sections describing simple drugs used for therapy:
Set in two columns, each chapter is headed by a picture. The following text gives a general description of the related simple drug and under the title of »oparetiones« a list of its effects on the human body.
The plants of the section "De Herbis" were determined by B. and H. Baumann (2010, pp. 205-222) according to current binominal nomenclature.
The author has composed the Hortus sanitatis out of well-known medieval encyclopaedias, such as the Liber pandectarum medicinae omnia medicine simplicia continens of Matthaeus Silvaticus (14th c.) and the Speculum natural of Vincent of Beauvais (13th century).[5][6][7]
The text of uroscopy at the end of the Hortus sanitatis was borrowed from a text that circulated in numerous manuscripts under the names of »Zacharias de Feltris« or »Bartholomew of Montagna«.[8][9]
A Latin manuscript, dated 1477, which already contains the textual core of Hortus sanitatis, was initially regarded as a possible template for the printing, but is now held for an independent copy of a Latin »circa-instans-manuscript«.[10][11]
Incunabule
16th century
Sections two to five of the Hortus sanitatis (section one – herbs – lacking). Latin
Sections two to five of the Hortus sanitatis (section one – herbs – lacking). German
An English version of extracts from the Hortus, the Noble lyfe & natures of man, of bestes, serpentys, fowles & fisshes, was produced in 1491 by Laurence Andrew (fl. 1510–1537). A facsimile edition of this was published in London in 1954 by B. Quaritch.[25]
The woodcut illustrations are stylised but often easily recognizable,[1] and many were re-used in other works.[26] In addition to the representations of simples, pictures show their use by humans, and scenes in which figures are surrounded by the subjects in their natural environment, such as standing by a river with fish and mermaids.[1]
Source:[27]
The University of Sydney comments that "The rich variety of the woodcuts makes this a very attractive book. The engraver was a skilled craftsman, but there is some botanical retrogression, since he did not always fully understand the plants he was copying from previous cuts."[28]
A copy once owned by the apothecary George Pavius of Aberdeen is held by the University of Aberdeen.[citation needed][29]
