About this Item

Title: Book of Herbs

Other Title: Kräuterbuch

Summary
Johannes Hartlieb’s Kräuterbuch (Book of Herbs), written in 1462, is mainly an extract from Konrad von Megenberg’s Buch der Natur (Book of Nature), which had been written about a century earlier and was the first natural history book in the German language. Hartlieb’s work focuses on plants, especially herbs, and their medicinal uses. One of the distinctive features of the Kräuterbuch is the side-by-side presentation of text and illustrations. However, the cost of producing such a richly decorated manuscript suggests that it was probably not intended for practical use by doctors or pharmacists. In addition, the botanical inaccuracy of the approximately 160 plant illustrations would have made it difficult to correctly identify plants in nature. The book also includes ten images of animals, which are not directly related to the subject of plants and medicine. These aspects suggest that the manuscript was created more for display or representational purposes than for practical medical use. Johannes Hartlieb (circa 1410–1468) served for many years as the personal physician to Duke Albrecht III of Bavaria.

Names
Hartlieb, Johannes, 1410–1468 – Author

Created / Published
[Place of publication not identified] : [Publisher not identified], 1462