A beautiful book of illustrated plant portraits and botanical knowledge.
With his 1543 herb manual, botanical pioneer Leonhart Fuchs created a masterpiece of Renaissance botany and publishing. This edition is based on Fuchs’s personal, hand-colored original and features over 500 illustrations, including the first visual record of New World plant types such as maize, cactus, and tobacco.
A proponent of a higher standard of botanical instruction, Fuch combined the botanical-medicinal knowledge drawn from the Greeks with his own observations of the natural environment around him, illustrated (quite literally) in this gorgeous collection. And although the main book may be in German, the accompanying booklet is in English and gives background on Fuchs himself as well as the plants described in the 800+ page tome. It is a fascinating book and the illustrations are worth it alone—but if you happen to dabble in German, all the better. The variety of plants is extraordinary and is detailed with not only medicinal knowledge but also some historical context as well.
Order a copy on the TASCHEN website.
