1611 – Kreutterbuch – Mattioli | Famous, Important Herbal – Illustrated Woodcuts

Pietro Mattioli was an important 16th-century Tuscan physician whose medical and botanical treatises were reliable and accurate for centuries after first published. Perhaps his most famous treatise, ‘Kreutterbuch,’ is one of the most important illustrated herbal and horticultural books to ever be published. According to ‘Heirs of Hippocrates,’

“Mattioli prepared what many authorities now regard as the encyclopedia of Renaissance pharmacology. He studied hundreds of plants, examined and described them fully, added many new species, and provided excellent illustrations which were far superior to those of any previous work in the field.” (HoH 141)

This 1611 folio edition does not contain the text of Dioscorides but includes a Latin nuncupatory section.

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Kreutterbuch dess Hochgelehrten und weitberühmbten
• Author(s): Pietro Andrea Mattioli
• Contributor(s): Georg Handsch (Translator)
• Publisher: Franckfurt am Mayn: Bey Nicolao Hoffman, in Verlegung Jacob Fischers
• Edition: 1611.
• Binding: Full vellum
• Format: Folio, single volume
• Size:  15 in x 9.75 in (38 cm x 25 cm)
• Collation: [10], 460, [27] leaves
• Illustrations: Woodcut illustrations throughout
• Contents Include:
  • Descriptions of medicinal and botanical plants
  • German translation of Mattioli’s text
  • Latin nuncupatory section
  • Woodcut plant illustrations
• Reference(s): Heirs of Hippocrates 141

Condition:

Good. Full vellum binding is tight and secure with six raised ribs. Corners and edges show rubbing. Age toning appears throughout. Text and woodcuts remain legible.

Why Collect This?

• Early seventeenth-century herbal by Pietro Mattioli
• Contains numerous woodcut botanical illustrations

Item Number: # 50643