Leonhart Fuchs on the Importance of Pictures

Journal of the History of Ideas

Volumn 58, Issue 3, 1997, Pages 403-426

  Kusukawa, Sachiko ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ART; ARTICLE; GERMANY; HISTORY; MEDICAL ILLUSTRATION; PHYTOTHERAPY;

GERMANY; HISTORY, 16TH CENTURY; MEDICAL ILLUSTRATION; PHYTOTHERAPY; PORTRAITS;

EID: 0031182432     PISSN: 00225037     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3653907     Document Type: Review

References (103)

1. "Fuchsia" was discovered and named after Fuchs by Charles Plumier in his Nova plantarum Americanarum genera (Paris, 1703), 14f. For Fuchs as a pioneer of scientific illustration, see Brian J. Ford, Images of Science: A History of Scientific Illustration (London, 1992), 88, 91-93, and for bibliography, Gavin D. R. Bridson and James J. White, Plant, Animal and Anatomical Illustration in Art and Science: A Bibliographical Guide from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day (Detroit, 1990).
2. "Fuchsia" was discovered and named after Fuchs by Charles Plumier in his Nova plantarum Americanarum genera (Paris, 1703), 14f. For Fuchs as a pioneer of scientific illustration, see Brian J. Ford, Images of Science: A History of Scientific Illustration (London, 1992), 88, 91-93, and for bibliography, Gavin D. R. Bridson and James J. White, Plant, Animal and Anatomical Illustration in Art and Science: A Bibliographical Guide from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day (Detroit, 1990).
3. "Fuchsia" was discovered and named after Fuchs by Charles Plumier in his Nova plantarum Americanarum genera (Paris, 1703), 14f. For Fuchs as a pioneer of scientific illustration, see Brian J. Ford, Images of Science: A History of Scientific Illustration (London, 1992), 88, 91-93, and for bibliography, Gavin D. R. Bridson and James J. White, Plant, Animal and Anatomical Illustration in Art and Science: A Bibliographical Guide from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day (Detroit, 1990).
4. For an assessment of Fuchs, see W. Blunt, with W. T. Stearn, The Art of Botanical Illustration (repr. London, 1971), 49-51. (Note that according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term "botanical illustration" first occurs in the title of the work by W. J. Hooker, Botanical Illustration, in 1822.) For instance, the picture of the prunus (fol. 404) shows all the stages of the plant depicted in Leonhart Fuchs, De historia stirpium commentarii insignes, maximis impensis et vigiliis elaborati, adjectis earundem vivis plusquam quingentis imaginibus (Basle, 1542). The text on the lamium refers to flowers in white, yellow, and purple, and the flowers of a single bush (fol. 469) are given those three colors in contemporarily colored copies (such as Cambridge University Library, Sel. 2. 81) of the De historia stirpium.
5. For an assessment of Fuchs, see W. Blunt, with W. T. Stearn, The Art of Botanical Illustration (repr. London, 1971), 49-51. (Note that according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term "botanical illustration" first occurs in the title of the work by W. J. Hooker, Botanical Illustration, in 1822.) For instance, the picture of the prunus (fol. 404) shows all the stages of the plant depicted in Leonhart Fuchs, De historia stirpium commentarii insignes, maximis impensis et vigiliis elaborati, adjectis earundem vivis plusquam quingentis imaginibus (Basle, 1542). The text on the lamium refers to flowers in white, yellow, and purple, and the flowers of a single bush (fol. 469) are given those three colors in contemporarily colored copies (such as Cambridge University Library, Sel. 2. 81) of the De historia stirpium.
6. For an assessment of Fuchs, see W. Blunt, with W. T. Stearn, The Art of Botanical Illustration (repr. London, 1971), 49-51. (Note that according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term "botanical illustration" first occurs in the title of the work by W. J. Hooker, Botanical Illustration, in 1822.) For instance, the picture of the prunus (fol. 404) shows all the stages of the plant depicted in Leonhart Fuchs, De historia stirpium commentarii insignes, maximis impensis et vigiliis elaborati, adjectis earundem vivis plusquam quingentis imaginibus (Basle, 1542). The text on the lamium refers to flowers in white, yellow, and purple, and the flowers of a single bush (fol. 469) are given those three colors in contemporarily colored copies (such as Cambridge University Library, Sel. 2. 81) of the De historia stirpium.
7. 3, originally published 1912], 70). A similar verdict is found in Edward Lee Greene, Landmarks of Botanical History, ed. Frank N. Egerton (repr., Stanford, 1983, originally published 1909), I, 289.
8. 3, originally published 1912], 70). A similar verdict is found in Edward Lee Greene, Landmarks of Botanical History, ed. Frank N. Egerton (repr., Stanford, 1983, originally published 1909), I, 289.
9. For an identical distinction of labor in the contract between a patron, Sebald Schreyer, and a printer Peter Danhauser, for producing a book entitled Archetypus Triumphantis Romae (never completed), see Adrian Wilson, The Making of the Nuremberg Chronicle (Amsterdam, 1978), 61f.
10. For an identical distinction of labor in the contract between a patron, Sebald Schreyer, and a printer Peter Danhauser, for producing a book entitled Archetypus Triumphantis Romae (never completed), see Adrian Wilson, The Making of the Nuremberg Chronicle (Amsterdam, 1978), 61f.
11. Arber, Herbals, 217.
12. "Pictorum miram industriam praeclare imitatus est Vitus Rodolphus Specklin sculptor Argentoracensis longe optimus, qui uniuscuiusque picturae sculpendo lineamenta tam affabre expressit, ut cum pictore de gloria et victoria certasse videatur." Fuchs, De historia stirpium, α6vf; translation (slightly modified) given in J. S. Ackerman, "The involvement of Artists in Renaissance Science," Science and the Arts in the Renaissance, eds. J. W. Shirley and F. D. Hoeniger (Cranbury, N.J., 1985), 113.
13. "Pictorum miram industriam praeclare imitatus est Vitus Rodolphus Specklin sculptor Argentoracensis longe optimus, qui uniuscuiusque picturae sculpendo lineamenta tam affabre expressit, ut cum pictore de gloria et victoria certasse videatur." Fuchs, De historia stirpium, α6vf; translation (slightly modified) given in J. S. Ackerman, "The involvement of Artists in Renaissance Science," Science and the Arts in the Renaissance, eds. J. W. Shirley and F. D. Hoeniger (Cranbury, N.J., 1985), 113.
14. See Paragone: A Comparison of the Arts, ed. and trans. Irma Anne Richter (London, 1949); Erwin Panofsky, Galileo as Critic of the Arts (The Hague, 1954); Peter Burke, Fortunes of the Courtier: European Receptions of Castiglione's "Cortegiano" (Cambridge, 1995); and Judith Dundas, "The Paragone and the Art of Michaelangelo," Sixteenth Century Journal, 21 (1990), 87-92.
15. See Paragone: A Comparison of the Arts, ed. and trans. Irma Anne Richter (London, 1949); Erwin Panofsky, Galileo as Critic of the Arts (The Hague, 1954); Peter Burke, Fortunes of the Courtier: European Receptions of Castiglione's "Cortegiano" (Cambridge, 1995); and Judith Dundas, "The Paragone and the Art of Michaelangelo," Sixteenth Century Journal, 21 (1990), 87-92.
16. See Paragone: A Comparison of the Arts, ed. and trans. Irma Anne Richter (London, 1949); Erwin Panofsky, Galileo as Critic of the Arts (The Hague, 1954); Peter Burke, Fortunes of the Courtier: European Receptions of Castiglione's "Cortegiano" (Cambridge, 1995); and Judith Dundas, "The Paragone and the Art of Michaelangelo," Sixteenth Century Journal, 21 (1990), 87-92.
17. See Paragone: A Comparison of the Arts, ed. and trans. Irma Anne Richter (London, 1949); Erwin Panofsky, Galileo as Critic of the Arts (The Hague, 1954); Peter Burke, Fortunes of the Courtier: European Receptions of Castiglione's "Cortegiano" (Cambridge, 1995); and Judith Dundas, "The Paragone and the Art of Michaelangelo," Sixteenth Century Journal, 21 (1990), 87-92.
18. For Erasmus's praise of Dürer in print culture, see Andrée Hayum, "Dürer's portrait of Erasmus and the Ars typographorum," Renaissance Quarterly, 38 (1985), 650-87.
19. E. g., for producing the Archetypus Triumphantis Romae, Sebolt Gallensdorfer, who cut the blocks, was paid 148 fl. 1 pf. 28 d.; the artists who designed the illustrations on paper 9 fl. 3 pf. 4 d.; and the painters who drew those pictures on blocks, 37 fl. 1 pf. 16 d. Wilson, The Making of the Nuremberg Chronicle, 243f.
20. Fuchs, De historia stirpium, α5vf.
21. See Teodore Dorsten, Botanicon (Frankfurt, 1540), 106r (dittany) and 108v (white ellebore); 35r (orach) and 189v (dog's mercury); 16r (acorus), 120r (fagasmon), and 140r (gladiolus).
22. Fuchs, De historia stirpium, α5r. See also T. A. Sprague, "The Herbal of Otto Brunfels," The Journal of the Linnean Society of London. Botany, 48 (1928), 80.
23. Fuchs, De historia stirpium, α5r. See also T. A. Sprague, "The Herbal of Otto Brunfels," The Journal of the Linnean Society of London. Botany, 48 (1928), 80.
24. See Ruth Samson Luborsky, "Connections and Disconnections between Images and Texts: The Case of Secular Tudor Book Illustration," Word and Image, 3 (1987), 74-85.
25. "... singulis stirpium historijs, vivas et ad naturae aemulationem a nullo unquam, pace omnium dixerim, artificiosius expressas imagines adiecimus: idque nulla alia de causa, quam ut ea quae nudis verbis exponit historia, certius exprimeret, atque adeo altius animo infigeret pictura" (Fuchs, De historia stirpium, α6r).
26. "quis quaeso sanae mentis picturam contemneret, quam constat res multo clarius exprimere, quam verbis ullis, etiam eloquentissimorum, deliniari queant. Et quidem natura sic comparatum est, ut pictura omnes capiamur: adeoque altius animo insident quae in tabulis aut charta oculis exposita sunt et depicta, quam quae nudis verbis describuntur. Hinc multas esse stirpes constat, quae cum nullis verbis ita describi possint ut cognoscantur, pictura tarnen sic ob oculos ponuntur, ut primo statim aspectu deprehendantur" (De historia stirpium, β1r).
27. De historia stirpium, α6v.
28. De historia stirpium, α3vf.
29. De historia stirpium, α4r.
30. De historia stirpium, α6v.
31. "Cur autem Galeni sententia omnibus aliis sit praeferenda, nulla alia est ratio, quam quod is stirpium facultates partim certa quadam ratione et methodo, quam literis subinde mandavit, cognoverit, partim etiam experientia didicerit" (De historia stirpium, α6v).
32. De historia stirpium, α6r, α5v. Hieronymus Tragus (1498-1554) was the author of the New Kreüter Buch.
33. De historia stirpium, α6r, α5v. Hieronymus Tragus (1498-1554) was the author of the New Kreüter Buch.
34. De historia stirpium, α6v.
35. De historia stirpium, α6v.
36. De historia stirpium, 643.
37. "Pediculus est cubito maior, crassitudine pollicis, in quo petasi figura folium magnum, ut fungus dependet. Ex qua sane descriptione satis perspicuum fit, herbam cuius picturam damus esse Petasiten" (De historia stirpium, 643).
38. "Haec enim statim inter initia Martij, flores suos in albo purpureos, agglomeratos, et botri figuram referentes profert, citra quidem folia, quod Dioscorides omisit" (ibid., 643, my emphasis).
39. "Radix illi crassa et longa, intus candida, vehementer ordorata et amara. Quibus accedit quod vires huius herbae a viribus Petasites,..., non discrepent" (ibid., 643).
40. Ibid., 643
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid., 645.
43. "Vires ex Dioscoride. Facit ad maligna phagedaenica ulcera tritum et illitum" (ibid., 645).
44. Ibid., 645.
45. "Appendix. Experimento comprobatum est radicem hanc mirifice conferre pestilentialibus febribus, quod sudorem vehementer moveat, si in pulverem redacta cum vino sumatur" (ibid., 645).
46. Jerry Stannard, "Natural History," in Science in the Middle Ages, ed. David C. Lindberg (Chicago, 1978), 443-49. For the alphabetical ordering of medieval medical compendia and concordances, see L. C. Mackinney, "Medieval Medical Dictionaries and Glossaries," in Medieval and Historiographical Essays in Honor of James Westfall Thompson, eds. J. L. Cate and E. N. Anderson (Chicago, 1938), 240-68.
47. Jerry Stannard, "Natural History," in Science in the Middle Ages, ed. David C. Lindberg (Chicago, 1978), 443-49. For the alphabetical ordering of medieval medical compendia and concordances, see L. C. Mackinney, "Medieval Medical Dictionaries and Glossaries," in Medieval and Historiographical Essays in Honor of James Westfall Thompson, eds. J. L. Cate and E. N. Anderson (Chicago, 1938), 240-68.
48. For Leoniceno's attack on Pliny, see Roger K. French, "Pliny and Renaissance Medicine," in Science in the Early Roman Empire: Pliny the Elder, his Sources and Influence, eds. Roger K. French and Frank Greenaway (London, 1986), 263-68; and Vivian Nutton, "The rise of Medical Humanism: Ferrara, 1464-1555," Renaissance Studies, 11 (1979), 2-19. For Leoncieno, see Daniela Mugnai Carrara, "Profilo di Nicolò Leoniceno," Interpres, 2 (1979), 169-212. I thank Dr Silvia de Renzi for drawing my attention to G. Ferrari, "Gli errori di Plinio - Fonti classiche e medicina nel conflitto tra Alessandro Benedetti e Nicolò Leoniceno," in Sapere e potere, ed. A. Custiani (Bologna, 1990), II, 173-204, which I have not yet seen.
49. For Leoniceno's attack on Pliny, see Roger K. French, "Pliny and Renaissance Medicine," in Science in the Early Roman Empire: Pliny the Elder, his Sources and Influence, eds. Roger K. French and Frank Greenaway (London, 1986), 263-68; and Vivian Nutton, "The rise of Medical Humanism: Ferrara, 1464-1555," Renaissance Studies, 11 (1979), 2-19. For Leoncieno, see Daniela Mugnai Carrara, "Profilo di Nicolò Leoniceno," Interpres, 2 (1979), 169-212. I thank Dr Silvia de Renzi for drawing my attention to G. Ferrari, "Gli errori di Plinio - Fonti classiche e medicina nel conflitto tra Alessandro Benedetti e Nicolò Leoniceno," in Sapere e potere, ed. A. Custiani (Bologna, 1990), II, 173-204, which I have not yet seen.
50. For Leoniceno's attack on Pliny, see Roger K. French, "Pliny and Renaissance Medicine," in Science in the Early Roman Empire: Pliny the Elder, his Sources and Influence, eds. Roger K. French and Frank Greenaway (London, 1986), 263-68; and Vivian Nutton, "The rise of Medical Humanism: Ferrara, 1464-1555," Renaissance Studies, 11 (1979), 2-19. For Leoncieno, see Daniela Mugnai Carrara, "Profilo di Nicolò Leoniceno," Interpres, 2 (1979), 169-212. I thank Dr Silvia de Renzi for drawing my attention to G. Ferrari, "Gli errori di Plinio - Fonti classiche e medicina nel conflitto tra Alessandro Benedetti e Nicolò Leoniceno," in Sapere e potere, ed. A. Custiani (Bologna, 1990), II, 173-204, which I have not yet seen.
51. For Leoniceno's attack on Pliny, see Roger K. French, "Pliny and Renaissance Medicine," in Science in the Early Roman Empire: Pliny the Elder, his Sources and Influence, eds. Roger K. French and Frank Greenaway (London, 1986), 263-68; and Vivian Nutton, "The rise of Medical Humanism: Ferrara, 1464-1555," Renaissance Studies, 11 (1979), 2-19. For Leoncieno, see Daniela Mugnai Carrara, "Profilo di Nicolò Leoniceno," Interpres, 2 (1979), 169-212. I thank Dr Silvia de Renzi for drawing my attention to G. Ferrari, "Gli errori di Plinio - Fonti classiche e medicina nel conflitto tra Alessandro Benedetti e Nicolò Leoniceno," in Sapere e potere, ed. A. Custiani (Bologna, 1990), II, 173-204, which I have not yet seen.
52. See the case of Collenuccio, in French, "Pliny and Renaissance Medicine," 268-71.
53. Errata recentiorum medicorum. LX numero, adjectis eorundem confutationibus in studiosorum gratiam, iam primum aedita (Hagenau, 1530), Vrf.
54. Ibid., Xvf.
55. The phrase "veritatis diligens indagator" occurs in a further example of this method when identifying the ancient eupatorium with the contemporary agrimonia (see ibid., XIvf).
56. Niccolo Leoniceno, De Plinii et aliorum medicorum erroribus liber (Basle, 1529), 239-42.
57. "Liquido autem sensui subijcitur, folia herbae illius, quae vulgo buglossa dicitur, esse folijs boraginis longiora" (ibid., 241).
58. Ibid., 240f.
59. Ibid., 240.
60. B. P. Copenhaver, Symphorien Champier and the Reception of the Occultist Tradition in Renaissance France (The Hague, 1978), 77f.
61. "Annotatio 7. Errati 6, 7, 12 & 27. Quod picturae simplicium medicamentorum sint fallaces, et inde ducta argumenta sint fallacia.... lam simplicium medicamentorum descriptiones seu finitiones apud Dioscoridem, Apuleium, Plinium, et reliquos medicinae doctores non ex genere et differentia essentiali, aut proprio, sed ex genere et accidentibus, quae adesse absesseque possunt praeter subiecti corruptionem constant. Quocirca ab his ducta argumenta (veluti ea quibus persuadere nititur Fuchsius antiquorum buglossum nostram esse boraginem, et Argemonem esse eupatorium, et turbit non esse tripolum) inefficacia omnia sunt: eoque simplicium medicamentorum figuras non depinxisse Galenum reor." Sebastianus Montuus, Annotatiunculae Sebastiani Montui artium, ac Medicinae doctoris in errata recentiorum medicorum per Leonardum Fuchsium Germanum Collecta (Lyons, 1533), Vr. Montuus is alluding a passage in Galen, Faculties of Medicinal Simples, book six chapter one.
62. "Annotatio 7. Errati 6, 7, 12 & 27. Quod picturae simplicium medicamentorum sint fallaces, et inde ducta argumenta sint fallacia.... lam simplicium medicamentorum descriptiones seu finitiones apud Dioscoridem, Apuleium, Plinium, et reliquos medicinae doctores non ex genere et differentia essentiali, aut proprio, sed ex genere et accidentibus, quae adesse absesseque possunt praeter subiecti corruptionem constant. Quocirca ab his ducta argumenta (veluti ea quibus persuadere nititur Fuchsius antiquorum buglossum nostram esse boraginem, et Argemonem esse eupatorium, et turbit non esse tripolum) inefficacia omnia sunt: eoque simplicium medicamentorum figuras non depinxisse Galenum reor." Sebastianus Montuus, Annotatiunculae Sebastiani Montui artium, ac Medicinae doctoris in errata recentiorum medicorum per Leonardum Fuchsium Germanum Collecta (Lyons, 1533), Vr. Montuus is alluding a passage in Galen, Faculties of Medicinal Simples, book six chapter one.
63. Pliny, Natural History, trans. W. H. S. Jones (Cambridge, Mass., 1966), VII, 141: "... not only is a picture misleading when the colours are so many, particularly as the aim is to copy Nature, but besides this, much imperfection arises from the manifold hazards in the accuracy of copyists. In addition, it is not enough for each plant to be painted at one period only of its life, since it alters its appearance with the fourfold changes of the year." In general see C. G. Nauert Jr., "Caius Plinius Secundus," Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum, 4 (1980), 297-422.
64. Pliny, Natural History, trans. W. H. S. Jones (Cambridge, Mass., 1966), VII, 141: "... not only is a picture misleading when the colours are so many, particularly as the aim is to copy Nature, but besides this, much imperfection arises from the manifold hazards in the accuracy of copyists. In addition, it is not enough for each plant to be painted at one period only of its life, since it alters its appearance with the fourfold changes of the year." In general see C. G. Nauert Jr., "Caius Plinius Secundus," Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum, 4 (1980), 297-422.
65. "Modus namque humanae cognitionis ferme ex multis accidentibus unam quandam substantiae imaginem colligit quemadmodum Homerus fecit, ubi si strabis oculis, acuminato capite, gibbosis humeris, garrulitate scurruli Thersiten fuisse scribit. Denique argumenta ducta a definitione, ex genere et accidentibus, inefficacia essent, cum fere ubique differentias rerum per accidentia circumloquamur?" Paradoxorum medicinae libri tres, in quibus sane multa a nemine hactenus prodita, Arabum aetatisque nostrae medicorum errata non tantum indicantur, sed & probatissimorum autorum scriptis, firmissimisque rationibus ac argumentis confutantur (Basel, 1535), 9vf.
66. Ibid., 10r.
67. Ibid.
68. "Diosc. optimus herbarum pictor" (ibid.).
69. Ibid., 10r.
70. "Proinde longe melius est ut verbis herbarum formas, quam pictura exprimamus, certius enim sermone quam pictura quod conamur assequemur: multum enim, ut Plinij verbis utar, degenerat transcribentium sors varia" (ibid., 10r).
71. Dialexeon Medicinalium libri duo (Lyons, 1537), a2r.
72. Ibid., 42-46.
73. "Leonardi Fuchsii annotations aliquot herbarum et simplicium, a medicis hactenus non recte intellectorum" (Otto Brunfels, Novi Herbarii tomus II [Strasburg, 1536], 245-71). Except for sections eleven and fourteen, all arguments from the Errata are reproduced.
74. "... cum simplicium medicamentorum effigies ac formas nemo Graecorum, cuius hodie extent opera, extra unum Dioscoridem descripserit, curabit fidus interpres, ut si qua de iis inter praelegendum mentio incidat, illorum ex Dioscoride historias afferat et pro virili explanet. Aetatis denique tempore cum medicinae studiosis rura montesque saepius petat ac plantarum vultum diligentia observet illisque vivas eorundem imagines demonstret, neque ut hactenus consuevere multi, simplicium notitiam seplasiariis illis hominis rudibus et stultis mulierculis committat." Leges et constitutiones collegii medici universitatis scholae Tubingensis, Urkunden zur Geschichte der Universität Tübingen aus den Jahren 1476-1550, ed. Rudolph von Roth (repr., Tübingen, 1973), 312.
75. "Aliquot recentiorum medicorum placita ex variis decerpta authoribus Leonardus Fuchsius vir (quantum opinor) utraque peritus lingua, et medicinalium rerum scientia non indoctus, confutare nititur argumentis rhetoricis, potiusquam dialecticis, saltem talia sunt, ut mihi persuadere, quod moliuntur haud possint quae itaque si libeat ingenioso cuilibet Medicinae candidato esse, in re non necessaria evertere facile queat, horum aliqua ... obiter et laconismo in brevi syngrapha annotavimus" (Montuus to Symphorien Champier, 1533, in Montuus, Dialexeon medicinae, iiir).
76. "Pudet profecto medicorum quorundam, qui adhuc hodie in clarissima luce caligantibus oculis veritatem intuentur, huicque praefracto animo contradicunt: in quorum certe numero Montuus est, qui suam temeritatem et in dialecticis inscitiam, nunquam apertius quam in annotatione septima prodidit" (Fuchs, Paradoxorum medicinae, 10).
77. See, e.g., Commentaria in Isagogen Porphyrii et in omnes libros de dialectica Aristotelis (Louvain, 1535), 192.
78. For the topical tradition, see Niels J. Green-Pedersen, The Tradition of the Topics in the Middle Ages: The Commentaries on Aristotle's and Boethius' "Topics" (Munich 1984).
79. Johannes Agricola, for instance, also understood that the shortage of differentia in essential definitions forced one to resort to descriptive definitions using non-essential accidents; see Peter Mack, Renaissance Argument: Valla and Agricola in the Traditions of Rhetoric and Dialectic (New York, 1993), 150-56.
80. "definito ex genere et accidentibus collecta, ut sunt herbarum definitiones apud Dioscoridem et Plinium, ut Narcissus est flos similis croco.... Hoc genere definitionum utimur in describendis personis, ut apud Homerum Thersites describitur, strabis oculis, gibbosus, garrulitate scurrili. Est autem nobis ideo saepius hac forma definiendi utendum, quia accidentia ostendunt nobis substantias alioqui ignotas, per haec Malvam a Marubio, Cygnum a Corvo,... denique res inter se omnes discernimus." Philip Melanchthon, De Dialectica Libri IV (Wittenberg, 1531), E2v; "Sed de creatis traditur definitio illustrior, quia mens humana per accidentia agnoscit substantiam.... Et accidentia, quantitates, qualitates, effectiones, passiones consideremus, quantum conceditur, et Deo gratias agamus, quod aliquo modo et sese et naturam rerum nobis ostendit, et aliquas noticias certas tradidit, et appetamus consuetudinem coelestem, in qua noticia Dei e aliarum rerum erit illustrior." Philip Melanchthon, Erotemata dialectices (1547) in Corpus Reformatorum Philippi Melanthonis Opera quae supersunt omnia, ed. C. B. Bretschneider and H. E. Bindseil (28 vols.; Halle, 1834-52; Brunswick, 1853-60), XIII, cols. 528f.
81. "definito ex genere et accidentibus collecta, ut sunt herbarum definitiones apud Dioscoridem et Plinium, ut Narcissus est flos similis croco.... Hoc genere definitionum utimur in describendis personis, ut apud Homerum Thersites describitur, strabis oculis, gibbosus, garrulitate scurrili. Est autem nobis ideo saepius hac forma definiendi utendum, quia accidentia ostendunt nobis substantias alioqui ignotas, per haec Malvam a Marubio, Cygnum a Corvo,... denique res inter se omnes discernimus." Philip Melanchthon, De Dialectica Libri IV (Wittenberg, 1531), E2v; "Sed de creatis traditur definitio illustrior, quia mens humana per accidentia agnoscit substantiam.... Et accidentia, quantitates, qualitates, effectiones, passiones consideremus, quantum conceditur, et Deo gratias agamus, quod aliquo modo et sese et naturam rerum nobis ostendit, et aliquas noticias certas tradidit, et appetamus consuetudinem coelestem, in qua noticia Dei e aliarum rerum erit illustrior." Philip Melanchthon, Erotemata dialectices (1547) in Corpus Reformatorum Philippi Melanthonis Opera quae supersunt omnia, ed. C. B. Bretschneider and H. E. Bindseil (28 vols.; Halle, 1834-52; Brunswick, 1853-60), XIII, cols. 528f.
82. Melanchthon, De Dialectica Libri IV, D4r; Erotemata dialectices, in Corpus Reformatorum, XIII, col. 564.
83. Melanchthon, De Dialectica Libri IV, D4r; Erotemata dialectices, in Corpus Reformatorum, XIII, col. 564.
84. "Montui invectivam legi, et video esse ineptum et strenue arrogantem." Melanchthon to Fuchs, 1537, Corpus Reformatorum, III, col. 411; "Tuam lucubrationem de herbis ac fructibus expecto" (Melanchthon to Fuchs, 12 November 1538, ibid. col. 607).
85. "Montui invectivam legi, et video esse ineptum et strenue arrogantem." Melanchthon to Fuchs, 1537, Corpus Reformatorum, III, col. 411; "Tuam lucubrationem de herbis ac fructibus expecto" (Melanchthon to Fuchs, 12 November 1538, ibid. col. 607).
86. For Fuchs's squabble with Cornarius, see Eberhard Stübler, Leonhart Fuchs: Leben und Werk, Münchener Beiträge zur Geschichte und Literatur der Naturwissenschaften und Medizin Heft 13/14 (Munich, 1928), 102-10 (bottom pagination used).
87. "quas [=picturas] multi negant sibi unquam profuisse ad ullius plantae agnitionem consequendam, quam non ipsi prius vivam et naturalem cognovissent, quam pictam vidissent: et proinde affirmant se ex vivis quidem ad pictarum agnitionem saepe, nunquam vero ex depictis ad vivarum cognitionem pervenisse." Cornarius, Pedacii Dioscoridae Anazarbensis de materia medica libri V (Basel, 1557), α3r.
88. Ibid., α3r.
89. Although Cornarius's objection to Fuchs's use of pictures is strictly based on the testimony of Dioscorides, it is also important to note that printed pictures (counterfeit) were generally accepted as conveying the truth of particulars. See the important article by Peter Parshall, "Imago contrafacta: Images and Facts in the Northern Renaissance, Art History, 16 (1993), 554-79. I thank Prof. L. Daston for drawing this article to my attention.
90. "Nos non oculos pascere, sed animos alere, et iudicia excitare, et excavere voluimus, eorum qui haec nostra amore capti, non livore acti legent" (Cornarius, Dioscoridae ... de materia medica, α3v).
91. Otto Clemen, "Janus Cornarius," Neues Archiv für Sächsische Geschichte, 33 (1912), 40-45.
92. "Hoc vero tandem post maximos huc impensos labores, mihi primum ut et legerem illum [Dioscorides] et audirem contigit: nunc per me etiam aliis rei medicae studiosis continget, si qui forte nostra lingua latine loquentem illum audire, aut legere volent. Nec vero hoc solum his continget, sed etiam ut nostra simul in ipsum emblemata, et legant, et audiant: quae sive ut immissuras exemptiles, ad singula capita interiectas accipere volent, sive velut ornamenta, et singulorum illius capitum velut mitrarum redimicula quaedam addita per me sane utrumque licebit" (Cornarius, Dioscoridae ... de materia medica, α2 v, my insertion).
93. The pictures of Alciati's Emblematum liber were insertions made by the printers. For a convincing case of Alciati's use of the term as epigrammatic, see Hessel Miedema, "The term emblema in Alciati," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 31 (1968), 234-50. Note that Cornarius's edition of Greek epigrams (1529) served as a substantial source for Alciati's Emblematum liber (1531), see Alison Saunders, "Alciati and Greek Anthology," The Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 12 (1982), 1-18.
94. The pictures of Alciati's Emblematum liber were insertions made by the printers. For a convincing case of Alciati's use of the term as epigrammatic, see Hessel Miedema, "The term emblema in Alciati," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 31 (1968), 234-50. Note that Cornarius's edition of Greek epigrams (1529) served as a substantial source for Alciati's Emblematum liber (1531), see Alison Saunders, "Alciati and Greek Anthology," The Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 12 (1982), 1-18.
95. The pictures of Alciati's Emblematum liber were insertions made by the printers. For a convincing case of Alciati's use of the term as epigrammatic, see Hessel Miedema, "The term emblema in Alciati," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 31 (1968), 234-50. Note that Cornarius's edition of Greek epigrams (1529) served as a substantial source for Alciati's Emblematum liber (1531), see Alison Saunders, "Alciati and Greek Anthology," The Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 12 (1982), 1-18.
96. Cornarius, Dioscoridae ... de materia medica, α2 v.
97. E.g., "anthenidis pictura & vires," "buglossi pictura et vis" (ibid., Index, a2r and a3v).
98. "Petasites. pediculus est maior cubito, digiti magni crassitudine, in quo folium petasi sive galeri modo magnum, incumbens velut fungus. Facit hoc ad maligna et phagedaenica ulcera, tritum impositum." Ibid., 353. The parts which differ from Fuchs's Latin quotation of the same passage of Dioscorides (cf. note 25 above) are italicized.
99. Ibid., 354.
100. "Herbarum periti nostrae aetate fere omnes petasiten esse volunt, quam nostri Pestilenzwurz et rosspappeln vocant. Sed mirum quod radicis usum non recensuit Diosc. imo radicis in totum no meminit. Quum autem folij usum eundem quem arcij Dios. habeat, mihi sane etiam ipse ex personatae genere esse videtur, sed eo hodie omnibus ignoto. Nomen ex petaso lati pilei genere habet, cuius similitudinem folium praefert" (ibid., 354).
101. See also the assessment that Fuchs is a less skilled philologist compared to Cornarius in Richard J. Durling, "Leonhart Fuchs and his Commentaries on Galen," Medizinhistorisches Journal, 24 (1989), 42-47.
102. As it was in Italy; see R. Palmer, "Medical Botany in Northern Italy in the Renaissance," Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 78 (1985), 149-57.
103. Paula Findlen, "The Formation of a scientific community: natural history in sixteenth-century Italy," in Natural Philosophy and the Disciplines in Early Modern Europe, eds. A. Grafton and N. Siraisi (forthcoming). I am grateful to Prof. Findlen for allowing me to see an earlier version of this paper.