ortus sanitatis, EUR 500 min

Descripción: (Mainz, Peter Schoeffer, 1485). (Colophon:) Disser Harbarius is zu mencz gedruckt.uff dem xxviii dage des mercz MCCCCLXXXV. Folio. (27,5x20,5 cm.). Rebound recently in a fine pastiche of full brown morocco with 3 broad raised bands on back, rectangular blindtoolings to covers, imitating a renaissance-binding.342 leaves of 359. No signatures and leaves unnumbered. (Lacking fol. 1-3,8,11,12-14,148-49,208,210-11,356-59). All lacking leaves supplied in facsimile and toned to age. With 378 (plants 357, animals 11) wood-cuts in the text (full to one-third page) in full original hand-colouring (fol. 2 verso: "hudert mit iren farben"). 4 ms. leaves in old hand withbound (indexes and entries), in contemporary hand on fol. 4: "Meister Johan von Cube". On fol. 232 old owner name: "Johannes Ehrardus 1628" and fol. 262: "A.K.JE. Anno 1590 ?"A few leaves with ink-stains. 4 leaves torn with some loss (supplied in facsimile). Some scattered marginalia in ink in at least 3 different old hands. Some finger-soiling to lower right corners, some but not many leaves with dampstains to upper margin. Some scattered brownspots, a few other smaller paper-repairs and 5 leaves with a small hole. With the illustration of "Tapsia" on fol. 314 in upright position, a variant described by Klebs. Fol. 317 recto & verso with a long commentary in contemporary hand. The hand-colouring well preserved and printed on well preserved thick paper. The extremely scarce first edition of GART DER GESUNDHEIT, a truly remarkable book, not only in the sense of its content as "a landmark in the history of botanical illustration"(Hunt), but also with its position in the history of printing, as it was produced by Gutenberg's head assistant (Meisterschüler), PETER SCHOEFFER in Mainz, in the Gutenberg premises which were taken over by Schoeffer and Fust. The book has been called THE MOST IMPORTANT MEDIEVAL WORK ON NATURAL HISTORY WITH ILLUSTRATIONS, and it is the first Herbal at all written and printed in the vernacular. Claus Nissen (in BBI) describes the publication of it as a decisive turning-point in botanical illustration ("das (es) in der botanischen Illustrationsgeschichte ein ganz entscheidenden Wendepunkt bedeutet").GART DER GESUNDHEIT takes up a unique position in the family of Herbals or Hortus, which in the sense of the fifteenth century is not a botanical treatise, but a medical book intended for both the layman and the physician. It calls attention to the valuable herbs free to all, and similarly also to remedies derived from animals and minerals, a popular medicine book but in no way popular in the modern sense, as it served also in the technical education at the time. The prototype of the Hortus-family is HERBARIUS (Latin), also published by Schoeffer in 1484, the GART, though based on the Herbarius, "is a new creation in the vernacular, distinguished by original concepts, both textually and artistically, while the Hortus proper, combining both the virtues and vices of the former, is more ambitious in scope, more complex because of added material - an elaboration of the Herbarius, but less lucid and original than the Gart der Gesundheit" (Klebs).The GART inspired several contemporary printing presses immediately and gave rise to at least 14 other incunabula editions of Latin Herbarius (none in folio, mostly in quarto) and none with the GART- illustrations, but with copies in smaller design. Secondly, the 15 famous copied editions with the same title and also in the vernacular, starting already the same year with the fine incunabula from Augsburg, printed by Schönsperger 1485 (Schönsperger 1486, 1487, 1488, Dickmut, Ulm 1487, Grüninger, Strassburg c. 1488, Basel, Furter, c. 1490 etc.) Their cuts are copies from the GART. - The last member of the family, the HORTUS (Sanitatis or Ortus), sometimes called "the larger Hortus" - GART "the smaller Hortus", was inspired and largely derived from the GART and it has 5 incunabula editions, among these the famous Meydenbach-e. Nº de ref. de la librería 32146

Descripción: 1511. HORTUS SANITATIS. Ortus Sanitatis. De herbis et plantis. De Animalibus & reptilibus. De Avibus et volatilibus. De Piscibus & natalibus. De Lapidibus & in terre venis nascentibus. De Urinus et eaque speciebus. [367] ff. (lacking final blank). 53 lines & headlines. Double column. Gothic letter. Illustrated with an engraved border for title leaf consisting of flowers and dolphins, 3 full-page Venetian woodcuts and 1062 smaller woodcuts, including repetitions. Folio, 297 x 202 mm, bound in seventeenth-century Italian vellum over boards, earlier leather title label on spine. Venice: Bernardino Benalio and Giovanni de Tridino, 1511. First Edition printed in Italy of this monumental encyclopedia of the natural world and its medicinal resources, containing a detailed survey of the known plant and animal world. This is a sublime exemplar of early sixteenth-century Venetian printing, with the two full-page Renaissance woodcuts appearing here for the first time, and a number of the smaller woodcuts recut for this Italian edition. The Hortus Sanitatis, the last great medieval compilation of natural history, includes much traditional lore, and its many authorities are scrupulously cited. The first part is devoted to plants and the second to animals, fish, birds and stones and minerals, along with detailed indices. Derived in part from the painted manuscript herbals and the vernacular Gart der Gesundheit, the Hortus Sanitatis is "perhaps the most important medical woodcut book printed before 1500" (Hunt catalogue, I, 12), for it contained the most extensive information on plants' medicinal properties published to date. The sections on animals etc. are nearly entirely new, giving the work a much broader scope than that of its predecessors. In part I most of the column-width woodcuts show stylized plants, with a few cuts of people engaged in activities related to husbandry or plant use, such as grinding grain or (more remotely) beekeeping. The woodcut of the Narcissus, (fol. s7r) showing two small bald men emerging from the flowers, has been compared to Edward Lear's Nonsense Botany (Blunt & Stearn, p. 59). The illustrations of animals and minerals and stones are similarly charming, showing creatures both real and fantastical. The second half of the book is filled with genre scenes, the figures wearing typically late-medieval and Renaissance costumes. 'C'est un des plus curieux ouvrages sur l'histoire naturelle et la médicine du Moyen-âge. Les bois représentent des plantes, animaux, monstres, etc., de touts genres et dans les formes les plus bizarres et fantastiques. C'est, avec le texte non moins amusant, un musée à peu près complet de la superstition médiévale" (Sander p. 602). The importance of this Italian/Venetian edition must be emphasized. The first full-page woodcut (a1 verso) offers an elegant depiction of a physician expostulating on the medicinal nature of potted herbs to five other men, each in full Venetian dress. The woodcut includes an ornamental border on black ground, with a faint monogram "IT" at lower left. The second full-page cut is the generic anatomical man. The third full-page cut also exhibits strong Venetian characteristics in the depiction of an apothecary selling herbs in his shop. Further, the style of many of the smaller woodcuts have been altered from their German predecessors to give them a more Italian appeal. "These cuts, being reversed copies, show many times considerable variations from those in the editions of 1497, the style of many of the genre pictures is changed in order to please the Italian beholder, some others seem to be newly added the two fine full-page woodcuts, by a Venetian artist, appear here for the first time" (Klebs/Becher p.36). Some light foxing and browning to a few isolated signatures only; overall, an exceptionally fresh, clean and bright copy. The early editions of the Hortus Sanitatis were heavily used, and those that have survived are usually worn and often imperfect. This is a fi. Nº de ref. de la librería 140371

Descripción: Venetiis, Per Bernardinum Benalium Et Ioannem de Cereto de Tridino alias Tacuinum, Anno Domini MCCCCCXI, 1511. Rilegato. Estado de conservación: ottimo. In-4°, legatura in pergamena rigida, doppio tassello al dorso con titoli e bordi filettati impressi in oro, tagli spruzzati in rosso e ocra, capitello ricostruito, cc. [367]. TRE INCISIONI A PIENA PAGINA E PIÙ DI MILLE ILLUSTRAZIONI XILOGRAFICHE che costellano il testo fornendo un ricchissimo apparato descrittivo di piante, animali e minerali. Circa un terzo delle incisioni furono realizzate appositamente per l’Ortus Sanitatis, mentre le altre furono riprese dal Gart der Gesundheit, opera che insieme all’Ortus e all’Herbario Latino costituisce il fondamento della conoscenza botanica medievale. La cornice tipografica che circonda il frontespizio, con motivo fitomorfo e la raffigurazione stilizzata di quattro delfini, è stata rintracciata da Mortimer tra gli strumenti del Tacuino, il quale l’avrebbe utilizzata in precedenza solo nella sua edizione del Vitruvio (Venezia, 1511): “It was one of the most influential pieces of [book] ornamentation of the sixteenth century”. PRIMA EDIZIONE ITALIANA del testo medievale per eccellenza sulla botanica e la storia naturale, estremamente approfondito per la qualità delle descrizioni e per la presenza di una tavola integrativa riguardo all’uso e alle virtù medicinali dei semplici. Al testo originale del 1491 viene aggiunto, per la prima volta in questa edizione, il De Facile acquisibilibus dello pseudo-Galeno. Sulla scorta della tradizione enciclopedica medievale, l’Ortus Sanitatis offre una trattazione il più possibile completa sugli elementi del mondo naturale, animale e minerale. Il testo si divide in sette parti ed è dedicato in larghissima parte ai semplici, dei quali compaiono la descrizione fisica, l’elenco dei sinonimi più diffusi, la provenienza geografica e le modalità di utilizzo nella pratica medica. Alla pari con piante, pesci, uccelli e pietre preziose, l’autore dell’Ortus descrive componenti del mondo mitologico – l’Albero della Conoscenza dell’Eden e la mandragora, tra i tanti – e alimenti della dieta medievale come il pane e l’aceto. Leggera brunitura e tracce di foxing, trascurabili fori di tarlo alle prime due carte e nel margine superiore delle ultime venti carte del De Herbis & plantis che non interessano il testo; margine superiore visibilmente rifilato; nel complesso, ottimo esemplare. PROVENIENZA: I. Ex libris al frontespizio vergato in inchiostro bruno hic liber e[st] [.] Aen[n]i Jobbae Corvini Ar: et Med: Doc: q[.] Potius in armis, qua[rum] in Medicina [.] celebratus [.]. II. Numerose riproduzioni a penna delle illustrazioni del testo a fianco delle stesse. Nº de ref. de la librería ABE71

Descripción: Strasbourg Reinhard Beck 1517., 1517. Folio [30 x 20 cm], 356 ff. Bound in 18th century vellum, rebacked preserving original spine with stenciled titling and "P.A.I.P.T." and "1721" stamped in blind on front cover; clasps and catches present. Title printed in red and black with figurative woodcut border, two scored ownership inscriptions (a third partially abraided) & gutter reinforced; finger soiling in margins of some leaves & repairs to paper flaws on final three leaves of index with occasional loss to letters; otherwise a fresh and crisp unwashed copy. Excellent. An unusually fresh example of this early augmented Strasbourg edition of "the most important medical woodcut book printed before 1500" (Hunt) giving descriptions of medicinal plants and medicinal stones, instructions on animal husbandry, and a treatise on urine. The Ortus Sanitatis was one of the most popular herbals of its time, reissued in several editions after its first publication in 1491, and offers an encyclopedic view of the late medieval understanding of the natural world. The work is richly illustrated with two or three woodcuts on nearly every page. Among the descriptions of animals and minerals are many engaging scenes of agricultural and domestic life. Mythological creatures are given the same scholarly treatment as real animals with illustrated entries on dragons, winged serpents, mermaids, an Ethiopian ant the size of a dog, and a narcissus with human heads as flowers. The Ortus Sanitatis is the third and most extensive of the fundamental botanical compilations that began with the Herbarius of 1484 and continued with the expanded German edition entitled Gart der Gesundheit. "The third form, though based in part on the Gart der Gesundheit, was almost entirely rewritten and elaborated upon, especially in the parts on animals, birds, fishes, stones and minerals (all of which were but sketchily represented in the earlier work), and in the treatise on urines; the text on herbs too is quite different, each chapter beginning with a description of the plant, its synonyms, and often something about its geographical origin, and ending with a list of the plant’s medicinal virtues in a separate section headed ‘Operationes.’" (Hunt) The large woodcut of the human skeleton which precedes the section on animals is taken from Brunschwig’s Cirugia. The present edition is the sixth edition overall and is augmented from the prior three Strasbourg editions including both new as well as re-cut woodcuts. The new woodcuts appear mostly in the sections on animals and minerals and show Alsatian characteristics particularly in the depiction of clothing. Many of these images appear to be derived from playing cards. The elaborate title border, with cherubs and monkeys on a grape arbour, has been variously attributed to Hans Baldung Grien, Urs Graf, and Hans Wechtlin. *Hunt, 18 (8 on the first edition of the Ortus). Nº de ref. de la librería 3747