Individual cut leaf from Der Gart der Gesundheit (The Garden of Health)
Attributed to Johann Wonnecke von Kaub, writer
Johann Schönsberger, publisher
Woodblock printing on paper, ink
26 x 17 cm
1486 CE, Augsburg, Holy Roman Empire (present-day Germany)
QK99.A1 G37 1486
This page is one of twenty-five in the SCRC collection that come from an edition of Der Gart der Gesundheit, or The Garden of Health. Gart der Gesundheit is an herbal, or a medico-pharmaceutical text describing the medicinal virtues of plants. This leaf, which is laid out in two columns with hand-colored woodcuts and handwritten initials atop each chapter, were most likely cut from a copy of the 1486 edition printed by Johann Schönsberger in Augsburg.
The information in some of the Gart der Gesundheit’s chapters is cited from the writings of historical authorities like Galen, Pliny, Serapion, and Dioscorides, while others recount local folk remedies. Chapter 207, for example, describes the usefulness of roses to women for making “menstruation easier.” The woodcuts are less descriptive and served more as mnemonics for people already familiar with the appearance of these plants than as guides to identification.
Ana Matisse Donefer-Hickie
