Wonderful copy with 16th century leather bindung an clasps and lovingly colored woodcuts

Straßburg, Johann Rihel
1595 (28. August)

Titlepage (facsimile)::
Kreütterbuch; darin Unterscheidt Nammen, Würckung der Kreütter, Stauden, Hecken und Bäumen / mit ihren Früchten / so in Teutschen Landen wachsen / auch der selben eigentlicher und wolgegründter Gebruach inn der Arzney / fleißig dargeben, Leibs gesundheit zu fürdern und zu behaltensehr nützlich und tröstlich, bevorab dem Gemeinen und Einfaltigen Mann. Item von den vier Elementen, zamen und wilden Thieren / auch Vögeln und Fischen / Milch / Käß / Butter / Honig / Wachs / Zucker / Saltz / Brot / Wein / Essig / Iely / Eyer / Blut / Schmaltz / Umschlit / allerhand Kochkreutter / Specereyen / und Gwürtz. Auch wie alle Speiß und Drank / Gesunden und Krancken / dargereicht werden solle. Alles durch H. Hieronymum Bock / auß langwüriger und gewisser Erfahrung beschriben. Hernacher mit vilen nutzlichen Experimenten gemehret / durch den hochgelehrten MELCHIOREM SEBIZIVM, der Arzney Doctorem und Physicum zu Straßburg. Jetztundt aber auffs new ( mit aller deren Kreutter Namen / so bey den Berühmptesten Alten und Newen Herbariis zu finden / und wie die selben heutigen tags inn den Apotecken / und sonst von den Kreutlern gemeynlich genennet werden / verglichen / und auch wie die Kreutter zu sameln und zu erhalten / neben vielen andern zu der Arzney gehörigten stucken verbessert. Sampt Sechs nützlich Registern . Mit Röm. Key. May. Freyheit auff zehen Jar, Gedruckt zu Straßburg / im Jar M. D. XCV.

Last page: Gedruckt in der freyen Reichsstatt Straßburg / durch Josiam Rihel M.D..XCV. 28. Augusti

VD 16 B6025, STC 130. Nissen BBI 182. Pritzel 866. Blake 76. Vgl. Garrison-Morten 229, Ritter 1023

This copy also includes "Teutsche Speiskammer", a kind of traditional medical guidebook; decorated with colored woodcuts.

Leather on wooden boards, floral blind stamping, 2 fully functional clasps (but 100-200 years younger than the binding), spine with leftovers of a label, cover rubbed, stained, a little damaged (especially at the lower right corner of the backside), there is also a small surface defect of the backside, which was repaired during the making of the cover, wormholes, 3sided green edging (rubbed, stained, bleached), endpapers with some handwritten notes (pencil and pen), pages browned, stainded (fingerprints, ink, fluid, etc), some tears, especially the first 50 pages and the last ones, also some in the middle with tears at the lower right corner (restored), some with a little loss of textr (copies added), some handwritten notes, some folds, some small restorations

[34 (of 36)] 470 l.; [24]
A6-d6, e8, f4, A6-Z6, Aa6-Zz6, Aaa6-Zzz6, AAA6-HHH6, JJJ8, KKK4, LLL6, MMM6, NNN8
500 lovingly colored woodcuts
Titlepage, a6 and leavee 451 added as a facsimile

Hieronymus Bock (1498 - February 21, 1554) was a German botanist, physician, and Lutheran minister who began the transition from medieval botany to the modern scientific worldview by arranging plants by their relation or resemblance. His name in German was Jerome Bock, but the first name was very commonly latinised as Hieronymus, and the surname somewhat less often latinised as Tragus. Thus he is also known as Jerome Bock and Heironymus Tragus.

The details of his life are sketchy, in particular his educational background is unknown. In 1519 he inscribed at the university of Heidelberg. He married an Eva Victor in 1523, and was caretaker of the grounds of the count palatinate in Zweibrücken for nine years, which is possibly the origin of his botanical interest. In 1532 he became the prince's physician and received a life-time position as a lutheran minister in a nearby village (Hornbach) where he stayed up to his death in 1554. The first edition of his Kreuterbuch (literally "plant book") appeared in 1539 unillustrated (this version wasn't very successful); his stated objectives were to describe German plants, including their names, characteristics, and medical uses. Instead of following Dioscorides as was traditional, he developed his own system to classify 700 plants. Bock apparently traveled widely through the German region observing the plants for himself, since he includes ecological and distributional observations. In 1546 the Kreuterbuch or "herbal" was illustrated by the artist David Kandel. In the wine world, Bock is noted for having the first documented use of the modern word Riesling in 1552 when it was mentioned in his Latin herbal The grass genus Tragus and spurge genus Tragia are both named after him.

Source: Wikipedia