Botanicon : continens herbarum, aliorumque simplicium, quorum usus in medicinis est, descriptiones, & iconas ad vivum effigiatas ; ex praecipuis tam Graecis quam Latinis authoribus iam recens concinnatum. Additis etiam, quae neotericorum observationes & experientiae comprobarunt denuo, vel nuper inuenerunt / aut. Theoderico Dorstenio medico.
Publication details: Francoforti : Christianus Egenolphus excudebat, 1540. Description: [6]p, 306 leaves, [12] p. : ca. 300 woodcut illSubject(s): Herbals -- 16th century | Botany -- 16th century | Materia Medica -- 16th century | Herbal Medicine -- 16th century | Medicinal Plants -- 16th century | Medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions -- 16th century | Botanical Illustration -- Early works to 1800Genre/Form: 16th century imprintSummary: The Botanicon provides an account of sixteenth-century botanic and pharmacopeial knowledge. It describes alphabetically hundreds of herbs, along with tubers, spices, fruits, nuts, a couple of mushrooms and some liquids very broadly speaking derived from plants, such as vinegar, resin, honey, but also asphalt, cheese and water. Entries comprise a detailed illustration, the different names in Greek, Latin and German, references from ancient and contemporary authorities, description of physical qualities and healing properties and often recipes for medicaments.| Item type | Current library | Call number | Status | Notes | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
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Early Printed Book
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RPS Library Hanbury Collection | 615.116 DOR (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Not for loan | Hanbury Bequest | 228039 |
Predominantly Roman letters, some Greek, some Gothic script; historiated initials; illustrated throughout with more than 300 woodcuts
Date of publication from colophon
First and only edition of this illustrated herbal. One of the two printing variants, here the title has a woodcut of 3 plants instead of printer’s device. As Dorsten explains in the preface, he was commissioned by Christian Egenolff to expand and translate into Latin the Kreutterbuch von allem Erdtwaechs by Eucharius Rösslin, published in 1533. Dorsten’s herbal was expanded in its turn in 1557 by Egenolff’s son-in-law, Adam Lonicer
Library copy contains a typescript slip: "An alphabetical list of plants and vegetable substances, with their descriptions and uses. The names are given in Greek, where known, Latin and German, and there is a woodcut illustration for almost every example. The marginal notes in 16th century hand-writing are mostly a précis of the text
Listed in: Knapman. RPS Library Catalogue, 7th ed. (1894). p.168. Dorstenius (Theodoricus). Botanicon, continens herbarum … 1540.
The Botanicon provides an account of sixteenth-century botanic and pharmacopeial knowledge. It describes alphabetically hundreds of herbs, along with tubers, spices, fruits, nuts, a couple of mushrooms and some liquids very broadly speaking derived from plants, such as vinegar, resin, honey, but also asphalt, cheese and water. Entries comprise a detailed illustration, the different names in Greek, Latin and German, references from ancient and contemporary authorities, description of physical qualities and healing properties and often recipes for medicaments.
Presented by Thomas Hanbury, November 1892. Formerly belonging to the late Daniel Hanbury.
Previously owned by Eckberto Wolphy.
Previously owned by Bruno Fabricius, Dalenus. Fabricius or Fabritius, was a Benedictine from the Abbey of St Peter and St Paul, or Abdinghof, in Paderborn. He worked in the Netherlands around 1560-79 as pastor to Putten in the Veluwe.
Contains Hanbury Presentation Bookplate. Manuscript inscriptions at foot of tile page, including: "Liber Eckberto Wolphy"; a line of text in Latin in a 16th century hand, and the date 1573; "Bruno Fabricius, Dalenus". Underlinings and manuscript marginalia throughout in a 16th century hand (some annotations trimmed by binder). Previous Accession Numbers: 12194. Previous location: Basement Shelf 36.1.
Rebound by Chivers for RPS in 1937. Some damage to pages, some tissue repairs.
Christie's 2015 (41)