Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 307

KONRAD GESNER (1516-1565) Historia plantarum et vires ex Dioscoride, Paulo Aegineta, Theophrasto, Plinio et recentioribus Graecis, juxta elementorum ordinem. Apud Guilielmum Richardum sub pingui gallina 1541 [16] 261 [1] pp. 13.3 cm.

A striking figure, typically Renaissance in his universality, was the Swiss Konrad Gesner, whose attainments in botany, zoology, medicine and surgery, philology and general scholarship brought him the name of the 'German Pliny' (Arturo Castiglioni, A history of medicine. New York, 1946. p. 487). In addition, his Bibliotheca universalis in twenty volumes remained the best general bibliography until Albrecht von Haller's bibliographies (see Nos. 890-893) appeared more than two hundred years later. The present work was Gesner's first botanical work and was first printed by Robert Winter at Basel the same year. It contains an alphabetically arranged list of plants taken from the works of such noted authorities as Dioscorides, Paul of Aegina, Theophrastus, and Pliny. This Paris edition benefits from having each plant's Greek and French name printed in the margin alongside its textual description. The printer's device on the title page is that of Joannes Lodoicus Tiletanus and the colophon indicates that he actually printed the book.

See Related Record(s): 890 891 892 893

Cited references: Wellcome 2771

Gift of John Martin, M.D.