Gart der Gesundheit

The Gart der Gesundheit (Early German for Latin hortus sanitatis) was edited in 1485. It was written by Johann Wonnecke von Kaub and was one of the first printed herbals in German. It was often reprinted until the 18th century. The Gart der Gesundheit is an important late medieval work concerning the knowledge of natural history, especially that of medicinal plants. In 435 chapters 382 plants, 25 drugs from the animal kingdom and 28 minerals are described and illustrated. The book was edited by Peter Schöffer in Mainz. Together with the Latin Herbarius moguntinus (Peter Schöffer 1484) and the Latin Hortus sanitatis (Jacob Meydenbach in Mainz 1491), the Gart der Gesundheit belongs to the "group of Mainz herbal incunabula".^[1]

Gart der Gesundheit, Mainz 1485. Titlepage

Text

The text is a collection of earlier texts in German and in Latin on drugs from the herbal, animal, and mineral kingdoms. The reader cannot rely on the names the author gives to his citations. Sometimes he gives no name, for example for the citations he took from the Physica of Hildegard of Bingen. More often, he even gives incorrect names to his citations.^[2]

Illustrations

About 100 of the 379 illustrations in the Gart der Gesundheit are of high standard quality. Erhard Reuwich is supposed to be the creator of these woodcuts, who depict the character of plants in clear lines. Opposing to some modern authors, who called these illustrations "primitive" in a bad sense, Arnold C. Klebs stated in 1925:

"We who today in our aesthetic demands are drawing away more and more from the slavish copying of nature and demand that a work of art expresses type and character, can better appreciate the didactic value of these simple drawings than the previous generation to whom the photographic appealed as the highest form of truthful representation."^[3][4][5]

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  Titlepage
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  Figure examples. Left - true to nature: Egilops (Chapt. 162). Right - not true to nature: Cassia lignea (Chapt. 126)
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  Chapter 1. Artemiſia heyſſet byfuſz
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  Chapter 5. Agrimonia – 0dermynge
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  Chapter 11. Aristologia – osterlutzye
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  Chapter 16. Aaron – aron
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  Chapter 19. Azarum – haselwortz
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  Chapter 20. Affodillus – goltwortz
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  Chapter 21. Acorus – geel lilien
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  Chapter 24. Alkekengi – boberellen
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  Chapter 25. Astrens vel Meu – meister wortz
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  Chapter 28. Auricula muris sive anagallus – muß ore
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  Chapter 29. Avena – habern
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  Chapter 53. Betonica – betonien
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  Chapter 55. Berberis – versyg
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  Chapter 79. Berwinca – syngrun
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  Chapter 85. Celidonia – schelwortz
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  Chapter 87. Cicuta – wontzerling Cicuta virosa / Conium maculatum
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  Chapter 89. Colubrina – naterwortz
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  Chapter 98. Caput monachi – ryngel blomen
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  Chapter 99. Cinoglossa – hundesczung
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  Chapter 101. Cardo – disteln Dipsacus fullonum / Dipsacus sylvestris
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  Chapter 119. Succisa pratensis. Incorrectly assigned to chapter 119 Camphora
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  Chapter 122. Castaneus – kestenbaum
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  Chapter 133. Cartamus – wilder saffran
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  Chapter 148. Diapensia – sanickel
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  Chapter 154. Enula campana – alantwortz
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  Chapter 158. Esula – Wolffsmilch
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  Chapter 160. Eufragia – augentrost
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  Chapter 162. Egilops vel egilopa – ackeley
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  Chapter 164. Edera terrestis – gundelrebe
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  Chapter 166. Elleborus niger – swartz nyeszwortz
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  Chapter 176. Fumus terre – ertrauch oder katzen kerbeln
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  Chapter 179. Filla – benedictenwortz
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  Chapter 180. Faba – bonen
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  Chapter 190. Frage – ertbern
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  Chapter 195. Gladiolus – slotten krut oder geel swertel
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  Chapter 203. Galla – galopffel
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  Chapter 207. Gallitricum – scharlach
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  Taraxacum officinale. Falsch zugeordnet zum Kapitel 212 Hermodattilus – zytloisz
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  Chapter 213. Herba paralisis – slusselblomen
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  Chapter 214. Herba rubea – storckes snabel
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  Chapter 215. Humulus – hoppen
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  Chapter 217. Jusquiamus – bilsensamen Hyoscyamus niger / Hyoscyamus albus
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  Chapter 218. Juniperus – wegholler
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  Chapter 223. Lactuca – lattich
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  Chapter 229. Lilium album – wyß lilien
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  Chapter 234. Lavendula – lavendel
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  Chapter 251. Menta – myntz
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  Chapter 253. Malva – bappeln
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  Chapter 254. Millefolium – garbe
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  Chapter 256. Marrubium – andorn
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  Chapter 257. Mandragora – alrun Man
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  Chapter 258. Mandragora – alrun Fraw
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  Chapter 260. Moracelsi – mulberen Morus alba / Morus nigra
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  Chapter 263. Morabacci – brambernstruch
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  Chapter 272. Muscus – bysum
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  Chapter 277. Nigella – raden
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  Chapter 285. Orgianum – dosten
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  Chapter 292. Os de corde cervi – eyn beyn daz man fyndet in dem hertzen des hirtzen
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  Chapter 298. Pionia – benonien korner oder benedicten korner
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  Chapter 299. Papaver – magsamen
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  Chapter 300. Polegium – poley
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  Chapter 303. Porrum – lauch
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  Chapter 319. pisa – heyssen erbeys
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  Chapter 333. Premula veris – maßlieben
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  Chapter 337. Rosa – rosen
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  Chapter 341. Ribes – iohans drubelin
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  Chapter 346. Sambucus – holler
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  Chapter 349. Solatrum – nachtschede
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  Chapter 354. Saxifraga – stein brech
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  Chapter 359. Stafisagria – byszmyntz oder luszkrut
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  Chapter 364. Spinachia – benetz
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  Chapter 366. Sticados arabicum – blumen von arabien
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  Chapter 367. Sticados citrinum heyssent – rynblumen oder motten krut
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  Chapter 371. Spodium – gebrant helfen beyn
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  Chapter 399. Tanacetum – reinfar
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  Chapter 410. Urtica – nesseln
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  Chapter 413. Viola heyssent – violen
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  Chapter 415. Valeriana vel fu – baldrian
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  Chapter 417. Vermicularis – muer pfeffer oder duben kropf
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  Carduus marianus. Incorrectly assigned to chapter 429 Yringus – krusz distel
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  Chapter 432. Yacea – freyschem krut
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  Harnschau

Editions

• Mainz (Peter Schöffer) March, 28. 1485 (Digitalisat)
• Augsburg (Hans Schönsperger?) August, 22. 1485 (Digitalisat)
• Strasbourg 1485
• Basel 1486
• Augsburg (Hans Schönsberger) June, 5. 1486 (Digitalisat)
• Augsburg (Hans Schönsberger) March, 7. 1487
• Ulm (Conrad Dinckmut) March, 31. 1487 (Digitalisat)
• Straßburg 1487 (Digitalisat)
• Straßburg 1488 (Digitalisat)
• Augsburg (Hans Schönsberger) December, 15. 1488 (Digitalisat)
• Lübeck (Arends) 1492
• Augsburg (Hans Schönsberger) August, 13. 1493 (Digitalisat)
• Augsburg (Hans Schönsberger) May, 10. 1496 (Digitalisat)
• Augsburg (Hans Schönsberger) May, 13. 1499
• Straßburg (Johann Prüß) 1507 (Digitalisat)
• Straßburg (R. Beck) 1515 (Digitalisat)^[6]

Notes

1. Arber, Agnes. Herbals. Their origin and evolution. A chapter in the history of botany 1470–1670. University Press, Cambridge 1912, pp. 18– 24 (Digitalisat)
2. Peter Riethe. Hildegards von Bingen >Liber simplicis medicinae< im Mainzer >Gart der Gesundheit<. In: Sudhoffs Archiv. Vol 89, issue 1, 2005, p. 96–119.
3. Wilhelm Ludwig Schreiber. Die Kräuterbücher des XV. und XVI. Jahrhunderts. Munich 1924. (As Appendix of the reprint of Gart der Gesundheit, Mainz 1485, p. I–LXII, here XII–XIII)
4. Arnold C. Klebs: Herbal facts and thoughts. Introduction of the Catalogue of Early Harbals from the Library of Dr. Karl Becher, Karlsbad, p. IX, l'art ancien S. A., Lugano 1925.
5. Julius Schuster: Secreta Salernitana und Gart der Gesundheit. In: Mittelalterliche Handschriften. Festgabe zum 60. Geburtstag von Hermann Degering. Leipzig 1926, p. 203–237, here: p. 220.
6. Arnold C. Klebs. Incunabula scientifica et medica. The Saint Catherine Press Ltd., 1938, p. 171f. (Digitalisat)

External links

  Media related to Gart der Gesundheit (1485) at Wikimedia Commons