Details
RÖSSLIN, EUCHARIAS. Kreuterbuch, Von naürlichem Nutz, und gründlichem Gebrauch der Kreutter, Bäum, Gesteud, unnd Früchten, fürnehmlich Teutscher Lande. Dessgleichen der Gethier, Edlen gesteyn, Metal, und anderer Simplicien und Stucken der Artznei... Alles über vorige Edition...gemehrt. Frankfurt: Christian Egenolff, (1550). Folio, 302 x 197 mm., contemporary limp vellum, remains of ties, quite worn and soiled, tears at head of upper joint and to turn-ins, lacking final blank leaf, repaired 3-inch tear to F2, C2-6 and D1-2 torn along lower gutter margin, occasional short marginal tears, dampstaining to first dozen leaves and occasionally elsewhere,some light foxing. Title with two woodcuts, an interior scene of a distillery at top, at bottom a larger cut of a garden scene with vignettes representing the uses of herbs (both reprinted from the 1536 edition) approximately 708 text woodcuts of plants, animals, distilling apparatus, and scenes of rural activities, of various sizes. Nissen 1669;.
Very rare first edition of this expanded version of Rösslin's compilation of herbals, illustrated with over twice as many woodcuts as the 1535 edition and its reprints. Nissen lists 4 later editions reprinting this expanded version. The appearance of at least 11 editions of Rösslin's compilation over a period of 35 years and the well-worn state of the few surviving copies of these editions attest to their immense usefulness for a public in need of an affordable encyclopaedic guide to home remedies. The woodcuts, copied from various sources and used throughout Egenolff's many botanical editions, are the work of several wood engravers, among them Hans Sebald Beham (cf. Nissen, who details the sources of the illustrations).
Provenance: Ink-stencilled monogram DE on title; a few 18th-century German marginal notes -- Albertus de Küffer, S.M. E. Pragenae Canonius, 20th-century inkstamp on title and 2 text leaves -- Kenneth K. Mackenzie; Horticultural Society of New York, bookplate and blindstamp.
Very rare first edition of this expanded version of Rösslin's compilation of herbals, illustrated with over twice as many woodcuts as the 1535 edition and its reprints. Nissen lists 4 later editions reprinting this expanded version. The appearance of at least 11 editions of Rösslin's compilation over a period of 35 years and the well-worn state of the few surviving copies of these editions attest to their immense usefulness for a public in need of an affordable encyclopaedic guide to home remedies. The woodcuts, copied from various sources and used throughout Egenolff's many botanical editions, are the work of several wood engravers, among them Hans Sebald Beham (cf. Nissen, who details the sources of the illustrations).
Provenance: Ink-stencilled monogram DE on title; a few 18th-century German marginal notes -- Albertus de Küffer, S.M. E. Pragenae Canonius, 20th-century inkstamp on title and 2 text leaves -- Kenneth K. Mackenzie; Horticultural Society of New York, bookplate and blindstamp.