BOCK, HIERONYMUS

Strassburg: Josias Rihel, August 28, 1595. (34 (of 36)), 470, (24). Folio, in beautiful sixteenth-century full leather binding on wood, blind-stamped foliate design, evidence of stamped leather spine label, with two brass clasps present. Illustrated by David Kandel with woodcut portrait, armorial, 570 woodcuts, five tail-pieces, contemporary hand-coloring, some cuts signed "D K" (David Kandel). Hieronymus Bock (1498-1554) is considered one of the German founding fathers of botany, who marked a transition between medieval and modern botany with an insistence upon empirical descriptions and illustrations. A physician and a priest as well, Bock describes 567 of the 6,000 species of plants and their potential pharmacological use, including, for the first time, tubers and mushrooms, in his celebrated David Kandel's detailed engravings and occasional humor through the actions of human or animal characters, such as a man forcing regurgitation beneath a Fig Tree ("feigenbaum"), which incidentally Bock recommends as an emetic. The final portion of the book, illustrated with non-botanical genre scenes, is a gastronomic treatise wherein Bock discusses the four elements and the basic production of preserved meats, cheese, wines and other foods in the "German Larder." Repair to lower right corner of some pages, consisting mainly of the first 50 and last few; dampstain pp. 135-137; brown markings to pp. 12-13; repaired tear to p. ii; a few short marginal tears; title page, a6 and ha Read more…