Naturalis historiae opus novum : in quo tractatur de natura et viribus arborum, fruticum, herbarum, Animantiumque terrestrium, uolatilium & aquatilium … : the most important mediaeval treatise on agronomy

Christian Egenolff, Frankfurt, 1551. Folio, (330 x 240mm),[18], 352, [1] with over 900 woodcut illustrations. A very attractive binding in contemporary panelled calf, blind tooled borders with arabesque designs, spine gilt in compartments, leather gilt title-pieces.

Adam Lonicer (Lonitzer) (1528-1586) had studied in Marburg and Mainz before becoming professor of mathematics at the Lutheran University of Marburg. It was there that he received his medical degree and he later pursued a medical career as the city physician of Frankfurt. In 1554 (the same year as he received his medical degree), he married Magdalena Egenolph, the daughter of the controversial Frankfurt printer Christian Egenolph, who had been involved in one of the first copyright disputes – in this case over Egenolph's pirating of an edition of Brunfels' Herbarum vivae eicones. Figala (1973) points out that Egenolph specialized in the publication of herbals and whether it was a result of this or his own professional interests, Lonicer decided to produce one of his own. Lonicer's herbal proved to be the great printing success of the Egenolph firm: though by no means the most innovative of its kind, it proved to be one of the most enduring of all, and editions of it were still being produced in Germany in 1783.

As the title makes clear, Lonicer's herbal did not solely focus on plants but also included some descriptions of animals, birds, fish and metals: The divisions within the book mirrored those in the book of Genesis and it is therefore not surprising that Lonicer began his section on plants with the apple tree. His text was not original but was a version of the Ortus sanitatis, a medieval text which had been translated in the fifteenth century by a previous city physician at Frankfurt, Johann de Cuba.

Lonicer's edition was not Egenolph's first venture with this text – he had previously published a version of it by yet another city physician of Frankfurt, Eucharius Rösslin, but it was his son-in-law's which was to prove the most effective. Just as Brunfels and Fuchs had produced the German names for plants, so too did Lonicer.

In Lonicer's Naturae is depicted Paeonia officinalis or the peony, a perennial herbaceous plant, a member of the Ranunuculaceae family, which has been used for medicinal purposes for over 2000 years. Called after the Greek god Paeon or Paieon, the peony was probably the plant Paeon used to heal the war god Ares, wounded by the Greek, Diomedes, in Book V of the Iliad. Used by Hippocrates for treating epilepsy, Pliny describes both its magical and medical use: like the mandrake it was supposed to be only uprooted at night and had many mystical associations with the moon; medicinally it was used against insanity though according to John Gerard, Dioscorides recommended it for labour pains and childbirth while Galen added that it was useful in jaundice and kidney disorders. The roots and seeds were used with a necklace of single peony roots being particularly recommended for children to prevent convulsions, a practice which seems to have continued up to at least the end of the nineteenth century in West Sussex. Herbalists divided it into two species, male and female: the male was larger with less divided foliage and appearing to have stronger powers was preferred in most remedies. A recent review (Ahmad et al. 2012) of its medicinal uses and active constituents notes its use in Arab, Indian and Chinese medicine and in homeopathy and references some animal studies suggesting antihypertensive effects. However, severe adverse reactions have also been reported: thus the role of Paeonia officinalis L., if any, remains to be scientifically proven.

Lonicerus was the son of Johann Lonitzer, a philologist and professor at Marburg. He received his baccalaureate in 1540 and his master's degree in 1545. In the latter year he began teaching at the Gymnasium in Frankfurt, but he returned to Marburg of disorders caused by war. He studied medicine there and later in Mainz, where he was a private tutor in the home of a Dr. Osterod. In 1553 Lonicerus became professor of mathematics at Marburg, and in 1554 he received his medical degree. Also in 1554 he married the daughter of the Frankfurt printer Egenolph Magdalena; and following the death of Graff, the municipal physician of Frankfurt, in that year, he was appointed to the post. Lonicerus worked as a proofreader in the printing shop of his father-in-law, who specialized in the revision of old herbals (for example, those of Eucharius Röslin and Dioscorides).

Lonicerus wrote extensively in many fields, including botany, arithmetic, history of medicine, and medicine, particularly public health books such as regulations for controlling the plague (1572) and regulations for midwives (1573). His herbals were so influential that in 1783 at Augsburg—almost 250 years after the first edition—KreuterBuch was still published. In addition, Linnaeus immortalized his name in the genus Lonicera.

Lonicerus based the first, Latin edition of his herbal on Röslin's revision of the Onus sanitatis (1551), which contained many illustrations, most of them borrowed from Bock. The popularity of Lonicerus' herbal is shown by the many, steadily enlarged editions he brought out. Although the provision of plant names in German, Latin, Greek, French, Italian, and Spanish lends the herbal a scientific air, the inclusion of fabulous stories betrays its late medieval character. (For example, the formation of bezoars is attributed to the hardening of the tears of stags!) The herbal also lists animal and metallic medicaments and contains one of the earliest descriptions of local flora. In addition, the book distinguishes the deciduous trees from the conifers; the group composed of the yew, the cypress, the juniper, and the savin is contrasted with that containing the spruce and the fir. Lonicerus' son Johann Adam (b. 1557) edited his father's writings

BOUND WITH

CRESCENTIUS (PETRUS DE)

De omnibus agriculturae partivus, & de plantarum animaliusq; natura & utilitate lib. XII. non minus philosophiae & medicinae, quam oeconomiae, agricolationis, pastionumque studiosis utiles, woodcut device on title and final leaf, dedication within woodcut architectural border, over 180 woodcut illustrations in the text, the printer's device

Basel, Henricus Petrus, 1548

A well-illustrated edition of Ruralia commoda, the most important mediaeval treatise on agronomy, the first printed edition of which appeared in 1471. "The woodcuts of plants are finely cut, delicate and lively, and much in the character of the best done by Brunfels and Fuchs, though a good deal smaller" (Hunt).

Pietro de' Crescenzi was born in Bologna in about 1235; the only evidence for his date of birth is the annotation "septuagenarian" in the Ruralia commoda, dated with some certainty between 1304 and 1309. He was educated at the University of Bologna in logic, medicine, the natural sciences and law, but did not take his doctorate. Crescenzi practiced as a lawyer and judge from about 1269 until 1299, travelling widely in Italy in the course of his work.

In January 1274 he married Geraldina de' Castagnoli, with whom he had at least five children. She died in or shortly after December 1287. In January 1289 he married Antonia de' Nascentori, with whom he also had several children.

After his retirement in 1298 he divided his time between Bologna and his country estate, the Villa dell'Olmo outside the walls of Bologna. During this time he wrote the Ruralia commoda, an agricultural treatise based largely on classical and medieval sources, as well as his own experience as a landowner. It is not known when de' Crescenzi died. His last will is dated 23 June 1320; a legal document dated 25 February 1321 describes him as dead, at the age of almost ninety.

The Ruralia commoda, sometimes known as the Liber ruralium commodorum ("book of rural benefits"), was completed sometime between 1304 and 1309, and was dedicated to Charles II of Naples King Charles V of France ordered a French translation in 1373. After circulating in numerous manuscript copies, Crescenzi's treatise became the first printed modern text on agriculture when it was published in Augsburg by Johann Schussler in 1471. Some 57 editions in Latin, Italian, French, and German appeared during the following century, as did two editions in Polish.

The structure and content of the Ruralia commoda is substantially based on the De re rustica of Lucius Collumella written in the first century AD, even though this work was not available to de' Crescenzi, and was known only in fragments until a complete version was discovered in a monastery library of Pollio Bracciolini during the Council of Constance, between 1414 and 1418. While de' Crescenzi cites Columella twelve times, all the citations are indirect, and taken from the Opus agriculturae of Palladius. Like the De re rustica of Columella, the Ruralia commoda is divided into 12 parts.

Adams C2930; Hunt 58