BOCK Hieronymus De stirpium, maxime earum quae in Germania nostra nascuntur, usitatis, nomenclaturis, propriisque diferentiis neque non temperaturis ac facultatibus Commentariorum libri tres… interprete Davide Kybero… His accesserunt praefationes duae : altera Conradi Gesneri… adjectus est Benedicti Textoris Segusiani de Stirpium differentiis, ex Dioscoride secundum locos communes.

Durling 597; Hunt 66; Nissen BBI, 183; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 576; Wellcome 911; Pritzel, 867.

First Latin edition of bock’s famous herbal, with 38 woodcuts newly added, and the first edition with the additions by Gesner and Tessier.

The first illustrated German edition of Bock, was published in 1546, and contained 468 woodcuts (enlarged to 530 in the 1551 edition) by David Kandel. Kandel for the most part based his woodcuts on those of Fuchs and Brunfels, but some one hundred are entirely original, and include several with charming genre scenes accompanying the plant depictions, many with his initials.

This edition is the most comprehensive and richly illustrated, featuring a portrait of the author and 568 woodcuts within the text.
Bock was one of the ‘fathers of German botany’, forming part of the triumvirate that included Brunfels and Fuchs. As a botanist, Bock was clearly their superior. He was not bound by the classical authority of Dioscorides and Pliny, and could therefore recognise new plants without his perception being clouded by supposed classical precedents. He was a pioneer of descriptive botany, providing a detailed account of the development of each plant through its various stages of growth, and was the first to address plant communities, thus foreshadowing the science of ecology. Gesner’s contribution to this edition comprises a preface to the work and a 50-page bibliography of botanical authors, thus constituting the first botanical bibliography.

A very fine copy in its contemporary blind-stamped binding, with a few wormholes on the final pages. Signatures on the title page (including one dated 1556); stamp of the Gloucestershire Library.