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The Colouring of Sixteenth-Century Herbals

1940; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 145; Issue: 3682 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/145803a0

1476-4687

Agnes Arber,

Horticultural and Viticultural Research

IN many copies of sixteenth-century herbals the woodcuts are coloured, but we have little direct information as to when, and under what conditions, the painting was done. For this reason it may be worth while to direct attention to certain points which seem hitherto to have escaped notice in connexion with the colouring of one of the most beautiful of these works—“De historia stirpium” by Leonhart Fuchs, published by Isingrin at Basle in 1542. In the description of maize (Cap. cccxviii) the following words occur: “Haec [pictura] in una vagina quatuor tibi granorum colores monstrat, cum tamen quaevis unius duntaxat colons grana, nempe aut lutea, aut purpurea, aut rufa, aut subcandida omnia habeat. Quod nos, ne aliquem pictura deciperet, monendum esse duximus.” This careful explanation that the grains are indicated in four colours-yellow, purple, reddish, and whitish-in one cob, though these variants would not, in fact, be found together, shows clearly that coloured copies must have formed an integral part of the edition, for Fuchs's words would be meaningless if the whole edition had been issued uncoloured.