CUBE, JOHANN VON (JOHANNES DE CUBA, JOHANN WONNECKE VON KAUB)

Gart der Gesuntheit. Begin (fol. 2 recto:) Offt und vil habe ich by mir selbst betracht die wu(n)dersame werck des schepfers der natuer.(ibid. verso:) Vnd nenne diss buch zu latin Ortus Sanitatis. uff teutsch ein gart der gesuntheit. In welchem garten man findet.ccc.und xxxv. kreuter mit anderen creaturen krafft und dogenden.und gemeinlich in den apoteken zu artzney gebrucht werden un der dissen by den vierdhalp hudert mit iren farben und gestalt als sie syn hier erschynen.(fol. 74 verso:) versuecht an vil enden von mir Meister Johan von Cube.

      - (Mainz, Peter Schoeffer, 1485). (Colophon:) Disser Harbarius is zu mencz gedruckt.uff dem xxviii dage des mercz MCCCCLXXXV. Folio. (27,5x20,5 cm.). Rebound recently in a fine pastiche of full brown morocco with 3 broad raised bands on back, rectangular blindtoolings to covers, imitating a renaissance-binding.342 leaves of 359. No signatures and leaves unnumbered. (Lacking fol. 1-3,8,11,12-14,148-49,208,210-11,356-59). All lacking leaves supplied in facsimile and toned to age. With 378 (plants 357, animals 11) wood-cuts in the text (full to one-third page) in full original hand-colouring (fol. 2 verso: "hudert mit iren farben"). 4 ms. leaves in old hand withbound (indexes and entries), in contemporary hand on fol. 4: "Meister Johan von Cube". On fol. 232 old owner name: "Johannes Ehrardus 1628" and fol. 262: "A.K.JE. Anno 1590 ?"A few leaves with ink-stains. 4 leaves torn with some loss (supplied in facsimile). Some scattered marginalia in ink in at least 3 different old hands. Some finger-soiling to lower right corners, some but not many leaves with dampstains to upper margin. Some scattered brownspots, a few other smaller paper-repairs and 5 leaves with a small hole. With the illustration of "Tapsia" on fol. 314 in upright position, a variant described by Klebs. Fol. 317 recto & verso with a long commentary in contemporary hand. The hand-colouring well preserved and printed on well preserved thick paper. The extremely scarce first edition of GART DER GESUNDHEIT, a truly remarkable book, not only in the sense of its content as "a landmark in the history of botanical illustration"(Hunt), but also with its position in the history of printing, as it was produced by Gutenberg's head assistant (Meisterschüler), PETER SCHOEFFER in Mainz, in the Gutenberg premises which were taken over by Schoeffer and Fust. The book has been called THE MOST IMPORTANT MEDIEVAL WORK ON NATURAL HISTORY WITH ILLUSTRATIONS, and it is the first Herbal at all written and printed in the vernacular. Claus Nissen (in BBI) describes the publication of it as a decisive turning-point in botanical illustration ("das (es) in der botanischen Illustrationsgeschichte ein ganz entscheidenden Wendepunkt bedeutet").GART DER GESUNDHEIT takes up a unique position in the family of Herbals or Hortus, which in the sense of the fifteenth century is not a botanical treatise, but a medical book intended for both the layman and the physician. It calls attention to the valuable herbs free to all, and similarly also to remedies derived from animals and minerals, a popular medicine book but in no way popular in the modern sense, as it served also in the technical education at the time. The prototype of the Hortus-family is HERBARIUS (Latin), also published by Schoeffer in 1484, the GART, though based on the Herbarius, "is a new creation in the vernacular, distinguished by original concepts, both textually and artistically, while the Hortus proper, combining both the virtues and vices of the former, is more ambitious in scope, more complex because of added material - an elaboration of the Herbarius, but less lucid and original than the Gart der Gesundheit" (Klebs).The GART inspired several contemporary printing presses immediately and gave rise to at least 14 other incunabula editions of Latin Herbarius (none in folio, mostly in quarto) and none with the GART- illustrations, but with copies in smaller design. Secondly, the 15 famous copied editions with the same title and also in the vernacular, starting already the same year with the fine incunabula from Augsburg, printed by Schönsperger 1485 (Schönsperger 1486, 1487, 1488, Dickmut, Ulm 1487, Grüninger, Strassburg c. 1488, Basel, Furter, c. 1490 etc.) Their cuts are copies from the GART. - The last member of the family, the HORTUS (Sanitatis or Ortus), sometimes called "the larger Hortus" - GART "the smaller Hortus", was inspired and largely derived from the GART and it has 5 incunabula editions, among these the famous Meydenbach-e