LEONHARD FUCHS, PHYSICIAN AND BOTANIST, 1501- 



1566. 1 



By Felix Neumann. 



(With 7 plates.) 



One of the most wonderful chapters in the history of mankind and 

 in the development of the human mind is that period of the late 

 Middle Ages, particularly the fifteenth century, which we call the 

 Renaissance, or the time of the humanists. Literary in its aspect, it 

 gave birth to the revival of learning and paved the way for the 

 modern spirit of Europe. The study of classical antiquity as dis- 

 closed in literature, art, philosophy, and science of ancient Greece and 

 Rome became the object of all scientists of that epoch and infused 

 new life into the spiritual stagnation of former centuries. 2 The in- 

 vention of printing in the middle of the fifteenth century revolu- 

 tionized and facilitated the dissemination of knowledge ; the discovery 

 of a new continent near the close of that century enlarged the 

 geographical and spiritual horizon and opened unlimited perspectives 

 to the human mind. This was the foundation on which learning; in 

 the sixteenth century was built, and with this begins our modern 

 history. 



Humanism originated in Italy and spread slowly over Europe. In 

 Germany it took root about the end of the fifteenth century, and it 

 reached its zenith in the first two decades of the sixteenth century 

 so that Ulrich von Hutten enthusiastically exclaimed: 



The mind is awakening, arts and science are flourishing. Oh, century, what 

 pleasure to live in thee ! 3 



The study of classical antiquity naturally manifested itself in 

 the prevalence of philological studies, and stamped all investigations 

 in the various branches of science of that epoch. No other branches 



1 Read before the Society of Medical History of Chicago, Jan. 15, 1917. 



2 Voigt, Georg. Die Weiderbelebung des klassischen Altertums oder das erste Jahr- 

 hundert des Humanisnnis. 2 Bde. 3. Aufl., besorgt von M: Lohnerdt Berlin, G. 

 Reimer, 1S93. 



3 " seculum ! O literae ! Juvat vivere . . . Vigent studia. floront ingenia." — Ulrichs 

 von Hutten Scbriften, hrsg. von Eduard Booking. Epistola ad Bilibaldum Firckheymer, 

 25 Oct. 1518. Bd. I, p. 217. Leipzig, B. G. Teubner, 1859. 



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