VII] 



Hieronymus Bock 



185 



(1546) which was the next important, illustrated botanical 

 work to appear after Fuchs' herbal. An examination of the 

 wood-cuts in Bock's herbal seems, however, to show that 

 his illustrations have more claim to originality than is 

 often supposed. The figures of Wintergreen (Text-fig. 90), 

 Moonwort (Text-fig. 91), and Strawberry (Text-fig. 27), 

 here reproduced, are markedly different from those of 

 Fuchs, although, in the case of the first, Fuchs' wood-cut 

 may have been used to some extent. The artist employed 

 by Bock, as he himself tells us, was David Kandel, a young 

 lad, the son of a burgher of Strasburg. His drawings are 

 often of interest, apart from their botanical aspect. For 

 instance, the picture of an Oak tree includes, appropriately 



Text-fig. 93. " Fungi " = Toadstools [Mattioli, Commentarii, 1560]. Reduced. 



enough, a swine-herd with his swine, the Chestnut tree 

 gives occasion for a hedgehog (Text-fig. 92) and, in another 

 case, a monkey and several rabbits are introduced, one 

 of the latter holding a shield bearing the artist's initials. 

 The wood-cut of Trapa, the Bull-nut (Text-fig. 29), is 

 a highly imaginative production which clearly shows that 

 neither the artist nor the author had ever seen the plant 

 in question. 



In general character, Bock's illustrations are neater and 

 more conventional than those of Brunfels or Fuchs. The 

 crowns of the trees are often made practically square so as 



