314 AsTER History; Von MEGENBERG 
name and had briefly collated its plant chapters with their source 
in De Cantiprato, a source revealed shortly before by Echard; 
but it remained for Dr. Franz Pfeiffer, in 1861, to make the his- 
tory of its author clear, in the introduction to his reprint of the 
Buch der Natur of that year. 
Conrad von Megenberg * wrote in a Bavarian dialect, with Aus- 
trian forms ; Pfeiffer's edition giving in 1861 the first opportunity 
for critical study of the Bavarian dialect of the 14th century. 
The nineteen books of De Cantiprato are in Conrad rearranged 
in 8; the book on herbs becomes book V, and the two books on 
trees are united as book IV. Conrad also made many additions, 
having 173 plant-chapters against De Cantiprato’s 114; of these 
84 are of trees, and 89 of herbs, from Absinthium to Zuccara'and 
Zizania, occupying pages 380-430 of Pfeiffer’s edition. Like its 
source, it is more a work on animals than on plants. 
Some of Conrad’s additions to his author are introduced by the 
phrase ch Megenberger waiz wol, “ I, Megenberger, know well” 
as of barley, daz rokkenkorn; of arum, his daszig ; etc. 
Traces of his early home at Erfurt survive in his mention of 
Scandix and “Eleborus” as common there: and of his life at 
Paris in his mention of “ Portulaca” and ‘ Orpinum”’ as found 
there ; together with his reference to the comet * he saw there, in 
1337 (bk. 2, c.11) and tothe arum + which grew in his professor's 
garden. He also refers to a death from Boletus poisoning while he 
lived at Vienna. t 
1352, or later, his ** Oconomica,”’ concerning the regimen of the Court, etc. 
1354, his “* 7ractatus pro Romana ecclesia et pontifice Joanne XXII. contra Wil- 
helmum Occam,”’ 
, a ** Chronicon magnum,’’? a MS. which seems lost. 
German land, and there had been many houses wrecked [by it] through Hungary, 
Austria, Patern and along the Main and Rein.” 
ander, this plant grows best in the places to which frogs and snakes are native. ¢°” 
k ed it in his 
