ASTER FIGUREs IN OrTUS 321 
Figures. The Ortus contains woodcuts of nearly all the plants 
described, some of which bear evidence, remarks Meyer, of having 
been “derived from those in the Circa instans of Matthaeus 
Platearius ; with others added from sketches made from nature in 
the Orient.” The woodcut for Aster shows no derivation from 
any Aster at all, but was copied or modified from an Eryngium ; 
its small stiff-borne flowers, and its few deeply-slashed leaves are 
drawn with long, sharp radiating points ; the illustrator may have 
had in his mind the stellar, but not the Attic, star. See p. 311 for 
comparison of this Eryngium figure with that in the Aggregator 
Practicus, 
The unknown author of the Ortus Sanitatis himself traces 
some of his figures to the Orient, saying in his preface that he was 
moved to write the book not only of his own purpose but by a 
certain noble lord who had travelled through ‘“ Alemannia,”’ 
Italy, Slavic lands, Aegypt,’ and Crete, ‘ who had acquired great 
knowledge concerning their rare or unknown or medicinal herbs, 
animals and minerals, and great skill in describing them, and had 
taken care that their likenesses should be figured in suitable draw- 
ings and others in colors.” Stricker judged this noble botanical 
traveller and artist or art-patron to be the Ritter Bernhard von 
Breydenbach, who was returned in Jan. 1484 to Frankfort from a 
pilgrimage to the Orient.* Meyer believes that the date of the 
Ortus is far older and the pilgrim must have been another.+ 
eek, Ge 
* Breydenbach’s Peregrinationes ad Montem Sion which ‘‘ appeared in — at 
Mentz in 1486, with woodcuts,’’ has become a collector’s rarity, a copy selling in Lon-. 
don, Nov. 1900, for 60 pounds. 
} The botancal traveller claimed by Lacroix for the end of this 15th century are 
Jean Léon, the African ; who wrote of the natural history of Egypt, Arabia, Armenia, 
and Persia, from his travels. he 
eter Martyr, ‘*Pietro Martire d’ Anghiera, on a diplomatic mission to the _ 
ed book in hand, the statements of Aristotle, Theophrastus and Dicecaiies. 
John Manardi, the doctor of Ferrara, ‘‘ herborized in Poland and Hungary. 
I Jacques D ots, surnamed Sylvius, ‘travelled all through France, Germany and 
taly, 
I 
“travelled ¢ rough France, Germany and Italy, solely to enjoy the conversation fof 
the learned,” 
