HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 



still, ouly needing the open eye and ready mind to reap a rich 

 harvest. The invention of printing in the fifteenth century, 

 and the restless activity shown by the discoveries of new lands, 

 unimpeded by the troubled state of Europe, gave an impetus 

 to intellectual activity, which it is hard to overestimate. The 

 state of things which could tolerate the Ortiis sanitatis, and 

 similar productions, was in the end of the fifteenth century 

 now drawing to a close. In 1492, Ermolao Barbaro, or as 

 more usually written, Hermolaus Barbaras, published his 

 Castigationes plinianae, erasing from the text many of the 

 errors which had crept in during the period of darkness. 

 No longer content to receive as oracles worthy of implicit 

 belief, all statements handed down by tradition, men began 

 to look into the actual aspects of things themselves, and 

 the faculty of criticism awoke. Thus a mighty tide set in, 

 urging the learned onwards to investigate the natural objects 

 round them, or in distant lands ; curiosity once aroused, 

 became craving, and the printing press began its mission 

 of communication between kindred spirits. Brunfels was 

 the first to display the result of actual comparison of the 

 plants in the field and forest with the descriptions given by the 

 classical writers. His figures are good and characteristic, and 

 when placed side by side with the shapeless cuts of the 

 Grete Herbal, sufiiciently mark the immense stride forward 

 which had been taken. Contemporaries now seemed to press 

 forward; Euricius Cordus, Hieronymus Bock (better known 

 as Tragus), Leonhard Fuchs, Jean Ruel, or Ruellius, are 

 well-known names, and are ranked by Haller among the 

 Instauratores. Tragus and Fuchs deserve special mention, 

 on account of the wood-blocks which adorn their works; 

 those of the latter are admirably drawn, and on a large scale. 



A new era is thus led up to, well marked by being that of 

 Conrad Gesner, whose -name can never be mentioned without 

 profound respect. Methodical arrangement may be said to 



