66 The Botanical Renaissance [ch. 



he passed from the position of pupil to that of teacher, and 

 expounded Dioscorides at the University of Wittenberg. 

 He travelled widely in search of plants, and visited many 

 of the savants of the period. He is known to have made 

 a stay at Tubingen, and it is highly probable that he became 

 personally acquainted with Leonhard Fuchs. 



Cordus had always longed to see, under their native 

 skies, the plants about which the ancients had written, and, 

 in fulfilment of this dream, he undertook a long excursion 

 into Italy. He visited many of the towns, amongst others 

 Padua, Bologna, Florence and Siena, travelling partly on 

 foot and partly on horseback, and generally accompanied 

 by his friend Hieronymus Schreiber. The journey was 

 a very trying one to men accustomed to a more northerly 

 climate. Wild and difficult country had to be traversed 

 in the height of summer, and the exposure and fatigue led 

 to a tragic conclusion. Cordus was injured by a kick from 

 a horse, which brought on a fever, and his companions 

 had great difficulty in getting him as far as Rome. He 

 rallied, however, and his friends were deceived into the 

 belief that he was on the road to recovery. They even 

 thought it safe to leave him, while they made an excursion 

 to Naples, but he did not survive until their return. His 

 fate, like that of Keats, was to see Rome and die. 



None of the botanical works of Valerius Cordus were 

 published during his life-time, but his commentaries on 

 Dioscorides and his ' Historia stirpium ' were edited by 

 Gesner after his death. The great merit of the ' Historia' 

 lies in the vividness of the descriptions. The author seems 

 to have examined the plants for their own sake — not merely 

 in the interest of the arts of healing. 



Cordus did noteworthy service to medicine, however, 

 for when he passed through Nuremberg on his travels he 

 was able to lay before the physicians of that town a 

 collection of medical recipes, chiefly selected from earlier 

 writings. This work, which had for some time been in use 

 in Saxony in manuscript form, was considered so valuable 

 that, after it had been examined and tested under the 

 auspices of the town council, it was published officially as 

 the Nuremberg ' Dispensatorium,' probably in 1546^ This 



1 Various dates are given by different authors for the first edition of the 



