2i6 Signatures and Astrology [ch. 



published by Leonhardt Thurneisser zum Thurn. This 

 writer, who was possessed of undoubted talent, was also an 

 adventurer and charlatan of the first order. He was born 

 at Basle in 1530. He learned his father's craft, that of a 

 goldsmith, and is said to have also helped a local doctor to 

 collect and prepare herbs, and to have been employed to 

 read aloud to him from the works of Paracelsus. His 

 career in Basle came to an untimely end, for he seems to 

 have tried to retaliate on some customers who treated him 

 badly, by selling them gilded lead as a substitute for gold, 

 and consequently had to flee the country when the fraud 

 was discovered. He travelled widely, making an especial 

 study of mining. He had an adventurous and varied life, 

 sometimes in poverty and obscurity, sometimes in wealth 

 and renown. 



During Thurneisser's most influential period he lived in 

 Berlin, practising medicine, making amulets, talismans, and 

 secret remedies which yielded large profits. He also 

 published astrological calendars, cast nativities, and supple- 

 mented his income by the practice of usury. At this time 

 he owned a printing press, and employed a large staff which 

 included artists and engravers. Later on, he was pursued 

 by a succession of misfortunes, including accusations 

 of magic and witchcraft, which compelled him to leave 

 Germany. Little is known of the latter part of his life ; he 

 died in the last decade of the sixteenth century. 



Leonhardt Thurneisser projected a great botanical work 

 in ten books. The first was published in Berlin in 1 578, but 

 the others never appeared. The title was 'Historia unnd 

 Beschreibung Influentischer, Elementischer und Natiir- 

 licher Wirckungen, Aller fremden unnd heimischen Erdge- 

 wechssen.' A Latin version of this book, under the name, 

 ' Historia sive descriptio plantarum,' was published in the 

 same year. This first instalment deals only with the Um- 

 bellifers, which were regarded as under the dominion of the 

 Sun and Mars. The nomenclature and the figures are not 

 clear enough to allow individual species to be recognised. 

 Each is drawn in an ellipse surrounded by an ornamental 

 border, which contains mystical inscriptions denoting the 

 properties of the plant (e.g. Plate XX). In some cases 

 diagrams are given, showing the conjunction of the 



