#ortus sanitatis

Improvement?

Of course, some of you might be familiar enough with the Garden of Health to think that some other illustrations are lobsters, but you would be wrong.

As anyone can see, this is an escinis, or sea urchin. Obvious! They lay bitter-tasting eggs and prevent ships from moving when they latch on to them.

Our librarians have decided, without reading any of the 16th century Latin, that this image must be attempting to portray… A monkfish.

Illustration from the Ortus Sanitatis: de herbis & plantis (1511). From the Rare Books Collection, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.

No, you’re not looking at a copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. These hand-colored woodcuts come from Hortus Sanitatis, the first printed natural history encyclopedia. While the majority of the Hortus Sanitatis deals with real creatures, the author also includes information regarding magical creatures such as the ones in the photos above.

Oooh, of course you can! Let me quickly look up some of my favorite sources...

Thomas de Cantimpré has no less than 3 unicorns covered! That's 3 times the amount of unicorns! From top to bottom, you have the monoceros, the Indian onager, and the unicorn itself.

Albertus Magnus gives us this classic animal, looking somewhat heraldic.

This unicorn from the Ortus Sanitatis, though, is rather contemplative looking. And seems rather goaty too.

The rhinoceros (karkadan) from Middle Eastern manuscripts varies a lot, sometimes clearly a rhino and sometimes more fanciful. This version is from a copy of al-Qazwini.

Jonston covers around 9 different unicorns, some of which are horny in more ways than one! (Trust me. Look them up, I've posted them before). These ones look like standard maned unicorns.

Ambroise Paré had a lot to say about unicorns (and mummies, and the plague, and anything else vaguely related to public health). Here is the pirassoipi, a two-horned unicorn (a bicorn?) from Italy

And you know what? I've been sticking to vintage illustrations but here's Rudolf Freund's spectacular historically-accurate unicorn!

Entry on arachnids, Ortus Sanitatis, 1511. Held in the Rare Books collection, State Library of Queensland.

Uh oh! Looks like bedbugs!

Ortus sanitatis, aka The Garden of Health (sometimes Hortus Sanitatis) is an early natural history encyclopedia, first published in Mainz in 1485. Our copy—the 1497, third edition—is not colored, sadly. But happily that means you can print the pages and color them yourself! The book has its fair share of whimsical woodblocks, including both real and mythical life forms, and was a guide to using natural materials for medicinal use.