University of Virginia Historical Collections at the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library

Leonhard Fuchs (1501-1566)

Leonharti Fuchsii Institutionum medicinae libri quinque…. Basileae: Per Hieronymum Gemusaeum, 1594.

Fuchs, …Institutionum medicinae libri quinque…, title page
Leonhard Fuchs. …Institutionum medicinae libri quinque….
Fuchs, …Institutionum medicinae libri quinque…, p 159
Leonhard Fuchs. …Institutionum medicinae libri quinque…. Note the worm or insect damage at the right bottom corner of page.
Fuchs, …Institutionum medicinae libri quinque…, p 289
Leonhard Fuchs. …Institutionum medicinae libri quinque…. Initial includes scene from Genesis showing Eve, Adam, and the Tree.
Fuchs, …Institutionum medicinae libri quinque…, front cover with spine
Leonhard Fuchs. …Institutionum medicinae libri quinque…. Front cover with spine.

Leonhard Fuchs, who knew the work of the ancient botanists and observed nature carefully, prepared a botanical guide that came to be a standard for precise description and accurate woodcut illustrations. They are also pleasing to the eye. He listed each plant alphabetically; named its habitat; described its form; gave its uses; and explained when it should be collected. The genus of flowering plants (Fuchsia) commemorates his name.

next author: Ambroise Paré (1510?-1590).