Eicones plantarum seu stirpium, arborum nempe, fructicum, herbarum, fructuum, lignorum, radicum, omnis generis : tam inquilinorum, quàm exoticorum : quœ partim Germania sponte producit, partim ab exteris regionibus allata in Germania plantantur : in gratiam medicinœ reique herbariœ studiosorum, in tres partes digestœ : adiecto indice gemino locupletissimo.
Francofurti ad Moenum : [N. Bassaeus], 1590.
[8], 1128, [16] p. : ill. ; 20 x 23 cm.

Call no.: QK41 .T34 1590

The "last of the botanists of the 16th century," and one of the most influential, Iacobus Theodorus (1522-1590), also known as Tabernaemontanus, produced two extensive works on botany. Educated as a physician at Padua and Montepellier, Theodorus was an associate of Hieronymus Bock and Otto Brunfels. His Neuw Kreuterbuch (1588-91), sometimes considered the most important work of botany of the 16th century, includes descriptions of numerous plants brought back to Europe from the colonization of the New World, including Indian corn and the potato. Theodorus' intention was to make knowledge about the medical uses of plants available to a wide audience, and to that end, he included an index in twelve languages that included the common, as well as learned names of plants.

Based partly upon illustrations from earlier works, the woodcuts from the Neuw Kreuterbuch were reissued in 1590, without text, as the Eicones plantarum seu stirpium. The majority of these engravings enjoyed a life long after 1590. The plates were acquired in Frankfurt by John Norton, printed to the King of England, and were reused in John Gerard's famous Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes, one of the most influential English herbals of the 17th century.