Hortus Sanitatis

The Hortus Sanitatis (also written Ortus) (Latin for The Garden of Health), the first natural history encyclopaedia, was published by Jacob Meydenbach in Mainz, Germany in 1485. It describes species in the natural world along with their medicinal uses and modes of preparation. It is in part an extended Latin translation of the German Herbarius published in 1485 but, unlike that earlier work, also deals with animals, birds, fish and stones. The author does not restrict himself to dealing only with real creatures, but also includes accounts of mythical animals such as the dragon, harpy, hydra, myrmecoleon, phoenix, and zitiron. The Hortus Sanitatis was the third important herbal to be printed in Mainz before 1500. The first two were by Peter Schoeffer, his Latin Herbarius in 1484, followed by an updated and enlarged German version in 1485. The first edition of Hortus Sanitatis was printed by Jacob Meydenbach in Mainz, Germany in 1485, with a second edition in 1491 and a third in 1497. A French edition by Antoin