Johannes Hartlieb's Book of Herbs (1462)

https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/hartlieb-book-of-herbs/

by benbreen • 2 years ago

113 22 2 years ago

publicdomainreview.org

COGlory• 2 years ago

How could Hartlieb have illustrated a potato or Jerusalem artichoke in 1462?

Anyways, original text is here:

https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_07492/?st=gallery

throwup2383• 2 years ago

It’s a bad translation using a more modern meaning of “erdapfel” instead of a medieval one. Could easily be a very local colloquialism instead of a widespread name.

To my eye it looks like a melon or gourd plant. It’s definitely not a tuber (the next drawing shows an underground bulb).

fuzztester5• 2 years ago

Some deductions:

>potato

grows in the earth

erdapfel

I know a few French words, so I know that potato in French is pomme de terre (fruit of the earth)

I am learning German.

I know that apfel means apple in German.

I know that Erdbeere means strawberry in German.

beere sounds like berry.

straw sometimes lies on the earth (after it is cut).

I just Googled for the word earth in German and it shows erde.

so it seems like erdapfel means "earth apple", which sounds like the French "fruit of the earth".

how's that for a bit(te) of logical deduction?

I feel a bit(te) like a human Prolog interpret-a.

now I'll go and finish my Bier(e), which inspired me-a.

;)

aftoprokrustes• 2 years ago

If I trust Wikipedia, even today the term "Erdapfel" is used to refer to topinambour in some regions: "Mancherorts in Baden wird Topinambur als Erdapfel bezeichnet." https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topinambur#:~:text=Mancherorts....

Topinambour would have been available in the middle ages. Confusion with potato by the modern reader is understandable, as a topinambour does look similar to a potato, and some German dialects (e.g. Swiss dialects) name potatoes "Erdapfel".

OJFord• 2 years ago

Wiktionary says of Erdapfel (which OP admittedly with '?' wasn't sure how to translate):

From Middle High German ertapfel, erdapfel, ertöpfel, erdöpfel, ertaphel (“mandrake, cucumber, pumpkin, melon”), from Old High German erdapful, erdaphul (“pumpkin, squash, melon”)

hunterdukes• 2 years ago

Hello, OP here. We didn’t yet have access to a proper critical commentary and did our best with the image captions, although our best was a rather poor job in this case — much trickier than anticipated. I went to the Berlin Staatsbibliothek today for research and new captions will go live tomorrow. (Although even the experts are confused as to what the “Jerusalem artichoke” image is supposed to be — they suggest watermelon or cucumber.)

Goodbichon• 2 years ago

I see they have updated the post now, showing English translations for all the images. The "erdapfel" one is now displaying as "Possibly watermelon or cucumber": https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/hartlieb-book-of-h...

complaintdept• 2 years ago

I wish they'd sell prints of these

fuzztester5• 2 years ago

go complain about it to the dept., maybe they will, complaintdept :)

ryanmcbride3• 2 years ago

They're public domain and the images in the article are pretty high res I don't think anything is stopping you from getting a print made

mandeepj2• 2 years ago

I don't think anything is stopping you from getting a print made

Only if you know German or have enough time to translate individual images to your language

Johannes Hartlieb's Book of Herbs (1462)

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