Passing reference was made in Jaap Harskamp’s post on sixteenth-century Dutch botanical publishing to Konrad von Megenberg’s Buch der Natur, a general work on natural history containing some of the earliest printed references to plants. There were six incunabula editions of the text, the first printed by Johann Bämler in Augsburg and dated 30 October 1475. Cambridge University Library does not have any pre-1501 edition of Buch der Natur, though we do have two 19^th century editions of the text (MA.5.55 ; MA.5.76), which do not reproduce the illustrations. A modern critical edition is also in process (746:01.c.25.57). This is a publishing enterprise of long duration, keeping librarians on their toes and making for slight complications in processing. Volume 2 (the text) was published in 2003, but the publisher’s website indicates that the project is still on-going, with an introduction (v. 1), a commentary (v. 3) and a dictionary (v. 4) to appear “at a later stage”. Continue reading “Early herbals from Rome, Mainz and Lübeck” →