Leonhart Fuchs, although an uncommonly known scientist, was critical to the advancement of modern medicine and botany. Fuchs, a German botanist, physicist, and one of the three fathers of botany, wrote more than 50 books, including the De Historia Stirpium, a collection of more than 500 medicinal plants, also created successful treatment of plague victims, and is believed to have created the first botanical garden, with the flower Fuschia named after him. Born in Bavaria, Germany at the peak of the German Renaissance, Fuchs was a skilled child. By the time he was around the age of 12, he was enrolled at the University of Erfurt and graduated with a Bachelors of Arts. In 1524, he became Master of Arts in Ingolstadt and received Doctor of…show more content… His most famous, and well known, De Historia Stirpium, or New Herbal in English, published in 1542. The book contains 497 plants, more than 100 of which was illustrated for the first time, including New World plants such as Maize, Kidney Bean, Tobacco, and more, with 500+ illustrations. All of the plants were carefully alphabetized in Greek, as botanical Latin didn't exist then. He did not use the typical method of classification and it took more than 30 years to compile the book. To aid the process, Fuchs hired three people. Albrecht Meyer, who painted watercolor illustrations, Heinrich Fullmaurer, who transferred the illustrations to wood blocks, and Veit Rudolph Speckle, who cut the wood blocks and printed the woodcut illustrations. During Fuchs’ lifetime, New Herbal was reprinted 39 times, in several languages, including Latin, Spanish, German, French, and Dutch. It was only translated into English 20 years after his death. With the publication of New Herbal, proper identification of plants was widespread, although there are a few mistakes in the book, it was much better than the “crude and limited” identification of plants prior. As more people would be treated with the proper plant rather than a much different resulting look-alike, humankind took a large step toward our modern
