Ortus sanitatis
Ortus sanitatis is a medieval herbal and materia medica printed in Strasbourg by Johann Prüss around 1500, compiled for physicians and apothecaries who needed to identify plants, animals and minerals for remedies. The woodcuts show plants with roots, leaves and fruit, plus animals such as ducks and birds, drawn in bold black outline with rough hatched shading and set beside dense black-letter text. A designer might take their simple, legible contour line, stylised botanical forms and the woodcut-and-type page layouts as models for vintage natural history.
