Leonhart Fuchs
Leonhart Fuchs | |
|---|---|
 Portrait by Heinrich Füllmaurer, Tübingen, 1541 | |
| Born | 17 January 1501 |
| Died | 10 May 1566 (aged 65) Tübingen, Duchy of Württemberg, Holy Roman Empire |
| Education | University of Erfurt University of Ingolstadt (M.D., 1524) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Botany |
| Institutions | University of Tübingen |
| Notable students | Johann Bauhin |
Leonhart Fuchs (German: [ˈfʊks]; 17 January 1501 – 10 May 1566),[1] sometimes spelled Leonhard Fuchs,[2] was a German physician and botanist. His chief notability is as the author of a large book about plants and their uses as medicines, a herbal, which was first published in 1542 in Latin. It has about 500 accurate and detailed drawings of plants, which were printed from woodcuts. The drawings are the book's most notable advance on its predecessors.[3] Although drawings had been used in other herbal books, Fuchs' book proved and emphasized high-quality drawings as the most telling way to specify what a plant name stands for.
The botanical genus Fuchsia is named in his honour and consequently the colour fuchsia.
Biography[edit]
Fuchs was born in 1501 in Wemding in the Duchy of Bavaria. After attending a school in Heilbronn, Fuchs enrolled at the University of Erfurt.[4] In 1521 he became Magister Artium at the University of Ingolstadt, and received his medical doctorate there in 1524.[1]
From 1524 to 1526, he practised as a doctor in Munich, until he received a chair of medicine at the University of Ingolstadt in 1526. From 1528 to 1531, he was the personal physician of Georg, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach in Ansbach.[1]
Fuchs was called to Tübingen by Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg in 1533 to help in reforming the University of Tübingen in the spirit of humanism. He created its first medicinal garden in 1535 and served as chancellor seven times, spending the last thirty-one years of his life as professor of medicine. Fuchs died in Tübingen in 1566.[1] For the 500th anniversary of his birth, a glass and steel pavilion was opened in 2001 in the Botanischer Garten der Universität Tübingen.[5]
Scientific views[edit]
Like his medieval predecessors and his contemporaries, Fuchs was heavily influenced by the three Greek and Roman writers on medicine and materia medica, Dioscorides, Hippocrates, and Galen.[6]: 419–420 He wanted to fight the Arab hegemony in medicine, as it had been transmitted by the Medical School of Salerno, and to "return" to the Greek authors.[1][6]: 421 But he saw the importance of practical experience as well and offered botanical field days for the students, where he demonstrated the medicinal plants in situ.[citation needed] He founded one of the first German botanical gardens.[7]
Eponymy (proper name)[edit]
Fuchs' name is preserved by the plant Fuchsia,[8] discovered in the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean in 1696/97 by the French scientist and Minim monk Charles Plumier. He published the first description of "Fuchsia triphylla, flore coccineo" in 1703. The dye fuchsine (rosaniline hydrochloride) is named after the flower, and thus, the color fuchsia is indirectly named after Fuchs. The dye was given the name of fuchsine in France by its original manufacturer Renard frères et Franc because its color was similar to color of flowers of certain Fuchsia species, as well as the fact that Renard in French and Fuchs in German both mean fox.[9] Fuchs is also recognised in the specific epithet of the a plant widespread over Europe and northern Asia: the common spotted orchid, Dactylorhiza fuchsii.
Publications[edit]
Leonhart Fuchs wrote more than 50 books and polemics. Fuchs's books on the anatomy of the eye and its diseases were among the standard references on this subject during this period.
- Errata recentiorum medicorum (Errors of recent doctors) (Hagenau, 1530), his first publication, in which he argued for the use of "simples" (herbs) rather than the noxious "compounds" of arcane ingredients concocted in medieval medicine.
- Alle Kranckheyt der Augen (All diseases of the eye) (1539)
De Historia Stirpium Commentarii Insignes[edit]
De historia is Fuchs' major work, first appearing in Latin in 1542, and being rapidly translated into other languages. Although the text is largely borrowed from earlier authors, and is not based on any system of classification, with its 512 plates it set a new standard in botanical illustration.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e Rath, Gernot (1961), "Fuchs, Leonhart", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 5, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 681–682; (full text online)
- ^ See for example
- von Sachs, Julius (1890). History of Botany (1530–1860). Translated by Garnsey, Henry E. F. Oxford at the Clarendon Press. p. 13.
- Vines, Sydney Howard (1913). "Robert Morison 1620–1683 and John Ray 1627–1705". In Oliver, Francis Wall (ed.). Makers of British botany. Cambridge University Press. p. 9.
- ^ The Great Herbal of Leonard Fuchs, by Frederick G. Meyer, et al., year 1999, volume one page 11.
- ^ "Leonhart Fuchs". Iowa State University. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
- ^ Schmolke, Birgit (2007). "Fuchsienpavillon". Architektur neues Baden-Württemberg. Braun. p. 149. ISBN 9783938780121.
- ^ a b Kusukawa, Sachiko (1997). "Leonhart Fuchs on the Importance of Pictures". Journal of the History of Ideas. 58 (3): 403–427. doi:10.2307/3653907. JSTOR 3653907. PMID 11619413.
- ^ "Leonhart Fuchs". The Three Founders of Botany. Iowa State University. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
- ^ "Book of the Week – De Historia Stirpivm Commentarii Insignes…". University of Utah. 21 May 2013. Retrieved 1 October 2013.
- ^ Répertoire de Pharmacie (in French). Paris: M. Bouchardat. 1861. pp. 62.
- ^ IPNI. L.Fuchs.
External links[edit]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leonhart Fuchs. |
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
| Art research institutes | |
| Biographical dictionaries | |
| Scientific databases | |
| Other | |
