title page

John Gerard, artist

1545–1612

title page, 1636

Portfolio/Series title: The herball or Generall historie of plantes. Gathered by Iohn Gerarde of London Master in Chirurgerie very much enlarged and amended by Thomas Iohnson citizen and apothecarye of London.

Where object was made: Europe

Material/technique: book

Credit line: Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas, Department of Special Collections, E53; Courtesy of Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries

Accession number: EL2018.011

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Gerard’s herbal was based largely on the work of Rembert Dodoens (1517–1585), a Flemish botanist and physician. Both authors used many of the same sets of woodcut blocks to print their illustrations. This points to a key virtue of printmaking as stated by William M. Ivins, Jr.: the ability of prints to produce “exactly repeatable pictorial statements.” It was this ability that gave printed images the same level of authority as the printed word. This had an enormous impact on the sciences because scholars were no longer reliant on unique, handmade copies of images and texts.