Simon Paulli: Flora Danica Det er: Dansk Urtebog (That is: Danish Herbal). Copenhagen: Melchior Martzan 1648.
22,-54

Frontispiece: The goddess Flora	Title page	Fol. )(5r: Portrait of Simon Paulli

Part 2, fol. D4v: On the columbine	Part 2, no. 8: Matching plate showing a columbine

The first illustrated Danish herbal made by the German professor of botany and anatomy at the University of Copenhagen, Simon Paulli (1603-1680). The work was made on the initiative of King Christian IV. Paulli was writing in Latin and afterwards the student Niels Knopf translated his manuscript into Danish. In his description of the c. 400 Danish plants Paulli emphasizes their medical effects. The book is divided into two parts: descriptions and illustrations. Both parts are divided into four chapters that follow the flowering seasons of the plants: Hyems (winter), Ver (spring), Æstas (summer), and Autumnus (autumn).
The woodcuts were made in the printing house of Balthasar Moretus in Antwerp. There are six engravings in the text part, made by Albert Haelwegh (d. 1673): a portrait of the author, of the goddess Flora, and personifications of the four seasons.

23.6 x 18 cm.

See more about Paulli’s edition on the 1998 website of the Danish National Library of Science and Medicine (now the Faculty Library of Natural and Health Sciences) Flora Danica. A virtual exhibition (only in Danish).
See also the Royal Library’s web exhibition about the famous Flora Danica edition from 1761ff. Flora Danica online.

© Det Kongelige Bibliotek 2003