THE BROUMOV HERBARIUM
THE BROUMOV HERBARIUM
The oldest herbarium in the territory of the Czech Republic was made in 1595 by Johann Brehe (active 1589–1606). This herbarium is a unique example of this rare genre at the intersection of botany, medicine, and book culture of the Early Modern Era. Aside from 358 species of dried plants presented on 103 leaves with Latin and German names, it also contains short texts in German. It is bound into a book with leather-covered wooden boards decorated with metal elements. The specimens were, after drying, carefully glued to paper by isinglass, a traditional glue prepared from the swim bladders of fish belonging to the sturgeon family, especially the beluga. This process was accomplished with the utmost care: the plants are fixed in place with no apparent traces of glue and, amazingly after four hundred years, suffered no mechanical damage, which further attests to a high quality of craftsmanship.
A unique feature of the Broumov herbarium is its rich iconographic aspect. Most plants are supplemented with drawings of the parts that could not be presented in a pressed form. In most cases, these are the roots and rhizomes, in many cases also flowers or fruits. Some illustrations moreover reflect contemporary context: they show the plants’ natural environment, including animals. The presence of animal motifs, which range from invertebrates all the way to large mammals (a wolf, deer, or cat) is often motivated by etymology. For instance, a drawing of a stork with a snake near the crane’s bill (Geranium) refers to the contemporary name ‘stork’s bill’ (in German Storchenschnabel), which is derived from the shape of the plant’s seeds. In a similar way, the presence of a goat next to red feather clover reflects its contemporary German name Geißklee (goat clover).
Utterly unique in terms of figural decoration is the image of a human figure, one in the entire volume. It is a small silhouette of John the Baptist next to St John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum), which refers to its German name S. Johannis Kraut (St John’s herb). This association reflects both a folk tradition and Christian symbolism: the plant flowers around the time of this saint’s holy day (24 June) and the red compound contained in the flowers, hypericin, was in contemporary folklore interpreted as a symbol of the blood of John the Baptist.