Browse Items (48 total)

A painting showing an abundance of fruits and foods.

An image of chili peppers from the German translation of Leonhart Fuch's original De Historia Stirpium Commentarii Insignes. The image was drawn by Albrecht Meyer and transferred to woodblocks by Heinrich Füllmaurer. The woodblocks were cut and…

"Natural and Moral History of the Indies" subtitled "Intreating of the Remarkable Things of Heaven, of the Elements, Mettalls, Plants and Beasts which are proper to that Country: Together with the Manners, Ceremonies, Lawes, Governments, and Warres…

José de Acosta, a Spanish Jesuit and naturalist, discusses the use of chili peppers in the West Indies. The chapter focuses on the varieties of chili peppers, their medicinal properties, and the ways in which indigenous peoples used them.

Around 1560, Georg Bocskay, secretary to the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, created the Model Book of Calligraphy to exhibit his skill and mastery of writing styles. Thirty years later, Joris Hoefnagel was commissioned to illuminate Bocskay's text.…

Five Native Americans are brewing a chocolate drink with cocoa beans and cooking instruments.

Anise and its medicinal uses, growth tendencies, applications, and benefits.

This work describes tomatoes, how they are grown, where they are grown and their qualities as a food.

The sixteenth-century botanist John Gerard classifies and describes solanum melongena, or "madde-apples." At left is a woodcut depicting solanum melongena. The woodcut depicts the plant's chaotic tangle of leaves and characteristic flowers; at bottom…

John Gerard, an English botanist, describes the tomato plant and fruit in his seventeenth century herball.