Image of Chili Peppers

Image of Chili Peppers

Woodcut illustration of chili peppers (Capsicum annuum) including stems, leaves, and roots

This image is one of over five hundred woodcut illustrations that were part of a book written by Leonhart Fuchs, De Historia Stirpium commentarii insignes, which was originally published in 1542. Albrecht Meyer drew the plants based on observation, Heinrich Fullmaurer transferred these drawings to woodblocks, and Vitus Rudolph Speckle cut these blocks and printed the woodcut illustrations. The colors were later added by hand using watercolors. Several plants were illustrated for the first time in Fuchs' book, including the chili pepper. Fuchs made sure that the illustrations were true to life and that they depicted the plants in all stages of life. This demonstrates the purpose of the images in this book, which was to be a practical guide for those studying the sciences, particularly medicine.

Albrecht Meyer, Heinrich Fullmaurer, and Vitus Rudolph Speckle (with input from Leonhart Fuchs)

De Historia Stirpium commentarii insignes (Notable Commentaries on the History of Plants) by Leonhart Fuchs
The source of this image was Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Albrecht_Meyer25.jpg. The source of the WikiCommons image was the Andersen Horticultural Library.
This book can also be found on Hathi Trust, as well as at https://archive.org/details/Dehistoriastirp00Fuch, with the Biodiversity Heritage Library as the digitizing sponsor and Smithsonian Libraries as the book contributor.

Basileae: In officina Insingriniana (Basel, Michael Insingrin)

Originally published in 1542

Jennifer Rutishauser

No longer under copyright protection, Public Domain

Latin text in Leonhart Fuchs' De Historia Stirpium commentarii insignes

The original image was a woodcut illustration within a book, dimensions: 34.5 x 23 cm. It is published here as a digital image with dimensions 500 x 808 pixels.

Latin

Woodcut illustration with watercolors

The first depiction of chili peppers for an educated European audience

16th century Europe

Woodcut illustration on paper with watercolors

34.5 x 23 cm.