Since two plant species may look very similar to each other, only accurate visual portrayal could make the differences apparent, since it was often difficult to present these differences concisely in words.
But it was not until 1530, almost a hundred years after the invention of the printing press, that a book on plants was published with accurate illustrations. This was Otto Brunfels's (1489?-1534) Herbarum vivae eicones (Living Images of Plants); it was followed 12 years later by Leohnard Fuchs's (1501-1566) De historia stirpium. These are considered among the best illustrated botanical books ever produced and set the standard for botanical illustration. That is why Brunfels and Fuchs, along with another author, Hieronymous Bock (1498-1554), are regarded as the "fathers of German botany." All three relied to some extent on the writings of ancient Greeks and Romans on plants, including Theophrastus (c. 370-285 B.C.), the great student of Aristotle (384-322 B.C.). It was only as the Renaissance progressed that botanists began to draw more on their own observations and less on the learning of the past.
During this time period interest in botany was directly related to attempts to improve the study of medicine because plants were the sources of most of the medications in use.
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