Going Viral

Damien Ihrig, MA, MLIS
Curator, John Martin Rare Book Room

We are going old school this month with a highlight of one of our incunabula (anglicized as incunables), Heinrich Steinhöwel's Büchlein der Ordnung [Pest Regiment]. Büchlein is the first plague book in print and one of the first German medical texts in print.

Incunabula (think incubator) represent the earliest printed materials in the west and is a heavily studied area of book history. From roughly 1440 to 1501, hand-press printing evolved from the early innovations of the Steve Jobs of the 15th century, Johannes Gutenberg, to a more or less standard process. Printing in this way ushered in a new era defined by the rapid dissemination of information. This played a key part in major Western historical periods and events, from the Renaissance to the Scientific Revolution.

Steinhöwel (1412-1482) was a Swabian (a region in southwest Germany) physician and translator. He earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Vienna in 1438. He then moved to Padua to study medicine, graduating in 1443. By 1450, he was the town physician in Ulm, Germany, eventually becoming the personal physician for the Duke of Württemberg. 

Although a practicing physician and producing important written medical works, he is most well known today as a translator of classic and renaissance literature into his native German. He was part of a growing German humanist movement and he translated the likes of Aesop, Petrarch, and Boccaccio.

Read more below about this interesting 15th-century wunderkind and his thoughts on the plague.

Stay well and happy reading!

Hours

The Room is available Monday-Thursday, 8:30-5:00 (U.S. Central) and Friday by appointment. Face masks are welcome. To guarantee the Room is available, please contact me at damien-ihrig@uiowa.edu.

June 2 (1-3 pm Central) – The Roots of Medicine College of Pharmacy Medicinal Garden Grand Opening
110A-B College of Pharmacy Building - 180 South Grand Avenue
This is an in-person event. The featured speaker is Kelly Kindscher, Ph.D., Ethnobotanist and Professor, Environmental Studies Program at the University of Kansas. Remarks will be followed by light refreshments.
Roots of Medicine is an interdisciplinary project featuring a collaboration between the College of Pharmacy, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, and community members. It joins the College of Pharmacy garden with historical resources from the John Martin Rare Book Room and databases from the National Institutes of Health.

June 6 at 7 pm (central) – The John Martin Rare Book Room Presents
The origin of viruses: from Lucy Australopithecus to King Nebuchadnezzar
401 Hardin Library

Dr. Charles Grose
Professor of Pediatrics-Infectious Disease
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics

Join Dr. Grose at the Hardin Library for an evening of viral fun. He will discuss the history of viral infections in humans, from one of our earliest hominin ancestors to the Babylonian Empire.

Book of the Month

STEINHÖWEL, Heinrich (1412–1482). Büchlein der Ordnung [Pest Regiment]. Third edition. Printed in Ulm by Johann Zainer in 1482. 21 cm tall.

Steinhöwel first wrote a version of Büchlein between 1444 and 1446 during a local plague epidemic. The first (1473) and third editions (1482) were printed in Ulm by Johann Zainer; the second printing appeared in Esslingen in 1474. A second, larger version of the third edition was also printed in 1482 by a different printer. We have the Zainer third edition. After a translated Regimen sanitatis, this is the second German-language medical text to appear in print and the first original work.

The book is divided into two sections. The first describes the causes - including how it spreads through the air - and symptoms of the illness and offers advice on hygiene, diet, and prevention. The second part contains treatment recommendations for the care of the sick as well as medicinal recipes.

Although written in German vernacular, many of the citations come from Ibn Sina's (anglicized as Avicenna's) classic, Canon medicinae. Büchlein remains the model for all early accounts of plagues and recommended treatments. It was used as a source by almost all later plague works.

Our copy of Büchlein is a truly beautiful and rare book. There are only four other known copies worldwide. The cover is contemporary with the printing. Richly stained wooden boards cover our copy, with a yellowed, pigskin backing on the spine.

There is one remaining original metal catch on the front cover. The other catch and both clasps on the back cover are missing.

Inside, the textblock shows evidence of water damage (dampstaining) along the top edge and some foxing throughout. Overall though, the paper is sturdy and in good condition. There are also quite a few surprises inside. There is a handwritten table of contents inside the front cover, with corresponding hand-numbered sections on the title page and the book's woodcut initials that start each section of text.

A woodcut illustration showing the Saints Sebastian and Roch is on the rear of the title page. Besides Sebastian and Roch being a killer band name, they are the patron saints of the plague. St. Roch is being tended to by an angel, with rubrication helpfully showing the location of each saint's wounds.

There is also hand rubrication throughout, highlighting important words and passages. Examples of hand-numbering, rubrication, and woodcut initials can be seen in the banner at the top and the image of the title page above. In addition, there is also a great deal of marginalia, including numerous notes and marked passages. My favorite, though, is the manicule shown in the introductory section above. I love manicules and the more exaggerated the index finger, the better!

Contact me to view this book or any others from this or past newsletters: damien-ihrig@uiowa.edu or 319-335-9154 to arrange a visit in person or over Zoom.