ABSTRACT
From the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period onwards, a broadening range of vernacular texts developed in which the German language was used in a wide variety of fields of expertise: human medicine, horse medicine, hunting, fishing, cookery and dietetics, agriculture, music, astronomy and astrology, magic and witchcraft, dyeing, distilling, engineering, mining, etc. Some of these texts depended mainly on the scientific or artistic traditions in their fields and were often translations or adaptations of foreign language sources; others, which stood outside a written tradition, were based for the most part on first-hand experience.
