ABSTRACT
This contribution focuses on the role of flora in scientific publications and how it developed from antiquity and the Middle Ages to the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries after the invention of the printing press. The depiction of plants is the central theme. The botanical plant illustrations from this period are discussed on the basis of early scientific printed works in the Liberna Collection.
The medicinal properties of plants gave them a special place in early scientific publications. The purpose of these books was, among other things, to identify different plant species and to transmit knowledge about their cultivation, use and medicinal value. As shown here, following this scientific interest in identifying plants, botany grew into a hobby in the seventeenth century.
