Talk:Jacobus Theodorus Tabernaemontanus

www.jacobus-theodorus-tabernaemontanus.com

The information on this website is utterly unreliable. For a start, Tabernaemontanus was not know as 'the father of German botany'. In Germany, often Otto Brunfels, Leonhart Fuchs and Hieronymus Bock are mentioned as the fathers of botany. Tabernaemontanus was a student of the first and the last one, and is sometimes added as a fourth 'father', because of the sheer volume of his major work. A lot of his information though was taken from those three predecessors, and his work was renowned for its completeness, not for its originality.

Tabernaemontanus was a student of Brunfels in Strasbourg. Brunfels left that city in 1533 for Bern, where he died by the end of the following year. If Jacob Dietrich was born in 1525, he would have been only eight years old when Brunfels left Strasbourg. That has led most of his biographers to bring his date of birth a few years forward. 1520 and 1522 are most common.

Tabernaemontanus was born 'around' 1520, but we know the year and month of his death: August 1590, so 'around 1590' doesn't do justice to the facts.

He was not the private doctor of Philip III of Nassau-Saarbrücken-Weilbrug but the personal physician to Philip II of Nassau-Saarbrücken. The first one had his seat in Weilburg, and died 1559; the second one had his seat in Saarbrücken, and died 1554. We know Tabernaemontanus was active at the court in Saarbrücken until 1554, when Philip II died.

"Written in the tradition of the then known books on herbs by Brunfels, Fuchs, Bock and Mattiolli, his work differs significantly from that of his predecessors due to the better woodcuts and very apt descriptions." Many botanists commenting on the works of those five men, give Bock credit for having written the most apt descriptions. In biographies on Bock, it is sometimes emphasized that the first edition of his New Kreütter Buch was issued without figures, so he was obliged to give accurate descriptions.

In the web page on Tabernaemontanus, it seems that many of the credits that usually go to the real fathers of botany are redirected to him. That doesn't do justice to his predecessors. Also the person who wrote the text, didn't do much research nor fact checking. I guess this website was only used as a source for the Wikipedia article because it is one of the few on Tabernaemontanus in the English language.

For a wider range of sources, apart from Wolf-Dieter Müller-Jahncke / Ulrike Bofinger (2003):

• Adam, M. (1620). Vitae Germanorum medicorum: 314–316
• Arber, A. (1912). Herbals, their origin and evolution, a chapter in the history of botany, 1470-1670: 67–68
• Bergdolt, K. (2005). Tabernaemontanus, Jakob Theodor. in: Gerabek, W.E. et al., Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte: 1377 (pdf part 3)
• Clair, S. (2011). Die Kräutermedizin des Renaissance-Arztes Tabernaemontanus (16. Jh.) und Phytotherapie heute – was ist geblieben, was hat sich verändert? Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Ganzheitsmedizin 23(1): 46–52
• Conrad, J. Tabernaemontanus Jacob Theodor in Saarland Biografien
• Freher, P. (1688). Theatrum Virorum Eruditione Clarorum: 1292; mostly copied / abridged from Melchior Adam (1620)
• Maurer, K.C.L. (1888). Geschichte der Stadt Bergzabern im Rahmen der Zeitgeschichte: 44–46
• Roth, F.W.E. (1897). Jakob Theodor von Bergzabern (Tabernaemontanus). Centralblatt für Bibliothekswesen 14: 84–104
• Roth, F.W.E. (1898). Jakob Theodor von Bergzabern. Mitteilungen des historischen Vereins der Pfalz 22: 47–70
• Roth, F.W.E. (1899). Jacob Theodor aus Bergzabern, genannt Tabernaemontanus 1520–1590. Ein deutscher Botaniker. Botanische Zeitung 57: 105–123
• Schwarz, M. (1999). Neue Ausstellung im Universitätsmuseum Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
• Wunschmann, E. (1894). Theodorus, Jakob. Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie 37: 714–715

Hope this helps, 77.164.133.132 (talk) 10:38, 20 April 2021 (UTC)