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Bock (1498–1554) was a German botanist, medic and Lutheran minister. His great contribution to botany was to begin to classify plants in terms of their resemblance or relationship to each other. The first edition of his ‘plant book’ in 1539 was unillustrated, but after 1546 all editions contained several woodcut illustrations. This volume is annotated throughout with marginalia and several names and ownership marks, but the most eye-catching feature is this doodle of Charon’s Boat. In Greek mythology, Charon was the ferryman who transported the souls of the recently deceased to the Underworld.

Citation:
Hieronymus Bock, De stirpium, maxime earum quae in Germania nostra nascuntvr, usitatis nomenclaturis (Strasbourg, 1552),
Marsh's Library Exhibits,
accessed August 30, 2025,
https://web.marshlibrary.ie/digi/items/show/597