Domacy neb

Orowic wffudy w Czeftém Králowstwi bognost gest/tak je zbyteč na wec geft o nich co wypifowani. Ale je v nás toliko plana and lepinj Borowice ro ie/fluff maritic oboge wo netoliterém fpuofobu se nacházy.

Domacy neb Zalradný racolesti má mnoho wuokol rozlojarých/lift noß gebli cy delfly a mecegify/neili lefni. wotce nese welité/torbe/a cele yako nepate wo fechy/a w nich yadra Bylaw yakefy ffipi nacenalé a tvrdé. Tech yada wo Apatekach je potica

'is also praiseworthy, inasmuch as he undertook the greatest 'share of the work, as much in fashioning (cudendo) the work ' itself as in casting most excellent types, so that in proportion 'the beauty of the work which results is greater, so will its 'utility be the more pre-eminent.'

Two other books, printed in 1561 and 1563 respectively, are interesting on account of the fact that they show that there was business connexion between Melantrichus and Valgrisi of Venice. A neatly- and well-printed book, in roman type, entitled Petri Andrea Mattioli Senensis Medici Epistolarum Medicinalium Libri Quinque, Prague, 1561, has on the titlepage ad instantiam Vincentii Valgrisii, and the Valgrisi device; and a German version of the Commentaries, entitled New Kreuterbuch mit den allerschönsten vnd artlichsten Figuren . . Prague, 1563, has Valgrisi's name on the title-page also. Melantrichus was also the printer of a Bohemian edition of the Bible in 1570.

The

The translator of this edition of Mattioli's Commentaries appears to have been a man of considerable standing and learning. His armorial bearings are included among those of Bohemian nobles at the commencement of the book. correct spelling of his name is rather a puzzle. The title-page has T. Hagka z Hagku; his armorial bearings are designated Thadeáss Hagek z Hagku; his portrait is inscribed Thaddaeus Hagecius ab Hagek; the British Museum Catalogue has Tadeáš Hájek z Hájku; and Pritzel writes Thaddeus Hagek. However, since modern orthography replaces g in Bohemian by j (pronounced as English y), and the noun is inflected, the form appearing on the title-page od Hagka z Hagku' means 'by Hajek of Hajek', Hagka being the genitive inflexion used with 'od', and Hagku being either the dative or locative inflexion.

There are seven other books of his in the British Museum Library, some of which are astrological and astronomical.

6

Mattioli refers to his translator in his dedicatory letter in the following terms:

'No less have I to praise and extol the excellent Doctor of 'Arts & Medicine, Dr. Thaddaeus Hagecius (what piety, liberality, and beneficence is his !), he of all men of his country on account of that useful ornament this herbal : first written by me in Latin, it has been with the utmost 'diligence turned by him into the Bohemian tongue, no labours or vigils having been spared, not only in his translating the volume, but also in investigating the names of plants, and 'seeking the plants themselves in many and diverse places in 'the Kingdom of Bohemia.'

This would seem to imply that Hagek deserves the credit of being known as one of the early minor botanists, as well as the translator of a great work. He was born in Prague in 1525, and died in 1600 in his seventy-fifth year.

The herbal contains a well-drawn woodcut portrait of the translator. On a previous folio is a portrait of Mattioli, which I believe is but little known. Most of the better-known portraits show him in middle age as a rather sour-looking man. This portrait, however, probably represents him at about sixty years of age, and is a more pleasing one, besides being a very good piece of wood-engraving. This was the second impression of the block, as it appeared first in the edition of Mattioli's Letters in 1561.

Here then is a little-known edition of Mattioli's Commentaries, printed in Prague in 1562, containing 589 of the large figures of plants, these being the first impressions of the bulk of the large plant-figures contained in the well-known Valgrisi editions of 1565 and later. Many of these woodcuts were so delicately cut, that the blocks soon became worn. The 'first impressions' of such woodcuts were undoubtedly the best; more so in this case on account of the fact that the later editions were printed on inferior paper.