1489?-1534

German Physician and Botanist

Otto Brunfels is considered one of the three "fathers" of German botany, in large part because of his three-volume Herbarum vivae eicones (Living Images of Plants), published in the 1530s. These books contained illustrated descriptions of plants, most of which had medical uses. This marked the first time that accurate and realistic images were used in a printed botanical text. Ironically, it is the illustrations drawn by Hans Weiditz, rather than Brunfels's quite mediocre text, that make the Herbarum noteworthy.

Brunfels was born about 1489 in the town of Braufels, near Mainz in what is now Germany. He received his education in Mainz and then entered a Roman Catholic monastery. He left there in 1521, changed his religion, and became a Lutheran preacher. In 1524 he settled in Strasbourg, where he got married and opened a small school. He then moved on to Switzerland...