[Benefits from herb garden. Pharmaceutical works in translations by Georg Henisch].

Georg Henisch (1549-1618), native of today´s Slovak city Bardejov (in German Bartfeld) translated four pharmaceutical texts from Latin into German, three works by the French author Antoine Mizauld and one by Sextus Placitus, an author of the late Classical period. All of them were published in quick succession in the years 1574-1575 and they appeared until 1615 in several unchanged editions. All four works have a similar theme: unusual curative substances which could be easily procured from plants, metals and animals and they are addressed to the layman. From the point of view of genre, they are different, it is a matter of Kräuterbücher, herbal books, so called Hausväterliteratur (house father literature) and medicine, art and wonder books as well. In his translations, Henisch does not adhere strictly to the original texts, leaving out some smaller parts, translating freely and adapting his version to suit his wider German audience.