Woodcuts

The predominant notion of the historical track of modern science is teleological: this narrative holds that as time passed, accuracy naturally increased, as the pursuit of knowledge solidified in form and texts could increasingly be fact-checked. In the most basic terms, a woodcut, also known as a woodblock, is a kind of relief print, in which material is removed from a plate to leave a raised design that will then be inked and printed. In woodblocks, material is carved away from a relatively soft plank of wood, traditionally from trees such as pear, apple, and holly.

Leonhart Fuchs, De historia stirpium, (1542)

In Leonhart Fuchs’s 1542 herbal De historia stirpium, we see a prime example of the affordances of woodcuts in early reference literature.