Works register

Attributed corpus

12 works · German vernacular · 1440s – 1460s

Twelve works are currently attributed to Johannes Hartlieb. The register below carries each with a date range, genre, attribution status, and a primary witness shelfmark. Attribution status follows a two-band convention: colophon-attested entries name Hartlieb directly in a manuscript colophon or rubric; tradition-attributed entries are attached to Hartlieb by manuscript tradition or secondary scholarship without a direct colophon hand.

Attribution methodology — three-band convention

The register uses three attribution bands. Each is recorded honestly with its load-bearing witness type named; none is treated as final.

Colophon-attested. Hartlieb is named directly in a manuscript colophon, rubric, or scribal note in a witness contemporary with his working life. Example: Cgm 7958 fol. 9r ("meister hanns hartlieb doctor medic[us]").

Text-attributed paratext (posthumous copy). The attribution appears in a paratext of the surviving witness, but the witness itself is a copy made after Hartlieb's death (1468). The attribution is real but mediated by the copyist. Example: Nürnberg, GNM, Hs 2186 (1507–09) for the Buch Trotula.

Tradition-attributed. Attached to Hartlieb by manuscript tradition, library cataloguing, or secondary scholarship. May be strongly held but lacks the direct in-manuscript hand.

Works register

Twelve entries. Sorted by genre cluster — iatromathematics and divination, medicine and gynaecology, Latin literary translation.

Witness data drawn from the Handschriftencensus (Werk 2317), KdiH 70.2, and Hayer & Schnell 2010. Witnesses 4–9 have been checked against the substrate register but not all have been directly inspected against primary-source images; acquisition status is noted per entry.

Title Date Genre Attribution Primary witness
Kräuterbuch 1440s–1450s Herbal / materia medica Colophon-attested Berlin, SBB, mgq 2021 (base text, Hayer & Schnell 2010)
Mondwahrsagebuch 1455/56 Iatromathematics / lunar prognostic Tradition-attributed Heidelberg, UB, Cpg 6 · Wolfenbüttel, HAB, Cod. 29.14 Aug. 4° · Wien, ÖNB, Cod. 3062. (Note: not carried by Cgm 7958 per direct image inspection; the Cgm 7958 lunar apparatus is the 28-mansiones-lunae component of the onomatomantic engine, not the Mondwahrsagebuch tract proper.)
Onomatomancia / Namenmantik 1455/56 Name-sum divination apparatus Colophon-attested München, BSB, Cgm 7958 (fol. 9 self-attestation; iatromathematical onomatomantic engine + 28-mansiones-lunae apparatus + world-alphabet inventory + computus/sanctorale colophon)
Buch aller verbotenen Kunst c. 1456 Treatise on prohibited arts Colophon-attested Heidelberg, UB, Cpg 478
Chiromancy 1440s–1450s Palm-reading apparatus Tradition-attributed Several Bavarian witnesses
Buch Trotula composed 1460s; surviving witnesses 1460s–1570 Gynaecology (Trotula translation) Text-attributed paratext (in posthumous copies)

Primary in-life / near-life witness: München, BSB, Cgm 261 (2. Hälfte 15. Jh.; text-only, no illustrations; carries the German Hartlieb Trotula + Secreta mulierum; on disk and locally HTR'd against the JHLTD substrate). This is the only one of the surviving cluster that is dated within Hartlieb's life-window or shortly thereafter.

Later text-attributed paratext witnesses (posthumous copies):

  • Heidelberg, UB, Cpg 480 — dated 1570 (verified internally: fol. 1r calligraphic title-page "·1·5·70·" + fol. 206r colophon "Finis Laus Deo Anno 1570"); 102 years posthumous to Hartlieb (†1468). Carries the famous Hartlieb chapter-list paratext in 5-line display calligraphy: "Die Capittel über die Bücher Trotula, Macrobi, Gilbertini vnd Mustro die doctor Hartlich verdeutschet hatt". Transcribed verbatim in Ulm 1913.
  • Nürnberg, GNM, Hs 2186 — 1507–09 posthumous copy; 39–41 years posthumous. Carries "Das Doctor Härtlich getewtscht" paratext attribution and 26+ chapters including cosmetics.

Both 16th-century witnesses attest the Hartlieb text-tradition but not the manuscript-authorship; the in-life witness is Cgm 261.

München, BSB, Cgm 261, early folio. Text-only vernacular MHG cursive working manuscript, gynecological / obstetric content; no illustrations, no calligraphic title page; foliation visible upper-right.
Cgm 261 — in-life witness (2. Hälfte 15. Jh.). Text-only vernacular MHG working manuscript; no illustrations, no display calligraphy. Single hand, cursive script. This is what a working in-life Hartlieb medical translation looks like — practical, not ceremonial. Image © Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München.
Heidelberg, UB, Cpg 480, fol. 1r. Calligraphic title page in 5-line display cursive: 'Die Capittel über die Bücher Trotula, Macrobi, Gilbertini vnd Mustro die doctor Hartlich verdeutschet hatt.' Below the colophon, three large flourished numerals separated by dots: ·1·5·70· (= 1570, the manuscript's own date).
Cpg 480, fol. 1r — posthumous witness (1570). 5-line calligraphic Hartlieb chapter-list colophon, with the date "·1·5·70·" flourished beneath it in the same scribal hand. 102 years posthumous to Hartlieb; text-attributed paratext, not author attestation. Image © Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg (CC BY-SA); IIIF manifest at digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de.

The two witnesses make the substrate finding visible: in-life Cgm 261 is a working text-only manuscript with no ceremonial paratext; posthumous Cpg 480 is the opposite — display calligraphy attribution paratext with the date inscribed in the same flourished hand, 102 years after Hartlieb's death. Both attest the Hartlieb text-tradition; only one carries an in-life manuscript-authorship anchor.
Secreta mulierum translation 1460s Gynaecology (pseudo-Albertus translation) Colophon-attested Bavarian witness cluster
Alexander romance 1450s Literary translation Colophon-attested Wittelsbach commission, multiple witnesses
Historia de Preliis (German) 1450s Literary translation (Alexander tradition) Tradition-attributed Witness cluster overlaps Alexander romance
Andreas Capellanus translation 1450s–1460s Literary / amatory treatise translation Colophon-attested Bavarian witness cluster
Buch von der Minne 1450s–1460s Literary / amatory treatise Tradition-attributed Linked to Capellanus translation tradition
Ovid translations 1450s–1460s Literary translation Tradition-attributed Bavarian witness cluster

Last updated 2026-05-23.

Featured: Kräuterbuch witness table

The Kräuterbuch is the most heavily witnessed work in the corpus. The nine-witness table below records the principal manuscript witnesses, including direct folio observations on the Berlin base text (Hayer & Schnell 2010 critical edition) and on the Heidelberg and Nürnberg copies.

Witness sequence follows the Hayer & Schnell 2010 sigla where present. Folio-observation notes record sections directly inspected against digital surrogates or local image captures.

Shelfmark Repository Date Role Observation
mgq 2021 Berlin, SBB um 1460 Base text for Hayer & Schnell 2010 critical edition. Full register including animal-substance chapters 1–11. Bavarian-Austrian dialect. §1–§8 dissection against MS 408; direct folio observations against printed edition apparatus and local PDF.
Cod. 79 Aug. 2° Wolfenbüttel, HAB um 1450 Earliest complete, openly digitized witness. 174 illustrations, fully illustrated. Role: earliest-complete-openly-digitized-Hartlieb-witness. 6 priority images fetched from HAB digital library. Openly accessible (HAB CC BY-SA).
Cpg 311 Heidelberg, UB um 1455/60 Megenberg-embedded witness. Hartlieb herbal interpolated into Megenberg Buch der Natur (fols. ~244–315 substrate / fol. 225+ modern foliation). 308 illustrations made at Hagenau workshop. Rhinefranconian dialect. Lacks animal-substance chapters 1–11. Direct folio observations on digital surrogate (PDF on disk). Three-part template Identification → Virtues → Preparation confirmed at fols. 225–227.
Heidelberg, UB, Cpg 311, fol. 225r. Hartlieb Kräuterbuch chapter opening: red rubric heading 'Hye uoch volget das Gemde dies bucher von den vid Smackenden samen' + large red initial 'H' beginning the chapter, then a second red rubric 'Von aloes' with red initial 'A' opening the Aloes entry. Faded marginal plant illustration on the left edge (Hagenau workshop).
Cpg 311, fol. 225r — Hartlieb herbal opening within Megenberg's Buch der Natur. Three-part template visible in chapter structure; Aloes entry begins with red rubric. © UB Heidelberg.
Cod. 2826 Wien, ÖNB 1450–1470 Version W; alternative version for editorial recension testing. Hayer & Schnell apparatus. Not directly inspected. Catalog record present.
Hs. 18792 Nürnberg, GNM 15th c. Bound with an Iatromathematisches Hausbuch and a Theriak-Pesttraktat — a witness that bridges the Kräuterbuch tradition to the broader Beinecke MS 408-class apparatus neighborhood. Not directly inspected. Catalog record present; full acquisition pending.
Ms. 4 Linz, OÖ Landes-Kultur ca. 1435–1450 Earliest fragment by Werneck 1958 dating. Closest to autograph in the corpus. Innviertel provenance. Not directly inspected. Acquisition pending institutional access.
Ms. 46 Schloss Anholt (Salm-Salm) um 1470 Late-tradition witness, facsimile-only access. Hayer & Schnell apparatus. Not directly inspected. Not currently accessible.
Cod. D 684 Michelstadt, Nicolaus-Matz-Bibl. Mitte 15. Jh. Text-only, unillustrated baseline witness. No illustration program. Useful for separating text tradition from image tradition. Not directly inspected. Not currently accessible.
Nr. 2 Erbach, Gräfl. Erbachsches Gesamthausarchiv Mitte 15. Jh. Lost or untraced; recorded in Borchling and secondary literature. Hayer & Schnell apparatus notes. Location uncertain; not currently accessible.

Genre clusters

The twelve works divide into three working clusters. The clusters are descriptive, not exclusive — several works carry features across more than one.

The iatromathematics-and-divination cluster gathers the Mondwahrsagebuch, Onomatomancia / Namenmantik, Buch aller verbotenen Kunst, and Chiromancy — working apparatuses for prognostic and divinatory practice in a court medical context, with Cgm 7958 as the densest single witness for the Onomatomancia (the Mondwahrsagebuch tract proper is carried by Cpg 6, HAB Cod. 29.14 Aug. 4°, and Wien Cod. 3062 rather than by Cgm 7958). The medicine-and-gynaecology cluster gathers the Kräuterbuch, Buch Trotula, and the Secreta mulierum translation as the medical-practical core, with the Kräuterbuch carrying the most extensive witness tradition and the gynaecological works sitting at the centre of the Brewer 2021 competing-framework discussion. The Latin-literary-translation cluster gathers the Alexander romance, Historia de Preliis, the Andreas Capellanus translation, Buch von der Minne, and the Ovid translations — court-patronage literary work, with tradition attribution heavier in this cluster than in the medical and iatromathematical clusters.

Competing frameworks

The corpus has been read through different interpretive frames. This site tracks the principal competing framework explicitly rather than ignoring it.

Competing framework — Brewer 2021

Brewer 2021 advances a reading of the corpus that places the gynaecological content (Buch Trotula, Secreta mulierum translation) at the interpretive centre. The JHLTD program treats this as a properly scoped competing framework; the iatromathematical reading does not require the gynaecological reading to be false. Both can be retained on a witness-by-witness basis. This page records the framework without adopting it as the primary interpretive frame.