A woodcut illustration from an early printed natural history encyclopaedia, the 'Ortus Sanitatis'

The Ortus Sanitatis (also known as the Hortus Sanitatis, which translates to "The Garden of Health") was published in Germany in 1491 as a natural history encyclopedia of animals, plants, stones and their medicinal uses.

While it is written to be a factual account of the natural world, the author also delves into mythology, as seen on this page, where a mermaid and merman appear amongst the fish and crustaceans in a river.

This illustration was created using a woodcut print, which then would have been hand coloured.

The Frankfurt physician Johann Wonnecke of Kaub is sometimes incorrectly named as the creator of this work, but the author is currently unknown. Jacob Meydenbach is the publisher of this edition of the Ortus.