Another area of great bibliographical interest to Klebs was medical herbals, especially incunabula herbals. Klebs’ collection of herbals, mostly dating from later than the fifteenth century, form the basis of the Library’s Herbals collection.

Klebs’ Bibliography of Incunabula Herbals, 1917

This is Klebs’ earliest bibliographical work on herbals. The entries are detailed compared to his later short-title catalog of incunabula of science and medicine. The arrow points to the herbal on display.

Arnold Carl Klebs, “Herbals of the Fifteenth Century. (Incunabula Lists I),” reprint from Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 11(3-4) (1917) and12 (1-2) (1917).

A Klebs Incunabula Herbal, 1492

This book is a translation into Low German and enlargement of the Gart der Gesundheit of 1485, the first illustrated herbal to be printed. (Klebs helped Cushing to obtain the Library’s copy of this 1485 incunable). The text includes 519 hand-colored woodcuts of plants, animals, and medical scenes.

Gaerde der suntheit . [ Garden of Health]
Lu ̈ beck : Steffen Arndes, 1492

“Herbal Facts and Thoughts,” 1925

Klebs’ introduction, “Herbal Facts and Thoughts,” is a study of the various editions of incunabula herbals, their authors, printers, typefaces, illustrations, relation to one another, and dates of publication. Incunabula do not have standard title pages as do later books, so dating them by other means becomes very important.

Karl Becher
Catalogue of Early Herbals Mostly From the Well-Known Library of Dr. Karl Becher, with an introduction by Dr. Arnold C. Klebs.
Lugano: L’Art Ancien, 1925.

Axenstrasse Portrait of Cushing by Klebs

Klebs took this famous portrait of Cushing on the Axenstrasse, along the rocky shores of Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, in 1929. Cushing sent signed copies to a large number of his students and friends. The inscription of this copy reads: “Richard U. Light via A.C.K. [Klebs] from Harvey Cushing.” Light worked under Cushing at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston