Meyerpeck, woodblock

One of the woodblocks carved by Wolfgang Meyerpeck to illustrate this 1562 Czech edition of Mattioli’s herbal. A large number of these woodblocks (often referred to after the book as the Mattioli woodblocks) were rediscovered in the 18th century, and a lot of them were sold in 1989. The blocks are probably pearwood; if you look closely at this one, you can see wormholes from insects having eaten through the wood.