Inside the book

This second Lyon printing retains a splendid series of engraved plates, among the earliest European depictions of tobacco and its worldwide culture. The images, executed in the clear, linear style characteristic of early scientific illustration, blend the instructional clarity of a herbal with the inquisitiveness of an ethnographic record. They are conventionally attributed to Moses van Uyttenbroeck, though the French imprint does not name the artist. The first 3 charming botanical plates include “Tabac mâle” and “Tabac femelle,” rendered as botanical portraits accompanied by verses beneath each figure. They are followed by 3 especially notable scenes portraying Native Americans cultivating and curing tobacco, showing the successive stages of cultivation, drying, and preparation of the leaves, with meticulous detail of the tools, baskets, and fermentation setups employed. The final 3 engravings, again particularly remarkable, present the Persian kalian together with various pipes, representing one of the earliest printed portrayals of such instruments in Central Europe. The engraver’s technique, sharp in outline, softly shaded, and marked by a touch of naivete, imbues the series with a distinctly 17th-century atmosphere, part scientific treatise, part decorative art. After a dedication by the printer, the text begins with the translator Veyras’s address “Au Lecteur,” followed by Neander’s structured chapters on the names and origins of tobacco, its various types and qualities, the proper seasons for planting and harvest, and the detailed preparation method known as 'Caldo' (p. 26 and following), a medical potion based on fermented drink, ginger powder, and other spices. The resulting product was stored in closed containers, and tobacco leaves could be dipped in it to obtain a special “vigor”. Subsequent sections outline tobacco's properties as a medicinal herb, antidote, and universal remedy, enriched with anecdotes from the Americas, Europe and Middle East. In fact, Neander was firmly against the recreational use of tobacco, viewing habitual consumption as both physiologically harmful and socially risky, much like alcohol. He endorsed its use solely for medical purposes, including the treatment of wounds, ulcers, and various other ailments. He even recommended tobacco as an eye remedy, claiming it could restore sharp vision in elderly patients. He regarded tobacco as a remedy for almost any non-fatal disease, attributing to the tobacco plant amazing qualities, to a point to name it “divine herb” and “holy grass”. Neander highlighted the countrymen’s leading role in bringing tobacco from the Americas and advised the use of long pipes (like the Persona and Native American ones) to let the smoke cool before inhalation. The text goes on presenting recipes to treat headaches, coughs, asthma, gout, constipation, stones, ulcers, birth pains, etc. In short, tobacco was experienced as a real remedy.