Probably the son of a Freiburg sculptor of the same name, Weiditz received his training around 1515 in Strasbourg. Around 1518 he worked together with Hans Burgkmair in Augsburg, where he designed a large number of woodcuts, initials, borders, title pages, and single-page prints for books. In 1521 he produced a view of the city of Augsburg that is considered one of the first German panoramic views. Since only two of his woodcuts are signed, a portion of his work has been attributed to the anonymous Petrarch Master, with whom he is generally equated. Between 1530 and 1534, Weiditz was a member of the Strasbourg guild. There his most important works were the preliminary drawings, securely attributed to him, for the roughly 230 plant depictions in Otto Brunfels's 'Herbarium vivae eicones', one of the most important publications in the history of botanical illustration.
