A History of Botanical Art - Resources for Botanical Art Lovers

Herbals and Florilegium

Landmark publications in the History of Botanical Art

Florilegium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Florilegium (plural Florilegia) is a Latin word for a collection of 'flowers' (excellent excerpts), from the corpus of a considerably larger oeuvre.

World Wide Words: Florilegium

The story behind the Weird Word 'florilegium'.

Hortus Sanitatis - 1485

The Hortus Sanitatis or the Ortus Sanitatis (the origin of health), as it is also known, is in the tradition of the medieval herbals. It is partly based on Der Gart der Gesundheit (Garden of Health), which is sometimes attributed to Johann von Cube, and was originally printed by Peter Schoeffer at Mainz in 1485.

Most of the 1,066 chapters of the first edition are headed by a woodcut and there were also several full page woodcuts

Fuch's Great Herbal - 1542

Glasgow University Library Special Collections Fuchs De Historia Stirpium

Leonhart Fuchs' De historia stirpium commentarii insignes (or, Notable commentaries on the history of plants) was first published in 1542. A massive, folio volume, this landmark work describes in Latin some 497 plants, and is illustrated by over 500 superb woodcuts based upon first-hand observation.

British Library - Hortus Eystettensis - 1613

In 1611, the Prince Bishop of Eichstätt in Germany was already terminally ill when he determined to record for posterity the spectacular garden he'd created at his palace in Bavaria with plants from around the world. Hundreds of his favourite flowers where carefully drawn and engraved as they bloomed through the four seasons. Published in 1613, the finished catalogue was the largest and most magnificent florilegium ever made.

Eichstätt was the first major European botanical garden outside Italy

A catalogue of flowers, such as 'Hortus Eystettensis', is often known as a florilegium, from the Latin meaning 'a gathering of flowers'.

British Library - Elizabeth Blackwell's 'A Curious Herbal' - 1737-1739

Elizabeth Blackwell's beautiful illustrations of medicinal plants would be notable enough in their own right, but the unusual circumstances of their creation make them doubly interesting. She began the work to raise money to secure her husband's release from a debtor's prison. The herbal was issued in weekly parts between 1737 and 1739, each with four plates and a page of text. Blackwell not only drew, but also engraved and coloured the illustrations, using specimens from the Chelsea Physic Garden.

The Endeavour Botanical Illustrations at the Natural History Museum

The Botany Library at the Natural History Museum holds all of the surviving botanical artwork from Captain James Cook's first Pacific voyage. This is an image gallery of botanical art from the first voyage of the Endeavour.

The illustrations were once in the famous Banksian Collections of the British Museum. Joseph Banks, the scientific organiser behind the expedition, had bequeathed this material to Robert Brown, his Librarian, who in turn transferred them to the Museum's Trustees in 1827. The plant and animal specimens with their directly associated artwork and documents were moved as part of the collections when the Museum's Department of Natural History relocated to South Kensington in the late nineteenth century.

The Endeavour Botanical Illustrations at the Natural History Museum

The results of the voyage were not published by Banks, although he intended to issue 14 folio volumes of his natural history discoveries at a total cost to himself of about £10,000. He employed five watercolourists from the winter of 1773 to complete 595 new artworks based on Parkinson's unfinished work. He then also employed 18 engravers until 1784, to cut copper printing plates, based on 743 artworks, in readiness for scientific publication in colour. He rejected the newly developing technique of aquatint in preference to the traditional black line methods, including some selective etching and mezzotint techniques.

All but one illustration was engraved at the plant's life size.

A total of 738 copper plates were subsequently engraved, with the intention of Banks publishing and suitably illustrating his scientific results from the voyage.

It was not until the 1980s that the Museum, in association with the publisher Editions Alecto, decided to renovate the copper printing plates which were still in safe storage and then to print from them, for the first time in colour, the complete set of images.

Printed catalogues of the artworks were published by the Museum between 1984 and 1987 in three volumes and are still available for researchers.

Wikipedia - Banks' Florilegium - 1770-1990

Banks' Florilegium is a collection of copperplate engravings of plants collected by Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander while they accompanied Captain James Cook on his voyage around the world between 1768 and 1771. They collected plants in Madeira, Brazil, Tierra del Fuego, the Society Islands, New Zealand, Australia and Java.

Between 1771 and 1784 Banks hired 18 engravers to create the copperplate line engravings from the 743 completed watercolours at a considerable cost. The Florilegium was not printed in Banks' lifetime and he bequeathed the plates to the British Museum.

The first complete full-colour edition of the Florilegium was published between 1980 and 1990 in 34 parts by Alecto Historical Editions and the British Museum. Only 100 sets were made available for sale, some on a subcription basis.

Editions Alecto: Banks Florilegium - Home Page

Alecto Historical Editions published Banks Florilegium in association with the British Museum (Natural History).

This monumental work depicts the plants
collected by Banks and Solander on Captain James Cook's first circumnatigation of the world.

The engravings are printed in color à la poupée, up to ten colours being worked directly into the single plate before each print is pulled, with additional details added in watercolour. Each sheet is identified by a blind embossed stamp on the recto, recording the publishers' and printer's chops, the copyright symbol and date. The initials of the individual printer, the plate number and the edition number are recorded in pencil.

Editions Alecto - Banks Florilegium - Plants by Family - A

Banks Florilegium Plates - Index by Plant Families

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium: The earliest florilegia-anthologies of illustrations describing living collections of flowering plants-first appeared 400 years ago. ...

Rhagor | Drawn from nature: Botanical illustrations

Mankind has always been fascinated by flowers, by their beauty, and by their possibilities for healing and knowledge. Amgueddfa Cymru holds a unique collection of more than 9,000 botanical illustrations spanning five centuries.

Royal Botanic Gardens Kew - Hortus Nitidissimis

"Hortus Nitidissimis Omnem Per Annum Superbiens Floribus Sive Amoenissimorum Florum Imagines"

A year in a brilliant garden of exquisite
flowers represented in beautiful pictures

The University of Delaware: The Art of Botanical Illustration. Herbals

On-line exhibition of The Art of Botanical Illustration

With the invention of the printing press, the knowledge of botany became more wide-spread. The earliest printed herbals were merely copies of manuscript works, reproduced without reference to live specimens. They were filled with errors caused by the mistranscription and misunderstanding of earlier works. Not until the early sixteenth century when botanists began to study live plants, would herbals include scientifically accurate images.

handprint : botanical illustration

Botanical Illustration is one of the oldest watercolor genres, associated throughout its history with the importance of plants to human health, recreation, and appreciation of beauty.

Flora Danica - The Royal Library

The vast Danish botanical work Flora Danica, begun in 1761, consists of 3,240 engravings in folio of all the wild plants that grew in the kingdom of Denmark.

Online galleries of the history of botanical art

images in the history of botanical art

Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation

Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation opened in 1961

It promotes the history of botany through its collections, research, exhibitions, publications, and services.

Hunt Institute: Search of Database

Search the Catalogue of the Botanical Art Collection at the Hunt Institute

Hunt Institute: Georg Dionys Ehret

Botanical artist Georg Dionys Ehret Collection at Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation.

Hunt Institute: Margaret Mee

Botanical artist Margaret Mee interview broadcast in November 1988 on The MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour.

Rhagor | Drawn from nature: Botanical illustrations

Mankind has always been fascinated by flowers, by their beauty, and by their possibilities for healing and knowledge. Amgueddfa Cymru holds a unique collection of more than 9,000 botanical illustrations spanning five centuries.

Rhagor | A passion for plants: botanical illustration by women artists

The Museum's collection of botanical illustrations consists of more than 9,000 prints and drawings. Many of the works in the collection have fascinating and courageous stories linked to them. In particular, there are stories of the women artists who took part in scientific discovery.

Rhagor | A marriage of art and science - botanical illustrations at Amgueddfa Cymru

The stories that lie behind botanical illustration are rich and intriguing in their own right - the desire to capture the flower before it fades often amounted to an obsession. Scientists risked life and limb to acquire new specimens and the collection of over 7,000 botanical prints and drawings held at Amgueddfa Cymru shines light on the the human tales which lie behind the history of botanical discovery.

Click on the thumbnails for further details.

Rhagor | Early Herbals - The German fathers of botany

Amgueddfa Cymru has a number of pre-1701 books in the Museum's Library, including a number of 16th- and 17th-century 'herbals'

Rhagor | A marriage of art and science - botanical illustrations at Amgueddfa Cymru

Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales
A marriage of art and science - botanical illustrations at Amgueddfa Cymru

Botanical Illustration - Victoria and Albert Museum

Botanical Illustration

RHS - The Lindley Library

The Lindley Library is the world's finest horticultural library. The largest branch is in London, but the Library at Wisley and the Garden Libraries at each of the RHS gardens are also an important part of the Lindley Library.

The University of Delaware: The Art of Botanical Illustration. Herbals

On-line exhibition of The Art of Botanical Illustration

Natural History Museum - North America

The Portrayal of Natural History Art of the Americas

This selection of images from the Library art collections at the Natural History Museum highlights a beautiful and varied range of artwork from the Americas.

Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli. Biblioteca digitale: Dioscurides Neapolitanus. Tavole

Dioscurides Neapolitanus
Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli
Codex ex Vindobonensis Graecus 1

Herbals

Herbals and the evolution of plant field guides
The early printed herbals took advantage of earlier manuscripts, notably Dioscorides' (40-90 AD) De materia medica, the ultimate authority for over 1,500 years.

ATLAS de la FLORE MAGIQUE ET ASTROLOGIQUE DE L'ANTIQUITÉ

A French Herbal
Notre choix s'est finalement porté sur les reproductions de végétaux qui accompagnent les Commentaires de Pierre André Matthioli sur le De Materia Medica de Dioscoride, traduits en français par Jean des Moulins, Docteur en médecine et publiés à Lyon en 1572

ATLAS of the FLORA AND MAGICAL ASTROLOGIQUE OF ANTIQUITY

A French herbal
Therapeutic properties of plants according Dioscoride (translated version)

Vienna Dioscorides - Wikimedia Commons

Vienna Dioscorides From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
English: The Vienna Dioscorides (Vienna, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. med. gr. 1.) is an early 6th century copy of De materia medica by Dioscoride

Wikimedia Commons - Category:Herbal

This category has the following 3 subcategories, out of 3 total.
D
[+] De materia medica (2) N
[+] Naples Dioscurides (0) V
[+] Vienna Dioscurides (0) Pages in category "Herbal"

Botanicus Digital Library

Botanicus is a freely accessible, Web-based encyclopedia of historic botanical literature from the Missouri Botanical Garden Library. Botanicus is made possible through support from the W.M. Keck Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Category:Walter Hood Fitch - Wikimedia Commons

Category:Walter Hood Fitch From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
After 1841 Fitch was the sole artist for all official and unofficial publications issued by Kew.

Online Gallery of the Flora Danicum

Thumbnail and list version of the 3,240 engravings in the Danish botanical work Flora Danica in the Royal Library of Copenhagen. This document - begun in 1761 - consists of 3,240 engravings in folio of all the wild plants that grew in the kingdom of Denmark.

NKS 565 4º: Von Reck's drawings - Binding | Drawings of Georgia

Center for Manuscripts & Rare Books Dansk
NKS 565 4º: Von Reck's drawings
"In 1736, Philip Georg Friedrich von Reck, then only twentyfive years old, sailed with other colonists from Germany to Georgia. One of his intentions, expressed in a letter before he left Europe, was to bring back from America "ocular proof" of what he called "this strange new world." Idealistic nad enthusiastic, welleducated and blessed with an amazing artistic gift, von Reck kept a travel diary, wrote separate descriptions of the plants, animals and Indians he discovered in Georgia and drew some fifty watercolor and pencil sketches of what he saw. [...] These drawings, accompanied by von Reck's writings, are important as history, science and art. As history, they give us a new and absolutely unique glimpse of Georgia as it looked when the first Europeans settled there. [...] As science, von Reck's natural history drawings represent the earliest records of several plants and animals. [...]

Botanical Art - Travels and Exploration

University of Delaware: The Art of Botanical Illustration Travel and Exploration

On-line exhibition of The Art of Botanical Illustration

Exhibitions of botanical art from the past

Making a Mark: Maria Sibylla Merian - at the Getty Museum, Buckingham Palace and Kew Gardens

Yesterday, a new exhibition Maria Sibylla Merian & Daughters: Women of Art and Science opened at the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Center, (June 10-August 31, 2008) and is the first major exhibition of Merian's work in America. It arrives there following an exhibition in Holland.
At the same time she features prominently in two exhibitions in London
* Amazing Rare Things at The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace; and
* Treasures of Botanical Art at the newly opened Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

Royal Collection - Amazing Rare Things

Amazing Rare Things
Maria Sibylla MerianMaria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) was one of the greatest artist-naturalists of her time.

Making a Mark: Kew opens the world's first dedicated botanical art gallery

On Saturday 19th April 2008, The Shirley Sherwood Gallery opened at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. It will exhibit precious works of botanical art from the collections of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Dr Shirley Sherwood, many of which have never been on public display before.

Digital versions of historical books about botanical art

Merian: Erucarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis 1717

Digital online version of the book - courtesy of Göttinger Digitalisierungszentrums

This was a book published by Merian's daughter after her death and concerns the transformation of caterpillars in butterflies - and the plants associated with that process en route.

History of Cultivated Vegetables ... - Google Book Search

History of Cultivated Vegetables: Comprising Their Botanical, Medicinal
By Henry PhillipsPublished 1822H. Colburn and Co.Plants, Cultivated
Original from Harvard Universityv.2Di
Read this book / Download PDF

The Botanical Register: - Google Book Search

By John Bellenden Ker, Sydenham Edwards, John Lindley (1817)
Original from Harvard University

"Consisting of coloured figures of exotic plants cultivated in British gardens, with their history and mode of treatment."

Read this book / Download PDF

Government of South Australia - Banks' florilegium

Banks' florilegium
Published by Alecto Historical Editions in association with the British Museum (Natural History)
Date of creation : 1981-1988
Additional creator : Banks, Joseph, Sir, 1743-1820; Solander, Daniel Charles, 1733-1782; Parkinson, Sydney, 1745?-
This item is reproduced courtesy of Natural History Museum. It may be printed or saved for personal research or study. Use for any other purpose requires written permission from Natural History Museum and the State Library of South Australia.

MBG Rare Books: Cornus

The Missouri Botanical Garden Library presents its Rare Book Digitization Project.

Title: Cornus : specimen botanicum sistens descriptiones et icones specierum corni minus cognitarum / Car. Lud. L'Héritier, Dom. de Brutelle.
Author(s): L Héritier de Brutelle, Charles Louis
Publisher: Parisiis : Typis Petri-Francisci Didot [etc.], 1788.

MBG Rare Books: A curious herbal

The Missouri Botanical Garden Library presents its Rare Book Digitization Project.

A curious herbal, containing five hundred cuts, of the most useful plants, which are now used in the practice of physick : engraved on folio copper plates, after drawings taken from the life / by Elizabeth Blackwell. To which is added a short description of ye plants and their common uses in physick.

Oustanding botanical artists in history

Albrecht Meyer, Heinrich Fullmauer and Veit Rudolf Speckle

A picture of the draftsmen and the engraver employed by Leonhart Fuchs for Fuchs Great Herbal. Fuchs's work is one of the first scientific works to identify artists involved in its production, and may be the first to include their portraits." (Norman library)

Albrecht Meyer drew the specimens from life and Heinrich Fullmauer copied them onto woodblocks, which were engraved by Veit Rudolf Speckle.

Wikipedia - David Kandel - 1520-1592

David Kandel was one of the best known pioneers of botanical art and science. However, like in similar cases of many other Renaissance artists, very few facts are verifiable regarding his personal life, because very few events in his life are identifiable from surviving records. He was probably born in Strasbourg in 1520, married in 1554 and died in 1592

Sydney Parkinson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sydney Parkinson (c. 1745 - 26 January 1771) was a Scottish Quaker, botanical illustrator and natural history artist. Parkinson was employed by Joseph Banks to travel with him on James Cook's first voyage to the Pacific in 1768. Parkinson made nearly a thousand drawings of plants and animals collected by Banks and Daniel Solander on the voyage.

He had to work in difficult conditions, living and working in a small cabin surrounded by hundreds of specimens. One of two on board artists, neither of whom survived the voyage, Parkinson died at sea shortly after leaving Java.

Sydney Parkinson (1745? - 1771)

Parkinson's skills as a botanical artist were noticed by Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820). He gave Parkinson access to Kew Gardens in order for him to draw the plants as a scientific record. In 1768, Parkinson accompanied Banks as his botanical draughtsman on Captain James Cook's famous voyage of circumnavigation. This epic voyage of discovery was carried out on a converted coal ship, the HMS Endeavour.

Franz (Francis) Andreas Bauer (1758-1840)

Born in Feldsburg, Austria, Franz was the older brother of Ferdinand Bauer, the famous botanical artist. After arriving in England in 1788, Sir Joseph Banks employed Franz as a botanical artist at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

For the next 40 years, Bauer illustrated the newly discovered plants from around the world that were introduced to England via Kew, where they were grown and studied for the first time in a scientific manner. Bauer was probably the first artist to draw detailed plant dissections for recording purposes at Kew

Ferdinand Lucas Bauer (1760-1826)

Natural History Museum
Ferdinand Lucas Bauer (1760-1826)

Ferdinand Lucas Bauer and his brother Franz (Francis) were from an artistic Austrian family. They are now regarded as probably the most accomplished and capable botanical artists of all time.

Bauer travelled to Australia on the ship HMS Investigator as botanical draughtsman to Sir Joseph Banks' botanist, Robert Brown (1773-1858). HMS Investigator was commanded by Captain Matthew Flinders, and circumnavigated and charted Australia in detail for the first time.

Pierre-Joseph Redouté - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pierre-Joseph Redouté (July 10, 1759 - June 20, 1840), was a Belgian painter and botanist, known for his paintings of the roses, lilies and other flowers at Malmaison. Redouté was born in Saint-Hubert, Luxembourg, which is now part of Belgium. He was an official court artist of Queen Marie Antoinette, and he continued painting through the French Revolution and Reign of Terror.

Arthur Harry Church (1865-1937) Botanist and Illustrator

Arthur Harry Church (1865-1937) Botanist and Illustrator
The following essay was written as an assignment for my course of study with the Society of Botanical Artists.

Basilius Besler (1561 - 1629)

a collection of links to sites about Basilius Besler and his botanical illustrations

Basilius Besler - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The emphasis in botanicals of previous centuries had been on medicinal and culinary herbs, and these had usually been depicted in a crude manner. The images were often inadequate for identification, and had little claim to being aesthetic. The Hortus Eystettensis changed botanical art overnight. The plates were of garden flowers, herbs and vegetables, exotic plants such as castor-oil and arum lilies. These were depicted near life-size, producing rich detail. The layout was artistically pleasing and quite modern in concept, with the hand-colouring adding greatly to the final effect. The work was first published in 1613 and consisted of 367 copper engravings, with an average of three plants per page, so that a total of 1084 species were depicted. The first edition printed 300 copies, which took four years to sell.

British Museum Showcases - Landmarks in Printing :: Hortus Eystettensis

The Prince Bishop of Eichstatt recorded, in the manuscript Hortus Eystettensis, the spectacular garden he'd created at his palace in Bavaria with plants from around the world.

Basilius Besler Gallery

W. Graham Arader III: Paintings, rare books, prints, maps and atlases. - gallery of images from the 'HORTUS EYSTETTENSIS (

His 'HORTUS EYSTETTENSIS (The Garden of Eichstatt)' contains 374 plates and took 16 years to complete. The principal engraver was Wolfgang Kilian (1581-1662); as many as ten other artists and engravers may also have been employed. Over one thousand flowers were depicted, representing 667 species with exemplary fidelity to nature. The rhythmic patterns of roots, however, betray the decorative linear conventions of the era of Albrecht Durer and Lucas Cranach.

The 'HORTUS EYSTETTENSIS' was one of the first printed herbals to be illustrated. Such an undertaking was of inestimable value to doctors, pharmacists- and their patients. The 'HORTUS EYSTETTENSIS' also represented a significant effort to systematize botanical nomenclature, which would not be standardized until the publication of Linnaeus' system in 1753.

Botanical prints, Basilius Besler's Hortus Eystettensis, antique original botanical prints, Besler Botanical Prints

Original Natural History prints of Basilius Besler

Biography

Basilius Besler (1591-1629) was a pharmacist in Nuremberg. During the rule of bishop Johann Conrad von Gemmingen (approx. 1561-1612) he was in charge of the bishop's gardens in Eichstätt. In 1586 Besler took over the pharmacy at the Nuremberg hay market. He set up his own botanical gardens and a comprehensive collection of natural history specimens and was soon known as a botanist and collector of natural history specimens.

Georg Dionys Ehret (1708 - 1770)

a collection of links to sites about Georg Dionys Ehret and his botanical illustrations

Hunt Institute: Georg Dionys Ehret

Botanical artist Georg Dionys Ehret Collection at Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation.

Georg Dionysius Ehret - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708 - 1770) was a botanist and entomologist, and is best known for his botanical illustrations.

SICD -Ehret, Georgius Dionysius (1750) Plantae selectae

SICD Universities of Strasbourg - Digital old books
Ehret, Georgius Dionysius (1750) Plantae selectae

Read the digital version of this book online

The Art of Georg Dionysius Ehret

This is the text of the exhibit on display in the rare book room of the Warren H. Corning Library and Visitor Center of The Holden Arboretum, 9500 Sperry Road, Kirtland, Ohio from January 6 through February 2, 1999

Books not on Amazon

National Museum Wales Books - The Paradise Garden

An introduction to the development of botanical illustration. This art form, a true marriage of art and science, has developed in order to preserve the ephemeral beauty of plants and to explore their medical benefits.

Features over one hundred illustrations, including breathtaking paintings by such renowned artists as Ehret and Redouté. This elegant book reveals some of the treasures of the National Museum & Gallery's collection of botanical illustrations, too fragile to be on permanent display.

National Museum Wales Books - Catalogue of Botanical Prints and Drawings

The extensive collections of botanical prints and drawings held by the National Museums & Galleries of Wales, which include over 7,000 works, are catalogued here for the first time. They include works by such renowned artists as Blackwell, Ehret and Redoute. Seventy-five colour illustrations reveal some of the treasures from the collections, and the catalogue includes portraits and biographies of some of the people who form the history of this fascinating science.

The development of botanical art

Rhagor | Drawn from nature: Botanical illustrations

Amgueddfa Cymru holds a unique collection of more than 9,000 botanical illustrations spanning five centuries. The collection traces the development of botanical illustration and its relationship between art and science from the medieval herbals of the Dark Ages, when man feared nature, through the Enlightenment and the great voyages of discovery to the contemporary illustrations of the 21st century.

Rhagor | A passion for plants: botanical illustration by women artists

The Museum's collection of botanical illustrations consists of more than 9,000 prints and drawings. Many of the works in the collection have fascinating and courageous stories linked to them. In particular, there are stories of the women artists who took part in scientific discovery.

Rhagor | Giant Waterlily Navigator

The gigantic waterlily from South America, Victoria regia, now Victoria amazonica, was discovered in 1801 and named in honor of Queen Victoria in 1838.

The History of Botanical Art - Other Botanists and Artists

Pedanius Dioscorides - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The early printed herbals took advantage of earlier manuscripts, notably Dioscorides' (40-90 AD) De materia medica, the ultimate authority for over 1,500 years.

A number of illustrated manuscripts of the Materia Medica survive, some of them from as early as the 5th through 7th centuries. The most famous of these early copies is the Vienna Dioscurides (512/513).

Hieronymus Bock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hieronymus Bock From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hieronymus Bock , also seen as "Boch", (1498 - February 21, 1554) also known under his latinised name Hieronymus Tragus, was a German botanist, physician, and Lutheran minister who began the transition from medieval botany to the modern scientific worldview by arranging plants by their relation or resemblance. His 1546 Kreuterbuch or "herbal" was illustrated by the artist David Kandel. In the wine world, Bock is noted for having the first documented use of the modern word Riesling in 1552 when it was mentioned in his Latin herbal.

Wikipedia - Leonhart Fuchs - 1501-1566

Leonhart Fuchs (17 January 1501 - 10 May 1566), sometimes spelled Leonhard Fuchs,[1] was a German physician and one of the three founding fathers of botany.

Natural History Exhibit Chronological Tour - William Curtis

William Curtis (1746-1799) was from a Quaker family much interested in medicine. He was
apprenticed to an apothecary who left him his business, but he sold it to concentrate on his real interest, the
study of natural history,

handprint : botanical illustration

Botanical Illustration is one of the oldest watercolor genres, associated throughout its history with the importance of plants to human health, recreation, and appreciation of beauty.

Rhagor | Early Herbals - The German fathers of botany

Amgueddfa Cymru has a number of pre-1701 books in the Museum's Library, including a number of 16th- and 17th-century 'herbals' featuring examples of the works of three men who have been described as the 'German fathers of botany'

These are:
- Hieronymous Bock (1498-1554)
- Otto Brunfels (1489-1534)
- Leonhard Fuchs (1501-66)

Walter Hood Fitch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Walter Hood Fitch (February 28, 1817 - 1892) was a botanist and botanical artist. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Fitch was involved in fabric printing from the age of 17 and took to botanical art after being discovered by William Jackson Hooker, the editor of Curtis's Botanical Magazine. In 1841, W.J. Hooker became director of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Fitch moved to London. After 1841 Fitch was the sole artist for all official and unofficial publications issued by Kew.

John Nugent Fitch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Nugent Fitch (1840-1927), botanical illustrator and lithographer, best known for his contribution of 528 plates to The Orchid Album, a landmark work of eleven volumes published between 1872 and 1897.

Plants and Gardens Portrayed: Rare and Illustrated Books from The LuEsther T. Mertz Library

The LuEsther T. Mertz Library of the New York Botanical Garden houses a treasury of published and archival documents that trace the development of botany and horticulture from the twelfth century to the present day. The collections reflect the evolution of plant study from its origins in ancient medicine and agriculture to the most modern advances in plant molecular biology. The Mertz Library holds an excellent representation of the important pioneering botanical and horticultural works published in Europe and America over the past 500 years. In addition to scientific studies, a large collection of books, journals, and ephemera such as nursery catalogs, represents the history of popular gardening, garden design, and the nursery trade.

From this wealth of materials, the exhibition Plants and Gardens Portrayed focuses on three areas of special strength in the collection of rare and illustrated books: the emergence of the study of plants from early medicine; international plant exploration and the introduction of new species; and the evolution of garden design. The rarely seen images exhibited here demonstrate the development of published illustration to communicate knowledge about plants and gardens.

Traditional and/or eminent Botanical Gardens

Making a Mark: A visit to the Chelsea Physic Garden

A review of a visit to the Chelsea Physic Garden in London

Chelsea Physic Garden

The Chelsea Physic Garden was founded by the Society of Apothecaries in 1673 in order to promote the study of botany in relation to medicine, then known as the "physic" or healing arts.

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Home Page

I'm a Premier Friend of Kew and can highly recommend the gardens at both Kew and Wakehurst Place in Surrey both as places to visit and gardens which are worth supporting.

The Medieval Garden Enclosed

The Medieval Garden Enclosed METMUSEUM.ORG
THE CLOISTERS MUSEUM & GARDENS
The Cloisters, the branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe, was assembled from architectural elements, both domestic and religious, that date from the twelfth through the fifteenth century. The building and its cloistered gardens?located in Fort Tryon Park in Northern Manhattan?are treasures in themselves, effectively part of the collection housed there. The Cloisters collection comprises approximately five thousand works of art from medieval Europe, dating from about the ninth to the fifteenth century.
The Cloisters Museum and Gardens is pleased to announce a new blog called "The Medieval Garden Enclosed," which will keep visitors up to date on all the latest happenings?including what's in bloom?at the spectacular gardens in Fort Tryon Park. The blog will be hosted and moderated by the horticulturalists and medievalists on staff at The Cloisters

My book reviews

Making a Mark: Book Review: Merian's Antique Botanical Prints

All the engravings in the Merian book are taken from Erucarum Ortus, Alimentum et Paradoxa Metamorphosis published in Amsterdam in 1718. This was a book published by her daughter after her death and concerns the transformation of caterpillars in butterflies - and the plants associated with that process en route.

Making a Mark: Book Review: Besler's Book of Flowers and Plants

Some 5,000 plants in Germany's famous garden at Eichstätt were recorded in copperplate engravings. These were later published in Hortus Eystettensis (which is Latin and means 'The Garden at Eichstätt') by Basilius Besler.

Making a Mark: Book Review - 1001 Plant and floral illustrations from early herbals

In reality there's very little text and an awful lot of engravings and illustrations used in early herbals. I find the herbals to be very attractive in their simplicity.

Richard G Hatton compiled a book of illustrations taken from his earlier book The Craftsman's Plant Book. I found a first edition leather bound first edition (1909) of this being offered for £150 on the internet so this paperback version for £17 is something of a bargain!

Making a Mark: Volume 1 of The Highgrove Florilegium is published

This week the first volume of the Highgrove Florilegium was published by Alecto Publications. In this post I'm looking at

* the definition of a Florilegium,
* the publication of the first volume of the Highgrove Florilegium
* Historical Florilegia
* Contemporary Florilegia in the making
- Interviews with artists
- Information about resources for ar

Making a Mark: Treasures of Botanical Art - a recommended read

Treasures of Botanical Art by Shirley Sherwood and Martyn Rix has been published by Kew Publishing to mark the inaugural exhibition of the The Shirley Sherwood Gallery in Kew Gardens, the first gallery in the world to be dedicated to year round exhibitions of botanical art.

The book is extensively illustrated and features some 200 illustrations of paintings and drawings from both the Kew and Shirley Sherwood collections.

It provides an overview of the most significant artists from the 1600s through to contemporary artists and informative essays on the origins, history and relevance of botanical illustration with special reference to both the Kew and Shirley Sherwood collections.