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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Botanical illustration | 5/11 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botanical_illustration | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T10:43:35.237685+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Seventeenth century === Theodor de Bry, draughtsman and engraver, published his Florilegium novum in 1612, consisting of 116 plates representing, as the full title emphasises, flowers and plants, with their roots and bulbs, engraved from nature. It appears that at least some of the plates were borrowed from Pierre Vallet (c. 1575–1657), engraver and embroiderer to Kings Henri IV and Louis XIII, who himself published two florilèges: Le Jardin du roy tres chrestien Henri IV (1608) and Le Jardin du roy tres chrestien Loys XIII (1623). Some of the plates are beautifully hand-colored. Both books were made for "those who wish to paint or illuminate, embroider or make tapestries". Johann Theodor de Bry greatly assisted his father. With the assistance of Matthäus Merian der Ältere he later published Florilegium renovatum et auctum, also known as Anthologia Magna (1641), an expanded version with 177 engraved plates. Emanuel Sweerts, a tulip collector, published another florilegium: Florilegium by Emanuel Sweerts of Zevenbergen, living in Amsterdam [...] showing various flowers and other plants, in two parts, drawn from nature and rendered in four languages (Latin, German, French and Dutch). The first part is devoted to 67 bulb plants (32 varieties of tulips), and the second to 43 perennial plants. Each plate (all borrowed from de Bry's Florilegium) is numbered and refers to an index in which its name appears. The 1612 edition includes a preface in which the author gives the two addresses where tulips can be bought, in Frankfurt and Amsterdam : botanical illustration suddenly found a new outlet in the production of nursery catalogues. Hortus Eystettensis (1613) is a "cabinet book" and, more precisely, a florilegium: it contains engravings of the plants grown in the garden created by the botanist Basilius Besler at the request of the Prince-Bishop of Eichstätt. The 367 engravings, mostly by Wolfgang Kilian, were designed to be painted, if necessary. Crispijn van de Passe the Older (1564–1637) and mostly (or only) his son Crispijn van de Passe the Younger (1594/1595-1670) published their Hortus Floridus in Utrecht from 1614 onwards. This is an engraved florilegium of more than a hundred unusual or rare plants, accurately depicted and classified according to their flowering season. The first plates show two views of a Dutch garden. In 1616 was published Jardin d'hyver, or Cabinet des fleurs, containing in 26 elegies the rarest and most signal flowers of the most beautiful flowerbeds. Illustrated with excellent figures representing the most beautiful flowers of domestic gardens in their natural state (in particular anemones and tulips)... By Jean Franeau. The work included an initial index and engravings by Antoine Serrurier. The flowers most prized by 'florists' (garden lovers) are presented in the order of the seasons, starting with spring. (Herbaria were called "hortus hyemale" or "hiemale" in Latin ('winter garden'), or "hortus siccus" ('dry garden'), and did not take on this name until the 18th century). In 1631 the great era of "Les Vélins du Roi" began. At the same time, the idea of the (private) pleasure garden, which originated in Italy, was brought to France during the great period of Hôtel particulier construction, mainly in Paris from the early 17th century onwards. These freestanding mansions were often built between an entrance court (on the street side) and a pleasure garden overlooking the private apartments. The Hôtel Lambert, built in 1640, had a terraced garden. "Follies" (summer houses) such as the Folie-Rambouillet (built from 1633 to 1635) had extensive 'pleasure gardens' to which André Mollet dedicated a book: Le Jardin de plaisir, contenant plusieurs desseins de jardinage (The Pleasure Garden, containing several garden designs), 1651. Pinax theatri botanici (Illustrated Exposition of Plants, Basel, 1623) by Swiss botanist Gaspard Bauhin stands as one of the highest expressions of Renaissance European herbals. It describes thousands of plants and classifies them in a manner that foreshadowed the binomial nomenclature later developed by Linnaeus. Later editions were illustrated. Johannes Bodaeus van Stapel helped revive and disseminate ancient botanical knowledge when he published Theophrastus' Historia Plantarum (c. 350 BC – c. 287 BC) in Amsterdam in 1644. It was not only a translation as he added his own commentary and annotations as well as detailed illustrations of plants. Balthasar Moncornet published a number of works for ornamentalists, including Livre nouveau de fleurs très util pour l'art d'orfèvrerie et autres (a new book of flowers, very useful for the art of goldsmithing and others, Paris, 1645). When in the 17th century, tulipomania swept through Holland, the commerce of tulips, along with the instability of their colors, provided additional incentive to have them painted. A book created in 1634 for Nicolaes Tulp contains over a hundred pages of tulips (along with insects and Mollusc shells) painted by Jacob Marrel. Tulip mania continued beyond the collapse of the market in 1637. In 1650 Jean Le Clerc (15..-163.), bookseller, publisher and engraver, published his Livre de fleurs où sont représentées toutes sortes de tulippes (Paris). Charles de La Chesnée-Monstereul followed suit with a book devoted entirely to tulips, Le Floriste françois (Caen, 1654). And in 1678, he published a Traité des tulipes. Nicolas Guillaume de La Fleur (1608–1663), an engraver, painter and draughtsman from Lorraine, is known to have engraved flower plates in Rome in 1638-39 (published by Frederick de Wit, Amsterdam, 1650–1706), and to have worked in Paris c.1644. Painter Claude Boutet later recommended that those who wish to learn to paint flowers should copy his engravings: "Buy Nicolas-Guillaume la Fleur's Fleurs, which are sold at Mariette, ruë Saint-Jacques, at l'Espérance. They are very good." This suggests that there was a market for such books. On his return to his estates in Idstein around 1646, John, Count of Nassau-Idstein built up a large cabinet of curiosities, had a garden laid out for himself, and invited Johann Jakob Walther to paint it: Le florilège dit de Nassau-Idstein, painted between 1654 and 1672, comprises 42 miniatures on vellum of flowers (familiar or exotic) and fruits, and views of the garden with beds in the shape of fruit. He was also the great-uncle of the painter François Walter, author of a Herbier du Bas-Rhin (1795). The growing need for European naturalists to exchange ideas and information led to the creation of the first scientific academies, such as the Accademia dei Lincei (Italy, 1603), the Royal Society (1660), and the French Academy of Sciences (1666). Denis Dodart (1634–1707), who oversaw the studies of the French Academy of Sciences from 1670 to 1694, played a pivotal role in the publication of Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire des plantes in 1676. This work proposed the creation of a comprehensive (and illustrated) catalogue of plant species. Joachim Jungius was the first scientist to combine a philosophical mindset with precise observation of plants. For him, rigorous botanical terminology was essential, thus reducing the use of vague or arbitrary terminology in systematics. Jungius's Doxoscopia (1662) and Isagoge phytoscopica (Introduction to the study of plants, 1679) were published posthumously. His botanical theories were far ahead of their time and had little influence during his lifetime.