Great Flower Books - Three Centuries of Masterpieces

There is always something mesmerizing about botanical books to anyone who appreciates nature, for they include an ever-unfolding treasure house. The portrayal of flowers in the publications we have selected in our journey through three centuries of masterpieces are visions of plants that go beyond an eye-catching fulfillment, but strive to soothe the mind and the spirit.

At the beginning of our period of research, the time when books with botanical illustration were first produced (second half of 16th century), the plates were elaborated from woodcuts, a relief printing technique where the artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. 

A great example of such early intaglio efforts was Pietro Andrea Mattioli's Commentarii in sex libros Pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbei...de medica materia, published in venice by Valgrisi in 1565, illustrated by talented artists Giorgio Liberale and Wolfgang Meyerpeck, who designed nearly 600 large blocks that appeared in the herbal. 

Mattioli's Commentarii. Venice, Valgrisi, 1565.

This method was slowly replaced by copper plate engravings, whose success is corroborated by what might be called the golden age of natural history book. 

This process was extensively used from 1700 until about 1830, when that type of illustration was outmatched by the aquatint, the mezzotint and the stipple engraving, often printed in color. 

A work of outstanding beauty was Jean Louis Prevost's Collection des Fleurs et des Fruits, published in Paris in 1805, one of the earliest examples of stipple-engraving used to create a grainy effect with a series of dots or flecks using a finely-toothed "roulette" or wheel. This was the finest hour of color printing.

Prevost's Collection des Fleurs et des Fruits.

Around 1830 the lithograph appeared, which involved printing from a stone instead of a copper plate; it was still, however, colored by hand. But towards the the end of nineteenth century the chromolithograph, in which the color came directly from the stone and not applied by hand, had won the battle. It made natural history books grow steadily cheaper and was the model of all later flower, bird and animal plates, but these illustrations lack the individual artistry that made the earlier ones fascinating and unique, and the pleasure of looking at the pictures of art has gone.

Before moving onto the exegesis of a few single publications, it is significant to stress that throughout these centuries only certain countries were at the top of what might be called the natural history book league, confirming also their cultural and commercial influence over the rest of the western world.

During the 15th and 16th century, Germany and Italy were very important places for the divulgation of botanical texts, the former, being the cradle of the printing press and home of Martin Luther, the latter the birthplace of the Renaissance.

The Dutch came shortly after because they were among the earliest explorers. Maria Sibylla Merian's Histoire générale des insectes de Surinam et de toute l'Europe, published for the first time in 1705 was probably the best example of Dutch work, although earlier flower books like Emmanuel Sweert's Florilegium (1612) or Jan Commelyn's Nederlantze Hesperides (1676) were a substantial certification of a northern European superiority in the industry of illustrated volumes.

Merian's Insects of Surinam

The Germans were also active in the early eighteenth century and J.W. Weinmann's Phytanthoza Iconographia, a large folio publication comprising of four volumes and 1026 plates is perhaps the most notable example. 

Starting from 1730 onwards, the British really dominated the field with a very large number of great books, with an obvious exception: France. 

Redouté and Prevost, using stipple engravings expertly printed in color and finished by hand, undoubtedly created the finest books of all between 1790 and 1830, despite competition from outstanding works such as those of Thornton (Temple of Flora) and Brookshaw in England. The United States, besides the renowned Audubon, does not enter into this particular discussion, since it must be remembered that his masterpiece, The Birds of America, was actually printed and published in London.

Not all of the books that I will describe in my next posts deserve the status "great", but they are all of the highest quality. In other words, their printed plates are among the best of their period and their value, besides number of volumes and plates, intrinsic beauty, scientific merits is ultimately determined by a common denominator: their scarcity.

References: Great Flower Books. 1700-1900. The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1990. Introduction: Nature  into Art by Handasyde Buchanan, 1979.