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HERBARIUMS
EDUCATIONAL ROUTE
I. MEDICINAL PLANTS
AND THEIR USE
II. THE APPLIED ARTS
IN THE FIELD OF MEDICINAL PLANTS:
BOTANICAL ILLUSTRATIONS
ON PAPER, CERAMIC AND GLASS
III. THE SPICE ROUTES
IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE
RESERVATIONS
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Illustrated herbals and the illustration of botany
An
illustrated herbal
is a fundamental record in the history of
medicine
and
botany
as it contains, for each period of history, the entire body of plant-related knowledge at that point in time, analysed both
scientifically
and
therapeutically
.
Between 1200 and 1400
herbals
were used exclusively to provide information on the
curative properties
of
medicinal plants
, which were illustrated simply and approximatively.
With the establishment of
botany
as a science, attention turned more to the classification and recognition of the plant itself. Great assistance in this was provided by the technical perfection of the
illustrations
and the introduction of
colour
, which increased the
scientific
and
documentary
value of herbals.
The new images were born from the close partnership between the
artist
and a
botanist
. It was recognised that a
verbal description of a plant
without an illustration could lead to confusion and it was therefore necessary to show it in every detail.
The first printed herbals date from the early sixteenth century. The earliest in the
Biblioteca Antiqua Aboca
is the
Herbarium vivae Icones
, published in 1530 by the German botanist Otto Brunfels, which was the first to show the plant as realistically as possible. The printing technique used was the
woodcut
.
In 1542 Leonhart Fuchs included high quality
water-coloured woodcuts
in his herbal
De Historia stirpium
, which aided in the identification of plants through the colours of the flowers and fruits. Also outstanding was the work by the Italian botanist, Pietro Andrea Mattioli, who printed many original woodcuts in his herbals next to the text or even in full-page illustrations.
A jump in quality and technique was brought about by Basilius Besler, a botanist and pharmacist from Nuremberg, who in 1613 published the anthology
Hortus Eystettensis
, which included 367
chalcographic engravings
.
The engravings in Besler's masterpiece, which were etched on metal plates, were of such quality that the artistic element in the book was as important as its
scientific and naturalistic
components. Using this technique, plants were illustrated in their constituent parts in other herbals for educational purposes.
The use of
lithography
, introduced at the end of the eighteenth century, marked another step forward in
botanical illustration
and coincided with the publication of university manuals. Daniel Wagner, a Hungarian botanist and chemist, included 250 high quality lithographs in his treatise
Pharmaceutisch-medicinische Botanik
.
HERBALS >>
Colour >>
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Engraving techniques >>
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