Embedded Files
Intro:
Over the next several weeks, we’ll discuss the origins of modern science in ancient Greece, the influence of the Arabs on European naturalists, the role of the printing press on the study of nature, the scientific discoveries that came with European expansion and colonialism, and the human cost that came with the European quest for land, luxury goods, and natural resources. We’ll also examine the importance of collecting specimens and the impact of studying nature on the fine art of the Northern Renaissance.
There are far too many extraordinary illustrations to include in this course, so I’ve chosen some with the greatest technical skills, most unusual styles or interesting backgrounds, or the most significant contributions to the field. I've separated the material into different branches of science, so some of the naturalists and illustrators will appear repeatedly.
Unfortunately, many of the artists and illustrators behind the art of natural history are unknown. There were often many people involved in the process of developing prints. Usually an original watercolor study was created by an artist. This study was given to a wood carver or metalsmith to transfer it to the print matrix (woodblock, etching, engraving, or lithograph). This was then printed by an expert and hand-colored by a group of colorists in a workshop. In some cases the printer received credit, at other times the person who arranged for the creation of the book or series of prints received credit. The prints were rarely signed and so the artists remain anonymous, for the most part.
Likewise, illuminated manuscripts were created by several anonymous craftsmen and so we rarely have the names of the artists, decorators, and calligraphers involved. As we move into the late 16th century, we will find more names attached to the illustrations discussed in this course.
What is “natural history?”
Historia naturalis is a Greek phrase which translates to research or inquiry of nature. Natural history was a branch of philosophy for many centuries, until the tools needed to conduct controlled experiments and collect accurate data were developed.
Modern science is founded on the collection, identification, and classification of specimens. European science and medicine is rooted in the writings of ancient Greece, which were preserved through the Graeco-Arabic translation movement of the 8th-10th centuries. Europeans copied these texts and illustrations for several centuries, translating them from Latin to French, German, or Spanish, but otherwise making very few changes, until the goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the mid-15th century.
Naturalists had different motivations- some studied plants and animals for medicinal, dietary, or agricultural purposes, others were driven by curiosity or appreciation of the strange and beautiful. And some recognized the economic opportunities in nature.
Left to right: Jan Wandelaar, Rachel Ruysch, Leonardo da Vinci
Art and science from the early Renaissance through the late 19th century were closely entwined. Scientists needed skills in drawing, perspective, and shading to record their observations, or they’d have to hire an artist to do it for them. And artists who drew from observation were frequently curious about the mysteries of nature.
Europeans collected countless new species through exploration, colonial expansion, and trade with Asia and the Arab-speaking world. Biological specimens were gathered dead or alive and preserved through drying, stuffing, or submerging in alcohol. It was not uncommon for sailors to drink from the jars of rum that contained preserved specimens being shipped back to Europe. Living menageries of unusual birds and animals were common among the wealthy. Exotic animals were kept as pets or given as gifts.
Illustrators worked in a number of ways- by drawing from observation using live or preserved specimens; working from written descriptions; or by copying existing drawings of specimens that they did not have access to.
The specimens could be skinned, stuffed, or preserved in liquid. Because their shapes and colors changed quickly after death, illustrators often made detailed color notes on living specimens.
Organizing living things into groups was a necessary first step in the study of biology. Sorting similar species into groups for comparison involved centuries of study and experimentation and became more accurate with the development of tools, such as the compound microscope.
As technology improved, naturalists were able to gather more accurate data, and
natural history moved from the realm of philosophy to a set of highly specialized sciences
.Taxonomy is the scientific study of naming, defining, and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared traits. The word comes from the ancient Greek “taxis”, meaning arrangement, and “nomia”, meaning method.
Methods of classification have been refined from grouping species by size, terrain, or appearance, to the Linnean system (which has roots in Aristotle’s method), to our current clade system, which organizes groups by a common ancestor.
Botany and Medicine
The study and documentation of nature begins with plants, so we’ll look briefly at the work of the ancients that informed the European artists and scientists covered in this course. The study of botany was generally the work of physicians, as medicine was mostly plant based- though there were some animal based treatments.
Medicinal use of plants is as old as mankind. Documentation of their healing properties dates back at least 5000 to Sumerian slabs that contain recipes for preparing treatments from over 250 plants, including poppy, henbane, and mandrake.
Descriptions of plants and animals and their uses were gathered in collections of writings called “materia medica,” which is Latin for “healing materials.” These glossaries were also called “herbals,” and often included recipes for extracting, combining, and applying the remedies, as well as magical beliefs about illness and health. These collections were crucial to the development of botany and medicine and we’ll look at several examples as they evolved over the centuries.
Shen-nung pen ts'ao ching (Divine Husbandman's Materia Medica), is assumed to be written by Emperor Shen Nung circa 2700 BC, and covers 365 medical mixtures and uses from hundreds of plants, roots, seeds, and leaves. He is credited with bringing agriculture to China and teaching his people to cultivate plants in order to avoid killing animals for food.
A handful of well-preserved medical texts from 2000-1500 BCE have been found in Egypt, including the famous Ebers papyrus. They contain medical treatments and magic spells for a range of illnesses and conditions, as well as surgical procedures, and even a fairly accurate description of the circulatory system.
The most curious treatment included is a remedy against death, which requires half an onion and the froth of a bear.
The Ancient Greeks lived in relative freedom and prosperity and were unconstrained by religious authority, which allowed them the time and space to contemplate natural phenomena.
They established a settlement in Egypt in the 7th century BCE and were influenced by Egyptian writing on natural history in general and medicine in particular.
Greek medical chart demonstrating astrological applications Unknown artist
The Greeks developed theories on nature through observation and experimentation. Their descriptions of animals often included mythological creatures alongside actual ones, which created confusion centuries later as European naturalists tried to separate fact from fiction. Their medical texts also included legends related to the divine origins of a substance and descriptions of the religious or magical rites that were performed when harvesting a plant or slaughtering an animal. Many of the medical treatments depended upon astrology.
In general, the Romans were more focused on compiling existing theories than in developing new ones. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the first-hand study of nature was more or less abandoned in Europe. Existing books were copied repeatedly, rarely adding new information or questioning what was written until the invention of the printing press in 1450, which inspired a renewed interest in first-hand observation.
Apothecaries, as pharmacists were called, learned through the oral tradition and through apprenticeships. Over centuries, manuals on the topic were developed that collected excerpts of empirical knowledge. When an apprenticeship ended, apothecaries started their journeyman training- similar to today’s residency that is part of a medical student’s training. It was common practice for journeymen to travel to other towns, which exposed them to new ideas and treatments and allowed them to discover local medical practices.
Hippocrates (5th c. BCE) is considered the Father of Medicine. Among other things, he established medicine as a profession and separated it from philosophy and religion, arguing that disease was not caused by the gods but by nature.
Illuminated manuscript of Aristotle’s medical writing
Unknown artist
Aristotle (b. 384 BCE- 322BCE)
Aristotle developed theories on biology and physics based on the writings of his predecessors (Empedocles, Hippocrates, and Democritus) and on his own observations.
He studied under Plato in Athens and then traveled through Asia Minor where he met the botanist Theophrastus. Upon returning to Athens, he added natural history to the already accepted “sciences” of math, medicine, and astronomy, and taught natural history at the Lyceum.
His nine-volume Historia Animalium describes the behavior and physiology of over 500 species of birds, mammals, and marine life. He dissected animals to study the development of eggs, which led to his understanding of the cardio-vascular system.
He believed that every living thing possessed a soul and that souls contained different elements. For example, he believed that the soul of plants contained a nutritive element that allowed them to grow and reproduce. Animal souls had an appetitive element that allowed them to have sensations and desires and the ability to move in order to fulfill those desires. Human souls had nutritive, appetitive, and rational features, which gave them also the capacity for thought.
He divided life forms into four categories:
Merely physical
Living but not sensate, ie: plants
Sensate but not rational, ie: animals
Rational and sensate, ie: humans
Aristotle was the first to attempt to classify living beings. He grouped them based on their similarities and arranged them in order of complexity, with minerals at the bottom of a “ladder,” and humans at the top. He put animals over plants because of their ability to move and sense, and then ranked animals by reproductive method, with live birth placed above laying eggs.
The species arranged this way had no genetic relationship to each other. Though not all of his ideas have held up over time, his system of classification has had lasting influence.
He divided animals into these categories:
blooded vs. bloodless (similar to vertebrates vs. invertebrates);
viviparous vs. oviparous (live young vs. eggs):
and solid or cloven hoofed.
He also devised the binomial system of classification, which Linnaeaus would improve upon in the 1700s. Aristotle grouped organisms by family or genus name first, followed by the trait that differentiated it from the others.
Illustration of a crab and unicorn in
‘Kitab Na't al-hayawan’, a 13th century Arab translation of Aristotle’s writings on natural history. Unknown artists
Aristotle’s Historia Animalium was copied repeatedly throughout the Arabic-speaking world and Europe and was one of the first scientific texts to be printed on the newly invented press.
Many of his ideas went unchallenged for centuries, including the theory of spontaneous generation- the idea that life can arise from nonliving matter if it contains “vital heat.” This came from the observation of fish or frogs seeming to appear suddenly in water or mud and was accepted until disproved in the early 17th century by an Italian physician.
The Christian system of classification, called “The Great Chain of Being”
1579 drawing by Diego de Valades’ From his Rhetorica Christiana
The notion of a hierarchy of being is found in the work of Plato and Aristotle. Aristotle believed in a hierarchy of souls, ranked according to their specific powers. This system was accepted and adapted for centuries.
Medieval Christians would develop this idea further into what they called the “Great Chain of Being”. They believed that the chain was created by god, and so was unchangeable. Their hierarchy placed God at the top, followed by angels, humans, plants, and then minerals.
The ranks in their Chain were further divided and ordered according to usefulness and desirability. Below God were archangels, seraphim, and cherubim. The human order placed the king at the top, followed by aristocracy, then clergy, then peasants. Men came above women, who came above children. Animals, birds, and insects were divided into categories : tame over wild; useful over not; then measured by degree of docility. Plants and minerals were ranked according to usefulness.
Unfortunately, humans were divided and ranked by race, with non-whites placed between Europeans and animals. As Europeans began exploring Africa in the mid-1400s, they used the hierarchy of their Great Chain to justify slavery and the pillaging of resources
Theophrastus, Father of Botany (b. 372-d. 288 BC)
Theophrastus was an ancient Greek philosopher, natural scientist, and author of two books on plants that were relied upon through the Middle Ages. He also planted what is thought to be the first botanical garden, on the grounds of the Lyceum.
Unknown artist Illustration from Arabic translation Of Theophrastus’“Inquiry into plants”
His first, “Enquiry into Plants,” describes plant anatomy and classifies them as trees, shrubs, herbs, or herbaceous perennials. His classification system is remarkably close to the one used today. His second, “The Causes of Plants,” is a practical guide for farmers that outlines propagation and growth. His work on the reproductive parts of plants would inform Linnaeus’ work nearly 2000 years later.
Miniature by Andrea da Firenze from an edition of Natural History by Pliny the Elder, c. 1457–58
Pliny the Elder (AD 23/24 – 79),
Pliny the Elder was a Roman author who compiled a massive 37 volume encyclopedia called Naturalis Historia which compiled all available knowledge and his own observations on zoology, botany, astronomy, mineralogy, and geology. His work was translated, illustrated, and produced in illuminated manuscripts many centuries after his death.
It was considered an authoritative text through the Middle Ages and into the early Renaissance despite its many inaccuracies.
Unknown artists Left: An Arabic translation of Dioscorides
Instructions on treating a dog bite. Rt: on making medicine
Pedanius Dioscorides (c. AD 40-90) Is the author of De Materia Medica, an encyclopedia of herbal and medicinal plants that provided the foundation of Western medicine until the 15th century.
He was born in southern Turkey- then part of the Roman empire- and traveled through the eastern Mediterranean region, serving as a physician in the Roman army.
The book compiled the work of his predecessors with his own first-hand observations and experiences treating patients. He also included remedies gathered from local healers that he spoke with while traveling with the army. It included descriptions of over 1,000 drugs derived from plants and included directions on preparation, dosage, and treatment of specific conditions.
De Materia Medica was written in several volumes, and addressed contemporary concerns about contraception, fertility, birth, and abortion. It also covered wines and minerals, poisonous plants, descriptions of venoms and the treatment of animal bites.
It was translated into Arabic, Persian, and Latin. The style and organization of his book served as a template for naturalists who wrote about the plants of their own regions.
Dioscorides was the first to describe the use of the mandrake as an anesthetic to numb or sedate patients. Its taproots can grow to almost two feet and resemble human limbs. Some species of the plant also contain chemicals that affect the central nervous system, and so were used as sedatives and painkillers. It’s a powerful narcotic that can cause hallucinations and even death.
Middle-eastern cuneiform writings dating back to the 14th century BCe reveal the earliest myths created around the plant, and tales of the mandrake are found in Mesopotamian, ancient Greek, Hebrew, Roman, Egyptian, and Arabic texts.
According to legend, the shriek of the mandrake would be fatal to the person who pulled it from the ground. And so, to avoid certain death, one should loosen the soil around it, and tether it to a starving black dog. Next, the harvester would toss a scrap of food to the dog and cover their ears while the dog lunges for the food, pulling the mandrake from the ground. The dog suffers the consequences and pays with his life.
According to Theophrastus and Pliny the Elder, mandrake-induced death could be avoided by drawing circles around the plant with a sword and digging it up while facing west.
These legends are part of the “doctrine of signatures,”- the belief that roots or rhizomes resembling body parts could be used to treat ailments of those parts and that it was the gods’ way of revealing treatment to man.
The “Doctrine of Signatures” was the belief that God revealed herbal remedies by creating herbs to resemble the body parts that they would treat. The idea was proposed by Dioscorides and accepted through the Middle Ages, despite proof to the contrary. For example, it was believed that ointments made from crocodile skin would smooth out wrinkled skin.
anonymous illustrations From the Arzneipflanzenbuch (medicinal herb book) Published 1520
These are two pages from the “Arzneipflanzenbuch,” or “medicinal herb book,” produced in the 1520s in Germany. It includes elements of legends or folklore, like the crossbow, and of witchcraft, like the mandrake. The text was written in Latin, Italian, and German.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire (between 3rd to 5th centuries), the knowledge of Greek texts declined, as they were written on very fragile papyrus and many of them had not been translated into Latin.
The writings of the ancient Greeks were translated throughout the Persian, Syriac, and Arabic-speaking world, especially between around the years 750-950. This was a well-funded effort which would become known as the Greco-Arabic translation movement.
While ancient texts and traditions disappeared during the Dark Ages of Europe, they were incorporated into Islamic philosophical traditions. In part, Muslim intellectuals used Greek texts to better understand and defend their own religion.
During the High Middle Ages (1000-1250), the Islamic world shared ideas and information with Europe through Andalusia, Sicily, and Crusader kingdoms in the Levant. Ancient Greek writings were translated into Latin by European scholars who traveled to Arab-ruled cities of southern Spain. These texts were later translated from Latin into other European languages.
The encyclopedic compilations of observations of the natural world were then copied by hand throughout Europe, with few questions raised and little new information added. Few changes were made until the invention of the printing press with movable type in 1450.
From the 7th - 12th centuries, the Islamic church sponsored the study of medicine and made several breakthroughs in diagnosis and treatment that spread throughout Europe. Major contributions were made by Al-Razi– the first to write about immunology and allergies; to identify fever as a defense against infection; and to establish pediatrics as a distinct field of study.
Ibn-Sina, aka Avicenna, was an Islamic philosopher whose medical writing served as a textbook in European medical training throughout the Middle Ages. He translated the work of the ancient Greeks, especially Galen and Hippocrates, into Arabic, and expounded on their ideas through his own observations, experiments, and practice. Western doctors learned of the ancient Greek texts when Ibn-Sina’s work was translated into various European languages.
The importance of the Gutenberg press
Movable type made of porcelain had been used in China since the early 11th century, but was printed by hand-rubbing and used mostly for printing banknotes. It was more common to carve text into woodblocks. Koreans also used movable type, but their success was limited by the Mongol invasion. European traders are believed to have brought back reports of movable type from China.
Around 1450, goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg developed a movable type made of metal. When we compare the 26 letter alphabet of Latin to the tens of thousands of characters of the Chinese language, it’s easy to understand why this technology spread so quickly across Europe, despite its Asian origins.
This innovation made book production much faster and cheaper and replaced the very expensive and time-consuming process of writing and illustrating each book by hand. Before this technology made books available to a wider audience, the authority of the Catholic Church in Europe limited book production mostly to Bibles, books of prayer, Aesop’s fables (because of their moral instruction), and the occasional book on natural history. Though the bible remained the most popular printed book for several decades, there was a proliferation of encyclopedic type books on natural history.
The invention of the press coincided with the age of exploration, which introduced Europeans to thousands of new species of flora and fauna.
At this time, Europeans began to recognize the importance of first hand observation and started questioning some of the information relayed in the ancient texts. They began to add notes on local flora and fauna and were faced with the enormous task of sorting real creatures from mythological ones that were found side by side in ancient compendiums on nature. They also had to reconcile conflicting notes and images of the same species.
Botanical Gardens and menageries or zoos grew in popularity as the age of exploration and discovery brought new flora and fauna to Europe. These gardens often became centers of scientific research in fields of medicine and agriculture and were of special economic importance as Europe expanded its colonies. We will return to this topic next week, when we discuss cabinets of curiosity.
From the Carrara Herbal of Padua, 14th century
The Carrara Herbal of Padua
is a treatise on medicinal plants written in the 12th century by Arab author Ibn Sarabi, aka Serapion the Younger and translated in the 14th century- commissioned by the last Lord of Padua, Francesco II. The book was divided into the three “kingdoms of nature,” - plant, animal, and mineral, with an entry for each and a page left for the illustrations, which were done by an unknown artist and never completed- in gouache on vellum
As Europe broke apart in the 1400s into competing noble territories, artists needed to prove their value and demonstrate their knowledge of nature in order to compete for patronage, and so began to write detailed technical treatises. Representations of plants emphasized the natural appearance of plants by using foreshortening and shadows and sometimes showing plants in a state of decay.
Woodcuts by anonymous artists from the Hortus Sanitatis, pub. 1485
The Hortus Sanitatis (Latin for The Garden of Health), is one of the first natural history encyclopedias published on the printing press. It falls into the genre of “herbals,” as it was intended to serve as a glossary of plants and animals with medicinal value, and includes mythological creatures and plenty of pseudo-science. The author or editor is unknown, but it was so popular that 38 editions of the book were published in Germany by two different publishers between 1485 and 1547.
The Hortus was translated into German, Latin, French, and Flemish (Dutch?) and illustrated with woodcuts by different artists. Some of the illustrations were hand-colored.
“Great Piece of Turf” and “Columbine” by Albrecth Durer, 1503
Albrecht Durer (1471-1528)
At the beginning of the 16th century, the study of botany became independent from the study of medicine. At this time, Europeans were exposed to countless exotic plants and bulbs from abroad. Durer painted plants, observing which plants grew together and recording them in all stages of life. His paintings and prints of plants were accurate, beautiful, and very popular among collectors.
We will discuss his role in the field of natural history again in the coming weeks.
Durer was among the first of the Renaissance artists to study anatomy. Inspired by da Vinci, he published his theories on beauty and four books on human proportions. He included figures of all sizes and shapes, which were very different from the ideal proportions established by the Roman architect Vetruvius in the 1st century BCE and accepted as the standard for centuries.
Dürer wrote that there were “many forms of relative beauty…conditioned by the diversity of breeding, vocation and natural disposition.” He believed a great variety of body types was needed in order to produce the “widest limits of human nature and…all possible kinds of figures: figures noble or rustic, canine or fox-like, timid or cheerful.
Illustrations by Hans Weiditz for the Herbarium, written by Otto Brunfels, published in 1532
Author Otto Brunfels (1488- 1534) and Hans Weiditz (1495- 1537)
The first scientific printed herbal to omit mythological creatures and folklore appeared in Germany, published in 1532. The text was written by Otto Brunfels, based on the template established by classical authorities, but he only included plants native to Strasbourg, and described 40 new species.
The illustrations were by Hans Weiditz, a student of Durer’s, and drawn from close observation. These woodcuts are notable for their use of foreshortening and shadows, which emphasized their imperfections and natural appearance. Such naturalism had appeared in illuminated manuscripts before, but not in woodcuts of natural specimens.
Until this point, “herbals” used stylized images, often copied from previous illustrations. Weiditz worked from observation whenever possible, even including insect damage or decay at times. His watercolor studies for the engravings included detailed notes on the size, colors, and textures of the plants. He showed all parts of the plants - stems, leaves, roots, flowers, and fruit
The woodcut allowed for reproductions of drawings that could be printed on the same press as the type. Before this, prints could be hand rubbed, but were more often drawn and colored by hand instead. Hand-drawn copies of originals tended to lose important details that distinguished similar species from each other.
Illustrations by Heinrich Fulluaruer and Albrecht Meyer for De Historia Stirpium, by Leonard Fuchs and portraits of the artists and printer, which were included in the book
*Note that the flowers and fruits are shown at the same time to help identify the plant by these key features.
Leonhart Fuchs (1501-1566) Bavaria
Fuchs trained as a physician and worked as a professor of medical theory, botany, and anatomy. He wrote over 50 books, mostly about medicine, including De Historia Stirpium, or Notable Commentaries on the History of Plants, published in 1542. The book was intended as a definitive guide to plants and their uses. However, he ALSO included plants that had no medicinal uses, which was entirely new and thereby initiated botany as a discipline independent from medicine.
In his words: "I do not need to expound at length the pleasure and delight that the knowledge of plants brings, since there is no one who does not know that there is nothing in life more pleasant and delightful than to wander through the woods, and over mountains and meadows, garlanded and adorned with these varied, exquisite blossoms and herbs, and to gaze at them with keen eyes. This pleasure and delight is increased not a little if an understanding of their usefulness and powers is added. For there is as much pleasure and enjoyment in learning as in looking."
The plant and color Fuchsia are named in his honor.
Fuchs was part of the movement to correct the errors that had accumulated in “herbals” over centuries of copying and translating the work of the ancients. His intention was to create a reliable glossary that compiled existing information and weeded out mistakes.
He compared ancient texts with actual plants in order to establish exactly which plants the ancients were referring to so that druggists (aka apothecaries) could follow the recipes correctly and avoid making ineffective or even dangerous medicines.
His book included illustrations for each plant, along with each name, given in Greek, Latin, and modern languages. He described their form, where and when they grew, their medical used based on multiple sources, and their “temperament”- a Renaissance concept which categorized organisms by four qualities: hot, cold, moist, or dry.
Mandrake and Chamealeon Albus for Leonhart Fuchs
(Albrecht Meyer made original drawings of each plant. These were then copied onto the woodblock by Heinrich Fulluaruer. The drawing was then carved by the expert, Veit Rudolph Speckle.)
Fuchs knew that the quality of the illustrations would affect the popularity and success of his books. Therefore he hired the best available draftsmen and even included their portraits at the back of the book. At the same time, he was very involved in the process, overseeing their work in the interest of what he considered to be absolute accuracy.
As Fuchs explained in the intro, “every single (picture) portrays the lines and appearance of the living plant. We were especially careful that they should be absolutely correct, and we have devoted the greatest diligence that every plant should be depicted with its own roots, stalks, leaves, flowers, seeds, and fruits. Over and over again, we have purposely and deliberately avoided the obliteration of the natural form of the plants lest they be obscured by shading and other artifice that painters sometimes employ to win artistic glory.”
Conrad Gessner’s wood engravings 1550s
Conrad Gesner (1516- 1565)
Gessner was a Swiss physician, naturalist, and illustrator who wrote or edited 70 books. Before he was even 21, he published a Greek-Latin dictionary; wrote the first ever bibliography, which listed every published book and author; and wrote an account of all known languages (only 130 of the world’s languages were known to him at that time- there are currently over 7,000 known languages, which does not include hundreds of lost tribal or local languages).
Gessner grew up in a poor family and was sent to work for his great uncle, collecting medicinal plants, which inspired a lifelong interest in natural history. He is best known for his 5 volume series on zoology, which we will discuss in the coming weeks.
Watercolor studies by Conrad Gessner, 1540s
He died of the plague at just 49 while working on a book about plants. Though he did not finish it, he was greatly admired for his botanical studies (wood engravings) during his lifetime.
copperplates engraved by W. Kilian, R. Custos, Fr. von Hulsen and others according to drawings by Basilius Besler and others. Besler did not produce all of the drawings for this book. He worked with a team of artists and engravers.
Basilius Besler (1561-1629)
Best known for compiling Hortus Eystettensis, published in 1612- a catalog of all the plants found in the botanical garden established by the prince bishop of Eichstatt in Bavaria. The bishop’s castle was surrounded by 8 gardens that featured exotic plants imported from the Americas and the Ottoman empire.
The bishop wanted to show off his gardens and to celebrate the creations of god, and so hired Besler to oversee the production of the catalog. It was common practice for owners of botanical gardens or large cabinets of curiosity to produce illustrated catalogs of their holdings.
Besler was an apothecary and botanist and spent 16 years on the project, which Linneaus called “Incomparable.” What differentiated this book was its celebration of plants for their beauty as much as their uses in medicine- as in Fuchs’ slightly earlier example. The emphasis is less on scientific accuracy and more on aesthetics, as seen in the calligraphic and rhythmic possibilities of the roots and leaves.
Besler did not produce all of the drawings for this book. He worked with a team of artists and engravers. The artists worked from observation to create color drawings, which were copied onto copperplate engravings and hand-colored by experts.
One of the finest and most influential botanical painters of the 16th century was Joris Hoefnagel. He was a self taught illuminator of manuscripts who learned his trade by copying the work of others, especially Albrecht Durer, and by working from observation. His inclusion of insects with botanical studies influenced the Dutch flower painters who followed behind.
Though he was born 100 years after the invention of the Gutenberg press, he was a master of the illuminated manuscript and one of the last illuminators in a disappearing field. He is credited with starting the genre of flower painting in the Low Countries.
Several factors contributed to the evolution of art in the early 1600s, especially in Northern Europe. The Protestant movement led by Martin Luther and John Calvin loosened the grip of the Catholic church; the Dutch freed themselves of Spanish Catholic rule; they expanded their exploration and trade, and experienced an economic boom. An expanding merchant class and rising middle class created a demand for luxury goods, especially painting.
Finally, artists had clients outside of the Catholic church. The elements of painting that had formerly served symbolic or decorative roles in religious paintings became independent subjects.
Artists and collectors took inspiration from studies of nature and the abundance of “herbals” that were being published around Europe. This was also a period of increased trade with Asia and the Arab-speaking world and exploration in Africa and South America. Europe was flooded with textiles, ceramics, jewelry, and other luxury goods as well as natural specimens of plants, animals, birds, and insects.
Anyone who could afford to, collected specimens and curiosities for their cabinets or show-rooms, and paintings and prints often stood in as substitutes for hard to find items or to highlight or commemorate items from a collection.
Joris Hoefnagel’s painting of a vase of flowers in an illuminated manuscript is credited with initiating the genre of botanical still lifes. The botanical paintings that followed are highly accurate renderings, informed by the attention to detail of the “herbals.” They often feature exotic flowers from distant lands that had recently become available and usually depict flowers that bloom at different times and grow in different climates.
Left: Semper Augustus Ambrosius Bosschaert, 1573-1621
Middle: untitled Roelandt Savery, 1576-1639
Right: Rachel Ruysch, "Spray of Flowers with beetle on a stone balustrade," early 18th c.
DUTCH TULIP CRAZE 1634-1637
The tulip is a wildflower native to central Asia. The Turks began cultivating them in the 16th century and they became a symbol of wealth of the Ottoman Empire.
According to legend, a textile merchant received some bulbs in a cloth shipment from Constantinople. Thinking they were onions, he cooked some and planted the rest in the kitchen garden and only discovered that they were tulips when they bloomed in the spring.
Whether or not that is true, we know that it was the Turks who introduced the bulbs to the Dutch merchants in the early 17th century and that there was a frenzied period of collecting rare varieties. Holland had the perfect climate and soil for growing them and cultivating them became a profitable business.
The variegated patterns that make some tulips more desirable than others is caused by a mosaic virus that affects the development of pigment in a process called “breaking.” The patterns can be reproduced by cultivating the bulbs but the process is slow and unpredictable, which makes the more unusual tulips more desirable and expensive.
The rarest bulbs could cost as much as a house or tradesman’s annual salary. When the tulip market collapsed after a few years, many traders were left bankrupt.
Rembrandt van Rijn, Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp, 1632
By 1621, the flower was so popular that the successful physician from Amsterdam, Claes Pieterszoon, changed his name to Nicolaes Tulp. Ten years later, he was painted by Rembrandt in a public dissection of an executed criminal (a practice which we will discuss in anatomy section)- The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Tulp.
Collectors of natural objects began to take an interest in insects, especially as stunning butterflies and beetles were brought back from South America. So painters began to include insects in their flower arrangements, suggesting life and movement in an otherwise static arrangement.
Maria Sibylla Merian 1647-1717
The contributions to art and science of women during this period were rarely recognized or preserved, but Maria Sibylla Merian was one of the few professional artists and naturalists who enjoyed recognition during her lifetime.
Linnaeus used several of her insect studies to identify species and after her death, Peter the Great sent an envoy to buy up her remaining work.
She learned to paint in her stepfather’s atelier and was especially interested in depicting the dried insects that he kept on hand for his students to use in their flower paintings. She began to collect living insects to study their habits and documented their life-cycles in detailed drawings, which would eventually be published in her book, The Wondrous Transformation of Caterpillars.
Her book of flower paintings were originally intended for her painting students to copy, or to be used as embroidery patterns, as needlework was a common source of income for women.
She married an artist and moved to Holland after her divorce, where she entered a community of natural historians. In Amsterdam, she had access to all of the incredible flowers and insects brought back from the Dutch colony in Suriname and decided that she had to go there to see for herself. Through selling paintings and prints, she was able to raise enough money to travel with her daughter to the capital.
This involved a two month voyage by sea on a 50 foot boat, and she and her daughter wore the customary full length black dresses, corsets, and petticoats in the equatorial heat.
PEACOCK FLOWER
While in Suriname, she witnessed slavery first hand and was appalled by the treatment of them, but she was not opposed to the concept of slavery and her study of plants and insects would not have been possible without the assistance and knowledge of the slaves who gathered them for her.
She briefly alludes to the horrific treatment and common assault of female slaves in her description of the Peacock Flower, and what she learned from them about using it to prevent or undo pregnancy so that their children would not be born into slavery.
After two years she returned to Holland and completed her book Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, written in Latin, the international language of science, which included 60 copperplate engravings.
Illust. By Georg Ehret for Systema Naturae
Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) was a Swedish doctor, naturalist, and curator of the University botanical garden in Lund who believed he’d been sent by God to bring order to nature. His father was a minister who created a large garden at the parsonage and introduced Linneaus to botany.
Linnaeus adapted Aristotle’s binomial naming system that used Latin genus and species names to replace the varied, conflicting, and inaccurate names in use. By establishing a consistent tool to identify plants, botanists were able to compare notes far more easily. The binomial system had been used before, but he made it universal.
He developed the Linnaean system , which groups organisms by common characteristics. The Linnaean system was used until the early 2000s, but is now considered less useful than the clade system, which groups organisms by their common ancestor.
His first book, Systema Naturae, was published in 1735. It introduced his system of classifying plants by modes of sexual reproduction, based on his own work and that of other botanists. He studied plant reproduction and was informed by the research on plant sexuality of Joseph Pitton de Tournefort and John Ray .
His discussion of plant sexuality was considered vulgar and even sacreligious.
His next book, Philosophia Botanica, published in 1751 was a revision of an earlier work which laid out his simple taxonomic scheme. Class was determined by the number , size, and arrangement of stamens (male organs) and the order was determined by the number, size, and arrangement of pistils (female organs).
Franz Bauer, b. 1758- d. 1840
Bauer Brothers (Franz and Ferdinand )
The Bauer Brothers were sons of a court painter to the prince of Liechtenstein. They were introduced to a Dr. Norbert Boccius, who was putting together an encyclopedia of local plants and flowers. He recognized their interest and ability and taught them to draw accurate botanical studies when they were in their late teens. Boccius stressed the need for accuracy, as the book was to become a reference guide. They produced more than half of the 2800 illustrations included in the codex.
Ferdinand Bauer b.1760- 1826
They continued on to art school in Vienna, where they met the director of the University’s botanical garden. The director hired them to illustrate his catalog and they learned to follow the Linnaean system of depicting the plant in full flower with the fruit shown separately.
Ferdinand Bauer was recruited by Joseph Banks to serve as the natural history artist on the HMS Investigator on its circumnavigation of Australia (1801-1805). He collaborated with botanist Robert Brown and produced hundreds of detailed pencil drawings which were used as the basis for completed watercolor paintings.
He was later hired to accompany John Sibthorp, botany professor at Oxford University, to go to the Mediterranean to collect and illustrate the 700 plants mentioned in Dioscorides’ Materia Medica.
Plants and particularly flowers change colors rapidly, so they developed their own chart of up to 1000 shades and used letter codes for texture and sheen.
left: Dog Rose- a flowering shrub native to Australia
Franz Baeur, Bauera rubioides and right: cross section
Franz Bauer became the first resident botanical illustrator at Kew Gardens and then served as botanical painter to George the III and then Queen Victoria. He used a microscopes to study cross-sections of stems and leaves- an innovation in botanical illustration- and his detailed studies were used in the classification of orchids.
Mark Catesby engravings
left: water frog, c. 1722
rt: American Buffalo c. 1749-1766
NATURAL HISTORY IN THE UNITED STATES
By the 17th century, naturalists in the colonial United States began to document flora and fauna.
Mark Catesby (1683-1749) was one of the first. His interest in nature began in childhood and family connections to naturalists helped him in his pursuits. He was made a member of the Royal Society of London.
He studied botany in England and came to Virginia in 1712 to visit relatives. He stayed for seven years, traveling through the south to collect and study plants. Virginia had been pretty well explored and documented by the time he arrived, so he went further south. He traveled alone to remote areas, returning to the same places at different times of year to observe seasonal changes.
left: Manzanillo Tree middle: Scarab beetle and yellow lily right: Lilium c. 1722
Note the liberties that Catesby takes with the scale of plants and animals. He paired species that were found together, but prioritized compositional or narrative concerns over scientific accuracy.
Of course, in the early 18th century the English were very interested in the natural resources and new information to be found in their colonies.
He was interested in the economic potential of plants that could be sent from North America back to England for cultivation and sent many of them to the nursery where he’d received his training.
The focus of his first voyage to the New World was on sending specimens back to England. This drew the attention of many supporters who financed his second trip to the region in order to document the flora and fauna found here. He returned in 1722.
He often sent specimens such as snakes or other small animals back to England preserved in jars of rum, though it was not uncommon for the sailors to drink the rum, and so not all of the specimens were received.
Mark Catesbly, Blue Grosbeak with Magnolia lauri and Bead snake with sweet potato, c. 1728
Catesby dissected birds to study the plants and berries inside their intestines. He tried to pair the animals with the plants they depended on whenever possible. This innovation would influence Audobon later.
He attempted to preserve bird specimens for shipment by drying them out in an oven, then stuffing them and covering them with tobacco powder.
As was common practice at the time, he sold subscriptions to the printed editions of his illustrations. He wanted to maintain strict artistic control, and so learned how to do the engraving himself, rather than hand his drawings over to a professional. This also saved him the expense of paying the professionals.
As a result, he developed a unique style. Rather than using the traditional cross-hatching technique, he followed the natural lines of the leaves, petals, muscles, feathers, etc. to create a more natural look.
He was a self-taught artist and was eventually overshadowed by Audobon.
He is responsible for many of the illustrations in Hortus Elthamensis, a botanical study written by Johann Jakob Dillenius that Linneaus praised.
Portrait of William Bartram by Charles Willson Peale, 1808
William Bartram (1739-1823)-wrote Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida (pub. In 1791), a scientific description of plants, birds, and animals written in poetic language that reflected the influences of both the Enlightenment and Romantic movements of the period.
Enlightenment thinkers emphasized the value of controlled experiments and systematic approaches, while Romanticism valued imagination, emotion, and personal experience and argued that reason alone could not provide a complete understanding of the world.
He was born in Kinsessing, PA to Quaker parents. Bartram’s father, John, was a well regarded figure in the horticultural and scientific circles in Europe. He traded in American plants and seeds and was even hired as the King’s botanist in 1765. He took William on plant collecting trips up and down the coast of North America. William drew the specimens they collected and then attended the Philadelphia Academy. He learned to draw by copying the illustrations of Catesby and others that he had access to in his father’s collection.
William questioned the concept of the Great Chain of Being that had dominated the study of biology while also explaining that he saw signs of the creator in all living things.
He believed it was important to establish a scientific community that was independent from Europe and equally important for Americans to focus on collecting, studying, identifying, and classifying the flora and fauna of the continent.
Like Thomas Jefferson, Charles Willson Peale, and other American naturalists, He felt the need to disprove the French Louis le Clerc’s theory that European species had made their way to America and over time become smaller, weaker, and inferior due to poor diet and climate conditions.
Bartram traveled on foot, horseback, sailboat, dugout canoe through these scientifically unexplored locations. Had to deal with storms, biting insects, bears and alligators, dangerous or threatening traders.
His contribution to the study of nature was his accurate recordings of data based on close observation over several years.
Cherokee study by William Bartram, c. 1791
At 34, he set out to study nature and learn about the Native Americans. His observations of the Creek and Cherokee people were considered the most reliable of the era.
He documented their religious practices, agricultural methods, language, and music, and believed that they were equal to the Europeans, an unusual view at that time.
He was well regarded and sought after by politicians, philosophers, and scientists. He was offered the first professorship of botany at U Penn but declined; was elected to the APS, but did not participate; asked by Thomas Jefferson to join the Red River expedition, but did not. He influenced many, including Von Humboldt.
His travels were cut short by the Revolutionary War and he returned to Philadelphia in January 1777.
Charles Willson Peale, “The Artist in his Museum,” 1822 and “View of the Garden at Belfield,” 1814
Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827)
Peale was aware that survival in colonial America required immediate attention to understanding the agricultural potential and establishing crops- knowledge held by Native Americans but mostly left behind by Europeans that came to the colony. He was also concerned by the deforestation caused by the need for wood in construction and fuel.
He was in communication with Jefferson about gardening and farming practices and in his spare time sketched ideas for improved farming tools. He shared Jefferson’s vision of the new country being made up of gentlemen farmers.
Charles Willson Peale, “Belfield Farm,” 1814
Charles Willson Peale, “Cabbage Patch,” 1816With the help of his sons, he started a botanical garden and experimental farm. He aspired to combine picturesque gardens with growing crops, and grew wheat, corn, rye, oats, and fruit and experimented with different methods and machinery to try to maximize efficiency.
In 1810, he retired to his 104 acre property outside of Philadelphia, to Belfield, which consisted of meadow, orchards, streams, and mature trees.
Eventually his age prevented him from ataining his goals and he sold the farm.
Charles Willson Peale, “Cabbage Patch,” 1816
left: Geobotany of the Himalayas by Alexander von Humboldt (1851) rt: Geographie der Planzen en Tropen-landen,
We’ll conclude with the naturalist that introduced the concepts of climate change and ecology over 200 years ago.
Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859)
Von Humboldt made many important contributions to the study of nature, but is best known for his early recognition of man’s effect on the climate. Between 1799 and 1804, he conducted the first scientific exploration of South America, then traveled to Cuba, Mexico, and the United States.
He noted that plant species adapted to various altitudes, climates, and various environmental conditions, which provided the foundation for botanical geography.He described the detrimental effects of cash-crops, monoculture, soil erosion, and deforestation in the European colonies and explained the importance of the connections between all living things, thereby introducing the concept of ecology.
He stopped in Mexico on his way from South America to the United States and produced a map of the Louisiana territories that was more accurate than existing maps, which he gave to Jefferson. He was in frequent communication with Jefferson and also acquainted with Peale and very interested in America, though he was very critical of slavery and could not understand how Jefferson could keep slaves. His writings contained much criticism of slavery, which was left out of the translations published in America.
Humboldt recognized the extraordinary accomplishments of the Aztecs and Incans and tried to dispel the European view of indigenous people as savages by collecting evidence of their sophisticated cultures, rich languages, and impressive architecture.
Simon Bolivar credits von Humboldt with convincing him that the colonies of South America were ready for independence and motivating him to lead the revolution to overturn Spanish rule and Charles Darwin says it was von Humboldt who inspired him to set out for adventure on the Beagle.
We’ll now turn our attention to observing and recording plant specimens for ourselves.
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