Most of the illustrations we'll examine in this course were created in Europe between the 15th and 18th centuries. 

There are far too many extraordinary illustrations to include in this course, so I’ve chosen some that demonstrate 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. Artists and naturalists and illustrators involved in multiple areas of study will appear repeatedly.

PRINTMAKING TECHNIQUES

Woodblock printing is a form of relief printmaking, which means that the printed line is raised above the surface. It's produced by drawing the image on a woodblock and cutting away everything else around the lines. The grain of the wood will influence the curving of the knife, and therefore of the lines. The lines of a woodblock print must be fairly thick so that they don't break apart during the printing process.

The ink is applied with a roller. To print in color, separate blocks much be cut for each area of color OR a single color block can be cut, and different colors applied to each part with a small roller or brush. The black lines are printed on top of the color.

Humans have created images of nature for millenia, and the variety reflects the difference in motivations. We've recorded the natural world because:

• The knowledge of the uses and dangers of plants and animals in diet, medicine, and farming is essential to life. 

• Humans examine nature to connect or communicate with the divine.

• Artists of all kinds are motivated to imitate the beauty of the natural world.

• Economic potential has propelled human movement around the globe in search of natural resources.

• The collection, classification, and identification of specimens has provided a foundation for modern science.

Modern science has roots in ancient Greece. 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. 

Fortunately, much of this knowledge was preserved through the Greco-Arabic translation movement based in Baghdad during the 8th to 10th centuries. The movement originated under the Abbasid caliphs and continued with assistance from an array of scholars, elites, members of the royal court, wealthy merchants, and more. It involved translations into a handful of languages, but focused largely on translating secular texts of Hellenistic ( 320 BCE- 30 BCE) scholars and other Greek texts on natural history, astronomy, math, and more.

During the 12th and 13th centuries, Arab and European scholars collaborated on translating these texts into Latin. Desire for this knowledge spread quickly across Europe and the books were translated from Latin into local languages.

Europeans tended to accept the veracity of these texts and copied them for centuries with few questions. By contrast, Arabic scholars included notes on their own first hand observations and discoveries in their translations.

for more on the translation movement, read this

With increased access to natural specimens, books, and information, Europeans began to recognize the importance of first hand observation and started questioning some of the information relayed in the ancient texts. As they studied local flora and fauna, they were faced with the enormous task of comparing conflicting notes and images of the same species. They also had to separate real creatures from mythological ones that were found side by side in ancient compendiums on nature. This was no easy task, as some creatures, like the unicorn, seemed just as probable as a giraffe or rhinoceros.

Biological specimens were gathered dead or alive and preserved through drying, stuffing, or submerging in alcohol. They were sent back from the Americas, Africa, and Asia by the shipload. Many of the specimens preserved in rum were lost to the sailors who drank the preserving liquid. 

Art and science from the early Renaissance through the late 19th century were closely entwined. Scientists needed a visual record of their observations and so drawing was part of their profession. If they lacked the necessary hand-eye coordination, they hired an artist. The act of close observation and imitation sometimes led artists to make discoveries of their own. Many of them conducted dissections or experiments independently.

Naturalists developed illustrations of specimens from first hand observation of both living and preserved specimens. They also copied the work of others when the actual was not available, or based their drawings on written descriptions. All of these factors contribute to the multiple and various portrayals of flora and fauna. The images often reflect the awkwardness of the preserved specimen or the changes to color and shape that occur with death or the conflicting written descriptions.

The influx of plants and animals also led to the establishment of countless botanical gardens, sometimes filled with live animals captured abroad. Exotic birds, mammals, and even humans were given as gifts and used in diplomatic agreements. The gardens became centers of scientific research in fields of medicine and agriculture and were of special economic importance as Europe expanded its colonies. 

Organizing living things into groups was a necessary first step in the study of biology. As the collections of naturalia increased in the 15th century and beyond, so did the desire and ability to study the connections between living things and to arrange the objects according to commonalities. 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.

We will return to this topic next week, when we discuss cabinets of curiosity.

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, animals, and even insects 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 living things and their uses in medicine usually included recipes for extracting, combining, and applying the remedies, as well as magical beliefs about illness and health. These encyclopedic type collections of writings were crucial to the development of botany and medicine. 

In Latin, the medicinal plants and animals were called "materia medica," or "healing materials" and the books were called "herbals." 

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.

He attempted to classify living beings. He grouped them based on similarities, then arranged them in order of complexity, with minerals at the bottom of a "ladder" and humans at the top. This is the foundation of the European concept of the "Great Chain of Being" that endured for centuries.

He also devised the binomial system of classification that Linneaus would build upon (and improve) in the 1700s. 

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. 

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.

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.

 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.

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.a

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.

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). 

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. 

PLEASURE READING

You'll find a short article on the connection between colonialism and science here.

And on the history of the spice trade HERE