Comprising more than 500 years of printed botanical illustrations, this stunning compendium of black-and-white and color images begins with medieval illuminated manuscripts and woodcuts from the early days of printing. In addition to images from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the collection features highlights from such seventeenth-century classics as Gerard's Herbal, Besler's Hortus Eystettensis, and Crispin van de Pass' Hortus Floridus. Latter-day selections include illustrations from major nineteenth-century works — including the great flower prints of Pierre-Joseph Redouté and hand-colored lithographs by many other artists of the period — as well as the imaginative twentieth-century floral work in the Art Nouveau style of M. P. Verneuil, E. A. Seguy, and others.
Detailed bibliographical information concerning every source and biographical information on the artists make this volume a vital reference tool as well as a splendid resource of significant and beautiful botanical illustrations. Students of graphic art and illustration as well as graphic designers, advertising professionals, and horticulturalists will prize this treasury of material from many rare historic sources.