Rare Books To Chase The Wintertime Blues

By Nancy Mattoon

Detail of Curcuma cordata. Plate 4435.
Curtis's Botanical Magazine, Vol.75, 1849.
(All Images Courtesy of Glasgow University Library.)

Old Man Winter went on a quite a rampage in December of 2010. In the U.S., Christmas snow fell on parts of the South for the first time since just after the Civil War. Portions of the Northeastern U.S. got three feet of snow, causing a state of emergency to be declared in six states and closing down major airports, resulting in 4,000 cancelled flights. Even sunny Southern California is being treated to the second wettest December since 1878. Meanwhile in Europe, the U.K. is experiencing the coldest December since 1910, along with record snows and high winds. Is there any way to escape this Winter Wonderland? The answer is yes, if only through the imagination, by falling into some rare books featuring beautiful images of Spring. University of Glasgow Library has created a wonderful online exhibit called Birds, Bees, and Blooms, which is guaranteed to chase away your Winter blues, at least for a little while.

The Justicia Carnea, Plate 3383.
Curtis's Botanical Magazine, Vol. 62, 1835.

Originally mounted in 2007 to accompany the annual meeting of the British Ecological Society, the exhibition features "a selection of some of the wonderful natural history books now in the care of the Glasgow University Library's Special Collections." The introduction to the show notes that, "As well as often being groundbreaking scientific texts, many of these books are beautifully illustrated, charting advances in graphic art from manuscript illumination through to woodcutting, engraving and etching." For our purposes today, these marvelous color plates supply a much needed breath of Spring to Winter-weary souls.

The Blue Heron, Plate 79.
Albin, Eleazar. A natural history of birds.
London: 1731-1738

The avian section of the exhibit features plates from John James Audubon's Birds of America, and illustrations from several of John Gould's works of ornithology, both of which have recently been discussed here on Booktryst. Also in the exhibit are plates from an earlier bird book, Eleazar Albin's A Natural History of Birds of London (1731-1738). This is one of the oldest examples of a lavishly illustrated work of ornithology aimed at the "gentleman reader," rather than the scientist. The book features 306 hand-colored engravings by Albin and his daughter, Elizabeth.

Goldfinches, Plate 70.
Albin, Eleazar. A natural history of birds.
London: 1731-1738

According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Albin was a social butterfly who forged connections with many members of the aristocracy in order to obtain access to their collections of exotic birds. He proudly states in the book's preface that all of the illustrations were drawn from live birds, and entreats his readers to supply him with future specimens: "Gentlemen…send any curious Birds…to Eleazar Albin near the Dog and Duck in Tottenham-Court Road."

Merian, Maria Sibilla.
Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung und
sonderbare Blumennahrung.
Nuremberg: 1679. Plate 8.

The "Bees" section of the exhibition actually cheats a little, including books covering all manner of insects. One of the most interesting is Maria Sibilla Merian's 1679 work, Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung und sonderbare Blumennahrung (The Caterpillar, Marvelous Transformation and Strange Floral Food.) Merian was the daughter of a noted engraver, and the granddaughter of a botanical artist. She was taught to paint and draw by her stepfather, who was a well-respected still life painter, particularly known for depicting Dutch flowers. As a naturalist, she was self-taught, and became fascinated with the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into the butterfly. In this book she presents the stages of development of different species of European butterflies along with the plants on which they fed. Many scholars of her day believed that insects spontaneously generated from decaying mud, but her close observation of the transformation of the butterfly gave lie to that long-accepted notion.

Merian, Maria Sibilla.
Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung und
sonderbare Blumennahrung.
Nuremberg: 1679. Plate 36.

Over 25 years after the publication of her work on the butterflies of the Old World, Merian journeyed to the New World to observe the butterfly species of the newly acquired Dutch colony of Surinam. She and her daughters spent two years in South America recording the flora and fauna of an area of the world then almost completely unknown to Europeans. Her book on the subject, Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium (1705), became a classic natural history text at a time when very few women won respect in the scientific world.

Drury, Dru. Illustrations of natural history.
Wherein are exhibited upwards of
two hundred and forty figures of exotic insects.
London: 1770-1773.
Plate 18, Butterflies.

Another of Glasgow's entomological treasures is Dru Drury's Illustrations of natural history. Wherein are exhibited upwards of two hundred and forty figures of exotic insects... (1770-1773). Drury was a wealthy silversmith who became fascinated by the insect world. He amassed a collection of over 11,000 specimens from all over the globe, many of which were obtained by travelers and seamen, to whom he paid a sixpence an insect, "whatever the size."

Drury, Dru. Illustrations of natural history.
Wherein are exhibited upwards of
two hundred and forty figures of exotic insects.
London: 1770-1773.
Plate 39, Hornets And Wasps.

According to the exhibition, the "Illustrations of natural history was published in three parts between 1770 and 1782." The hand-colored copperplate engravings were created from Drury's specimens by Moses Harris, and Drury notes in his preface that "the utmost care and nicety has been observed, both in the outlines, and engraving. Nothing is strained, or carried beyond the bounds nature has set."

Harris, Moses.
An exposition of English insects ...
minutely described, arranged, and named,
according to the Linnaean system.
London: 1782.
Plate 30, Dragonflies.

The illustrator of the previous volume, Moses Harris, is the author of another volume included in the exhibit, An exposition of English insects ... minutely described, arranged, and named, according to the Linnaean system (1782). Harris was encouraged to pursue a childhood interest in insects by his uncle, a member of the Society of Aurelians, the first organized entomological society in England. According to the Glasgow Library, "Harris wrote several works on insect life and, as an accomplished artist, was responsible for drawing, engraving, and colouring all his own work, maintaining at all times a high standard of accuracy. "

Harris, Moses.
An exposition of English insects ...
minutely described, arranged, and named,
according to the Linnaean system.
London: 1782.
Plate 23, Dragonflies.

Harris expressed his goal in writing An Exposition of English insects as helping the observer "at first sight of an insect...[to] be capable of not only knowing the class it refers to, but at the same time to what order and section of that class, and this by the wings only." The text includes a color wheel to allow the reader to determine the "variety of teints [sic] that adorn the several parts of insects." The work includes over 50 meticulously-executed hand-colored plates.

Fuchs, Leonhart.
De historia stirpium commentarii insignes.
Basel: 1542.
Cucurbita major and minor.

Finally, we can't forget the Spring flowers when on our imaginary vacation from Old Man Winter. The Glasgow exhibit includes two especially inspiring botanical titles, filled with magnificent color plates. The first of these is Leonhart Fuchs' De historia stirpium commentarii insignes (Or, Notable commentaries on the history of plants), which was first published in 1542. As said in the show, this "massive folio volume...describes in Latin some 497 plants, and is illustrated by over 500 superb woodcuts based upon first-hand observation... Fuchs relied on the illustrations to be used as the main means for identifying the plants. Over 100 species are illustrated for the first time, many of the specimens probably coming from Fuchs' garden in Tübingen; over a thirty-five year period, he grew many of the plants featured in the work, including the exotics."

Fuchs, Leonhart.
De historia stirpium commentarii insignes.
Basel: 1542.
Botanical Illustrators At Work.

Fuchs spent over 30 years compiling his herbal masterpiece, and it was clearly a labor of love. Fuchs expressed his love for the flora of the natural world in this charming fashion: "There is nothing in this life pleasanter and more delightful than to wander over woods, mountains, plains, garlanded and adorned with flowerlets and plants of various sorts, and most elegant to boot, and to gaze intently on them. But it increases that pleasure and delight not a little, if there be added an acquaintance with the virtues and powers of these same plants."

Fuchs, Leonhart.
De historia stirpium commentarii insignes.
Basel: 1542.
Frontispiece Of The Author.

Fuchs was a physician, and was particularly interested in the pharmacological uses of plants. He hoped to educate his fellow medical practitioners on the proper identification of healing plants, a skill which he believed them to be sadly lacking. He stressed the importance of his illustrations and their accuracy: "'a picture expresses things more surely and fixes them more deeply in the mind than the bare words of the text... Each illustration was therefore based upon the appearance of the living plant; furthermore, we have not allowed the craftsmen so to indulge their whims as to cause the drawing not to correspond accurately to the truth."

Rosa Semperflorens, Plate 284.
Curtis's Botanical Magazine, Vol.8, 1794.

Our final cure for the Wintertime blues: some images from the one greatest of all scientific periodicals, Curtis's Botanical Magazine. First published in 1787, it continues to this day, and is the oldest periodical in existence to feature color plates, according to the exhibition. Printing the work of the world's best botanical illustrators for over two centuries, its over 11,000 color plates form an amazing visual record of flowers and plants as they were introduced to English gardens. The plates were always drawn from living specimens, and "coloured as near to nature, as the imperfection of colouring will admit." As incredible as it may seem, "the plates were all hand coloured until as late as 1948 when a shortage of colourists forced the periodical to adopt photographic reproduction."

Diplopappus Incanus, Plate 3382.
Curtis's Botanical Magazine, Vol.62, 1835.

The books included here are just a small sampling from the Birds, Bees, and Blooms exhibition. Exploring some of the other items will prolong the pleasure of your imaginary respite from the chilly scenes of Winter. Just remember that no matter how cold, snowy, and wet you get, this too shall pass. No, really, Winter must end...eventually.
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