The National Library of Medicine
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Thanks to the effort of Program Committee member Chris Manson the Chesapeake Chapter got the opportunity to visit the National Library of Medicine with an in-depth look at selection of books illustrating plants from 1480 up to the 18th Century. Michael North, Head of the Rare Books & Early Manuscripts Section, lead the tour.
The National Library of Medicine (NLM), on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, is the world's largest medical library. The Library collects materials in all areas of biomedicine and health care, as well as works on biomedical aspects of technology, the humanities, and the physical, life, and social sciences. The collections stand at more than 9 million items--books, journals, technical reports, manuscripts, microfilms, photographs and images. Housed within the Library is one of the world's finest medical history collections of old and rare medical works.
The photos below are in the order they were taken, moving from the oldest examples to the newest. Anyone who can contribute to the captions should email Ray Nichols.
A very nice binding to get the tour started.
It's the open mouths that give you an idea of the interest. Left to right are Roland Hoover, Mike Denker, president of the Chesapeake Chapter, and Chris Manson, Chesapeake Chapter Program Committee member, who set up our visit.
Michael North.
Pietro Andrea Mattioli, 1500-1577.
Petri Andreae Matthioli senensis medici : commentarij in sex libros Pedacij Dioscoridis Anazarbei De medica materia. Venetiis : Ex Officina Valgrisiana, 1565.
Mattioli, an Italian physician and botanist, is known today for his translations and commentary on the works of the Greek botanist Pedanios Dioscorides. Of the many editions of De medica materia that Mattioli produced, the most important is this 1565 edition which contains large woodcuts done by Giorgio Liberale and Wolfgang Meyerpeck. Because the engravers had to work within the confines of a small wood block, the images of the plants connform to a rectangular shape, even when that does not reflect the actual growth pattern. The artists did try to make the images attractive, however, filling the space with foliage and using shading to add depth.
An spread from Pietro Andrea Mattioli showing the illustration style.
This is about as good a group shot as I got. Those attending were Roland Hoover, Jim & Franzuka Walczak, Chris Manson, Mike Denker, Laetitia Yeandle, Stan Nelson, Jackie Coleburn, Tray Nichols, Jill Cypher, and Ray Nichols.
Michael seemed to be enjoying the book-loving company.
In 1562, a new Czech edition of Pietro Andrea Mattioli’s Commentaries on Dioscorides entitled Herbarz: Ginak Bylinar introduced large-scale woodcuts by Giorgio Liberale allowing far more portrayal of botanical detail than had the smaller figures of earlier editions.
The page layout and some of the initial caps were quite noteworthy as you can see from the two images below.
In initial cap with a bit of flair.
The printer's mark of Georgii Melantrichi ab Auentino. You don't see this kind of extravagance much any more.
De Historia Stirpium comentarii insignes (or Notable Commentaries on the History of Plants), was a gift from the Friends of the Library in 1963. It was published by a German physician and medical professor named Leonhart Fuchs in 1542. De Historia Stirpium is part of a long tradition of herbals, or books that describe plants and their medicinal uses. Before the sixteenth century, most herbals were based on folk traditions and Greek and Roman texts, not on scientific or artistic observation. Leonhart Fuchs broke with tradition by becoming interested in illustrating plants as they looked in nature instead of using conventional (and often bizarrely inaccurate) representations.
Fuchs’ interest in realistic representations accorded with the Renaissance ideal of naturalism, but it also served a practical purpose – he wanted his book to be a reference for his medical students and fellow doctors. The images were cutting-edge for their time.
De Historia Stirpium was more than a lavishly illustrated compendium of remedies. The book also introduced many Europeans to the unfamiliar fruits, vegetables and plants being imported from the Americas. De Historia Stirpium contains the first description and illustration of over 100 species of plants, including pumpkins, squash, chili peppers, and maize, although some species are misidentified.
The printer's device of the Basel printer Michael Isengrin. His device was usually a palm tree, hence the inscription "Palma Ising." This variant of the device has a holly tree instead of a palm. It was said that the rectangular box in the tree represented a platen from a printing press.
Fuchs hired three professional artists to help him with this undertaking: Albrecht Meyer, who drew the plants from life; Heinrich Füllmaurer, who transferred the line drawings to woodblocks; and Vitus Rudolph Speckle, who cut the blocks and printed the woodcut illustrations. The beautiful, densely illustrated book that resulted from their efforts contains some of the finest pictures of plants in the sixteenth century, many hand-colored under Fuchs’ supervision for the greatest accuracy. De Historia Stirpium is notable among early scientific books for its inclusion of the artists’ names and portraits in the back of the book (shown above).
A representative page layout.
An initial cap that was quite poorly printed. Would be nice to talk with the printer and see what the problem was. Given the incredible amount of trouble they've gone to printing the book it seemed strange to have such a wonderful initial and print it so light.
Elizabeth Blackwell's (1700 - 1758) A Curious Herbal contained several hundred copper engravings of plants that were quite well colored.
Elizabeth Blackwell (nee Blachrie) was among the first women to achieve fame as a botanical illustrator. She was both artist and engraver for the plates of A Curious Herbal, published between 1737 and 1739. The book contained the first illustrations of many odd-looking, unknown plants from the New World. It was designed for physicians as a reference to medicinal plants.
Equally interesting is the story behind her book: Elizabeth published it in order to free her husband, Alexander Blackwell (1709-47), from a debtor’s prison. Cheston described him as a "...self-styled Dr. [and] handsome rascal...".
When rebinding is required the NLM is very careful to maintain any remaining elements. In this instance a very well made cover with wonderful detailing.
A group of eight of us gathered at Parker's for a nice lunch on the sidewalk.
Always a nice group to hang with to talk about printing.
Photos by Ray Nichols & Jill Cypher.
