Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717)

Purely bloody amazing. I'm so very glad this book was recommended to me, even if most of what I did was look at the lovely pictures and struggle with the language just enough to sort out what each picture was of.

Lovely work indeed.

Just Outstanding, set the basic groundwork for future methods of illustrating this type of flora and fauna. While not always scrupulously accurate it remains a groundbreaking piece of artistic work.

This is a facsimile edition of the original New Book of Flowers with a short autobiographical sketch at the end of the volume and an additional evaluation of Merian's work from an artistic perspective. There is a short history of floral painting and the importance of and special meaning given to plants and flowers during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.

I would one day like to have a copy of this book.

What I read was actually the Erucarum Ortus itself from http://digital.bib-bvb.de/view/bvbmets/viewer.0.5.jsp?folder_id=0&dvs=143629... - an unspeakably awesome piece of work.

Go. Read it now. Seriously.

Well, OK. Look at it. If you can read the language, *then* read it. I didn't have such luck, but translated enough to get bits and pieces, which made my whole afternoon.