A Curious Herbal: Elizabeth Blackwell´s Pioneering Masterpiece of Botanical Art
- Idioma: INGLÊS
- Tipo de Capa: CAPA DURA
- Número de Páginas: 576
- Ano de Edição: 2023
- Número de Edição: 1º
- Dimensões: 34.04 x 21.59 x 4.32cm;
- ISBN: 9780789214539
ATENÇÃO: Foto meramente ilustrativa
In the 1730s, Elizabeth Blackwell (1699-c. 1758) found herself penniless, with her ne´er-do-well husband confined to a London debtor´s prison. A talented artist, she came up with a unique and ambitious moneymaking scheme: the publication of a new illustrated guide to medicinal plants, including many New World species not depicted in earlier books. Blackwell´s Curious Herbal, published between 1737 and 1739, was hailed for its usefulness to doctors and apothecaries and met with considerable financial success. This magnificent volume--the first modern edition of Blackwell´s herbal--reproduces all five hundred of her exquisite plates. Blackwell not only made the drawings, but prepared the copper plates and personally hand-colored them. Her handwritten descriptions of the plants, which she creatively adapted (with permission) from Joseph Miller´s Botanicum Officinale, retain considerable interest. This book features a previously unknown preface by Blackwell, in which she reveals her passion for art and nature, and her vision for the herbal. Two introductory texts contextualize Blackwell´s achievement: the noted garden writer Marta McDowell explores the history of herbals as a genre, and the state of botanical knowledge in Blackwell´s time; and the historian Janet Stiles Tyson relates the artist´s rather extraordinary biography. A Curious Herbal will be essential for all lovers of botanical art, and for anyone interested in women´s history and the history of science.
