The Beginnings of Ecological Thought in the Renaissance: An Account Based on the Libri picturati A. 18--30 Collection of Water-Colours (2007)
Zemanek, Alicja (Author)
Savoia, Andrea Ubrizsy (Author)
Zemanek, Bogdan (Author)
Archives of Natural History
Volume: 34
Pages: 87--108
During the Renaissance ecological thinking emerged both in printed scientific works and in pictures showing plants against the background of their natural environment. A unique source for the history of plant ecology is the Libri picturati A. 18--30 collection of water-colours kept at the Jagiellonian Library in Cracow (Poland). This collection consists of 13 volumes of plant pictures, and contains about 1,800 images illustrating more than 1,000 taxa mainly from north-western Europe and the Mediterranean region, but also from Asia and America. Some of these pictures match with woodcuts in various works by famous Flemish botanists, mainly Charles de l'Écluse (Carolus Clusius) (1526--1609). Both the illustrations and their short annotations provide a synthetic review of the ecology of the Renaissance period. The paper deals with ecological issues which are found in the collection such as information on the climatic and edaphic requirements of some species, on plants occurring in various habitats and plant communities, plants representing principal growth forms, descriptions of particular adaptations to specific living conditions, for example the halophyte community of sea coasts or the parasitic flowering plants, and phenological observations. These trends can also be seen in printed publications of that time, and this collection mirrors them especially closely.
...MoreDescription On the exceptional ecological information that is conveyed in the pictures from this 13-volume watercolor collection housed in the Jagiellonian Library in Cracow.
Similar Citations
Book
Attenborough, David;
Owens, Susan;
Clayton, Martin;
Alexandratos, Rea;
(2007)
Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery
(/isis/citation/CBB000772794/)
Thesis
Baldasso, Renzo;
(2007)
Illustrating the Book of Nature in the Renaissance: Drawing, Painting, andPrinting Geometric Diagrams and Scientific Figures
(/isis/citation/CBB001560536/)
Article
Limanskaia, L. Yu.;
(2006)
“The Eye as “Master Astronomer””: Leonardo da Vinci's “Science of Painting” and Universal Mechanics
(/isis/citation/CBB000930312/)
Article
Bernardoni, Andrea;
(2009)
The Biography of a Technical Picture: Biringuccio's Boring Machine Woodcut
(/isis/citation/CBB000933734/)
Book
Baulu, Jean;
Dance, Peter;
(2005)
Singes et grands singes: la découverte des primates par les naturalistes et leur représentation dans la gravure et le dessin au cours des cinq derniers siècles
(/isis/citation/CBB000774122/)
Chapter
Egmond, Florike;
(2007)
Curious Fish: Connections between Some Sixteenth-Century Watercolours and Prints
(/isis/citation/CBB000773419/)
Article
Pyle, Cynthia M.;
(2000)
Art as science: Scientific illustration, 1490-1670 in drawing, woodcut and copper plate
(/isis/citation/CBB000110905/)
Book
Ogilvie, Brian W.;
(2006)
The Science of Describing: Natural History in Renaissance Europe
(/isis/citation/CBB000741497/)
Book
Jardine, Nicholas;
(2013)
Observing the World through Images: Diagrams and Figures in the Early-Modern Arts and Sciences
(/isis/citation/CBB001213965/)
Book
Laurenza, Domenico;
(2012)
Art and Anatomy in Renaissance Italy: Images from a Scientific Revolution
(/isis/citation/CBB001210286/)
Chapter
Pantin, Isabelle;
(2013)
Analogy and Difference: A Comparative Study of Medical and Astronomical Images in Books, 1470--1550
(/isis/citation/CBB001213967/)
Article
Zemanek, A.;
Zemanek, B.;
Ubrizsy Savoia, A.;
(2005)
The Beginnings of Plant Ecology in the Renaissance: Collection of Watercolours LIBRI PICTURATI (A18-30)
(/isis/citation/CBB000931622/)
Book
Lawrence D. Longo;
Lawrence P. Reynolds;
(2016)
Wombs with a View: Illustrations of the Gravid Uterus from the Renaissance through the Nineteenth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB011626906/)
Article
Ginn, Sheryl R.;
Lorusso, Lorenzo;
(2008)
Brain, Mind, and Body: Interactions with Art in Renaissance Italy
(/isis/citation/CBB000831402/)
Chapter
Sachiko Kusukawa;
(2018)
Gessner’s History of Nature
(/isis/citation/CBB599575882/)
Article
Pantin, Isabelle;
(2010)
The Astronomical Diagrams in Oronce Finé's Protomathesis (1532): Founding a French Tradition?
(/isis/citation/CBB001021160/)
Chapter
Fehrenbach, Frank;
(2008)
The Pathos of Function: Leonardo's Technical Drawings
(/isis/citation/CBB000831235/)
Article
Barboni, Valeria;
(2011)
La traduzione in immagine della Naturalis Historia: le Xilografie dell'edizione veneziana del 1513 stampata da Melchiorre Sessa
(/isis/citation/CBB001220883/)
Chapter
Hackethal, Sabine;
(2002)
Der Beitrag bildender Künstler zur Entwicklung der Zoologie im ausgehenden 16. Jahrhundert: Kunst- und zoologiehistorische Überlegungen am Beispiel der Tierbilder Lazarus Rötings (1549--1614)
(/isis/citation/CBB000773730/)
Article
Tongiorgi Tomasi, Lucia;
(2001)
The study of the natural sciences and botanical and zoological illustration in Tuscany under the Medicis from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries
(/isis/citation/CBB000100698/)
Be the first to comment!