New illustration of the sexual system of Carolus von Linnaeus : comprehending an elucidation of the several parts of the fructification : a prize dissertation on the sexes of plants : a full explanation of the classes, and orders, of the sexual system : and The temple of flora, or, Garden of nature, being picturesque, botanical, coloured plates, of select plants, illustrative of the same, with descriptions [motto: 4 lines]

Title Variants

Alternative: British trophy in honour of Linnaeus
Alternative: New illustration of the sexual system of Linnaeus
Alternative: Thornton's Botany

Related Titles

Series: Dumbarton Oaks Digitization Project, Garden and Landscape Studies

By

Thornton, Robert John, 1768?-1837
Linné, Carl von, 1707-1778

Type

Book

Material

Published material

Publication info

London, Printed, for the publisher, by T. Bensley, Bolt Court, Fleet Street, [1807?] [i.e. 1799-1810]

Notes

Imprint, publication date, and title taken from 1807 title page bound in towards end of volume.

The work was published in parts between 1799 and 1807.

Most leaves of plates dated 1799-1807, with some leaves dated 1810, despite imprint date of 1807.

Half titles, without imprint, preceding the t.p.: [1] A British trophy in honour of Linnaeus. [2] A new illustration of the sexual system of Linnaeus.

Half-title page A British trophy in honour of Linnaeus: Tomkins ser. [and] Cooper sculp.; A new illustration of the sexual system of Linnaeus: Tomkins Script. [and] Vincent Sculpt.

No two copies are exactly alike as Thornton made up copies using different combinations of plates; "The work was advertised in 1797, and seems to have been issued in parts at twenty-five shillings each between 1799 and 1807. In its best state it is a very splendid work, .. but its bibliography is very difficult, hardly two copies being alike"--volume 56, Dictionary of National Biography, under Thornton, Robert John.

"Thornton bankrupted himself on this project, a poetic and artistic celebration of the sexual system of plant reproduction proposed by Linnaeus earlier in the eighteenth century. Thornton employed prominent artists such as Philipp Reinagle, Peter Henderson, and Abraham Pether to create paintings for the plates, and Thornton himself contributed a painting of roses. The plates were engraved by similarly distinguished firms (Ward, Earlam, and Dunkarton for the mezzotints and Stadler and Sutherland for the aquatints) and often finished by hand. Thornton described the illustrations as “picturesque,” with each plant depicted in a version of its natural setting, and he bemoaned the limits of illustrations, which “fall short in trying to represent these ravishing beauties of the vegetable world!” (from his text on tulips). But the work was under-subscribed due, according to Thornton, to war taxes which kept collectors from buying books. The original paintings for the Temple of Flora, as well as bound books and loose plates, were sold in a lottery in 1811...."--https://www.doaks.org/resources/online-exhibits/botany-of-empire/illustration-and-representation/new-illustration-of-the-sexual-system-of-carolus-von-linnaeus-and-the-temple-of-flora

Contents: Preliminary observations -- [Part first:] The prize dissertation on the sexes of plants by Carolus von Linnaeus; written Anno Domini 1759 -- Part second: The sexual system of Carolus von Linnaeus -- Part third: Picturesque botanical plates, illustrative of the sexual system of Carolus von Linnaeus, [followed by engraved title page] The temple of flora, or Garden of nature, being, [followed by engraved title page] Picturesque botanical plates, illustrative of the sexual system of Linnaeus: by Robert John Thornton MD . London : Printed for the publisher [i.e. the author], January the 1st MDCCXCIX [1799].

Nissen, C. Botanische Buchillustration, | 1955 (var.)

Dunthorne, G. Flower and fruit prints, | 303 (var.)

Subjects

1799-1810 , Botanical Illustration--19th C , Botany , Flowers , Pictorial works , Plants, Sex in , Poetry

Call Number

QK92 .I59

Language

English

Identifiers

LCCN: https://lccn.loc.gov/65058968
OCLC: 1035236750