vii] Wood-cuts and Copper-plates 199 



In the present chapter no attempt has been made to 

 discuss the illustrations of those herbals (e.g. the works of 

 Turner, Tabernaemontanus, Gerard, etc.) in which most 

 of the wood-cuts are copied from previous books. In the 

 majority of such cases, the source of the figures has already 

 been indicated in Chapter IV. 



This brief review of the history of botanical wood-cuts 

 leads us to the conclusion that between 1530 and 1630, that 

 is to say during the hundred years when the herbal was at 

 its zenith, the number of sets of wood-engravings which 

 were pre-eminent — either on account of their intrinsic quali- 

 ties, or because they were repeatedly copied from book to 

 book — was strictly limited. We might almost say that 

 there were only five collections of wood-cuts of plants of 

 really first-rate importance — those, namely, of Brunfels, 

 Fuchs, Mattioli, and Plantin, with those of Gesner and 

 Camerarius, all of which were published in the sixty years 

 between 1530 and 1590. The wood-blocks of the two 

 botanists last mentioned cannot be considered apart from 

 one another ; from the scientific point of view they show a 

 marked advance, in the introduction of enlarged sketches 

 of the flowers and fruit, in addition to the habit drawings. 

 Plantin's set included those blocks which were engraved for 

 the herbals of de l'Obel, de l'Ecluse, and the later works 

 of Dodoens. 



At the close of the sixteenth century, wood cutting on 

 the Continent was distinctly on the wane, and had begun 

 to be superseded by engraving on metal. The earliest 

 botanical work, in which copper-plate etchings were used as 

 illustrations, is said to be Fabio Colonna's ' Phytobasanos ' 

 of 1592. These etchings, two of which are shown in Text- 

 figs. 46 and 105, are on a small scale, but are extremely 

 beautiful and accurate. The details of the flowers and 

 fruit are often shown separately, the figures, in this respect, 

 being comparable with those of Gesner and Camerarius, 

 though, owing to their small size, they do not convey so 

 much botanical information. In a later book of Colonna's, 

 the ' Ekphrasis,' analyses of the floral parts are given in 

 even greater detail than in the 'Phytobasanos.' Colonna 

 expressly mentions that he used wild plants as models 

 wherever possible, because cultivation is apt to produce 



