158 



Botanical Illustration 



[CH. 



recopied from one manuscript to another before it was 

 engraved. The illustration in question is a full-page wood- 

 cut, showing a number of plants, growing in situ (Plate 

 III). Several species (e.g. Ranunculus acris, the Meadow 

 Buttercup, Viola odorata, the Sweet Violet, and Convallaria 

 majalis, the Lily-of-the-Valley) are distinctly recognisable. 

 It is noticeable that, in two cases in which a rosette of 

 radical leaves is represented, the centre of the rosette is 

 filled in in black, upon which the leaf-stalks appear in white. 



Text-fig. 73. "Brionia" [Herbarius Moguntinus, 1484]. 



This use of the black background, which gives a rich and 

 solid effect, was carried much further in later books, such 

 as the ' Ortus Sanitat.is.' 



A wood-cut, somewhat similar in style to that just 

 described, but more primitive, occurs in Trevisa's version 

 of the mediaeval encyclopaedia of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, 

 which was printed by Wynkyn de Worde before the end 

 of the fifteenth century. It is probably the first botanical 



