Amazing rare things The art of natural history in the age of discovery

This attractive volume (160 color plates) by naturalist Attenborough et al. chronicles select dimensions of the development of natural history illustration in the "Age of Discovery"; somewhat curiously it features the work of Leonardo Da Vinci and Italian antiquarian Cassiano dal Pozzo. Following a concise, cursory introduction are chapters on Da Vinci, Cassiano's "Paper Museum," Alexander Marshal, Maria Sibylla Merian, and Mark Catesby. Their works, which may be found in Windsor Castle's Royal Library, provide insight into the character of natural history illustration from the 15th to 18th centuries. Cassiano compiled a substantial collection of some 2,500 natural history drawings and numerous specimens, and authored many brief studies. Marshal, a 17th-century Englishman, prepared a beautifully illustrated florilegium of plants and flowers that were being cultivated in English botanical gardens--many of which were sent to England by plant collectors in the New World and Near East. Merian played a particularly significant role in 17th- and early-18th-century natural history, making pioneering studies and drawings of the insects of Dutch Suriname. Catesby's career and work are well known, and the plates in this volume testify once more to his genius for description in The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands (1731-43). Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-level undergraduates; general readers. P. D. Thomas Wichita State University

Beginning with Leonardo da Vinci, this historical overview of scientific illustrators between the late 1400s and the mid-1700s includes beautiful, intricate specimens from the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Natural History Museum, among others. Filmmaker Attenborough provides an introductory survey of the artistic representation of plants and animals through human history; succeeding chapters focus on five figures-four artists and one collector-none of whom are well-known in either scientific or art history circles. Cassiano dal Pozzo proves an eager and curious antiquarian, a church functionary in Rome who amassed a remarkable collection of illustrations featuring everything from ancient Roman artifacts, minerals and fossils to newly discovered plants and animals. Stunning work by Alexander Marshal, Maria Sibylla Merian and Mark Catesby capture plants and animals in their natural state, including dispatches from the New World and fauna newly arrived from foreign lands. Merian proves most fascinating, working in a time (the late 15th century) when women seldom left their homes, let alone traveled unattended to South America to draw insects and plants in the jungles of Dutch Surinam. A true feast for anyone interested in natural history, this marvelous book makes the underappreciated artworks of a passionate, talented group widely accessible. Color illustrations. (Aug. 28) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.