Draughtsmen, Botanists and Nature:: The Construction of Eighteenth-Century Botanical Illustrations (Archimedes (15))

This book is the first in-depth study of eighteenth-century botanical illustrations, and its findings offer a completely new insight into the working practices of the botanists and scientific draughtsmen of this period. The author describes the different production stages of these illustrations, traces their uses by means of the private correspondence of participants and the documentation of the learned societies and academies, and explores their visual language, with particular emphasis placed on the difficult issue of colour. Finally, and for the first time, the author presents a convincing description of how these botanical illustrations developed, ascertaining the criteria that drove this process, which was arrived at through a careful study of the many copying links that the author discovered existed between images of the same species -- a sophisticated strategy that fulfilled the exacting requirements of eighteenth-century scientific botanical illustrations. Contents......Page 8 Preface......Page 6 1 Introduction......Page 11 1.1.1 The Lonely Genius in the Meadow......Page 12 1.1.2 Reflections of Nature......Page 14 1.2 The Matter in Question......Page 21 1.3 The Course of the Argument......Page 24 2 The Making of Botanical Illustrations......Page 29 2.1.1 Trew and Ehret......Page 30 2.1.2 First Assignments......Page 36 2.1.3 The Anatomical Work......Page 38 2.1.4 The Instruction of the Draughtsmen......Page 42 2.1.5 Nuremberg as Pflanz Schule......Page 45 2.2.1 The Project......Page 49 2.2.2 The Drawings......Page 51 2.2.3 The Engraving......Page 58 2.2.4 The Hand-Colouring of the Plates......Page 71 2.2.5 Completion and Sale......Page 77 2.3 The Art of Botanical Illustrations......Page 78 3.1.1 Taxonomically Relevant Properties......Page 81 3.1.2 Additional Specific Properties......Page 94 3.2 Visualizing Properties of Classes of Objects......Page 97 3.3 Possible Interpretations......Page 100 3.4.1 Approach......Page 104 3.4.2 Scientific Models......Page 105 3.4.3 Theoretical Background......Page 106 3.4.4 Instances......Page 108 3.4.5 Construction Assumptions......Page 109 3.4.6 Hypotheses......Page 112 4.1.1 Private Individuals......Page 116 4.1.2 Learned Societies......Page 117 4.1.3 Academies......Page 123 4.2 Uses......Page 125 4.2.1 Classifying Species......Page 126 4.2.2 Describing Species......Page 135 4.2.3 Observational Evidence......Page 139 4.2.4 A Common Reference Point......Page 141 4.3.1 Information Transmitted......Page 146 4.3.2 Cognitive Effort......Page 152 4.3.3 The Written Word and Visual Language......Page 154 5.1 The Language of Botanical Illustrations......Page 158 5.1.1 Syntax and Semantics......Page 161 5.1.2 Unwritten Conventions......Page 162 5.1.3 Changes and Continuity......Page 165 5.1.4 Communicability......Page 166 5.1.5 The Technical Language of Pictures......Page 167 5.2.1 Standardization......Page 170 5.2.2 The Role of Colour......Page 183 6.1.1 Sturm, Leers & Sandberger......Page 194 6.1.2 Thornton, Miller, Curtis & Martyn......Page 197 6.1.3 Schreber, Kerner & Schkuhr......Page 205 6.2 Copying Links......Page 212 6.3.1 Overview......Page 224 6.3.2 Patterns......Page 226 6.3.3 General Findings......Page 231 6.4 On the Shoulders of Giants......Page 233 7.1 Modifying the Copied Elements......Page 238 7.2 Construction Criteria......Page 241 7.2.1 Correctness......Page 242 7.2.2 Appropriateness......Page 253 7.2.4 Summary......Page 263 7.3.1 Optimizing the Model......Page 265 7.3.2 Optimizing the Visual Language......Page 267 7.4 The Adequacy of a Botanical Illustration......Page 268 7.5 Explaining the Development of Scientific Illustration......Page 272 8.1 Terms......Page 274 8.2 The Period under Examination......Page 276 8.3 The Picture Selection......Page 277 List of References of the Picture Selection......Page 281 B......Page 285 C......Page 286 D......Page 287 G......Page 288 H......Page 289 K......Page 290 L......Page 291 M......Page 293 P......Page 294 S......Page 295 T......Page 297 W......Page 298 Z......Page 299 G......Page 300 S......Page 301 Z......Page 302 This book is based on a doctoral thesis submitted to the University of Bern in thesummerof2002. Researchonthethesiswasmadepossiblethroughagrant provided by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) from 2000 to 2002 foraprojectonthehistoryandepistemologyofscienti?cillustrations(Project No. 1152-059499). Gerd Graßho? headed this programme at the University of Bern and made my reworking of the thesis into a book in English possible. He also provided the funding for the services of a professional copy editor (Margareta Simons, Bern). The?ndingspresentedinthisbookarecloselyrelatedtothegeneralresults of the SNF project, which are published elsewhere: the source material can be 1 consultedinanearliermonographandinanelectroniceditionontheinternet; thetheoreticalapproachwillbemorethoroughlyinvestigatedinatextbookon the analysis of scienti?c illustrations. In addition, this study has made use of theoretical concepts developed by Gerd Graßho?, which, in their latest form, have yet to be published; these concern primarily the model concept discussed in Chapter 3. The criteria put forward for optimizing scienti?c illustrations, which are dealt with in Chapter 7, were also originally proposed by Gerd Graßho?; they were re?ned and elaborated in the SNF project. Some of the material on the copying links presented in this book was ?rst published in 2 an article in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science; Part C; while some of the material in Chapter 5 on the hand-colouring of illustration was 3 published prior to this book in the Annals of Science. Iwasabletoaccesssourcematerialforthisstudyfromseveralarchivesand 4 institutions. Most of the images that I examined originated from copies held in the University Library Göttingen, while the remaining illustrations came 1 See Nickelsen (2000), Nickelsen & Graßho? (2001) and Graßho? et al. (2001).