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> Early modern printed books are a much wider category, encompassing the entire period between ~1450 CE and ~1800 CE (I tend to date the end of the early modern
by TacticalCoder 3y ago
> Early modern printed books are a much wider category, encompassing the entire period between ~1450 CE and ~1800 CE (I tend to date the end of the early modern period to the end of the Napoleonic Wars, 1815).
I have one from 1575 about plants and it is indeed beautiful. As I named my daughter after a plant (and she knows that) when she heard about the book and its content she asked me if "her plant" was in it: I had no idea so we looked into that old grimoire and... Turns out it's in there.
Over the centuries people (I have no idea who) did put actual plants in the book, at their corresponding pages, which I really dig.
It's not that rare: it was already "mass printed" and copies regularly show up for sale.
FWIW it's called Histoire des plantes by Fuchs (and it's a copy translated from latin to old french that I've got).
- benbreen 3y agoI came across many different versions of books with that title while doing my PhD research (was tracing the names and descriptions of various drugs popular in the early modern period). It's quite an interesting group of books because as they go into new editions and get translated into new languages, new plants from places like Mexico and Brazil are added. And even as Fuchs continues to be cited as an authority, the authorship changes despite the title (a variation on "History of Plants") and many of the images staying the same. The version I used the most was a Portuguese book called Historia das Plantas by João Vigier. Among other things, it's interesting because it contains an early reference to the medicinal use of cannabis in Europe: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Historia_Das_Plantas_Da_Europa_E_Das_Mai/BG4-AAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22vigier%22+%22historia+das+plantas%22+%22linho+canabe%22&pg=PA606&printsec=frontcover https://www.google.com/books/edition/Historia_Das_Plantas_Da...
- TacticalCoder 3y agoAh that is very interesting! I'll check in mine to see if I can find anything about cannabis.
- digging 3y ago> Over the centuries people (I have no idea who) did put actual plants in the book, at their corresponding pages, which I really dig. You mean you have an original printing with physical plants pressed into it?
- TacticalCoder 3y agoWell as the other poster commented: there are many editions of this book and they were kinda mass-printed. I've got an "original" one as it is really from 1575 but the author died in 1566. The version I have is in old french and, yup, some people did put actual physical plants pressed between the page!