Where the book was from:- My own copy – present from Helen and Ian Christmas 2009
ISBN: - 978 1 902163 46 8
Pages: - 225pp
Genre: - Natural History; Art; Royal Collections;
Location:- ----
How I came across it: - Saw it in Linghams Bookshop
Rating: - ***** *****
One sentence summary:- The art of natural history in the age of discovery.
General comments:-
Some non-fiction is educational; some is beautiful; and some is simply fascinating. This is all three. Created to accompany a 2008 exhibition of the Royal Collections it
This extraordinary book accompanies the 2008 exhibition which was selected from the Royal Library by curators of the Royal Collection in collaboration with the distinguished naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough. It brings together the works of four artists and a collector who have shaped our knowledge of the world around us. Leonardo da Vinci, Cassiano dal Pozzo, Alexander Marshal, Maria Sibylla Merian and Mark Catesby are diverse figures who shared a passion for enquiry and a fascination with the beautiful and bizarre in nature. All lived at a time when new species were being discovered around the world in ever increasing numbers. Many of the plants and animals represented in the exhibition were then barely known in Europe. Today some are commonplace, others are now extinct.
That looks like a beautifully inviting book
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