Hunt Institute Archives Text Discovery Platform

Page transcription

5

the second edition of Ermalao Barbaro's Castigaciones Plinii, Venice, 1493-1494. This single volume ties together the names of three historic figures and fourteen centuries of time. First, Pliny, the great Roman compiler of natural history in the first century, A.D., so addicted to learning that he was almost never without someone reading to him or taking his dictation. Next, Ermalao, well among the first to question the correctness of what Pliny left us--here he claims to have set right five thousand errors. Finally, the owner of the book, Hieronymous Emser, a clerical contemporary of Luther, in fact, one of his friends who at first supported him in his revolt against Rome, but who later joined the opposition to him and became the Pope's chief advocate against him. How can one even look upon this remnant of the past spanning fourteen centuries and involving two of the greatest controversies of the Renaissance, without feeling more deeply the unity of history and the continuity of man's search for knowledge and truth?

Less impressive, but much more charming, was John Lindley's An outline of the first principles of botany (1830), a small pocket-sized book inscribed: 'Mrs Lindley with the authors love June 1. 1830'--but not an ordinary copy, the four plates of illustrations not just engravings, but the author's original drawings--an intimate piece indeed!

On display in Edinburgh last summer was another exhibit of botanical books which invites comparison with our own, although its composition was almost entirely different. This was shown by the National Library of Scotland, in honor of the Tenth International Botanical Congress which met during August; it traced the history of botanical illustration from the middle of the 17th century to the present. The entries numbered 105,