Tag: botany

Early European Books Collections 3 and 4

On By europeancollectionsIn E-resources, Historical collectionsLeave a comment

Electronic Collection Management

The University Library is delighted to announce that the JISC has negotiated with ProQuest to make available to UK HE institutions collections 1-4 of the Early European Books resource.   This extends the access for Cambridge to include collections 3 and 4.

Collection 3 is substantially larger than the previous collections, containing 3 million pages in total, from more than 10,000 volumes scanned at four different libraries. It encompasses works in all major European languages, printed in the cities which led the explosion of the print industry in the early modern era, such as Nuremberg, Basel, Leiden, Paris and Venice. This breadth of scope gives a wide-ranging overview of the intellectual life and historical upheavals of early modern Europe. The collection contains the founding works of modern sciences such as botany, anatomy and astrology, together with accounts of travel, exploration and warfare, and influential works of literature, philosophy and humanist thought…

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The Herbier peint of Rosalie de Constant

On By europeancollectionsIn French, Historical collections1 Comment

Contemporary accounts give a vivid impression of Rosalie de Constant (1758-1834), the cousin of Benjamin Constant, the French novelist, politician and political philosopher. She was hunchbacked, but she played the mandolin and clavichord. She was short-sighted, and her attention to detail was expressed in an extensive set of paintings of Swiss plants. IMG_0786She wrote sonnets, proverbs and an unfinished novel, but is most well known for her Herbier peint, a large work of 1245 plates, in which she painted illustrations of plants, wrote descriptions of their use, and classified them. Rosalie de Constant created this work between 1795 and 1832, and it was donated to the Musée cantonal in 1844, and is now held in the Musée botanique cantonal.

The University Library has two volumes of Rosalie’s letters, as well as a volume of her travel writing:

  • Voyage en Suisse en 1819 / Rosalie de Constant (739:4.d.95.27)
  • Lettres de Rosalie de Constant : écrites de Lausanne à son frère Charles le Chinois en 1798 / publiées et annotées par Suzanne Roulin (2003.7.598)
  • Benjamin et Rosalie de Constant : correspondance, 1786-1830 / publiée avec une introduction et des notes par Alfred et Suzanne Roulin (738:42.c.95.37)

Continue reading “The Herbier peint of Rosalie de Constant” →

Early herbals from Rome, Mainz and Lübeck

On By europeancollectionsIn German, Historical collections1 Comment
Mulber, from Herbarius latinus, Inc.4.A.1.3b[19]
Mulber, from Herbarius latinus, Inc.4.A.1.3b[19]

Passing reference was made in Jaap Harskamp’s post on sixteenth-century Dutch botanical publishing to Konrad von Megenberg’s Buch der Natur, a general work on natural history containing some of the earliest printed references to plants. There were six incunabula editions of the text, the first printed by Johann Bämler in Augsburg and dated 30 October 1475. Cambridge University Library does not have any pre-1501 edition of Buch der Natur, though we do have two 19th century editions of the text (MA.5.55 ; MA.5.76), which do not reproduce the illustrations. A modern critical edition is also in process (746:01.c.25.57). This is a publishing enterprise of long duration, keeping librarians on their toes and making for slight complications in processing. Volume 2 (the text) was published in 2003, but the publisher’s website indicates that the project is still on-going, with an introduction (v. 1), a commentary (v. 3) and a dictionary (v. 4) to appear “at a later stage”. Continue reading “Early herbals from Rome, Mainz and Lübeck” →

For the love of plants : sixteenth-century botany in the Low Countries

On By europeancollectionsIn Dutch, Historical collectionsLeave a comment
Sel.2.81._pictores_detail
Pictores operis, from De historia stirpium commentarii insignes. Classmark: Sel.2.81.

Books by the sixteenth-century Flemish botanist Rembert Dodoens are remarkably well represented in the University Library, both in Dutch and in translation. The Library holds 32 different imprints, 18 of them published in the sixteenth century. Dodoens was amongst the most skilled botanists of his time, spearheading the rapid development of the science and exercising considerable influence upon later English practitioners. Continue reading “For the love of plants : sixteenth-century botany in the Low Countries” →