Studies in Renaissance Botany

The development of botany during the Renaissance has long attracted interest from both the biologists and the historians. The rich base of handwritten, printed, and iconographic materials and herbaria preserved until today, is of a great value not only from historical point of view. They contain the first written and iconographic data about the European vegetation which has undergone irreversible changes during the centuries. One can also find there information valuable for the history of plant nomenclature and for ethnobotany. These materials have so far been studied only to a very limited extent. Most of the classical works on Renaissance botany date back to the 18th century and do not include information about numerous botanical publications from Central Europe. The main purpose of this book is to present the topics of the ongoing research projects dealing with Renaissance botany. The projects represent diverse approaches, which is, in part, due to the diversity of the materials preserved in various countries. Among the Renaissance botanists presented in this volume are Pietro Andrea Mattioli (a famous Italian herbalist, doctor and naturalist born in Siena) and Carolus Clusius (a Flemish doctor and pioneering botanist, perhaps the most influential of all 16th-century scientific horticulturists). Strictly botanical topics are supplemented by papers devoted to the issues from the interface between science and art. Andrzej Jankun describes plant images presented in the Olkusz polyptych (15th century). Flora of the 15th-century Flemish tapestries from Wawel Royal Castle of Cracow is the subject of the analysis by Anna Kostuch and Alicja Zemanek. The volume is enriched by colour plates of the pictures from the collection "Libri picturati", and of plant motifs from the Wawel tapestries.