[Exhibition catalog] Plants and Animals. Atlas of natural history in the age of Linnaeus

[Exhibition catalog] Plants and Animals. An Atlas of Natural History in the Age of Linnaeus, outlined by the International Cultural Center, Cracow 2020, p. 311, dimensions 24 x 27.5 cm. Publisher's cardboard cover. Condition b. good.

More than 240 pages of the album present color illustrations from atlases of natural history created by the skilled hand of ancientillustrators and colorists at a time when modern systematics of plants and animals was just being born. There are one-to-one reproductions and large-format enlargements of microscopic details of flora and fauna, which in the days before the invention of photography fed the human hunger for beauty. The graphics come from the collections of the Cabinet of Engravings of the Scientific Library of the PAU and the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow and the Library of the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

The collection, which is not widely known, is unique both for its artistic level and for the presence of many publications widely regarded as milestones of European natural history, including the most famous and graphically outstanding ornithological and botanical albums. Illustrations of plants, fruits, vegetables, birds, butterflies, fish, snakes and insects are juxtaposed in four succinct sections, following conventional locations: from the wildlife native to the Backwoods to the exotic Zamora to the debatable Table and the cultural concept of the Garden. Glosses have been added to the most interesting species, introducing issues in botany and zoology or information about the cultural context. The story thus runs across borders, up through the centuries, and across library catalogs, to please the eye not only of seasoned lovers of old prints, but also of those who are at least a little attentive to the natural world.