Flora Graeca

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Flora Graeca is the first comprehensive work on the flora of Greece. The ten-volume work was created on the basis of drawings by the Austrian draftsman Ferdinand Lucas Bauer .

Ferdinand Bauer made almost 1,000 pencil sketches during a research trip from March 1786 to December 1787 to the eastern part of the Mediterranean under the direction of the English botanist John Sibthorp (1758–1796). After the expedition, he made 966 watercolors in five years. The color plates were printed with copperplate engravings made on the basis of the watercolors. The prints were then hand-colored.

After Sibthorp's unexpected death, James Edward Smith first published two volumes of text from 1806 to 1813 under the title “ Florae Graecae Prodromus ”, then from 1806 to 1828 six volumes with color plates and accompanying text under the title “ Flora Graeca Sibthorpiana ”. The seventh volume appeared after Smith's death in 1830. John Lindley (1799–1865) published three other volumes between 1833 and 1840. The Flora Graeca thus consists of ten volumes in a large portfolio.

Only about 25 copies of the first edition were delivered. It contains 966 hand-colored panels. The retail price of the first edition of around £ 250 was well below the production price of around £ 620. The deficit was borne by a John Sibthorp foundation. The second edition appeared with a volume of approx. 40 copies. Only a few copies of both editions have been preserved in libraries worldwide. In Germany there is only one completely preserved copy of the first edition, which is in the Darmstadt University and State Library .

Ferdinand Bauer later released a similar album, Illustrationes Florae Novae Hollandiae , dedicated to the Australian flora.

literature

  • John Sibthorp, James E. Smith: Flora Graeca. 10 volumes. London 1806-1840.
  • Marlene Johanna Norst: Ferdinand Bauer: the Australian Natural History Drawings. British Museum of Natural History / Lothian, London / Melbourne, 1989.
  • Stefan Schneckenburger: The Darmstadt "Flora Graeca": The only first print of the legendary work in Germany in the University and State Library Darmstadt. In: Horticultural-Botanical Letter. No. 198, 1/2015, pp. 14-21.
  • Stefan Schneckenburger, Kirstin Schellhaas, Silvia Uhlemann: Greece in southern Hesse - the Darmstadt "Flora Graeca". (Booklet accompanying the exhibition from April 15 to July 17, 2016 in the University and State Library Darmstadt)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Arne Strid, Barbro Strid: Sibthorp & Smith. Flora Graeca Volumes 1–2. 1806-1816. Annotated re-issue. ARG Gantner, Ruggell 2009, ISBN 978-3-906166-70-4 , pp. I – xiv.
  2. ↑ The masterpiece of "Leonardo da Vinci the botanist" in FAZ of February 21, 2017, page 32

Web links

Commons : Flora Graeca  - collection of images, videos and audio files