The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala

Laelia superbiens (detail)

Brasavola glauca

Laelia majalis

Odontoglossum hastatum

Sobralia macrantha

Stanhopea martiana

Barkeria spectabilis

Catasetum maculatum

Cattleya skinneri

Chysis loevis

------"Nature breeds
Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things,
Abominable, unutterable, and worse
Than fables yet have feigned, or fear conceived,
Gorgons, and hydras, and chimeras dire." Milton

-Tailpiece of Lady Grey of Groby- : This was approximately how the (?)lithographic vignette was described in the adjacent text, which I didn't transcribe. I'm not certain, but I think the illustration was found or recommended by Lady Grey and was not actually produced by her. I have definitely seen this picture before but I don't recall the details. The fantasy scene is signed 'E. Lavdells' and is said to include - among other plant species - of a number of orchids.

"The ants of Honduras, as it has been shown, turn to good account the long hollow stems of this singular plant; another purpose to which they are applied may be gathered from the Vignette, where an Indian child is seen sounding with all his might "an echoing horn", formed by merely cutting off the extremities. His companions emulate his musical ardour, but in their attempts to possess the materiel are interrupted by a catastrophe.

In such request are these vegetable trumpets among the wild urchins of Honduras, the plant yielding is called "the trumpet-plant," - an epithet that has suggested its specific name."

"Those who have ever received a case of Orchidaceæ from the Tropics, know full well that the opening of it is attended with the most intense and feverish excitement: and those who have not been so fortunate, will be glad to gather some notion of such stirring scenes from the accompanying Vignette, - which, it is needless to say, is from the inimitable pencil of Cruikshank.

-If we read aright the address on that box, the cargo belongs to one of the most staunch and scientific collectors of his day, and we, therefore, only the more deeply deplore the calamity with which, it is but too clear his importation has been visited. The conduct of his people is, however, beyond all praise; and we earnestly pray that their gallant exertions may be crowned with triumphant success. It is indeed a cruel thing to expect Epiphytes, and receive only Cockroaches!! to see the very case which ought to have been richly stored with lusty Orchidaceæ, prove, upon opening, to contain nothing more than - "Lucifugis congesta cubilia blattis!!" [Virgil] "

A figure of Mexican manufacture

"Begone, dull care, I prithee begone from me." --Old Song.

James Bateman (1811-1897) came from a well to do family and was an enthusiastic hobby botanist from a young age. By the time he was pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree at University, exotic orchid species were all the rage in horticultural circles, coinciding with the development of a successful cultivation regime for the British climate.

Part of the appeal for orchid enthusiasts of the era was the wide range of flowering species in the group and the diversity of locations in which the plants were found. If you wanted to impress your neighbour or friend with rare orchid species, it necessitated mounting expeditions to far away climes, a costly and potentially dangerous exercise that no doubt redoubled the romantic associations and general desire for specimens.

Bateman sponsored a number of orchid hunting trips to Central and South America and, together with relationships established with collectors in the tropical regions, he was able to have large numbers of unique orchid species brought back to England. As an avid life long hobbyist, Bateman actively set about propogating the plants in purpose-built facilities at his family estate. Horticultural experts were called in to help identify and classify the orchids, artists were commissioned to record them for posterity and Bateman began to write books about his botanical obsession.

Chief among his written output was a jumbo folio work on the orchids of Mexico and Guatemala, published for subscribers during the years 1837-1843. Only one hundred and twenty five complete copies were produced making this huge book one of the rarest among the orchid literature. As can be seen above, it's quite an eccentric book, mixing the descriptive scientific text and hand coloured flower illustrations with otherwise (seemingly) random or tenuously connected black and white vignettes, together with literary, humorous and anecdotal asides. Just my cup of tea.

All of the above images were extensively spot cleaned and there are a few more illustrations saved in the set not posted here.

• 'The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala' by James Bateman is hosted online by the Botanicus website of the Missouri Botanical Gardens.
• 'James Bateman and Orchid Literature' by RJ Ferry IN: The McAllen International Orchid Society Journal [Vol. 8(1), pp. 5-13], January 2007.
• There is another copy of the book (with text transcribed) at this Geocities site but the page format/css (in my Firefox browser anyway) makes viewing difficult.
• Previously: The Orchid Scrapbooks of John Day; flora.
• Wikipedia on James Bateman.

Surinam Insect Metamorphosis

The posting online this week of a 1719 edition of Dutch entomologist Maria Sybilla (Sibylla)* Merian's 'Metamorphosibus Insectorum Surinamensium' (1705) seemed like an appropriate reason to revisit this exquisite monograph. [see previous entry - Surinam Metamorphosis - for more links and the compelling background to this fifty five year old mother's art/research trip to the South American wilds]

"In Holland, I noted with much astonishment what beautiful animals came from the East and West Indies. I was blessed with having been able to look at both the expensive collection of Doctor Nicolaas Witsen, mayor of Amsterdam and director of the East Indies society, and that of Mr. Jonas Witsen, secretary of Amsterdam.

Moreover I also saw the collections of Mr. Fredericus Ruysch, doctor of medicine and professor of anatomy and botany, Mr. Livinus Vincent, and many other people. In these collections I had found innumerable other insects, but finally if here their origin and their reproduction is unknown, it begs the question as to how they transform, starting from caterpillars and chrysalises and so on. All this has, at the same time, led me to undertake a long dreamed of journey to Suriname." [Foreword]

• 'Dissertatio de Generatione et Metamorphosibus Insectorum Surinamensium' is available - with huge image files - from the ever reliable Universities of Strasbourg Digital Library. [click 'See digitalized document' and then click the folder icon top left in the page that loads for thumbnail views]
• In my haste to download, crop and tweak the above engravings, I failed to note until later that another copy of this work - with handcoloured illustrations - had been uploaded to the servers at the Center for Retrospective Digitization, Göttingen (GDZ) since I last reviewed this classic natural history work. [I'm not sure which edition this is and I couldn't, for some reason, manage to load enlarged page images. The illustrations - a reasonable size anyway - are the unnumbered pages in the drop down menu]
• Update: The Smithsonian Institution have coloured plates from 'Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung und sonderbare Blumennahrung', 1730 by Merian.
• Update 2: HAB have an earlier copy of 'Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung und sonderbare Blumennahrung' with author billed as "Maria Sibylla GRAFF" (1679) {b&w plates}
  

The Fisch Wappenbuch

Hans Ulrich Fisch (1583-1647) was a stained glass painter, book illustrator and local politician in the northern Swiss town of Aarau in the canton of Aargau.

Aargau is significant because the 11th century castle in the small town of Habsburg gave rise to the name (and original family seat) of the mighty Habsburg royal dynasty which ruled significant portions of Europe for more than five hundred years.

The eccentric album seen here, produced by Fisch in 1622, is an abbreviated family tree and record of the coat of arms of the Habsburg (Hapsburg) dynasty rulers. No doubt they claimed an impeccable pedigree, with the inclusion of Julius Caesar in their ranks (third picture from top). [Having said that, I think it might be something of a tradition in Wappenbuch (Coat of Arms books)].

2008 is the commemorative year with regards to both the first written mention of the Habsburgs (1108) and also the murder of King Albrecht I of Habsburg Germany in 1308, who was regarded as the founder of the Habsburg empire. {The abbey church of Königsfelden was built 700 years ago in remembrance of the murdered king Albrecht I}

• 'Wappenbuch des Hans Ulrich Fisch' was digitised last month by the Aargau Archives -- click the dropdown menu at 'Anzeige' and choose a thumbnail display configuration -- and is hosted by the Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland. The images above were slightly cropped and some of the background stains have been reduced. The website has a range of image sizes available. [via Archivalia]
• Table of contents (in German)
  
• Aargau / Aarau / Habsburg (town) / Habsburg (castle) / Habsburg (dynasty) / King Albrecht I at Wikipedia.
• Kanton Aargau (in German)
  
• Habsburg town site (in German)
• Previously related (although there are probably more): Duke Dress and Heraldry; Simon Haendel's Stammbuch; Bavarian Wappenbuch.
  

Perspectiva

"First edition of this rare treatise on perspective and draughtsmanship, important for its use by artists, architects, and goldsmiths. The woodcuts are all the author's original work, though he was clearly influenced by Leonardo and Dürer.

The text begins with elements of linear geometry, and moves towards more detailed presentations of two-dimensional figures and the construction of stereometrical bodies. The third part, on human proportion, owes much to Dürer's 'Vier Bucher von Menschlicher Proportion' (1525); this section also includes woodcuts illustrating the proper proportions of a horse.

Lautensack's discussion of perspective is accompanied by illustrations of basic geometrical forms, ending with a fine folding plate depicting the Emperor's Hall in the Römer, Frankfurt's city hall and the site of the coronation of the Holy Roman Emperors. An early imprint from the famous Feyerabend publishing dynasty, the author's preface indicates that the printing of this work began on July 26, 1563.

[Heinrich] Lautensack (1522-68), an artist, goldsmith, and woodblock-cutter, lived in Frankfurt am Main. He was influenced by his father, Paul, and by his brother, Hans Sebald Beham*, both skilled painters and engravers. This book is extremely scarce; few copies have survived the constant use by the artists who utilized this work for their profession." [source]

This bookseller quote (repeated at various sites) in relation to Lautensack's 1564 treatise on artistic perspective, 'Des Circkels und Richtscheyts, auch der Perspectiva und Proportion der Menscher', constitutes - as best I can tell - the major online commentary with regards Lautensack's life and career.

I have obviously lifted the above illustrations - relating to biological perspective - from the latter section of this (164pp) book. My attention was primarily drawn to the style of representation seen for example in the first image above in which the geometric shapes are substituted for the figure's body parts.

Much of Dürer's voluminous works on perspective are online (see links below) and I think I've skimmed through the bulk of the illustrations. As the quote above suggests, Lautensack had relied on Dürer as a source and indeed, quite a few of the illustration styles in Lautensack's work are very very similar, although not actually copied as far as I can tell.

But what I didn't see in Dürer's work - and this is the part that intrigues me - is this removal of the underlying body parts and their replacement with block shapes. Schematics are overlaid on bodies frequently - the perspective lines - and occasionally geometric shapes are illustrated alone or in combination, but not really in a way as to suggest an underlying bodily form. They are just piles of blocks to a viewer's first glance although, no doubt, the detailed accompanying text would assign them greater meaning.

The reason I find this intriguing, which may turn out to be just another of my random musings with no basis in reality, is that when I see a woodcut like the first image above, I'm reminded of the brilliant proto-surrealist work of Braccelli who took this body part-as-shape design to the extreme, substituting real world objects, like screws and plates and bandages, in addition to simple geometric shapes, for his 1624 album of paired fanciful figures, 'Bizzarie di Varie Figure' (linked below).

Did Lautensack's 'Perspectiva' from 1564 make it as far as Florence prior to 1624? Who knows? But it amuses me to think of Braccelli doodling at his kitchen table in a standard artistic reference book from his age and ultimately producing one of the most uniquely innovative suite of prints in the last five hundred years.

I'm not sure I want to know if I'm wrong. It's these kinds of imagined connections that make the continued quest for esoteric imagery that much more enjoyable. So, let me down gently, if at all.

• The images above were obtained from a 1618 edition of Lautensack's 'Perspectiva', posted online by MDZ in the last week.
• The original 1564 edition of 'Perspectiva' is available from the Saxony State Library in Dresden - a site that is fantastic for its range and depth, but ultimately frustrating because anything above a thumbnail sized image employs the Zoomify flash system.
• Octavo Editions reproduces a rare volume combining the first two books of Dürer’s 'De Symmetria Partium in Rectis Formis Humanorum Corporum' (Books on the normal proportions of the parts of the human form) with 'Underweysung der Messung' (Instruction in measurement) [allow pop-ups and click on any of the pictures].
• Biblioteca de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid have a range of Dürer's books on perspective, presumably scanned from microfilm. (some are compilations, some foreign editions I believe)
• Octavo Editions has a complete copy of Giovanni Braccelli's 'Bizzarie di Varie Figure' [also at the Library of Congress]
• See misteraitch's posts at Giornale Nuovo: A Fine, Useful Booklet; Geometry & Perspective; Perspectiva; Perspectiva Literaria; Anatomy, Geometry.
  
• Lautensack produced the illustrations for 'Das Melem´sche Hausbuch' [trans.]
• The intriguing System for Universal Media Searching (SUMS) site on perspective has a veritable truck load of reading material (I've scanned the scholarly html books: detailed but readable) by Kim H Veltman.
• Google books have a restricted but nevertheless extensive amount of 'Picturing Machines 1400-1700 - How technical drawings shaped early engineering practice' - Ed. Wolfgang Lefèvre, 2004 - available (this is mostly just for my own future general reference, although Lautensack is briefly mentioned a couple of times).
• The full title of the first edition of Lautensack's book is: 'Deß Circkelß vnd Richtscheyts, auch der Perspectiva, vnd Proportion der Menschen vnd Rosse, kurtze, doch gründtliche vnderweisung, deß rechten gebrauchs Mit viel schönen Figuren, aller anfahenden Jugendt, vnnd andern liebhabern dieser Kunst, als Goldschmiden, Malern, Bildhauwern, Steinmetzen, Schreinern, [et]c. eigentlich fürgebildet, vormals im Truck nie gesehen, sonder jetzunder erstmals von neuwem an tag gegeben'; just showing that it was intended as an instruction manual for goldsmiths, artists, stonemasons, joiners etc.