The Medieval Flower Book - Softcover

Celia Fisher

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0712358943 ISBN 13: 9780712358941

Publisher: The British Library Publishing Division, 2013

Synopsis

In this charming book Celia Fisher explores the beautiful flower illustration in medieval herbals and manuscripts, illustrating around 140 different flowers and plants in glorious full colour. Many of the illustrations come from herbals, in which plants began to be depicted with realism by artists in the 14th century. But in the 15th century a different kind of flower illustration emerged in the margins of illuminated manuscripts. From around 1480 flowers became the dominant feature of the decorative borders of Books of Hours created in the southern Netherlands. The wonderfully innovative style showed the flowers as if they had been plucked from their stems and scattered onto the page where they cast little trompe l'oeil shadows as if they were indeed three-dimensional. Flower lovers and those interested in medieval art and history will find this richly illustrated book informative, entertaining and, above all, a joy to behold.

About this title

Review:

Gardeners, plant lovers, fans of herbs and herbals, and book history enthusiasts will particularly appreciate [this book] --Huntia

About the Author:

Celia Fisher gained her MA and PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art, where she studied flowers in fifteenth-century paintings and manuscripts. She lectures and writes widely on the history of plants and gardens in art. Her previous publications include Flowers and Fruit (National Gallery, 1998), The Medieval Flower Book (British Library, 2007) and Flowers of the Renaissance (Frances Lincoln, 2011).

About this edition

• Publisher: The British Library Publishing Division
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0712358943
• ISBN 13: 9780712358941
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128