Elizabeth Blackwell (3) (–1758)

Elizabeth Blackwell’s «A curious Herbal» appeared in London in 1737. In the opinion of Christoph Jakob Trew, the famous doctor, patron and book collector, this work had significant flaws, which motivated him to a fundamental reworking of the book. At his suggestion the Nuremberg artist N.F. Eisenberger brought out a «Vermehrtes und verbessertes Blackwellisches Kräuter-Buch». Eisenberger, who was instructed by Trew in botany and in the depiction of plants, supplemented Blackwell’s illustrations according to the latest Linnéic standpoint with details of blooms, seeds and fruits.
Trew took care of the translation and wrote the descriptions of the plants. Several extensive and thorough bibliographical surveys complete the work: an index of the authors quoted, a bibliography of all herbals from the invention of book printing up to 1550 and an overview of the plant names in eight languages: Latin, German, Greek, English, Spanish, Italien, French and «Belgien».
Exact craftsmanship and depictions true to nature made the herbal into a standard work in botany far beyond the 18th C.
The work contains 615 plates with extensive descriptions of the plants in Latin and German.… (mais)