Plant, animal and anatomical illustration in art and science: a bibliographical guide from the 16th century to the present day

This volume, then, is uneven in the interest and quality of its contributions. It is not cheap (although I suppose that goes without saying nowadays). The editors have made little effort to standardize its style and format (surely they could have done something over the past nine years?): Greek script jostles transliteration, and there is no consistency of title or abbreviation, even in the case of MM itself, there is an index of names only, and no bibliography. The dust-jacket notes that "this study should interest the students of classical medicine and philosophy". Indeed it should: but it ought to have interested them more than it does. (comps), Plant, animal and anatomical illustration in art and science: a bibliographical guide from the 16th century to the present day, This bibliography is a comprehensive listing of the considerable body of primary instruction or "how to draw" books, and the non-scientific iconographical or "pattern" books, as the dust-jacket tells us-not a bibliography of all scientific illustration in the fields of plants, animals, and anatomy, as the title suggests. This is still a big book in every sense, but not the sort of mind-boggling "super-Nissen" implied. Thus listings are included for many herbals and anatomy books which the authors count as icones or pattern books, but not for all illustrated herbals or anatomies (there is inevitably a certain arbitrariness in deciding what counts as a pattern book and what not, for the sixteenth century at least). These are matters which the helpful introduction makes clear while also making a number of other candid admissions of limitations inability to inspect all listed editions, and consequent omission of full pagination and plate counts for example. Nevertheless, the provisional character of the book is necessary if anything at all was to appear, as the authors point out, and we should be grateful for the wealth of information supplied, particularly for such fascinating but little studied technologies as nature printing and photography in the service of scientific illustration. Each of the major headings of plants, animals, and the human body subdivide into sections on Drawing and Painting, History (i.e. secondary sources), and Photography. There are problems with this arrangement, or rather with the fact that you must consult the admittedly excellent indices of subjects, names, and titles at the back of the book, in order to establish cross-references. For instance, to track down secondary literature on the …