Product Description

The long tradition of botanical illustration finds its tribute in this new book, whose publication coincides with the exhibition of botanical illustration at the National Library of Vienna. TASCHEN has chosen 100 works from the library's extensive archives to be reproduced in this masterpiece of botanical book illustration.

Beginning with 6th-century Byzantine manuscripts, it traces the tradition right up through recent publications of the 20th century. With positively exquisite color reproductions, this is truly a divine book.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #586346 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 576 pages

Review
"A Marvellian world of botanical delights unfurls. Art blends with science in plates that range from the Byzantine to the Baroque." - The Times, London"

Language Notes
Text: German, English, French (translation)
Original Language: German

About the Author
Prof. Dr. H. Walter Lack is Director at the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem and Professor at the Free University of Berlin. He has published The Flora Graeca Story, Ofxford 1998, A Garden of Eternity, Berne 2000, and most recently Florilegium Imperiale, Munich 2006.

Customer Reviews

take my word for it you want this one
This book is GREAT! This book is beautiful, this book is wonderful!!! [gee, think I like the book?] If you are considering buying only one book of botanical illustrations this is the perfect book to start with. If you have many books of botanical works of art this will be a valued addition to them. It is basically a sampling of botanical works of art throughout history. It includes many different artists from all different countries and all differnet styles. The one thing they all share in common is beauty.
If you want to purchase books of botanical illustration and don't know where or with whom to start this is the perfect book for you because it displays so many different artists, techniques time periods and styles.
Even if you already have a collection of this art I can still highly recommend this book. It is that good. I don't think that the book loses much of anything by being a paperback. The cover is of a very heavy material with a vibrant illustration on it. It is a coated cover so that it will stand up to quite a bit of wear. Please don't let that stop you from purchsing this wonderful book. There is so very much to look at and study here, it is a book that you will never tire of browsing through. It is also a great reference for reviewing a large number of different masters in this art form. Get this one, you will not regret it!

Beautiful but...
The botanical prints in the huge volume are lovely, but I thought that there would be more prints such as the one on the book cover that show flowers in a natural or landscape setting. It turns out that this is one of the ONLY prints of that kind in the book. Also the book arrived WARPED which is probably why it was so inexpensive.

Beautiful Book
This book is for anyone who loves nature and botanical drawings. There are many full-page colored illustrations of plants, fruits and flowers suitable for framing. It's also a nice coffee table book and a conversation starter. Very nice book and worth every cent!