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Illuminating natural history : the art and science of Mark Catesby / Henrietta McBurney.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: London : Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2021Copyright date: ©2021Description: xii, 353 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), maps ; 29 cmISBN:
  • 1913107191
  • 9781913107192
Subject(s): LOC classification:
  • QH31.C35 M33 2021
Contents:
Introduction -- 1. Catesby's World -- 2. Catesby's Life and Character -- 3. Catesby's Publications -- 4. Catesby as Artist -- 5. Catesby as Horticulturist -- Catesby as Naturalist -- Appendices -- Abbreviations and Manuscript Sources.
Summary: This book explores the life and work of the 18th-century English artist, explorer, naturalist, and author Mark Catesby (1683-1749). During Catesby's lifetime, science was poised to shift from a world of amateur virtuosi to one of professional experts. He worked against a backdrop of global travel that incorporated collecting and direct observation of nature. Catesby spent two prolonged periods in the New World--in Virginia (1712-19) and South Carolina and the Bahamas (1722-26)--which he documented in Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, the first large-format, color-plate book on the natural history of North America. Interweaving elements of art history, history of science, natural history illustration, painting materials, book history, paper studies, garden history, and colonial history, this volume brings together a wealth of unpublished images as well as previously unpublished letters by Catesby, with contemporary accounts of his collecting and encounters in the wild, and details of the materials and techniques of packing and transporting plants and animals across the Atlantic.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Notes Date due Barcode Item holds
Lending Books Elisabeth C. Miller Library Tall Shelves QK98.183.C28 M33 2021 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available Winner of the CBHL 2022 Award of Excellence in Biography 39352800186082
Total holds: 0

Includes bibliographical references (pages 317-328) and index.

Introduction -- 1. Catesby's World -- 2. Catesby's Life and Character -- 3. Catesby's Publications -- 4. Catesby as Artist -- 5. Catesby as Horticulturist -- Catesby as Naturalist -- Appendices -- Abbreviations and Manuscript Sources.

This book explores the life and work of the 18th-century English artist, explorer, naturalist, and author Mark Catesby (1683-1749). During Catesby's lifetime, science was poised to shift from a world of amateur virtuosi to one of professional experts. He worked against a backdrop of global travel that incorporated collecting and direct observation of nature. Catesby spent two prolonged periods in the New World--in Virginia (1712-19) and South Carolina and the Bahamas (1722-26)--which he documented in Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, the first large-format, color-plate book on the natural history of North America. Interweaving elements of art history, history of science, natural history illustration, painting materials, book history, paper studies, garden history, and colonial history, this volume brings together a wealth of unpublished images as well as previously unpublished letters by Catesby, with contemporary accounts of his collecting and encounters in the wild, and details of the materials and techniques of packing and transporting plants and animals across the Atlantic.

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