Pulls from a selection of the original copper engravings prepared for Robert Morison’s Herbal published by Oxford University Press in 1680 and 1699.
The two published volumes of Plantarum historiae universalis Oxoniensis contained 292 large copper engravings of botanical drawings of herbaceous plants. All but one of the plates still exist and twenty have been conserved by a team at the Bodleian Library. The Library gave permission for twelve to be printed from once again on the rolling press. In order to limit any possible wear to the plates, just forty pulls have been taken from each, sufficient for each copy of the book for sale to contain a selection of five of the twelve plates.
Professor Stephen Harris, Druce Curator of the Oxford University Herbaria, has written a commentary on all twelve plates from a botanical perspective, and Cambridge historian Scott Mandelbrote has provided an introduction to the history of Morison’s book. Master Printer Jim Nottingham has printed the plates and recorded the process by which the plates were cleaned, conserved, and printed from.
The text was hand-set throughout in Monotype Van Dijck and printed letterpress on a Royal sheet of an antique Rives bfk laid paper (475 mm x 310 mm). The plates were printed on 250 gsm Rives bfk. 64pp. The book is bound in full dark blue cloth, held in a cloth-covered rigid chemise which holds a wallet containing the loose engravings separated by translucent sheets and an A4 booklet containing digital reproductions of all twelve plates. Seventy-eight copies for sale. £480 plus p&p.
Full details and photos at www.theoldschoolpress.com.