Flowers of the Greenhouses and Gardens of Europe, 19th C

Golden Esperen plum.
From Flore des Serres et des Jardins de l’Europe (Flowers of the Greenhouses and Gardens of Europe) vol. 4, by Charles Lemaire, Michael Scheidweiler, and Louis van Houtte, Ghent, 1848.

Flore des Serres et des Jardins de l'Europe ('Flowers of the Greenhouses and Gardens of Europe') was one of the finest horticulture journals produced in Europe during the 19th century, spanning 23 volumes and over 2000 coloured plates with French, German and English text. Founded by Louis van Houtte and edited together with Charles Antoine Lemaire and Michael Joseph François Scheidweiler, it was a showcase for lavish hand-finished engravings and lithographs depicting and describing botanical curiosities and treasures from around the world.

The work is remarkable for the level of colour-printing craftmanship displayed by the Belgian lithographers Severeyns, Stroobant, and De Pannemaker. Louis-Constantin Stroobant (1814-1872), printed many of the illustrations for the first 10 volumes. Most of the plants depicted in Flore des Serres were available for sale in van Houtte's nursery, so that in a sense the journal doubled as a catalogue.

The editors were experienced botanical engravers and horticulturists, combining their knowledge and skills to create a showpiece of novel exotics and familiar cultivated plants. Lemaire came from being an engraver for Redoute's great works Les Liliaces and Les Roses. van Houtte, owner of the most successful nursery on the Continent at that time, sent his own plant explorers to find unknown orchids and other exotics, and to return them to Ghent for cultivation at his nursery, and later publication in Flore des Serres.

Paphiopedilum lowii (syn. cypripedium lowii)

Primula auricula nigra

American Starthistle (Centaurea americana)

Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea, syn. Echinacea intermedia)

Master of the World, 20th C (Maître du monde)

The mere thought that L’Épouvante could compete with eagles…
Georges Roux, from Maître du monde (Master of the world), by jules Verne, Paris, 1902.

Master of the World (French: Maître du monde), published in 1904; is one of the last novels by french pioneer science fiction writer, Jules Verne. It is a sequel to Robur the Conqueror. At the time Verne wrote the novel, his health was failing. 

Master of the World is a "black novel" filled with foreboding and fear of the rise of tyrants (Well, great intuition as 1st&2nd world war were approaching at that time...)

Perhaps its author himself, sneaking up…
Georges Roux, from Maître du monde (Master of the world), by Jules Verne, Paris, 1902.

Set in the summer of 1903, a series of unexplained events occur across the eastern United States, caused by objects moving with such great speed that they are nearly invisible. The first-person narrator John Strock, 'Head inspector in the federal police department' in Washington, DC, travels to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina -yes the place really exists, link provided- to investigate. 

He discovers that all the phenomena are being caused by Robur, a brilliant inventor. (He was previously featured as a character in Verne's Robur the Conqueror.)

Robur has perfected a new machine, the Terror. It is ten-meter long vehicle, capable of operating as a speedboat, submarine, automobile, or aircraft. It can travel at the unheard of speed of 150 miles per hour on land and at more than 200 mph when flying.

Strock tries to capture the Terror but instead is captured himself. Robur drives the strange craft to elude his pursuers, heading to the Caribbean and into a thunderstorm. The Terror is struck by lightning and falls into the ocean. Strock is rescued from the vehicle's wreckage, but Robur's body is never found. The reader is left to decide whether or not he has died.

The public was tremendously excited about it.
Georges Roux (?), from Maître du monde (Master of the world), by jules Verne, Paris, 1902.

The waters of New England were troubled.
Georges Roux, from Maître du monde (Master of the world), by jules Verne, Paris, 1902.

The story of our lighthouses and lightships, 19th C

(And while I’m at it, another view of Eddystone.)
From the Trousset encyclopedia, Paris, 1886 - 1891.
(Source: Old Book Illustrations)

William Henry Davenport Adams, born in London on 5 May 1828. After some experience as a teacher, he began editing a provincial newspaper in the Isle of Wight and supervised a new edition of Mackenzie's National Cyclopedia. In 1870, he founded the Scottish Guardian, which he edited down to 1878 and produced a series of volumes called The Whitefriars Library of Wit and Humour.

A floating beacon or buoy.
From The story of our lighthouses and lightships, by W. H. Davenport Adams, London, 1891.
(Source: archive.org)

The Corbières lighthouse.
From The story of our lighthouses and lightships, by W. H. Davenport Adams, London, 1891.
(Source: archive.org)

Smeaton’s lighthouse at the Eddystone.
From The story of our lighthouses and lightships, by W. H. Davenport Adams, London, 1891.
(Source: archive.org)

Interior of the Corduan lighthouse.
From The story of our lighthouses and lightships, by W. H. Davenport Adams, London, 1891.
(Source: archive.org)

Ancient pharos of Alexandria.
From The story of our lighthouses and lightships, by W. H. Davenport Adams, London, 1891.
(Source: archive.org)

Front cover from The story of our lighthouses and lightships, by W. H. Davenport Adams, London, 1891.
(Source: archive.org)

Campi Phlegraei, 18th Century

Note: Area around Naples was known locally as the Campi Phlegraei, or ‘flaming fields’, due to the frequent and violent eruptions of mount Vesuvius

View of Naples from Pausilipo

William Hamilton (1730-1803), perhaps best known today as the husband of Emma Hamilton, mistress of Admiral Lord Nelson, was a skilled diplomatist, and natural historian. In his own time he was honoured in particular for his contributions to the study of volcanoes, acquiring the title ‘the modern Pliny’ for his studies of Vesuvius.

Hamilton arrived in Naples as British envoy to the Neapolitan royal court in 1764, and became fascinated by Vesuvius. Shortly after his arrival the volcano went into an eruptive phase that lasted until 1767, giving Hamilton opportunity to observe and report upon its behaviour.

Hamilton believed passionately in the importance of careful, direct observation of natural phenomena, and Campi Phlegraei is intended to make the various aspects of Vesuvius’s activity available to those unable to see the volcano directly themselves.

He ensured that Fabri’s illustrations were as accurate and detailed as possible, reflecting his aim of offering ’accurate and faithfull obſervations on the operations of nature, related with ſimplicity and truth’. The desire to view phenomena directly for oneself, and to form one’s own opinion on the basis of the evidence, can be seen as a central principle of the Enlightenment."

View of Naples from sea shore

Mt. Vesuvius

Lava eruption on Mt. Vesuvius

Eruption on Mt. Vesuvius 1767 October 20

Night view of eruption of Mt. Vesuvius

"A aa lava flow (recognised by the broken surface texture) passes the observer's location on 11. May 1771 and reaches the sea at Resina. Note the steep, slowly advancing front of the flow. Pietro Fabris is amongst the spectators (below left) as is William Hamilton, who explains the view to other onlookers." [source]

Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, 1779 August 9

Top of Mt. Vesuvius

Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, 1779 August 8

Sailing ships in the Lipari Islands

Crater of Mt. Vesuvius

Crater of Mt. Vesuvius

Mt. Vesuvius eruption 1760 December 23

Stratum of Lava

Island of Ischia

Island of Ventotene

Eruption on island of Stromboli

'Campi Phlegraei' was published in 1776 with a supplementary volume released three years later covering the 1779 Vesuvius eruption. The first volume consists mainly of letters sent by Hamilton to the Royal Society with the majority of plates appearing in volume two. 

The sketches by Pietro Fabris were reproduced as sixty two engravings for the publication, hand-coloured in gouache.

• The three volumes of 'Campi Phlegraei' are -online- available from Claremont College Digital Libraries. Or best link here for general overview and then click on "browse collections" menu on top
• Sir William Hamilton - Campi Phlegraei: Glasgow University Library Special Collections Department Book of October, 2007
• Volcanological phenomena in the paintings by Fabris and Hamilton.
• Campania Libraries - Land of Myth and History site from Georgetown University: Gallery One has other contemporary engraved plates of Mt Vesuvius.
• 'Sir William Hamilton's Vesuvian Apparatus', 2004 by Bent Sorenson.
• History of Volcanology entries at The Volcanism Blog. {also: Volcanology art}
• The Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Program.
• Wikipedia: Mt Vesuvius; Mt Etna; volcanology; Sir William Hamilton; Emma, Lady Hamilton.

Travel of a Rhinocero, 16th Century

Dürer, Rhinoceron, 1515

When the Portuguese ship "Nossa Senhora da Ajuda" sailed from India for Lisbon in Jan 1515, it included a unusual gift from Sultan Muzafar II to King Manuel I of Portugal – an Indian Rhinocero.

That rhinocero, first seen in Europe, arrived in Lisbon later that year on 20 May (5 months of travel) and created great scientific and public interest. King Manuel eventually decided to give the rhinocero to Pope Leo X and it set sail for Rome in Dec 1515, I'm afraid that was a moved year for the poor animal.

 

During this second travel to Rome the ship capsized in a storm and the rhino died. The carcass was recovered, stuffed, and exhibited at the Vatican in 1516.

Although few saw the animal in person the news spread across Europe. Albrecht Dürer, in Nuremburg, received a sketch and a description from Valentin Ferdinand and from this he created several ink sketches and his famous woodcut.

Parsons, plate I, 1743. From ref. 3

Galle, Rhinoceros, 1586.

Kandel, in Cosmographia, 1598. Wikipedia

Pietro Longhi, Exhibition of a rhinoceros at Venice, 1751. Wikipedia

Nice one :: Photo by Phillippe Halsman titled "Dali and Rhinoceros, 1956"