Garden Eden: masterpieces of botanical illustration

Taschen, 2001. Paper covers. V.g./No Jacket. Nearly new, but with significant tanning to page edges and a small water stain inside front flap. Trilingual work with English version of wrapper; also published as "Ein Garten Eden" and "Un Jardin d'Eden" with the co-operation of the Austrian National Library. Their recent exhibition, curated by the author who is a Professor at the Free University of Berlin and director of the Botanical Museum in Dahlem, prompted this catalogue. The French and English text is printed in smaller type below the main German version. Although the scope of this masterly survey of 100 botanical paintings and drawings ranging from the Byzantine era (pre-512 AD) to the present day is limited to works held in the Austrian National Library, this is hardly a handicap as they own a representative selection of published botanical art from most periods and a significant number of original works. Perhaps the most extraordinary, and poignant, choice is plate 95 which reproduces the original manuscript of Gams' article describing and illustrating a new species of Tyrolean fungus which later was found to be the source of an anti-rejection drug. Cyclosporine. This is no mere curiosity: the drug helped save the life of the author.