Title Details
The Temple of Flora
Or Garden of the Botanist, Poet, Painter, and Philosopher, Being Picturesque Botanical Plates of the Choicest Flowers of Europe, Asia
By Robert Thornton · 2008
Back to CatalogueFirst issued in parts around 1799-1807 as the pictorial close of Thornton's New Illustration of the Sexual System of Carolus von Linnaeus, this work presents large flower plates with facing descriptions that mix Linnaean botany, poetic quotation, and notes on habitat and culture. Typical subjects are night-blooming cereus, auriculas, and other plants staged as theatre or night-piece. Thornton argues for the sexual system of classification while treating each species as a spectacle. The book is an illustrated botanical dissertation, not a garden how-to and not a plate set without text.
Title Metadata
Subject/Genre
5 Subjects| No. | Volume Title | Page Count |
|---|---|---|
| Vol. 1 | The Temple of Flora, or Garden of the Botanist, Poet, Painter, and Philosopher, Being Picturesque Botanical Plates of the Choicest Flowers of Europe, Asia, Africa and America | — |
| Vol. 2 | The Temple of Flora, Commentary by Stephen Harris | — |
Quarter bound in Nigerian goat skin with blocked cloth sides. Commentary volume by Stephen Harris. Dark green buckram solander case.
| Printing | Print Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Printing | 2008 | — |