Nature Illuminated: Flora and Fauna from the Court of Emperor Rudolf II

by Thea Vignau-Wilberg and Lee Hendrix

Book Overview

The court of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II produced nothing more amazing than the Mira calligraphiae monumenta, a brilliant demonstration of two arts--calligraphy and miniature painting. The project began when Rudolf's predecessor, Ferdinand I, commissioned master calligrapher Georg Bocskay to create a model book of calligraphy. A preeminent scribe, Bocskay assembled a vast selection of contemporary and historic scripts.

Years later, at Rudolf's...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0892364726
• ISBN13: 9780892364725
• Release Date: July 1997
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 0.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Gorgeous artwork!

This is a great book for those who appreciate beauty in nature. I find that just paging through the gorgeous artwork of natural objects and flowing calligraphy is very soothing. The book is smaller than I expected but its content does not disappoint. Makes a wonderful gift for special friends. I bought my copy for myself but I might buy others in future as gifts for friends.

Medieval Butterflies, Sea Shells, Plants = #41 Manuscripts

If you want to see colorful manuscipts that show a varity of medieval insects, plants, flowers, fruit, sea shells, initials, designs, and even a few animals, then this is the book for you. There are 41 full color manuscripts to choose from. At the end of the book, are discriptions of each manuscript, listing the medieval name for each. Example: The identifications of specimens proceed from top to bottom and from left to right. Common names have been provided whenever possible. In the case of the insect identifications, British English common names have been used, since most of the specimens represented do not exist in the United States. Where a different American common name is known, it has been included following the British Name, seperated by a slash. The names of higher taxonomic groups (families and orders) have been printed in roman type, while genus and spicies names appear in italics.Folio 1 Rotunda script in "trace letters"Vinca minor L,: Common periwinkleMalus domestica Borkh,:Common appleLacerta(?):LizardFolio 5 Antiqua scriptMatthiola incana (L.) R. Br.: GillyflowerEphemeroptera: MayflyDiptera Cyclorrhapha Heleomyzidae (?):FlyPulmonata Helicidae Cepaea sp.: Garde SnailEnd Example.A great sorce of Medieval Nature.

A beautiful little book

"Nature Illuminated" is wonderful collection of illuminated manuscripts from the Getty's extensive holdings. Perusing these pages shows that the chasm between (representative) art and science is really not so great.

Good things come in small packages

For such a small book, this is crammed with new ideas for both calligraphy and drawing from Nature. You have to look close, and have an idea of how techniques can be applied, but this book will serve as an inspiration for my work for years to come!