The Illustrated Herbal

by Wilfrid Blunt, Sandra Raphael

This beautiful and original book, fully illustrated from some of the rarest sources, is an account by two leading authorities of the creation and decoration of Europe's most charming herbals. The illustrations, many in splendid color, are taken from manuscripts and books chronicling human curiosity about the medicinal properties of plants, and making an unconscious record, through the strange (sometimes ludicrous) customs and procedures they describe, of life in past times

Genres: Nonfiction

191 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1979

About the author

note: This profile is for the artist and gardener. For the poet go here: Wilfrid Scarwen Blunt

Wilfrid Jasper Walter Blunt was an artist, art teacher, author and curator of the Watts Museum near Guildford.
Blunt received a scholarship to Marlborough College where he studied between 1914 and 1920.
After a year at Worcester College, Oxford, Blunt switched to the Atelier Moderne in Paris to become an artist. By the following year he was an engraving student at the Royal College of Art, London where he received an Associates degree in 1923.
Blunt joined Haileybury College, Hertfordshire, as its art instructor in 1923. He spent the year 1933 on leave training as a concert singer in Italy and Germany, but pursued singing only avocationally. Europe broadened his cultural outlook enough that returning to a provincial school was no longer rewarding. Blunt researched and published work on the architect William Wilkins, who had designed the buildings of Haileybury in 1806. The previous year, a family connection got him a position of second drawing master at Eton College.
In 1950, Blunt wrote his most acclaimed book The Art of Botanical Illustration, together with W.T. Stearn, for which he was awarded the Veitch Gold Medal from the Royal Horticultural Society. At Eton he encouraged italic handwriting, publishing the book Sweet Roman Hand on the subject in 1952. Blunt retired from Eton in 1959 and joined the Watts Gallery Museum in Compton, near Guildford, as a curator. When he retired from the Gallery in 1983 he was allowed to live in the curator's house until his death. His brothers were Christopher Evelyn Blunt, a noted numismatist, and Anthony Blunt, the eminent art historian (and spy).

source:Wilfrid Blunt

Reviews

[Antea Franceschin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un volume di grandi dimensioni, riccamente illustrato con alcune pagine degli erbari storici, dal medioevo fino al 1800. Lineare e composto nella suddivisione di studio degli Erbari: da quelli illustrati a mano a quelli xilografici su legno e metallo. Buono l'ordine descrittivo che segue cronologicamente e a livello artistico il percorso storico. Non così approfondito come il volume sugli Erbari più importante (Agnes Arber) ma comunque un ottimo libro ad integrazione di quello.

[Ihor Kolesnyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Нуднуватий примірник і з усіх переглянутих попередньо зразків, вибір ілюстрацій не найкращий.

[Makingamark · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those interested in the history of the development of The Illustrated Herbal this is an excellent reference book. Initial indications (from skim reading it on the way home from the RHS show where I bought it) are that this book has amazing illustrations from a wide range of herbals - many of which are hundreds of years old. It also has in-depth coverage of the development of the herbal.

The authors are Wilfred Blunt - who wrote the much acclaimed book The Art of Botanical Illustration" - and Sandra Raphael

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful book owned by the Keene Valley Library Assn that should be taken out & exercised more often. Mostly of historic & aesthetic interest, yet some of the oldest illustrations are instantly recognizable with useful identification characteristics. The foreword and first page of introduction are delightful statements of intent.