Jussieu: Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles

Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu (1748~1836) was a French botanist from a famous family of scientists. He wrote and edited the many volumes of the botanical section of the Dictionnaire. He developed the ideas of his uncle Bernard de Jussieu on the classification of plants according to their morphology and published his findings in Genera plantarum (1789). He was director of the National Museum of Natural History (formerly the Jardin du Roi) from 1794 to 1826, when failing eyesight forced him to retire.

Pierre Jean-Francois Turpin (1775~1840) was one of the three giants of botanical art of the era alongside Pierre Joseph Redoute and Pancrace Bessa. Turpin also illustrated the revised edition of du Monceau's Traite des Arbres, Humboldt's Plantes Equinoxales and Chaumeton's Flore Medicale. According to Wilfred Blunt, he "was possibly the greatest botanical genius of all the French botanical painters of his day." Turpin drew all 500 plant illustrations in the botanical section of the Dictionnaire. A few of the plates (e.g., camellia and amaryllis) were drawn by Turpin's son, who died tragically young at age 18.

Book: Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles

Book History: 1816

Author: Jussieu

Dimensions: 13 x 20cm