Natural History in the Royal Library

Our changing relationship with the natural world, from Tudor to Victorian times

JAN COMMELIN (1629-1692)

Horti medici Amstelodamensis rariorum. Vol. I

1697

RCIN 1057108

In the 1600s, Dutch merchants brought new and exotic plant specimens back from their travels in Asia and the Americas. The Botanical Garden in Amsterdam acquired many of these plants and displayed them to a public eager to see them in person. This book is a catalogue of the garden's contents, complete with spectacular hand-coloured illustrations of different plants.


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