General information about the organisation
of this printed edition.
(Illustration - Banks Florilegium Plate 1)

ED02

BANKS' FLORILEGIUM

Banks' Florilegium consists of seven hundred and thirty-eight botanical engravings
which record the plants collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Carl Solander and
drawn by Sydney Parkinson on Captain Cook's first voyage round the world
1768-1771.

The engravings are printed in colour for the first time from the original
eighteenth-century copperplates. These historic plates, bequeathed by Sir Joseph
Banks to the British Museum, are exceptionally fine examples of the engraver's art
and depict some of the first plants to engage the scientific attention of European
voyagers in the Pacific Ocean, including the very first plants of New Zealand and
Eastern Australia ever to be gathered and studied by Europeans.

Banks' Florilegium has been published in the firm belief that from the combined points
of view of science, history and the art of botanical engraving there is no satisfactory
substitute for a comprehensive printing from the original plates. The historical interest
and aesthetic quality of these engravings speak for themselves. From the scientific
point of view the engravings are highly relevant to the correct application of a number
of botanical names. They have the advantage of depicting species from the dried
specimens. Banks' Florilegium will facilitate comparisons between the earliest graphic
depictions and subsequent written descriptions.

Banks' Florilegium has been published in thirty-four parts in the following order:

I-XV Australia 337 plates
XVI Brazil 23 plates
XVII-XVIII Java 30 plates
XIX Madeira 11 plates
XX-XXVII New Zealand 183 plates
XXVIII-XXXI The Society Islands 89 plates
XXXII-XXXIV Tierra del Fuego 65 plates

The engravings have been printed in colour à la poupée, the printer working each of the
colours into the single copperplate with a rolled up 'dolly' of cotton tarlatan (the
poupée). The publishers decided to use this technique (developed by the Dutchman
Johannes Tayler at the end of the seventeenth century) after experiments
demonstrated that it produces the most satisfying overall result scientifically and
aesthetically. It achieves the best balance between the need to be accurate in terms
of the original water-colours and the need to show the beauty of the engraved lines
including their effects of tonal subtlety.

The printing of Banks' Florilegium has taken nine years. The Trustees of the British
Museum (Natural History) have undertaken not to allow any new printing from the
plates for a period of fifty years from the publication date of this first edition.