Banks' Florilegium title page Part VI, Australia, plates 113 - 135
Publisher
Alecto Historical Editions
Date1981
Object number00032644
NameTitle page
MediumInk on paper
DimensionsOverall: 737 x 573 mm
Copyright© Natural History Museum, London
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Dr and Mrs Eric and Margaret Schiller
DescriptionThe title page for 'Banks' Florilegium, Part VI Australia, Plates 113 - 135'. This edition was published by Alecto Historical Editions and the British Museum (Natural History) in 1981.
The page reads 'Banks' Florilegium. A publication in thirty-four parts of seven hundred and thirty-eight copperplate engravings of plants collected on Captain James Cook's first voyage round the world in HMS. ENDEAVOUR 1768 -1771 The specimens were gathered and classified by The Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., K.B., P.C., P.R.S., and Dr Daniel Solander, F.R.S. And were accurately engraved between 1771 and 1784 after drawings taken from nature by Sydney Parkinson. Part VI Australia Plates 113 - 135. Published by Alecto Historical Editions in association with The British Museum (Natural History) London MCMLXXXI'.HistoryOne of the greatest achievementsof the voyage of the ENDEAVOUR (1768-1771 ) was the extensive collection of botanical specimens that had been assembled by Sir Joseph Banks. Gathered on shore expeditions, after returning to ship they were drawn quickly by the artist Sydney Parkinson, and scientifically classified by Banks. While the specimens survived shipwreck at Endeavour Reef, Parkinson died in Batavia.
Banks's intention had been to publish the botanical results of the voyage but after only a few plates were engraved, he seems to have realised the scale of the undertaking and it came to a halt. Only in our own era was a decision made to bring the project to fruition, and in one of the great feats of publishing, Alecto Editions issued the entire Florilegiumin a limited number of parts in the 1980's .
The Australian National Maritime Museum holds the Australian component of the collection, consisting of 337 prints in fifteen folios. These are the results of Banks's collecting on the east coast of the continent, particularly at Botany Bay and Endeavour River.
The Banksia itself is appropriately one of the most distinctive and attractive of these specimens .SignificanceOne of the greatest achievements of the voyage of the ENDEAVOUR (1768-1771) was the extensive collection of botanical specimens that had been assembled by Sir Joseph Banks. Gathered on shore expeditions, after returning to ship they were drawn quickly by the artist Sydney Parkinson, and scientifically classified by Banks.
Despite his best efforts, the Florilegium was not published in Bank's lifetime and only appeared in a very limited edition 200 years later.