I am an absolute sucker for a handsome reproduction of a rare and highly illustrated natural history, preferably more than two centuries old. This may possibly be a niche interest, but Catesby’s Natural History was pronounced a wonder when it was first published and is a wonder still.
Mark Catesby was ‘a procurer of plants’, sponsored by a group of rich, curious patrons, including William Sherard and Sir Hans Sloane, to explore and record the flora and fauna of the most southern of the Thirteen Colonies – the Carolinas and Florida, as well as the Bahamas Islands. He made several perilous trips in the 1720s, sketching his subjects live, and completing paintings in England. He finally published his text and 220 hand-coloured plates in 1747. His is not a household name, but his contribution deserves acclaim, and not simply because he introduced that denizen of the larger sub-urban garden, the Indian Bean Tree, Catalpa bignonioides, into European cultivation.
The interest of these plates lies partly in the meticulous care taken – even if they are not always strictly scientifically accurate – and partly in the artistic presentation, with most of the paintings depicting a felicitous mix of indigenous animals, insects and plants. The evil-looking coloured snakes twining through flowering lianes make me shiver, but the birds, from blue jays to belted kingfishers, and the exotic plants, including the ‘lily thorn’ named after the artist, are always appealing and sometimes awe-inspiring.
This is an important record of the natural history of sub-tropical North America,100 years after the first European settlements but before the American Revolution. The re-publication of the second edition of 1754, held in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, produced by its publishing arm at £50, and with several illuminating chapters by Stephen A.
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