Plants, Artists, Languages: A Sense of Times and Places

Alain Touwaide, Ph.D., discusses how thousands of plant representations can be found in multiple ancient books, in manuscript or printed form, in many languages preserved in libraries all over the world. Sometimes original, but more often copied from one another, these illustrations rarely correspond to each another, and do not always allow for an unambiguous identification of the represented plants. Going beyond such notions as artist's individuality, choices, style and their own vision, this lecture explores what may seem to be weird plant illustrations to decipher their silent language and meaning.