Anna Svensson: "The Scattered Herbarium: Towards a Study of Pressed Plants in Early Modern Books"

Forskningspresentation av Anna Svensson, Uppsala universitet.

Abstract

Abstract: Pressed plants and the fragments, stains and imprints they leave behind occur frequently in early modern books. However, they present an elusive object of study – they are difficult to find, and often lack documentation concerning who pressed them, when and why – and have until recently been missing from the historiography of early modern botany. By comparing a large body of surviving examples, this paper demonstrates patterns within the widespread practice of pressing plants in the period that align with early herbaria and botanical genres. In turn, they reflect how deeply plants were integrated into the early modern library, as both cultural concern and object of empirical study.

Bild: Flora Svecica (1745) i Växjö Stift & Gymnasiebibliotek. Foto: Anna Svensson.