
In this charming book Celia Fisher explores the beautiful flower illustration in medieval herbals & manuscripts illustrating around 140 different flowers & plants in glorious full colour. Many of the illustrations come from herbals in which plants began to be depicted with realism by artists in the 14th century. But in the 15th century a different kind of flower illustration emerged in the margins of illuminated manuscripts. From around 1480 flowers became the dominant feature of the decorative borders of Books of Hours created in the southern Netherlands. The wonderfully innovative style showed the flowers as if they had been plucked from their stems & scattered onto the page where they cast little trompe loeil shadows as if they were indeed three-dimensional. Flower lovers & those interested in medieval art & history will find this richly illustrated book informative entertaining & above all a joy to behold.