0"T' LAERT> "! - USP

322
RECENT TIMES.
bere (1593)* At first the y ° nly * SerVed t0 P r0m0te
the study of medicinal plants. The teaching of botany
was combined with demonstrations on the plants a
procedure which facilitated the comprehension of the jj
lectures in an extraordinary degree. Moreover, herbaria •*
or collections of dried plants, probably introduced since the i
middle of the 16th century,t were applied to the same purpose,
as also were drawings of plants. Even in ancient
times care was taken to embellish botanical works with
drawings Those of the manuscripts of DiOSKORiDES,
which are now possessed by the Imperial Court Library at
Vienna, date from the 5th century. From later times, also,
especially from the 15th century, numerous drawings of
plants have been preserved.* By the invention of woodand
copper-engraving it became possible to multiply he
drawings at pleasure. Distinguished artists, nay, even the , J
master-hand of a GuiDO RENI, made drawings for the engraver.
Botanical literature was in the 15th and 16th
centuries enriched with a great number of illustrated works
of this kind. . .
Anatomy owed still more to the art of painting, lne
most celebrated painters of this period devoted diligent
study to the anatomy of the human body. LEONARDO DA
VINCI received instruction from his friend, the anatomist
MARC ANTONIO DELLA TORRE, upon the course and form |
of the muscles and upon the position of particular parts of !
the human body. He supplied the latter with drawings for 1
an anatomical work, which he desired to publish, but which {
never appeared. These came afterwards for the most part
into the possession of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana at Milan .
and then reached Paris; certain of them became the property |
of the English Royal Family and were published by means of ^
engraving in the case of some of the drawings, in the easel
of others by photography.§ MICHELANGELO, too, occupied |
* HAUTZ op. cit. :„
t MEYER op. cit. iv, 266 et seq. X MEYER op. cit. iv, 273 «* se f '
VASARI : Leben der ausgezeichneten Maler, Bildhauer und Baumeister.
Deutsche Ubersetzung, Stuttgart, 1843, Bd. iii, S. 26.-R. KNOX : Great ArustsJ