Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.17999

    Cedar of Lebanon specimen

    Date
    ca.1740
    Creator
    Jacob van Huysum (1682 - 1745, Dutch) , Painter
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 370mm
    width (page): 270mm
    Subject
    Description
    Botanical study of a specimen of Cedrus libani, common name Cedar of Lebanon, referred to here as Cedrus magna sive libani. Depicts a branch with green needle-like leaves and brown cones, both developing and grown large. Native to the mountains of the Eastern Mediterranean basin.

    Painting 51 from MS/109, a collection of botanical paintings by Jacob van Huysum and William Sartorius.

    Inscribed in ink 'Cedrus magna sive Libani conifera. J. B.' Not signed.

    Described by Swiss botanist Johann Bauhin in his Historia plantarum universalis (1650-51). This tree was cultivated in the Chelsea Physic Garden from 1683 onwards, and at Sayes Court by John Evelyn FRS. A specimen of this plant was also noted in 'A catalogue of the fifty Plants, from Chelsea Garden, presented to the Royal Society... 1757' by John Wilmer, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society vol 51 (1759), p.98.

    Jacob van Huysum (1682-1745), Dutch botanical painter, was not a Fellow of the Royal Society. He produced most of the 50 illustrations for the Historia Plantarum Rariorum (London: 1728-38) written by John Martyn FRS, and all the drawings for Philip Miller’s Catalogus Plantarum, an index of trees, shrubs, plants and flowers.
    Object history
    Repeated in the British Museum collection, SL,5284.62. Slight variations to the Royal Society copy. Digital image available on online catalogue.
    Associated place
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