I'd not seen it before but I've seen others printed around this time. What is amazing to see is how much care and effort went into top publications of the Enlightenment era, others come to mind such as the famous Encyclopédie by Diderot, d'Alembert et al. These people were truly proud of their work and the technology that went into reproducing it (this fact also came up today on another HN story about I.K. Brunel).
What is interesting to note is that Edmund Fry acknowledges the Patronage and Encouragement of Sir Joseph Banks, etc, of the Royal Society. This is significant as Banks was a perfectionist and he would have known the state of the art in printing at the time having essentially set the standard himself with his famous Florilegium engravings, and although I've no evidence I've little doubt that Fry would have been aware of Banks' extensive knowledge of same. Whilst Banks' Florilegium wasn't published in his lifetime, its preparation—study by Banks and Solander and drawings by Parkinson of the natural world originally gathered and prepared during their tour with James Cook on HMS Endeavour —would have made him expert in the field.
Incidentally, Banks' Florilegium is recognized as one of the great publishing efforts of all time. Despite the Florilegium copperplate engravings being done by engravers from Banks' time and being well over 200 years old, the drawings/prints are some of the best of kind ever produced (little wonder Fry attempts to match Banks' standard):
I'd not seen it before but I've seen others printed around this time. What is amazing to see is how much care and effort went into top publications of the Enlightenment era, others come to mind such as the famous Encyclopédie by Diderot, d'Alembert et al. These people were truly proud of their work and the technology that went into reproducing it (this fact also came up today on another HN story about I.K. Brunel).
What is interesting to note is that Edmund Fry acknowledges the Patronage and Encouragement of Sir Joseph Banks, etc, of the Royal Society. This is significant as Banks was a perfectionist and he would have known the state of the art in printing at the time having essentially set the standard himself with his famous Florilegium engravings, and although I've no evidence I've little doubt that Fry would have been aware of Banks' extensive knowledge of same. Whilst Banks' Florilegium wasn't published in his lifetime, its preparation—study by Banks and Solander and drawings by Parkinson of the natural world originally gathered and prepared during their tour with James Cook on HMS Endeavour —would have made him expert in the field.
Incidentally, Banks' Florilegium is recognized as one of the great publishing efforts of all time. Despite the Florilegium copperplate engravings being done by engravers from Banks' time and being well over 200 years old, the drawings/prints are some of the best of kind ever produced (little wonder Fry attempts to match Banks' standard):
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banks%27_Florilegium
https://www.alecto-historical-editions.com/collections/all-f...