Kuidas taimed pildiks said? Teadusillustratsioonide publitseerimisest 19. sajandil Carl Friedrich von Ledebouri teose "Icones plantarum novarum" näitel: How did plants make their way into a picture? Publishing scientific illustrations using the example of the 19th Century "Icones plantarum novarum" by Carl Friedrich von Ledebour

Abstract

The 1826–27 Altai expedition played a crucial role in the career ofUniversity of Tartu professor of botany C. F. v. Ledebour and its resultswere shown in travel journals and “Flora Altaica”—a systematicoverview of plant species. During the expedition, the scientistsdescribed 1600 plant species, including 500 new ones. In order to introducenew, previously unknown plant species, Ledebour consideredit necessary to print a separate series of illustrations: the “Iconesplantarum novarum”—an edition with 500 (sic!) colour plates.There had been previous attempts to depict Russia’s flora in illustrations(“Flora Rossica” by Paul Simon Pallas), yet those attemptsoften remained unfinished and the published illustrations numberedless than 100. Thus, Ledebour’s edition, with its 500 folio-sized bookplates, was an extremely grand project for its time. The budget forprinting the illustrations exceeded the costs of the entire expeditionseveral times over. The budget draft, still preserved in the archive,expressively demonstrated various stages of 19th century scientific illustrationpublishing as well as the largest expenses: the majority ofthe funds was spent on hand-colouring and drawing the illustrationson printing paper according to herbarium sheets. Sufficient fundingwas only provided thanks to the support of the Imperial power: theEmperor pre-ordered 75 black and white and 25 coloured, “deluxe”volumes of the entire edition.The 500 illustrations are accompanied by the names of six differentauthors: W. Krüger, E. Bommer, F. Scheffner, D. von der Pahlen,W. Müller, C. von Ungern Sternberg. In addition, there are a fewdozen anonymous pages, most likely drawn by A. Hagen. All of thoselisted above were, in some way or another, connected to the University of Tartu drawing school, and thus became involved with thatproject.Ledebour’s series of plates is set apart from its predecessors bythe choice of printing technique: the colour plates of “Icones plantarumnovarum” were made using lithography, which was faster andcheaper than earlier intaglio printing. Due to the fact that Tartu didnot have a lithography workshop at the time, the illustrations wereprinted in Munich. Illustrations of Altai plants, drawn in Tartu afterherbarium sheets, were lithographed—transferred to stone slabs—byWilhelm Siegrist, with the exception of just the last 5 pages that havePrestele’s name on them. Lithographic engraving, a special techniqueused by Siegrist, ensured that the resulting artwork boasted veryfine and precise lines.It is remarkable that such a resource and labour-intensive taskwas successfully completed as planned. “Icones plantarum novarum”was published in 10-page folios, 10 folios (100 plates) per year, with atotal of 500 plates published between 1829–34 (with the only exceptionbeing the years 1831–32, when 100 illustrations were publishedin two years). The final print number is unknown, as differentversions of the information are present in the archives. The artisticlevel of the final result is also significant: plant illustrations printedusing lithography (or lithographic engraving, to be precise) are verydetailed and clean, the coloured versions being especially charmingand easily deserving to be named among the most beautiful botanicalillustrations of the 19th century.Publishing such series of illustrations demanded great entrepreneurshipand various significant choices in process managementfrom the scientists involved. This might have been a great workload,but it was justified, as it was done in the name of promoting scientificdiscoveries. However, “Flora Rossica”, Ledebour’s scientific magnumopus, the first comprehensive overview of Russia’s flora, was publishedyears later merely in a 4-volume book series without a singleillustration