The Temple of Flora, the third and final volume of Robert John Thornton's New Illustration of Carolus von Linnaeus' sexual system, is probably the most luxurious and famous of all the great floral books. It contains thirty-one plates produced using various techniques, including aquatint, mezzotint, stippled and line engraving. The impressions were printed in colour and then finished by hand. During production, most of the plates were altered or added from time to time, producing a different 'state' each time; consequently, some plates have as many as four different states. This is a copy of the original elephant folio edition (measuring about 56 x 44 cm), of which almost no two copies are the same. It was originally issued to subscribers in volumes that could later be bound. In 1807, it was further published in book form. Besides the plates, it consists of a series of extensive calligraphic title pages, detailed descriptions of each plant including appropriate poetry and explanatory notes. The cyclamen (Cyclamen persicum) shown here closely resembles the wild forms of the flower found in the Near East, but does not occur in Persia.
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