Historia naturalis Brasiliae, : auspicio et beneficio illustriss. I. Mauritii Com. Nassau ... adornata : in qua non tantum plantæ et animalia, sed et indigenarum morbi, ingenia et mores describuntur et iconibus supra quingentas illustrantur
A 1648 natural history of Brazil compiled by physician Willem Piso and naturalist Georg Marggraf, printed in Leiden and Amsterdam for a learned European readership and illustrated with more than five hundred plant and animal figures. The four pictures here are plain black-line botanical drawings of branching shrubs with leaves, small berries and buds, set on uncoloured cream paper, showing how early scientific illustration reduced a plant to a clear, schematic silhouette that designers can borrow for simple linework.
