- Flora Danica
A product of The Age of Enlightenment, "Flora Danica" is a comprehensive atlas of
botany , containing folio-sized pictures of all the wild plants native toDenmark , as of1874 .It was proposed by G. C. Oeder, then professor of botany at the Botanic Garden in Copenhagen, in
1753 and was completed 123 years later, in1883 . The complete work comprises 51 parts and 3 supplements, containing 3,240 copper engraved plates. The original plan was to cover all plants, includingbryophyte s,lichen s and fungi native to crown lands of the Danish king, that isDenmark ,Schleswig-Holstein ,Oldenburg -Delmenhorst andNorway with itsNorth Atlantic dependenciesIceland , theFaroe Islands andGreenland . However, changes were made due to territorial cessations during the period of publication. After1814 , when the double monarchy ofDenmark–Norway was abolished, very few Norwegian plants were included, and similar changes were seen after1864 , when the duchies ofSchleswig andHolstein were ceded. However, in the mid-19-century era ofScandinavism , the "Nordiske Naturforskermøde" inCopenhagen proposed to makeFlora Danica aScandinavia n work. Thus, three supplementary volumes were issued, containing the remaining Norwegian plants and the more important plants only occurring inSweden .Publishers/editors through time:
Dinner set
In
1790 the Danish Crown Prince Frederik ordered a dinner set made decorated with exact copies of the plates of "Flora Danica". The dinner set was supposedly meant as a gift forRussia n Empress Catherine II. Catherine, however, never received it, as she died in1796 .The dinner set is still in use for state occasions in the
Christiansborg Palace inCopenhagen . Copies of the set are sold by theRoyal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory.External links
* [http://www.royalcopenhagen.com/Dinnerware/Flora-Danica.aspx Flora Danica] . The Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory's page on the Flora Danica dinner set.
* [http://www.pictures.dnlb.dk/ Flora Danica Online] . The complete Flora Danica scanned by the Danish National Library of Science and Medicine.
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