THORNTON, Robert.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Thornton's Temple of Flora. Limited edition, number 168 of 250 copies signed by the contributors: Geoffrey Grigson, Handasyde Buchanan, and William T. Stearn. This is a splendid reproduction of one of the greatest of all flower books, first published in 1810-12, which aimed to be "the most sumptuous florilegium of all times" (Sitwell & Blunt, p. 42).Designed by George M. Rainbird and Ruari McLean, this edition closely reproduces the copy held at Eton. "The Temple has been characterized as a visually magnificent failure, with 'little botanical value' (Blunt and Stearn, p. 236), but this is to misunderstand its place in Thornton's writings and within a particular phase of British science in the era of Romanticism" (ODNB).Provenance: Stephen C. Massey.

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