Three newly published albums of seventeenth-century mycological drawings

Abstract

In the Bibliothèque de l'Institut de France are three albums containing almost 600 drawings of fungi, compiled in Italy the 1620s. Many of these drawings were made using the newly-invented microscope. These albums constitute the finest and most extensive set of mycological illustrations made before the eighteenth century. The three albums have recently been published in their entirety, with all the drawings reproduced in colour.