The environment of the archive was an incredible space, completely wood panelled and lined on seemingly every surface with books, documents and artefects. I expected that even had I been given a whole week to look over the contents of the archive, I would still be finding new nuggets of information and beautiful illustrations.
One of the first books we were introduced to was 'The First Book on the History of Plantes' or 'The Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes'. Sarah, the archive guide showed us the highly decorative front inside cover, which was full of symbolism and iconography which was coded with hidden meanings. On the cover of this book in particular were several figures, one of which was a patron of the book and other figures of importance to either the book or to the botanical sphere, however one of the men in this case in particular had actually recently been suggested by interpreters to be one of the youngest historical depictions of William Shakespere. As iconography and symbolism have always been something I have paid keen attention to in my work, this was something I appreciation. The composition of the piece was also reminiscent of the careful arrangement which often features in my works, and reminded me somewhat og my balance work, particularly in the less dense restored section around the bottom.
The next work to catch my eye was the Hortus Sanitatis, the worlds first natural history encyclopedia produced shortly after the first invention of printing methods. Sarah described to us how there was a great deal of knowledge collected together of local plants and animals within the book for the first ever time, coupled with descriptions of plants and animals travelled from all around the world, however actual firsthand experience was limited, and often interpretations of far flung accounts differed greatly from the truth. One example she pointed to in particular was that of the 'Monkfish', a depiction of a fish with a Monk's head based on a very literal interpretation of the creature's name. 
Next we looked at the Plantae Selectae and a particular illustration by Georg Dionysius Ehret of a pineapple. Sarah told us of how pineapples at the start were merely decorative, and the influential would buy one and invite all of their friends over just to witness the spectacle of the extraordinary object, without ever eating the fruit itself. She also then evidenced the pervasiveness of decorative pineapple shaped cornices in architecture as remnants of this. I thought this was really interesting, and was reminiscent of the way culture and furthermore cultural appropriation and understanding moves and shifts over time. Initially we took pineapples only as decorative to the highest degree and did not even utilise the tasty fruit, however we now understand them predominantly as a food item and the idea of buying one without the intention of eating it seems highly wasteful. Yet there is also a cultural modern resurgence of pineapple iconography and novelty themed items in consumer objects today.
Sarah also outlined some of the botanical conventions we could use to help interpret images further, describing how on most etching plates on the bottom left would have indication of an artist signature, and then the bottom right would be the name of the engraver. These often were two entirely different people, and then she also said often there would be another person in charge of colouring, but they would normally not get a mention.
As well as the annotative conventions, Sarah also talked about some of the tastes and styles of botanists. I was interested to learn that not all plants were of interest to them and some, such as the Chrysanthemums in one example she presented, were looked upon snobbily and negatively by elite botanists as 'florist flowers' or 'fancies'. I found this intruiging as these connotations were quite unscientific in many ways; to disregard and belittle certain areas of study due to it's implications as decorative or overtly aesthetic. Particularly as these tend to offer some of the greatest visual manifestations of variations in genetics.
Sarah also spoke of Patrons, who sponsored the expensive act of laboriously creating these beauiful books, and also often featured on the inside pages as a large protrait. Normally those with immense wealth who wished to establish themselves as knowledgable. By assosciating themselves with such a fascionable area of research, a wealthy person might boost their social credentials and heirachy, as well as their gentlemanliness and general acceptablity. There was a sense of this demonstration of standing and wealth in the books themselves, with bigger books being better, more 'fine' and exaltant.
Sarah pointed out one book in particular, 'Les Liliacees', which bore the monograph of Napoleon on it's spine. Of course this book had never truly been within his library, however the mere allusion that such could be so would give the book additional credibility. It is interesting to consider in this instance the interplay of vested interests between scientific study and coporate sponsorship, as this 'additional credibility' was not placed in any standing with the actual educational content of the book, and was due to the influence of the patron, who, despite being somewhat naive to the subject matter, was also entirely essential to the botanist and artists who worked so hard to put all of the information together. In retrospect I would be interested to know exactly how fully the patrons studied their new ecyclopedias, and whether their interests often ran far beyond the possible social gains in the field of botany. I liked these black and white inside cover illustrations as, unlike the induvidual pages displaying single plants, in these scenes many natural species were grouped together, and carefully arranged to create lush, densely crowed and intricately details panels of wide botanical variety and scope. They reminded me in some ways of my large painting for the Balance exhibition, because of the way they presented a wide variety of organisms in a way which was both contextually accurate, yet also deliberately decorative and designed to draw the eye in whilst displaying the variety and beauty of the natural world.
Finally Sarah began to explain about how botany began to advance with the times. With the invention of early microscopes, some botanists began to draw and catalogue the new forms and structures they found. There was a great deal of mistrust for this, and many ethical concerns were raised as closer studies revealed things beyond visibility to the naked eye. Sarah worded it as a question of 'whether we should be looking at God's creations so closely.' 
She also showed us through a box of photographs of microscopic plant viruses and bacteria taken via an even more technologically advanced electron microscopes. It was interesting to consider the way in which technical understanding of these plants has now developed, so that we can not not only map their external, visible features, but also map their insides, and furthermore the tiny bacterium which reside within them.I really liked the scope of work and variety of topics we discussed. It definitely inspired a few interesting avenues of inquiry which I could persue in my own practice. The nature of the archive and library as locations for the expansion of fresh knowlege, and reflection on that which was known before, was something I felt was important to capture. Our understanding of plant and organic systems has increased so dramatically since the early explorations documented in these books, yet so on the whole has our general destruction and exploitation of them. These archives are full of books attempting to preserve the rare and wonderful from the plant world in vivid, colourful and undecaying form, yet now the fight is less to preserve them within the pages of study, and much more to preserve them in the field and ecosystem itself. Perhaps this is something I could highlight in my piece. With all of this being said, I think one of the key things I need to do is a little research on the John Innes Centre itself and its surrounding fields of research. Based on the primary research I have conducted throughout this experience however I really feel inspired by this interesting aspect of natural study, particularly in the way it outlines an area of man's colonial engagement with the natural world, which has featured greatly in my current research.
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