Botany : A Study of Pure Curiosity

"Rousseau was a highly influential philosopher in his day but, during the last yers of hsi life, he spent a great deal of time on the study of botany, a subject which had fascinated and attracted him throughout his life. He made a detailed study of every plant on the island of Saint Pierre on Lake Bienne in Switzerland, and, when he came to England, as a guest of Richard Davenport at Wooton Hall, he studied the flora of the surrounding countryside in great detail. On his return to Paris, Rousseau wrote his famous Lettres élementaires sur la botanique, subsequently translated into many languages. In 1805. after his death, these letters were published again, but this time the famous French botanical artists, J. P. Redouté, was commissioned to illustrate the volume. It is this same volume, complete with Redouté's exquisitely delicate illustrations of many species of garden flowers and plants, which is here reproduced."--Book jacket.