Mira Botanica, Pink Carnation, Canvas Bag

One of the most celebrated manuscript illumination artists was Joris Hoefnagel. In the 1590s the Emperor Rudolf II commissioned Hoefnagel to add his illuminations to the Mira calligraphiae monumenta, a mid-16th-century manuscript on the art of calligraphy. The page reproduced here is known as Damselfly, Carnation, Insect, Caterpillar, Ladybird, English Walnut, and Marine Mollusk.