Mar 3, 2023
''Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast'' by William Roscoe, 1861 Source
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''Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast'' by William Roscoe, 1861 Source
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It’s been a mild winter and is that a butterfly flying around? Well, not likely outside in February, but it’s happening in our special collections in this sweet little hand-colored pamphlet of the classic 19th-century poem for children, The Butterfly’s Ball , and the Grasshopper’s Feast. This rare edition (only 3 libraries in the U.S. have it) was published in Baltimore sometime in the 1840s, and is authored by William Roscoe who became know for his work as an abolitionist...
Some of you may remember this post from last December, where I wrote about a portrait by Clouet of a left-handed banker and speculated on the treatment of left-handers in the sixteenth century based on what few sources I was familiar with at the time. Recently, on the same History Extra article where I originally found the link to the Raffaello de Montelupo quote, I saw a reference to a source that I originally overlooked, a poem balled La Balia (The Nurse) by Luigi Tansillo (1510-1568), which describes the work of a wet nurse in sixteenth-century Italy and (in the English translation by William Roscoe originally published in 1798) includes these lines: "If, when his little hands, from bondage free / Restless expand in newborn liberty / You teach the child by reprehension light / In preference to the left to use the right; / --If thus the body claim your constant care / Shall not the mind your equal caution share?" Assuming that the poem describes practices common at the time, it does seem that at least some Europeans in the sixteenth century did try to suppress left-handedness.
As a southpaw myself, I must admit that I'm a bit disappointed to learn that they were already doing such a practice in my favorite time period. However, I'm honestly not surprised, given that the source by Sir Thomas Browne that I linked to in my post from December seemed to imply that it was a well-established practice by the mid-seventeenth century. Perhaps it's to be expected, since the sixteenth century was a very superstitious time when people were not generally very tolerant of anyone considered "different." (Of course, I realize that the religious conflicts and witch hunts of the century, which affected far more people both directly and indirectly, illustrate the intolerance of the period far better than perhaps anything else.) Just because the people of the era produced so much beautiful art, architecture, music, literature, clothing, etc. does not at all mean that it was an enlightened time by modern standards.
The story of the Liverpool Botanic Garden.
The botanical archives of the Liverpool World Museum provide an inspiring catalogue of botanical specimens, which came from Liverpool Botanic Garden created by William Roscoe in 1802. The building itself was lost in WW2 and the specimens now exist as hidden memories, stored in museum drawers and only accessible by appointment. I wanted to bring attention to this forgotten place and show some of the treasures it once housed.
Photo credit: http://www.merseysidermagazine.com/site/local-history/liverpool-botanic-gardens/
The original purpose of the garden was to facilitate the study of nature by using living specimens. It was felt that such a garden should be created outside of London.
The key focus was the production of economic goods such as food, fibres and medicinal plants and very quickly, Liverpool became a globally renowned botanical garden. Plants specimens were brought to Liverpool through extensive trade connections.
In 1827, it was reported: “Public Garden in the UK is in a higher state of cultivation, and in no similar institution are stove and greenhouse plants in a more healthy and vigorous state.”
In the 1830s, the garden, which had originally been on the outskirts of the city, was relocated to become Wavertree Botanic Gardens to allow for the building expansion in the centre. Following bomb damage in WWII, specimens were lost and the few that remained were transferred to the botanical archives to be dried. Where they remain today.
Sismondi needs to get over himself. The Renaissance is not the triumph of despotism over the pure chivalry of the Medieval Era.
Calm down, Sismondi. Drink a glass of water. William Roscoe can get one for you only you hate Roscoe so maybe he won’t.
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This Roscoea purpurea HWJK2174 is in bloom in one of my gardens. A perennial herbaceous plant in the Zingiberaceae family, it's named for William Roscoe, founder of the Liverpool Botanic Garden.
William Roscoe and William Mulready. The butterfly’s ball and the grasshopper’s feast (1883)