Codda-pana, Hortus Malabaricus, Volume 3

The Hortus Indicus Malabaricus volumes include detailed, stunning copper plate engravings of 792 medicinal plants, based on illustrations made in India. These illustrations in the Hortus Malabaricus are masterpieces of botanical illustration. Comparisons of the original ink drawings made in India, now in the British Library, with copper plate engravings in the published volumes suggest that besides two Dutch artists identified in the volumes, Antoni Jacobz Goetkint and Marcelius Splinter, unidentified Indian artists were intimately involved in the original drawings.

Comparing the drawings and the copperplate engravings also provide interesting glimpses of the process of converting drawings to copper plate engravings. The published images occasionally include rare views of Malabar landscape and daily life in the 17th century. This image shows seven men carrying a leaf of the Codda-pana tree, indicating the large size of the Codda-pana leaves, but also the custom of using dry leaves of the plant as sun and rain shade.