这份手稿被认定为是知名植物学家John Tradescants的，是Elias Ashmole (1617-1692)的收藏品，后来成为牛津阿什莫尔的馆藏。1860年时，又转到牛津大学的Bodleian 图书馆。这本画册一直以来都被视为一份神秘的宝藏，因为里面藏着许多未解的谜题。这些水彩画是谁画的？为谁画的？目的为何？里面只有一张图有画苹果，还有其他张吗？其他张不见了吗？手稿里的文字是谁写的？为什么艺术家会在许多作品集里描绘鸟、青蛙、蝴蝶等野生动物？
六十六张神秘的水彩画首次完整重现，加上介绍，解开这些迷人画作背后的谜团，究竟为何而画？又是如何画出来的？
本书好评
"The Tradescants arguably did more to change the botanical and gastronomic landscape in England than anyone else in the seventeenth century."
--Gastronomica, on the John Tradescants (12/18/2012)
"This fascinating new book reproduces a little-known manuscript that has been buried in the archives of Oxford's Bodleian Library for more than three hundred years."
--House & Garden (07/19/2013)
"Barrie Juniper and Hanneke Grootenboer are both good storytellers and efficient detectives. Their work covers history, botany, garden husbandry, handwriting in the seventeenth century, horticultural fashions, and the gardening legacy of the Tradescants. . . . [A] delightful book."
-- (07/19/2013)
"The Tradescants' Orchard reproduces a book of watercolor images of fruit that raises many questions, discussed ably by the authors. . . . Juniper and Grootenboer have assumed the roles of sleuths and delved into the historical context in which the paintings would have been created, looking at some of the major personages on the British horticultural scene at the time and at the evidence that can be gleaned from the volume itself. The result is an interesting and educational foray into seventeenth-century English social and cultural mores and gardening history, the lives of Elias Ashmole and the Tradescants and the creation of the Ashmolean Museum, as background for an investigation into how the volume of watercolors might have been created, as well as why and for whom."-- (08/13/2015)
"A fascinating look at plantsman John Tradescant the elder, his son John Tradescant, and their contributions to horticulture and the development of fruit orchards in seventeenth-century Europe. . . . Much is explained in the text leading up to Barrie Juniper and Hanneke Grootenboer's reproduction of The Tradescants' Orchard and their book is yet another wonderful chapter in the history of botanical art."
-- (06/13/2013)
"Hundreds of years after a British book collector passed away, his volume of luscious watercolors of orchard fruits has taken on new life. . . . Plant scientist Barrie Juniper and art historian Hanneke Grootenboer suggest that a new generation of detectives take up the mystery that has bedeviled them."
-- (07/08/2013)
关于作者
Barrie Juniper是牛津大学植物科学的荣誉讲师及圣凯瑟琳学院的荣誉成员。
Hanneke Grootenboer牛津大学艺术史的讲师以及圣彼得学院的成员。
