Arnold Dodel-Port Iris Sibirica Journal — 1892 Swiss Botanical Plates Notebook

In 1892, the Swiss botanist Arnold Dodel-Port published his Anatomisch-Physiologischer Atlas der Botanik from the University of Zurich — one of the nineteenth century’s most extraordinary works of scientific illustration. Among its most celebrated plates were two chromolithographs documenting Iris sibirica, the Siberian iris, with a dual ambition that no botanical publication had attempted so completely before: to show the plant from the visible beauty of its violet-blue flower to the invisible precision of its cellular anatomy, in a single pedagogical document designed for the university lecture hall. The first plate presents the iris in its full botanical complexity — flower, stem, leaf, and root system, each structure labelled with the clarity of a master teacher. The second extends the documentation into the microscopic: cross-sections, cellular structures, stages of pollen development, the inner architecture of the iris revealed with the authority of a Zurich laboratory.

Dodel-Port worked in collaboration with his wife Carolina Dodel-Port, whose contribution as botanical illustrator and scientific collaborator was essential to the atlas’s success. Together they produced an atlas that was adopted by botany departments across Europe — in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and beyond — as the standard visual reference for the teaching of plant anatomy and physiology. The chromolithographic technique they used was, by 1892, at the height of its development: capable of rendering the fine detail of microscopic structures with a precision that no earlier printing technique could match, and of combining scientific accuracy with visual beauty in a manner that made the invisible architecture of plant life genuinely compelling to look at.

Product Details

• Format: Hardcover journal
• Pages: 150 lined pages (75 sheets) with perforations for easy removal
• Binding: Casewrap sewn binding — flexible and lay-flat
• Dimensions: 5.75 × 8 inches
• Weight: 100 g
• Cover: Matte laminated full-wrap print
• Front cover: Arnold Dodel-Port, Iris sibirica, Plate 1 (1892) — chromolithograph
• Back cover: Arnold Dodel-Port, Iris sibirica, Plate 2 (1892) — chromolithograph

Perfect For

• Botanists, plant anatomy students, and natural history enthusiasts
• Iris enthusiasts and perennial gardeners
• Collectors of 19th-century scientific illustration and chromolithographic atlases
• Admirers of Swiss botanical science and the University of Zurich tradition
• Anyone who appreciates the intersection of scientific rigour and visual beauty
• A beautiful gift for botanists, nature journalers, and botanical sketchers

The Story Behind the Plates

The chromolithographic revolution that made this atlas possible, the pedagogical vision of Arnold and Carolina Dodel-Port, and why the Siberian iris became the subject of one of the nineteenth century’s most ambitious works of botanical illustration — read the full story on our blog →