Mandrake (Mandragora) - Rembert Dodoens, 1583. (Botanical Wall Art)
This print gives you a strange, famous plant in a clean old herbal style. The leaves spread wide, the fruit sits low, and the root has that classic mandrake shape that almost looks human. Printed on warm parchment style paper, it feels bold but still simple, so it frames well as wall art in a study, hallway, or a library corner with darker, vintage home decor.
About this print
This print is based on a mandrake woodcut from Rembert Dodoens’ Stirpium historiae pemptades sex sive libri XXX, printed in Antwerp by Christophe Plantin in 1583. Dodoens’ book is packed with woodcut plant images made for quick recognition, and mandrake was a natural choice because it was both a medicinal plant and a legend-heavy one.
On the page, you can also see two forms marked as female and male, which shows how early herbals tried to organize plants in a simple, visual way. If you compare this Renaissance woodcut look with a later color herbal page like Ipomoea purga, you can see how botanical art moved from crisp black linework to layered color printing.
Craft & finish
This print is made on hand-processed paper, highlighted with subtle gold and sealed with beeswax for an authentic parchment feel. Please note that colors can look slightly different from screen to screen.
Find more prints like this in our Botanical Art collection.
Mandrake (Mandragora) Rembert Dodoens, 1583. - Vintage Botanical Print
In case your print creases during the travel, as it usually does travel for some time, you can safely warm it up with a hair-dryer, and the wax will melt back right into it. You can also use a lighter, which is a much faster method, but be careful to keep the flame either above the paper or parallel to it (which means holding the paper vertically) so it doesn't smudge or even catch fire. The chance of the print actually creasing is very small, as they are rolled in bubble-wrap and shipped in a cardboard box. Also, be sure to keep the print out of the direct sunlight, as it can melt or fade.
Visit the link below to see more about how our replicas are made, how to display them, and repair the damage:
https://www.artifex-replicas.com/post/about-our-parchment-replicas
