The collection brendel
of university of namur : another way of looking at plants, fungi and bacteria

By Philippe Martin

The University of Namur boasts one of Europe´s finest collections of teaching models created by R. Brendel and son in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to teach botany. This beautiful catalogue showcases this exceptional heritage. Brendel´s didactic models have enjoyed remarkable success since their creation, at the end of the 19th century. Used for decades to teach botany, they eventually fell into disuse. But their undeniable artistic their undeniable artistic value, they are now an exceptional heritage that many collectors. This catalogue compares models of plants - as well as fungi and bacteria - with their natural bacteria - and their natural reality, illustrating the extent to which the Brendels, father and son scientific rigour and the poetry of floral structure, with remarkable talent. While there is probably no collection of all the models made by the Brendels worldwide, the Brendels in the world, the collection held at the University of Namur is one of the finest collections in Europe.

Available in english & French here