ABSTRACT
His studio’s rst project was the publication of The Pencil of Nature. It was not a commercial success but had enormous historical inuence on the development of photographically illustrated books. The Pencil of Nature anticipates the value of photographic documentation of miscellaneous ‘things’ of scientic and social interest. These include buildings and monuments, botanical specimens, inventories of possessions (including books, china and glass articles etc.), and views of Talbot’s home at Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire (England). Forty copies of the original book published in London by Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans have survived and facsimile copies have been printed at later dates.
