De Historia Plantarum

[Abigael Ortyl]

Tome3 has title: Joannis Raii ... Histori plantarum tomus tertius : qui est supplementum duorum prcedentium ... accessit Historia stirpium ins. Luzonis & reliquarum Philippinarum / a` R. P. Geo. Jos. Camello ... item D. Jos. Pitton Tournefort ... Corollarium institutionum rei harbari.

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London: Mary Clark for Henry Faithorne, 1686.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #002648

1686-1688. Volumes 1 and 2 (of 3). Large folio (440 x 282 mm). [26], 1-58, (59)-(62), 59-983 [1]; [8], 985-1350 [2] 1351-1944, [36] pp. Title of vol. 1 printed in red and black. Printed on large and thick paper. Contemporary mottled calf, spines with 7 raised bands richly gilt in compartments and with gilt-lettered red morocco labels (hinges repaired, corners bumped and scuffed, some wear to boards and extremities), red-sprinkled edges. Very little browning and occasional very minor spotting to text. Provenance: William Constable (armorial bookplate to front pastedowns); Haskell F. Norman (bookplate to front pastedowns). A fine, internally crisp and clean copy. ----

Norman, Norman Library of Science and Medicine 1790 (this copy); Dibner 24; Horblit 87; NLM/Krivatsy 9409; Wing R-394, R-395A. - FIRST EDITION, LARGE PAPER COPY, second state of volume 1. Volumes 1 and 2 of Ray's great work in which he intended to classify all known European plants and attempted to integrate the increasing knowledge of exotic flora. Ray adopted Jungius' morphological system and terminology and includes essays on practical aspects such as propagation and plant diseases, as well as a thorough and systematic survey of plants according to taxonomic principles. Ray's theories paved the way for Linnaeus, but he enjoyed only modest success with Historia plantarum, largely due to the work's unwieldy size, lack of illustrations, and the political upheaval occurring at the time of publication.

This in one of only a few known large-paper copies (AE records only two sets that have appeared at auction in the past). The paper in our copy is watermarked with a shield surrounded by a fleur-de-lys (cf. Briquet 995), compared to the cluster-of-grapes watermark in the regular paper-size copies (e.g. Norman 1789). A third volume, not included here, was published 16 years later, in 1704.

This codex, known as the Historia Plantarum, was created at the end of the 14th century at the court of Gian Galeazzo Visconti in Milan. It is a comprehensive medical encyclopedia dealing with plant, animal, and mineral agents and their advantages and disadvantages for the human body, based on the work of the Persian scholar Ibn Butlan. The fascinating manuscript is adorned with more than 500 high-quality botanical illustrations, as well as miniatures of animals, minerals, and everyday objects. Arranged in alphabetical order, the lemmas of this medieval reference book are marked by gold-decorated and sometimes historiated initials, often accompanied by ornate floral borders and curlicues. The Duke of Milan gifted the splendid manuscript to Wenceslaus IV, King of Bohemia and Germany to help cement their alliance. It can thus be accurately said that this is a manuscript worthy of a king.

The Historia Plantarum is an interesting and historically significant source about medicine and also about the everyday life of the Middle Ages. According to medieval doctors, various elements were needed for a healthy lifestyle: proper diet, exercise and enough sleep, and a balanced emotional state. A life in harmony with nature was recommended. This guaranteed people health and well-being. The illuminated manuscript is illustrated with over five hundred illustrations of plants in alphabetical order. The depictions convey an astoundingly detailed and imposing overview of the thorough knowledge about plant life, which one possessed in late medieval Italy. In addition to these botanical pictures come more than eighty illustrations of animals, from which one obtained healing remedies, as well as over 30 depictions of mineral derivatives.

The manuscript was made at the end of the 14th century at the court of Gian Galeazzo Visconti. The ruler was the most powerful and glorious scion of the great Visconti family and created during his reign one of the most impressive collections of unbelievably valuable book treasures. Gian Galeazzo presented the splendid Historia Plantarum to Wenceslas IV, King of Bohemia and Germany, with whom he forged a good political relationship. Today the medical encyclopedia is found in the Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome.

On folio 1r, a rather large portrait depicts Wenceslas surrounded the six electors of the Holy Roman Empire before a mosaic background of blue, red, and gold. Dressed in armor and carrying swords, the secular prince-electors stand on the right dressed in their respective coats of arms while the archbishops of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne stand to the left. Wenceslaus is shown confidently enthroned with the imperial regalia but will be disposed within a few years of when this miniature was made.

Despite its name, this manuscript also depicts dozens of animals including creatures of fantasy like dragons and real animals like elephants that were just as strange and exotic to medieval Europeans. The elephant is nearly as tall as a tree with the bushes grazing its stomach. It is depicted with a stern expression and its ears have a splendid fall of folds.

We have been running a specialist store for facsimiles for nearly 15 years in Regensburg's Old Town, just opposite the "Schottenportal" of the Romanesque Scots Monastery of St. Jacob at Jakobstrae 6.

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Yverdon-les-Bains: [publisher unknown], 1650.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #002680

1650-1651. Folio (380 x 232 mm). Vol. I: [12], 1-239, 241-406, [2], 409-601 [1], 1-130, [2], 133-440, 1-9 [3] pp. including 3 blanks. Vol. II: [12], 1-398 [i.e. 396], 398a-398o, [2], 399-1074, [12] pp. including 1 blank. Vol. III: [12], 1-212, 1-882 (i.e. 886), [2], 12 pp. inluding one blank. Numerous mispaginations throughout (some corrected in ink), some column numberings. Each volumes has engraved additional title by Conrad Meyer, half title and index. In total 3500 small woodcut illustrations of plants in text. Contemporary blind-stamped vellum, spines with 5 raised bands and gilt-lettered morocco label, boards with embossed central arabesque (little soiled, vellum of vols. I and II partly cracked at joints and raised bands, but cords firmly holding). Light browning (few pages stronger) and occasional spotting to text as usual, worming to lower blank corner of 8 leaves in vol. III, a few leaves with faint dampstaining. Provenance: Dr. Maurice Villaret (bookplate to front pastedown), U. Bouchet (inscription to front pastedown). A fine, unmarked and wide-margined copy in untouched contemporary bindings. ----

Norman 141; Hunt 251; Nissen BBI 103; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 368; Pritzel 504. - FIRST EDITION of Bauhin's magnum opus, published posthumously by Dominique Chabre and Franois Louis de Graffenried of Yverdon. The Historia describes about 5,000 plants in a meticulous manner, the Historia plantarum first appeared in 1650 after 31 years in preparation. Bauhin, a Swiss botanist and physician, endeavored to describe not only the organs and properties of the plants herein, but their ecology as well. A student of Leonhart Fuchs at Tbingen, Bauhin was born into a strong family tradition in botany: his father Jean was the son of Jean Bauhin the Elder, a native of Amiens whose conversion to Protestantism exposed him to religious persecution. After he fled to Switzerland, the younger Bauhin fathered Jean and his equally renowned brother Gaspar and became the progenitor of six generations of botanists, extending over two hundred years in an unbroken succession of medical men. The Historia resulted from Bauhin's travels in the Swiss Alps, first accompanied by Gesner, and later on his own. Originally undertaking the work with d'Alchamps, Bauhin's religion prompted the dissolution of their relationship and Bauhin's obligation to quit France. He became professor of rhetoric at Basel before becoming physician to Duke Frederick of Wurttenburg. These circumstances contributed to the long delay in publishing the work from its preliminary sketch in 1619. It was finished finally by his son-in-law Jean-Henri Cherler.

Historia plantarum (Περὶ φυτῶν ἱστορία) est opus Graece a Theophrasto, Lycei scholarcha, anno circiter 310 a.C.n. scriptum. Post Aristotelem magistrum suum, qui historiam animalium composuerat, Theophrastus eisdem fere modis naturam et varietatem plantarum evolvit. Primum botanicae scientificae et anatomiae plantarum opus censetur.

Original watercolors commission by Clusius that were to be published with his his monograph Fungorum. Plate: Genus VI - efculentorum Fungorum [watercolor]

Clusius, Carolinus, 1526-1609.

These watercolors were misplaced by the printer and were not published until 1900 in:

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