One of the Best Editions of Theophrastus
De Historia Plantarum Libri Decem, Graece & Latine. In quibus Textum Graecum variis Lectionibus, emendationibus, hiulcorum supplementis: Latinam Gazae versionem nova interpretatione ad margines: totum Opus absolutissimis cum Notis tum Commentariis: item rariorum Plantarum iconibus illustravit.
Finely engraved title-page (a trifle shaved at outer edge) & 675 woodcuts in the text. 11 p.l. (incl. engr. title), 1187 (i.e., 1185), [87] pp. Folio, cont. Dutch vellum over boards (upper joint with small split of 7 cm. at foot, minor pale dampstaining to first 20 leaves & last third of book), panelled in blind, central arabesque in blind to each cover, ties gone. Amsterdam: H. Laurentius, 1644.
First edition to be edited by Joannes Bodaeus à Stapel; it “is one of the best and most thoughtfully prepared of all the editions of Theophrastos.”–Hunt 240.
H.H. Bartlett wrote in his Fifty-five Rare Books (Ann Arbor: 1949) of this edition: “It is interesting not only because of the brilliance of the editing, but, curiously enough, to the American botanist as well, for involving in the discussion certain species from Virginia, other parts of the New World, and Asia. The illustrations of these plants have been largely overlooked in botanical history, because of their incidental presence in a work which might not be expected to contain anything of the sort. Some were merely borrowed from l’Escluse or de Lobel, but others seem to be original in this work.”
A fine and crisp copy. Bookplate of Piergiorgio Borio, M.D.
❧ D.S.B., XIII, pp. 328-34. See Garrison-Morton 1783.
Price: $8,500.00
Item ID: 7301
