Item #43755 Description des plantes de l'Amerique. Charles Plumier.
Description des plantes de l'Amerique
Description des plantes de l'Amerique
Description des plantes de l'Amerique
Description des plantes de l'Amerique
Description des plantes de l'Amerique
Description des plantes de l'Amerique

Description des plantes de l'Amerique

Paris: L'Imprimerie Royale, 1693. First edition, second issue (with the correct date on the title page); folio, pp. [8], 94, [10]; 108 engraved plates; 19th century roan-backed marbled boards; joints rubbed, library sticker at base of spine, 2 MHS bookplates and an earlier engraved bookplate of P. T. Brown, perforated stamp in the bottom margin of the title page; the last 6 plates show some waterstaining entering from the fore-margin, many plates with small neat identifications in Latin in the margins; in all, a very good copy. "Le Pere Plumier, a monk in the order of St. Francesco di Paula, was an important botantical traveller. Tournefort and he became friends and they herborized together throughout the Midi. After that, Plumier's travels included the Antilles and several long voyages to other islands in the West Indies and to America, where he discovered, drew, and described hundreds of new plants, many of which are shown in his own books, though much of his work had to remain unpublished until Boerhaave and Jean Burmann were able to edit part of his papers, and publish them as the Plantarum Americanarum Fascisculi X in 1755-60" (Hunt). "Plumier was one of the first naturalists interested in the Antilles. He is known for his excellent descriptions and drawings of a great number of species. Although Plumier's herbarium was lost in a shipwreck, his drawings and Surian's herbarium on which Plumier collaborated are extant. Plumeria, an American tree or shrub of the family Apocynaceae, was named in honour of Plumier" (DSB). European Americana 693/137; Hunt 389. JCB p. 275. Nissen BBI 1544. Pritzel 7213. Sabin 63455. Item #43755

Price: $12,500.00

See all items in Americana, Science
See all items by