MÜLLER, Johann Gotthilf; and Johann Bernhard Gottfried HOPFER (1716-1789)

[Species plantarum secundum vegetationis et fructificationis partes ad vivum delineatæ et Latina ac Germanica dictione determinata descriptae. Decas prima...]

[Berlin: Gedruckt bey C.L. Kunst, 1757]. Folio. (17 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches). Without letterpress title or text, as issued. 10 hand-coloured engraved plates after Hopfer, engraved by Glassbach or Sauerbrey. Plates with captions in Latin and German.

Expertly bound to style in half calf and period speckled paper.

Rare mid-18th century German botanical work.

A very rare work, known in but a handful of surviving examples in German libraires with its original front wrapper (not present here) from which the above title is supplied. The work did not include any other letterpress text and was evidently the start of an intended larger work, which ceased publication following this first part. The plates are after Hopfer, the artist to the Königliche Akademie der Wissenschaften. No other known works by Müller, the Conrector des Gymnasii zu Cöln an der Spree, are cited in the usual botanical references. The plates, each of which includes the stem, leaf and flower, along with smaller detailed elements of the pistal and stamen, are mostly exotic species from Asia and Africa, including Pentapetes, Hermannia, Gloriosa, Geranium, Oryza, Hyssopus, Colutea, Teucriun, Ixia and Lantana. Published just four years after Linnaeus' Species Plantarum, each plate includes Linnean classification. Rare, with no examples in the modern auction records, nor examples in the the famed collections of Hunt, De Belder, Plesch, or Oak Spring.

Nissen BBI 1426; Pritzel 6522.

Item #35612

Price: $4,500.00