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Item #42755 Histoire générale des plantes, contenant XVIII livres également départis en deux tomes: Tirée de l'exemplaire latin de la bibliothèque de M. Jacques Dalechamps, puis faite françoise par M. Jean Des Moulins. Jacques DALECHAMPS.
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Histoire générale des plantes, contenant XVIII livres également départis en deux tomes: Tirée de l'exemplaire latin de la bibliothèque de M. Jacques Dalechamps, puis faite françoise par M. Jean Des Moulins
Histoire générale des plantes, contenant XVIII livres également départis en deux tomes: Tirée de l'exemplaire latin de la bibliothèque de M. Jacques Dalechamps, puis faite françoise par M. Jean Des Moulins
Histoire générale des plantes, contenant XVIII livres également départis en deux tomes: Tirée de l'exemplaire latin de la bibliothèque de M. Jacques Dalechamps, puis faite françoise par M. Jean Des Moulins
Histoire générale des plantes, contenant XVIII livres également départis en deux tomes: Tirée de l'exemplaire latin de la bibliothèque de M. Jacques Dalechamps, puis faite françoise par M. Jean Des Moulins
Histoire générale des plantes, contenant XVIII livres également départis en deux tomes: Tirée de l'exemplaire latin de la bibliothèque de M. Jacques Dalechamps, puis faite françoise par M. Jean Des Moulins

Histoire générale des plantes, contenant XVIII livres également départis en deux tomes: Tirée de l'exemplaire latin de la bibliothèque de M. Jacques Dalechamps, puis faite françoise par M. Jean Des Moulins

Lyon: Chez Philip. Borde, Laur. Arnaud, & Cl. Rigaud, 1653. Two volumes. Folio. (14 3/8 x 9 1/8 inches). Second French edition. Half-title to vol.1 only, titles in red and black with engraved vignette, 2752 woodcuts.

Contemporary calf, spines richly gilt, all edges red

A fine copy of this monumental work compiled by a pupil of Rondelet and originally published in Latin in 1586-87. This edition is the most complete one in the French language, a vast illustrated synthesis of Renaissance botanical, medical, and philological knowledge.

First published in Latin, Dalechamps' Historia generalis plantarum gathered the botanical knowledge of classical, Arabic, medieval, and Renaissance authors into eighteen books. Dalechamps studied medicine at Montpellier under Guillaume Rondelet and later served as physician at the Hôtel-Dieu in Lyon, a city whose regional flora is described in the work extensively. The French version, translated by Jean Des Moulins, brought this large scholarly compilation into the vernacular medical and botanical literature of seventeenth-century France. The work describes plants by their names in different languages, their species, form, origin, season, natural temperament, and medicinal virtues. Its importance lies in its breadth and in its attempt to impose order on a large body of plant knowledge before Linnaean taxonomy. Dalechamps drew on ancient authorities including Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Galen, and Pliny, and on modern herbalists such as Fuchs, Mattioli, Dodoens, Pena, Lobel, and Clusius. The indices and tables of names made the book useful as both a medical reference and a botanical repertory. "Dalechamps is considered by some authorities to have been one of the most erudite of the French botanists of the 16th century. His book is a compilation of the botanical knowledge available at that date and is important as it shows another grouping attempt at a classification of the plants which he described. A number of woodcuts were especially made for the book from plants sent to the author by Lobel, l'Ecluse, and others, but for the most part were taken from previously published works." (Hunt 154).

Nissen BBI 447; Stafleu & Cowan 1297.

Item #42755

Price: $4,000.00

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