Details
WEINMANN, Johann Wilhelm (1683-1741). Phytanthoza Iconographia, oder eigentliche Vorstellung etlicher Tausend, Sowohl einheimisch= als ausländischer . . . Pflantzen, Bäume, Stauden, Kräuter, Blumen, Früchten und Schwämme &c. Text by J. G. N. & L. M. Dieterich (vols. I - II) and A. K. Bieler (vols. III - IV). Regensburg: printed by Hieronymous Lentz (vols. I - III) and Heinrich Georg Neubauer (vol. IV), 1737-1745.
4 volumes, large 2° (455 x 285mm). Titles in Latin and German printed in red and black, parallel text in Latin and German, errata on verso of final index leaf in vol. IV, 2 mezzotint portraits of Weinmann and Bieler, emblematic frontispiece of Ceres attended by Hippocrates, Time and a nymph, all printed in blue, 1025 ENGRAVED AND MEZZOTINT PLATES, PRINTED IN COLOURS AND FINISHED BY HAND, AFTER GEORG DIONYSIUS EHRET, N. Asamin and others, by J. Seuter, J. E. Ridinger and J. J. Haid, 14 double-page. (Latin titles of vols. I & II with contemporary pasted-on vertical strip of paper extending the foremargins; vols. I, III & IV with some insignificant worming of blank areas; generally light browning or spotting to some text and about 100 plates; small tears to blank margins of a handful of plates.) Contemporary German brown diced calf (vols. I - III) or brown calf (vol. IV), uniformly tooled in gilt and blind, the covers panelled with rules and roll-tools and central arabesque, spines in seven compartments, raised bands, with elaborate stylised floral decoration, (spines of vols. II and IV slightly chipped at head and foot, most corners a trifle bumped).
A FINE LARGE COPY OF THE FIRST COMPLETE EDITION. The work is based on Weinmann's collection of plants and was financed by him, despite the claim on the Latin title that it was produced at the expense of the artists and engravers. The resultant botanical drawings are mainly by Ehret, his first published work, and by N. Asamin, a young woman whose paintings were 'particularly clever and dainty'. Ehret fell out with Weinmann and his contribution is nowhere acknowledged. It was the first work to use colour-printed mezzotint successfully, and was influential (Trew considered his Plantae Selectae as 'an appendicem to Weinmann's publication'), but it did not sustain its contemporary high reputation when a number of inaccuracies came to light and indeed even the occasional invented plant! As with many periodically-issued works, establishing the composition of the ideal copy is problematic: there appear to have been at least two different issues (besides Jan Burman's Dutch translation and the preliminary Eigentliche Darstellung (1734 - 1735)). The preliminaries and indices seem to vary from copy to copy: this copy includes the foreword in German and the German and Latin indices but is without the less essential list of subscribers; a leaf of testimonials for the work; a Latin version of Haller's foreword and two leaves of verses in praise of the artists by J. B. M.
Nissen BBI 2126; Great Flower Books p.80; Dunthorne 327; cf. Hunt 494 (the preliminary issue). (4)
4 volumes, large 2° (455 x 285mm). Titles in Latin and German printed in red and black, parallel text in Latin and German, errata on verso of final index leaf in vol. IV, 2 mezzotint portraits of Weinmann and Bieler, emblematic frontispiece of Ceres attended by Hippocrates, Time and a nymph, all printed in blue, 1025 ENGRAVED AND MEZZOTINT PLATES, PRINTED IN COLOURS AND FINISHED BY HAND, AFTER GEORG DIONYSIUS EHRET, N. Asamin and others, by J. Seuter, J. E. Ridinger and J. J. Haid, 14 double-page. (Latin titles of vols. I & II with contemporary pasted-on vertical strip of paper extending the foremargins; vols. I, III & IV with some insignificant worming of blank areas; generally light browning or spotting to some text and about 100 plates; small tears to blank margins of a handful of plates.) Contemporary German brown diced calf (vols. I - III) or brown calf (vol. IV), uniformly tooled in gilt and blind, the covers panelled with rules and roll-tools and central arabesque, spines in seven compartments, raised bands, with elaborate stylised floral decoration, (spines of vols. II and IV slightly chipped at head and foot, most corners a trifle bumped).
A FINE LARGE COPY OF THE FIRST COMPLETE EDITION. The work is based on Weinmann's collection of plants and was financed by him, despite the claim on the Latin title that it was produced at the expense of the artists and engravers. The resultant botanical drawings are mainly by Ehret, his first published work, and by N. Asamin, a young woman whose paintings were 'particularly clever and dainty'. Ehret fell out with Weinmann and his contribution is nowhere acknowledged. It was the first work to use colour-printed mezzotint successfully, and was influential (Trew considered his Plantae Selectae as 'an appendicem to Weinmann's publication'), but it did not sustain its contemporary high reputation when a number of inaccuracies came to light and indeed even the occasional invented plant! As with many periodically-issued works, establishing the composition of the ideal copy is problematic: there appear to have been at least two different issues (besides Jan Burman's Dutch translation and the preliminary Eigentliche Darstellung (1734 - 1735)). The preliminaries and indices seem to vary from copy to copy: this copy includes the foreword in German and the German and Latin indices but is without the less essential list of subscribers; a leaf of testimonials for the work; a Latin version of Haller's foreword and two leaves of verses in praise of the artists by J. B. M.
Nissen BBI 2126; Great Flower Books p.80; Dunthorne 327; cf. Hunt 494 (the preliminary issue). (4)