Details
GREW, Nehemiah (1641-1712). The Anatomy of Plants. With an Idea of a Philosophical History of Plants. London: W. Rawlins for the Author, 1682.
2o (363 x 232 mm). 83 engraved plates, some double-page (some pale mostly marginal dampstains to plates at end, one double-page plate stained at fold), numerous 7- and 9-line woodcut initials hand-colored in yellow (probably in the 18th-century). Contemporary English calf, panelled in gilt (rebacked, covers worn and with corners repaired).
Provenance: John Fetham (gift inscription from Richard Northcote of Honiton, Devon dated 1787 on the front free endpaper). Feltham has added a considerable amount of his own botanical notes and observations throughout: on a large sheet mounted on the front pastedown, some margins, six plate versos (with illustrations in black-and-white) and on some inserted leaves. In addition he has added two hand-drawn "plates" at end (numbered "Table 85" and "Table 86," both signed and dated 1786).
RARE LARGE-PAPER ISSUE of the First Complete Edition of "Grew's chief work which gained him the reputation of being one of the most distinguished scientists of the 17th century" (Hunt). This revised collected edition of three earlier treatises represents the first textbook on the subject. It includes The anatomy of vegetables begun (see lot 480), An idea of a phytological history propounded (first published 1673), and The comparative anatomy of trunks (1675). Along with Malphighi, Grew is considered the founder of plant anatomy, and both were the first to investigate internal plant anatomy with the aid of the microscope and demonstrate that plants have a characteristic ordered inner structure that could be classified.
This copy is printed on paper watermarked with the Strasbourg lily; Norman notes ordinary copies were printed on foolscap. Henrey 162; Horblit 43b; Hunt 362; Nissen BBI 758; NLM/Krivatsy 4986; Wellcome III, p.164; Pritzel 3557; Wing G-1945; Norman 946.
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Provenance: John Fetham (gift inscription from Richard Northcote of Honiton, Devon dated 1787 on the front free endpaper). Feltham has added a considerable amount of his own botanical notes and observations throughout: on a large sheet mounted on the front pastedown, some margins, six plate versos (with illustrations in black-and-white) and on some inserted leaves. In addition he has added two hand-drawn "plates" at end (numbered "Table 85" and "Table 86," both signed and dated 1786).
RARE LARGE-PAPER ISSUE of the First Complete Edition of "Grew's chief work which gained him the reputation of being one of the most distinguished scientists of the 17th century" (Hunt). This revised collected edition of three earlier treatises represents the first textbook on the subject. It includes The anatomy of vegetables begun (see lot 480), An idea of a phytological history propounded (first published 1673), and The comparative anatomy of trunks (1675). Along with Malphighi, Grew is considered the founder of plant anatomy, and both were the first to investigate internal plant anatomy with the aid of the microscope and demonstrate that plants have a characteristic ordered inner structure that could be classified.
This copy is printed on paper watermarked with the Strasbourg lily; Norman notes ordinary copies were printed on foolscap. Henrey 162; Horblit 43b; Hunt 362; Nissen BBI 758; NLM/Krivatsy 4986; Wellcome III, p.164; Pritzel 3557; Wing G-1945; Norman 946.