Details
Nikolaus Joseph, Baron von Jacquin (1727-1817)
Selectarum stirpium Americanarum historia, in qua Linnaeanum systema determinatae descriptaeque sistunutur plantae illae, quas in insulis Martinica, Jamaica, Domingo, aliisque, et in viciniae continentis parte, observavit. Vienna: Joseph Kurtböck for Kraus, 1763. 2° (355 x 232mm). Half-title. Engraved title vignette, 2 head-pieces, emblematic frontispiece showing two Native Americans holding up a banner containing a map of the West Indies surrounded by Caribbean flowering plants and animals, 184 plates after Jacquin, 6 folding. (Light old browning to upper blank margins, wormtrack to upper blank margins of plates 58 to 109.) Contemporary cats-paw calf gilt, spine in seven compartments with raised bands, red morocco lettering-piece in the second, the others with repeat decoration in gilt (upper joint sslightly split, foot of spine chipped).
JACQUIN'S FIRST MAJOR PUBLICATION AND HIS FIRST ILLUSTRATED WORK. In 1752, the Dutch physician and botanist Gerard van Swieten, an old friend of Jacquin's father, invited the young Nickolaus, aged 25 at the time, to come and study in Vienna and soon the young man showed such great promise in his botanical studies that he attracted the interest of Franz I, Maria Theresa's husband, while working in the Schönbrunn gardens. The Emperor commissioned him to produce a systematic catalogue of the plants in the gardens, and in 1754, asked him to voyage to the West Indies to collect tropical plant specimens and live animals for the gardens at Schönbrunn and the royal menagerie. Jacquin set sail on January 1, 1755, and spent the next four years exploring the Antilles and part of South America and diligently amassing plants, natural history specimens, and ethnographica. "Ants damaged Jacquin's herbarium material, and he therefore supplemented his descriptions and notes on the new species with watercolour drawings" (Blunt & Stearn p.175). The project was a great success, and Jacquin's work provided the first solid foundation for European knowledge of the natural history of this area. Upon his return he quickly published an Enumeratio of the plant species of the Caribbean islands; the publication three years later of the present complimentary volume, illustrated with engravings taken from his field sketches and drawings, bought him sudden but lasting fame. BM(NH) II,p.918; Dunthorne 148; Hunt 579; Nissen BBI 979; Pritzel 4362; Sabin 35521; Stafleu & Cowan 3243.
Selectarum stirpium Americanarum historia, in qua Linnaeanum systema determinatae descriptaeque sistunutur plantae illae, quas in insulis Martinica, Jamaica, Domingo, aliisque, et in viciniae continentis parte, observavit. Vienna: Joseph Kurtböck for Kraus, 1763. 2° (355 x 232mm). Half-title. Engraved title vignette, 2 head-pieces, emblematic frontispiece showing two Native Americans holding up a banner containing a map of the West Indies surrounded by Caribbean flowering plants and animals, 184 plates after Jacquin, 6 folding. (Light old browning to upper blank margins, wormtrack to upper blank margins of plates 58 to 109.) Contemporary cats-paw calf gilt, spine in seven compartments with raised bands, red morocco lettering-piece in the second, the others with repeat decoration in gilt (upper joint sslightly split, foot of spine chipped).
JACQUIN'S FIRST MAJOR PUBLICATION AND HIS FIRST ILLUSTRATED WORK. In 1752, the Dutch physician and botanist Gerard van Swieten, an old friend of Jacquin's father, invited the young Nickolaus, aged 25 at the time, to come and study in Vienna and soon the young man showed such great promise in his botanical studies that he attracted the interest of Franz I, Maria Theresa's husband, while working in the Schönbrunn gardens. The Emperor commissioned him to produce a systematic catalogue of the plants in the gardens, and in 1754, asked him to voyage to the West Indies to collect tropical plant specimens and live animals for the gardens at Schönbrunn and the royal menagerie. Jacquin set sail on January 1, 1755, and spent the next four years exploring the Antilles and part of South America and diligently amassing plants, natural history specimens, and ethnographica. "Ants damaged Jacquin's herbarium material, and he therefore supplemented his descriptions and notes on the new species with watercolour drawings" (Blunt & Stearn p.175). The project was a great success, and Jacquin's work provided the first solid foundation for European knowledge of the natural history of this area. Upon his return he quickly published an Enumeratio of the plant species of the Caribbean islands; the publication three years later of the present complimentary volume, illustrated with engravings taken from his field sketches and drawings, bought him sudden but lasting fame. BM(NH) II,p.918; Dunthorne 148; Hunt 579; Nissen BBI 979; Pritzel 4362; Sabin 35521; Stafleu & Cowan 3243.