Details
CLUSIUS, CAROLUS. Rariorum Plantarum Historia... Antwerp: J. Moretus, 1601. Folio, contemporary vellum, somewhat bowed and stained; lacking portrait, appendix and index (which were issued later and often lacking; the index has been supplied in mss. at end), title-page browned at margins, some leaves at end with yellow staining, minor marginal browning and staining. FIRST COLLECTED EDITION, with preliminary leaves as in the Arents copy (i.e. without dedication leaf and with the original "Privilegium" [a cancel in the Hunt copy]). Engraved title-page, numerous woodcuts in text. Hunt 180; Nissen BBI 372; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 1149.
First volume of the collected works of Clusius, completed in 1605 with the Exoticorum (see following lot); this edition contains the first edition of the Fungorum historia, the first published monograph on fungi; it "makes good the claim that de l'Ecluse should be honoured as the founder of mycology"(Arber). Nissen notes that the manuscript containing the original drawings of this section was mislaid in the Plantin printing establishment before the printing, which explains the less than satisfactory illusatrations. They were later recovered, and Fr. van Sterbeeck used them for his Theatrum fungorum (1675), often mistakenly referred to as the first book on fungi.
Provenance: Early inscription and shelfmark on upper pastedown -- 4-leaf manuscript index at end entitled "Nomenclature de Linné" in a 19th-century cursive hand (dated 1813?), and a biographical note on the author on slip mounted on rear pastedown -- Robert de Belder.
First volume of the collected works of Clusius, completed in 1605 with the Exoticorum (see following lot); this edition contains the first edition of the Fungorum historia, the first published monograph on fungi; it "makes good the claim that de l'Ecluse should be honoured as the founder of mycology"(Arber). Nissen notes that the manuscript containing the original drawings of this section was mislaid in the Plantin printing establishment before the printing, which explains the less than satisfactory illusatrations. They were later recovered, and Fr. van Sterbeeck used them for his Theatrum fungorum (1675), often mistakenly referred to as the first book on fungi.
Provenance: Early inscription and shelfmark on upper pastedown -- 4-leaf manuscript index at end entitled "Nomenclature de Linné" in a 19th-century cursive hand (dated 1813?), and a biographical note on the author on slip mounted on rear pastedown -- Robert de Belder.