Details

FUCHS, LEONHARD. Historia de Yervas y Plantas Sacada de Dioscoride Anazarbeo y otres insignes authores. Spanish translation by Juan Jarava. Antwerp: Juan Lacio [for the heirs of Arnold Birckman], 1557. 8vo, 157 x 111mm, contemporary limp vellum, lacking ties, leaves lightly browned, occasional light spotting, title-page defective with part of title and device mounted, some letters supplied in manuscript, Fuchs's name deleted from preface. FIRST EDITION IN SPANISH. 522 woodcut illustrations of plants from 520 blocks, small woodcut initials. NLM/Durling 1683 (var.); Nissen BBI 666; Palau 74030.

RARE. The mutilation of the title-page and deletion of Fuchs's name from the preface are undoubtedly the work of contemporary censors. Fuchs was one of the Protestant authors on the Index, and yet this Spanish edition was one of the few catering for an almost exclusively Catholic audience. The text and woodcuts derive from an abridged version published by Arnold Birckman's widow in 1549. The illustrations are close copies of the Fuchs-Isingrin series used in the octavo Basel editions, which were also published at Paris the same year as widow Byrkman's unlicensed copies. Woodcuts from a Doedens herbal supplement the series here.

Provenance: Kenneth K. Mackenzie; Horticultural Society of New York, bookplate and blindstamp.