细节
THURNEISSER ZUM THURN, LEONARD. Historia sive Descriptio Plantarum omnium, tam domesticarum quam exoticarum. (Berlin: Michael Hentzske, 1578). Folio, 355 x 235 mm., modern quarter vellum, title border cropped, some light spotting at end. FIRST EDITION, roman and italic type with some Greek, Hebrew and Arabic, elaborate woodcut architectural and emblematic title-border, signed PH (Peter Hille), woodcut portrait of the author and of a diety within a repeated woodcut emblematic frame, 36 woodcuts of plants within deocrative borders with inset letterpress names of the plant in Greek, Hebrew, and sometimes Syriac, and the astronomical signs of each plants, astrological diagrams, numerous very small woodcuts throughout of animals, apparatus, anatomical human figures, the woodcuts probably all or most by Peter Hille, large woodcut allegorical device with Thurneisser's arms on colophon page. Adams T-690; Nissen BBI 1963; NLM/Durling 4354; cf. Ferguson II, 451 and Hunt 135 (German edition).
Thurneisser, a proponent of a mystical and astrological interpretation of plants and energetic jack of all trades, was from 1570 to 1584 physician to the Elector of Brandenburg in Berlin, where he set up his own printing press in 1574, printing many of his own works before selling the establishment to Michael Hentzske in 1577. In this eccentric work, the first and only published volume of a projected ten volumes and a complex and successful piece of printing, he set forth his theories of the astrological influences governing plants with ribbed flower heads (Umbellifers), which were thought to be dominated by the Sun and Moon. A German edition appeared later the same year. Although long dismissed as a charlatan, Ferguson points out that Thurneisser's abilities were "unquestionably great..."He was endowed with quickness and...a powerful memory; but he tried to pass as a man of science... when in reality he was a man of action."
Provenance: Kenneth K. Mackenzie; Horticultural Society of New York, bookplate.
Thurneisser, a proponent of a mystical and astrological interpretation of plants and energetic jack of all trades, was from 1570 to 1584 physician to the Elector of Brandenburg in Berlin, where he set up his own printing press in 1574, printing many of his own works before selling the establishment to Michael Hentzske in 1577. In this eccentric work, the first and only published volume of a projected ten volumes and a complex and successful piece of printing, he set forth his theories of the astrological influences governing plants with ribbed flower heads (Umbellifers), which were thought to be dominated by the Sun and Moon. A German edition appeared later the same year. Although long dismissed as a charlatan, Ferguson points out that Thurneisser's abilities were "unquestionably great..."He was endowed with quickness and...a powerful memory; but he tried to pass as a man of science... when in reality he was a man of action."
Provenance: Kenneth K. Mackenzie; Horticultural Society of New York, bookplate.