.jpg?w=1)
Details
ACOSTA, Cristoval (1512-1580) and Garcia da ORTA (c.1500-1568). Tractado de las drogas, y medicinas de las Indias Orientales, con sus plantas debuxadas al bivo. Burgos: Martin de Victoria, 1578.
4° (188 x 130mm). Woodcut title border incorporating arms of Burgos, woodcut portrait of Acosta, and 41 full-page woodcut illustrations of New World plants, 2 full-page woodcuts of elephants, and 3 smaller illustrations of plants, historiated woodcut initials. (Repaired marginal tear in one leaf, minor paper flaw in one leaf, occasional light spotting.) Contemporary limp vellum with yapp edges, title lettered along spine (slight staining). Provenance: a few early annotations -- Pereira Caldas, 'Professor Bracarense' (blindstamp on title) -- Kenneth K. Mckenzie (1877-1934, acquired through Molina of Madrid, 1931, for 650 pesetas, bequest to:) -- Horticultural Society of New York (bookplate, blindstamp, sold as a duplicate to:) -- 'A European Botanical Institute' (sale Sotheby's, 24 May 1982, lot 3).
FIRST EDITION of an influential work by the Portuguese physician and naturalist Cristoval Acosta on oriental plants and their medicinal properties. It is a greatly revised and extended version of Garcia da Orta's important record of Indian plants and tropical medicine, first published at Goa in 1563. The two men met in Goa where they both studied the indigenous flora and their medical uses among the native population. Acosta's work 'clearly surpasses the earlier work in its systematic, first-hand observations of both East and West Indian plants and its illustrations after Acosta's own accurate drawings' (Norman 1). Among the Asian plants illustrated are cinnamon, mango, tamarind, pepper, nutmeg, ginger, cardomom, pineapple, sugar cane and the rubber tree; two woodcuts depict elephants, one of which is shown armed for use in combat. Alden-Landis 587/19; Blunt-Rahael pp.145-48; Garrison-Morton 1819; Hunt 130; NLM/Durling 1064; Pritzel 13; Stafleu-Cowan 23;
4° (188 x 130mm). Woodcut title border incorporating arms of Burgos, woodcut portrait of Acosta, and 41 full-page woodcut illustrations of New World plants, 2 full-page woodcuts of elephants, and 3 smaller illustrations of plants, historiated woodcut initials. (Repaired marginal tear in one leaf, minor paper flaw in one leaf, occasional light spotting.) Contemporary limp vellum with yapp edges, title lettered along spine (slight staining). Provenance: a few early annotations -- Pereira Caldas, 'Professor Bracarense' (blindstamp on title) -- Kenneth K. Mckenzie (1877-1934, acquired through Molina of Madrid, 1931, for 650 pesetas, bequest to:) -- Horticultural Society of New York (bookplate, blindstamp, sold as a duplicate to:) -- 'A European Botanical Institute' (sale Sotheby's, 24 May 1982, lot 3).
FIRST EDITION of an influential work by the Portuguese physician and naturalist Cristoval Acosta on oriental plants and their medicinal properties. It is a greatly revised and extended version of Garcia da Orta's important record of Indian plants and tropical medicine, first published at Goa in 1563. The two men met in Goa where they both studied the indigenous flora and their medical uses among the native population. Acosta's work 'clearly surpasses the earlier work in its systematic, first-hand observations of both East and West Indian plants and its illustrations after Acosta's own accurate drawings' (Norman 1). Among the Asian plants illustrated are cinnamon, mango, tamarind, pepper, nutmeg, ginger, cardomom, pineapple, sugar cane and the rubber tree; two woodcuts depict elephants, one of which is shown armed for use in combat. Alden-Landis 587/19; Blunt-Rahael pp.145-48; Garrison-Morton 1819; Hunt 130; NLM/Durling 1064; Pritzel 13; Stafleu-Cowan 23;
Special notice
This lot will not be subject to VAT either on the hammer price or the buyer's premium.