![RHEEDE TOT DRAAKESTEIN, Hendrik Adrian van (1635-1691). Hortus Indicus Malabaricus, continenes regni malabarici apud Indos celeberrimi omnis generis plantas rariores. Edited by Johann Caesar [pts. 1-4], Johann Munnicks [pts. 6-10] and Theodore Janson [pts. 11-12]. Amsterdam: Johann van Someren and Johann van Dyck [and others], 1678-1703 [i.e. 1693].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2002/CKS/2002_CKS_06605_0181_000(045104).jpg?w=1)
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RHEEDE TOT DRAAKESTEIN, Hendrik Adrian van (1635-1691). Hortus Indicus Malabaricus, continenes regni malabarici apud Indos celeberrimi omnis generis plantas rariores. Edited by Johann Caesar [pts. 1-4], Johann Munnicks [pts. 6-10] and Theodore Janson [pts. 11-12]. Amsterdam: Johann van Someren and Johann van Dyck [and others], 1678-1703 [i.e. 1693].
12 parts in 6 volumes, 2° (380 x 255mm). Engraved frontispiece in volumes I and III, 794 numbered engraved plates on 791 sheets by B. Stoopendael after Pietro Foglia, plate 1 after A.J. Goedkint, most plates double-page, with captions in Latin, Sanskrit, Arabic and Malay, text and plates all mounted on guards. (Occasional spots, a few light crease marks and one or two rust-holes to plates, the plates in part 12 lightly browned, some light browning of text in the earlier parts, without the portrait called for by Stafleu and Cowan in pt. 1.) Contemporary Dutch blindstamped vellum with central arabesque, red morocco lettering-pieces (some old stains on covers, spines browned, first vol. with slight split in upper joints, one spine slightly torn near foot, another with dented headband). Provenance: Thomas Boswall of Blackadder (armorial bookplate; some Linnean classifications added in a 19th-century hand either on inserted slips or, very occasionally, pencilled in at foot of plates).
FIRST EDITION OF THIS 'MAJOR FLORA OF INDIA' (Hunt). Governor of Malabar from 1669 to 1676, and from 1864 the chief representative of the Dutch East India Company in India, Draakestein combined botany with his diplomatic duties and, thanks both to the abilities of Pietro Foglia, a Discalced Carmelite also known as Matteus a St. Joseph, to whom the drawings are attributed, and a succession of knowledgable editors and annotators, he succeeded in bringing many tropical and sub-tropical plants before European eyes for the first time. Blunt and Stern call the work 'one of the most celebrated of pre-Linnean books ... an important contribution to the botany and ethnobotany of Southern India' (Art of Botanical Illustration, p. 153). This set is sold with a 19th-century ms index, small folio, 27pp., in wrappers, ex-Massachusetts Horticultural Society Library; and with another unfinished ms index in pencil on 11 loose leaves, both preserved together in a brown cloth portfolio. Arnold Arboretum p. 594; Hunt 267; Nissen BBI 1625; Pritzel 7585; Stafleu and Cowan 9123. (7)
12 parts in 6 volumes, 2° (380 x 255mm). Engraved frontispiece in volumes I and III, 794 numbered engraved plates on 791 sheets by B. Stoopendael after Pietro Foglia, plate 1 after A.J. Goedkint, most plates double-page, with captions in Latin, Sanskrit, Arabic and Malay, text and plates all mounted on guards. (Occasional spots, a few light crease marks and one or two rust-holes to plates, the plates in part 12 lightly browned, some light browning of text in the earlier parts, without the portrait called for by Stafleu and Cowan in pt. 1.) Contemporary Dutch blindstamped vellum with central arabesque, red morocco lettering-pieces (some old stains on covers, spines browned, first vol. with slight split in upper joints, one spine slightly torn near foot, another with dented headband). Provenance: Thomas Boswall of Blackadder (armorial bookplate; some Linnean classifications added in a 19th-century hand either on inserted slips or, very occasionally, pencilled in at foot of plates).
FIRST EDITION OF THIS 'MAJOR FLORA OF INDIA' (Hunt). Governor of Malabar from 1669 to 1676, and from 1864 the chief representative of the Dutch East India Company in India, Draakestein combined botany with his diplomatic duties and, thanks both to the abilities of Pietro Foglia, a Discalced Carmelite also known as Matteus a St. Joseph, to whom the drawings are attributed, and a succession of knowledgable editors and annotators, he succeeded in bringing many tropical and sub-tropical plants before European eyes for the first time. Blunt and Stern call the work 'one of the most celebrated of pre-Linnean books ... an important contribution to the botany and ethnobotany of Southern India' (Art of Botanical Illustration, p. 153). This set is sold with a 19th-century ms index, small folio, 27pp., in wrappers, ex-Massachusetts Horticultural Society Library; and with another unfinished ms index in pencil on 11 loose leaves, both preserved together in a brown cloth portfolio. Arnold Arboretum p. 594; Hunt 267; Nissen BBI 1625; Pritzel 7585; Stafleu and Cowan 9123. (7)
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