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GALLESIO, Giorgio (1772-1839). Pomona Italiana, ossia trattato degli alberi fruttiferi. Pisa: Nic. Capurro, 1817-[1839].
3 volumes, 2o (378 x 330 mm). 163 hand-colored plates, and "Tableau Synoptique du Genre Citrus," plates numbered by hand 1-160, with one additional plate in vol. I after plate 53, 2 additional plates at end of vol. II, plates 145 and 146 double-page, plate 34 is not colored. (Some scattered pale spotting, a few plates with with short marginal tears, mostly marginal, vol. 3 with very light marginal dampstaining along extreme lower margin.) 19th-century brown half morocco and marbled boards, original wrappers bound in vol. III, top edges gilt, others uncut (first vol. rebound with old spine laid down, some light wear to edges). Provenance: Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Stickney Fund (bookplate dated 1890; stamps).
FIRST EDITION OF THE FINEST ITALIAN WORK ON FRUITS. "It is extremely rare and its interest is enhanced by the knowledge that it is one of the few examples outside of England in which aquatint has been used successfully" (Dunthorne). "Before Gallesio began this enormous work, published in fourty-one parts from 1817 to 1839, he had already published his Traité du Citrus, which explains the reason for the lack of oranges and lemons in a catalogue of Italian fruit... Gallesio's fruit garden in Savona was not his main occupation, for he was a lawyer and a civil servant as well as a botanist, whose experiments on the development of varieties of fruit were quoted later by Charles Darwin. Gallesio's Pomona was a major contribution to the study of pomology in Italy" (Raphael Oak Spring Pomona). Dunthorne 118; Great Flower Books p. 57; Raphael Oak Spring Pomona 52; Nissen BBI 683. (3)
3 volumes, 2o (378 x 330 mm). 163 hand-colored plates, and "Tableau Synoptique du Genre Citrus," plates numbered by hand 1-160, with one additional plate in vol. I after plate 53, 2 additional plates at end of vol. II, plates 145 and 146 double-page, plate 34 is not colored. (Some scattered pale spotting, a few plates with with short marginal tears, mostly marginal, vol. 3 with very light marginal dampstaining along extreme lower margin.) 19th-century brown half morocco and marbled boards, original wrappers bound in vol. III, top edges gilt, others uncut (first vol. rebound with old spine laid down, some light wear to edges). Provenance: Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Stickney Fund (bookplate dated 1890; stamps).
FIRST EDITION OF THE FINEST ITALIAN WORK ON FRUITS. "It is extremely rare and its interest is enhanced by the knowledge that it is one of the few examples outside of England in which aquatint has been used successfully" (Dunthorne). "Before Gallesio began this enormous work, published in fourty-one parts from 1817 to 1839, he had already published his Traité du Citrus, which explains the reason for the lack of oranges and lemons in a catalogue of Italian fruit... Gallesio's fruit garden in Savona was not his main occupation, for he was a lawyer and a civil servant as well as a botanist, whose experiments on the development of varieties of fruit were quoted later by Charles Darwin. Gallesio's Pomona was a major contribution to the study of pomology in Italy" (Raphael Oak Spring Pomona). Dunthorne 118; Great Flower Books p. 57; Raphael Oak Spring Pomona 52; Nissen BBI 683. (3)