Details
BELON, Pierre (1517-1564). De arboribus coniferus. Paris: Benôit Prevost, 1553.
4o (212 x 160 mm). 8 woodcuts in text. (Some staining, small wormhole at lower margin, not affecting text.) Contemporary vellum (some minor staining, front cover bowing).
FIRST EDITION of one of the earliest botanical works devoted to a single genus of plants. Belon "enriched the biological sciences by new observations and contributed greatly to the progress of the natural sciences in the sixteenth century. His learning was not derived solely from books. He was one of the first explorer-naturalists; and between 1546 and 1550 he undertook long voyages though Greece, Asia, Judaea, Egypt, Arabia, and other foreign countries" (DSB). He made numerous important observations and discoveries of the flora and fauna of these Eastern Mediterranean regions and introduced a number of exotic plants from those areas into cultivation in Europe. There are three issues of this work, the others bearing the imprint of Corrozet or Cavellat. Cleveland Collections 73 (Corrozet issue); Wellcome I,758 (Prevost issue).
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FIRST EDITION of one of the earliest botanical works devoted to a single genus of plants. Belon "enriched the biological sciences by new observations and contributed greatly to the progress of the natural sciences in the sixteenth century. His learning was not derived solely from books. He was one of the first explorer-naturalists; and between 1546 and 1550 he undertook long voyages though Greece, Asia, Judaea, Egypt, Arabia, and other foreign countries" (DSB). He made numerous important observations and discoveries of the flora and fauna of these Eastern Mediterranean regions and introduced a number of exotic plants from those areas into cultivation in Europe. There are three issues of this work, the others bearing the imprint of Corrozet or Cavellat. Cleveland Collections 73 (Corrozet issue); Wellcome I,758 (Prevost issue).