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THEOPHRASTUS (ca. 371-ca. 287 B.C.). De historia et causis plantarum. Translated from Greek intro Latin by Theodorus Gaza (fl. 1400-75), edited by Georgius Merula (d. 1494). Treviso: Bartholomaeus Confalonerius, 20 February 1483.
Chancery 2o (291 x 192mm). Collation: A-H8 I-L6; a8 b6 c-h8 i-k6 (A1 blank, A2r-A2v translator's dedication to Pope Nicholas V, A2v-A4v translator's preface, A4v-K6r Historia plantarum, K6v letter of Georgius Merula to Dominicus Sanuto, L1r-L6v table; a1r-k6r De causis plantarum, k6r colophon, k6v blank). 155 leaves (of 156, without A1 blank). 41 lines, table in two columns. Nine- to two-line initial spaces, most with printed guide letters. Printed shoulder notes to De causis plantarum. (First leaf browned and stained with two tiny holes in lower blank margin, faint dampstain in lower margins, a few other spots and stains.) 18th-century mottled paper sides, calf spine and corners renewed (some wear). Provenance: marginalia of the 15th-16th century in Historia plantarum (cropped); 17th-century monastic ex libris (cropped inscription, A2r); "Cast. Lovat." (ink stamp, a2r); Baron Horace de Landau (bookplate).
RARE FIRST EDITION of the first work of scientific botany. Theophrastus was Aristotle's associate, his successor as head of the Peripatetic School, and heir to his library. His treatises on plants, written as counterparts to Aristotle's works on animals, came to be regarded as part of the Aristotelian corpus; their original Greek texts were first printed in the Aldine edition of Aristotle's works (Norman 70).
The Historia plantarum is concerned with the description, classification, and analysis of plants; De causis plantarum with subjects such as generation and propagation, the effects of natural factors and cultivation, seeds, and generation and death. The Historia plantarum describes more than 500 varieties of plants according to a primitive classification scheme that held into the sixteenth century, and offers a description of germinating seeds that was the clearest and most accurate before Malpighi's study in the seventeenth century (Norman 1430). Book IX of the Historia includes a discussion of the medicinal properties of plants, making the work one of the earliest surviving herbals.
Theodore Gaza, a Greek resident in Italy, translated not only Theophrastus on plants but also Aristotle's De animalibus (Norman 69). Both were commissioned by Pope Nicholas V (1448-55), a patron of scholars, whose ambition was to set up a library that included Greek texts in Latin, as Gaza remarked in the dedication to Theophrastus.
Goff T-155; BMC VI, 894 (IB. 28409); HC 15491*; Klebs 958.1; Proctor 6480; Dibner Heralds of Science 18; GM 1783; Stillwell Science 533, 702; Norman 2066.
Chancery 2
RARE FIRST EDITION of the first work of scientific botany. Theophrastus was Aristotle's associate, his successor as head of the Peripatetic School, and heir to his library. His treatises on plants, written as counterparts to Aristotle's works on animals, came to be regarded as part of the Aristotelian corpus; their original Greek texts were first printed in the Aldine edition of Aristotle's works (Norman 70).
The Historia plantarum is concerned with the description, classification, and analysis of plants; De causis plantarum with subjects such as generation and propagation, the effects of natural factors and cultivation, seeds, and generation and death. The Historia plantarum describes more than 500 varieties of plants according to a primitive classification scheme that held into the sixteenth century, and offers a description of germinating seeds that was the clearest and most accurate before Malpighi's study in the seventeenth century (Norman 1430). Book IX of the Historia includes a discussion of the medicinal properties of plants, making the work one of the earliest surviving herbals.
Theodore Gaza, a Greek resident in Italy, translated not only Theophrastus on plants but also Aristotle's De animalibus (Norman 69). Both were commissioned by Pope Nicholas V (1448-55), a patron of scholars, whose ambition was to set up a library that included Greek texts in Latin, as Gaza remarked in the dedication to Theophrastus.
Goff T-155; BMC VI, 894 (IB. 28409); HC 15491*; Klebs 958.1; Proctor 6480; Dibner Heralds of Science 18; GM 1783; Stillwell Science 533, 702; Norman 2066.