Exotic fruit trees and bargain books, or website updated (June 25)

Today, lovers of antiquarian books with a taste for the prunus avium will find it hard to find a place more to their liking than ‘t Goy, the picturesque little village in the middle of the Netherlands that harbours Antiquariaat FORUM. Since last week, virtually every fruit grower in the area has out a sign inviting people to sit down in the orchard and eat cherries. From personal experience, we can say that they taste lovely this year. However, if you happen to be interested in fruits that are more exotic, we just as happily recommend you Johannes Franciscus van Sterbeeck’s Citricultura, oft Regeringhe der Uythemsche Boomen, te weten Oranien, Citroenen, Limoenen, Granaten, Laurieren, en andere, one of the forty works that is new to our online inventory!

Van Sterbeeck (1631-1693) was a Flemish priest and botanist who is best known for his Theatrum fungorum (1675), the earliest monograph on fungi ever published. A presentation copy by the author himself of this groundbreaking work can also be found on our website. His Citricultura (1682), on the cultivation of exotic fruit-trees, such as orange-, lemon- and lime-trees, is equally important, but it does not have the same reputation as it was published after Jan Commelin’s Nederlantze hesperides. Commelin (1629-1692), a well known Amsterdam botanist, however, based part of his work on notes he had borrowed from Van Sterbeeck. Consequently, Van Sterbeeck begins his own work explaining that part of his research has already been published by his ‘good friend’ Commelin. The work contains 14 beautiful designed folding plates based on those by the Italian botanist Giovanni Battista Ferrari (1584-1655), and are finely executed by the German born engraver François Ertinger (1640-1710).

A man who wrote beautifully about the season in which the earth bears fruit, was the Roman poet and philosopher Titus Lucretius Carus, who lived in the first century BC. His De rerum natura (usually translated as On the Nature of Things or On the Nature of the Universe) is worldwide considered as the immortal masterpiece of Epicurean philosophy.

Lo, the rains perish which Ether-father throws
Down to the bosom of Earth-mother; but then
Upsprings the shining grain, and boughs are green
Amid the trees, and trees themselves wax big
And lade themselves with fruits; and hence in turn
The race of man and all the wild are fed.

In the recent acquisitions section of our website you can now find a very interesting edition of this classic epic poem, which is the last work printed by Aldus Manutius. The famous printer had already published De rerum natura in 1500, but the present edition, of January 1515, is, according to Renouard, “cependant bien supérieure à la edition de 1500”. Click here for a full description.

Please visit our recent acquisitions section for these and 38 other items, including a marvellous 18th century silver binding, a beautifully illustrated book containing erotic imagery from the secret cabinet of the King of Naples, and a rare example of Dutch printing on silk.

Finally, we would like to draw your attention to a new section on our website, which we have named Miscellaneous. Here you can find a mixture of modern books, bargains, and more, consisting of over 6,000 titles on a wide range of subjects, including art, literature and travel!