Natural History / Herbals & Medical Plants

ALBERTUS MAGNUS (pseudo). Liber secretorum ... De virtutibus herbarum: & animalium quorundam. Eiusdemq[ue] liber De mirabilibus mundi: & etiam de quibusdam effectibus causatis a quibusdam animalibus &c.
(Colophon: Venice, Johan Baptist Sessa, 12 February 1502). Small 4to (21 x 15.5 cm). With a large woodcut portrait of the author at his desk. Gold-tooled maroon morocco (ca. 1870/90?) for James Carnegie, 9th Earl of Southesk (1827-1905), gilt edges. Full description

BARLAEUS, Caspar. Rerum per octennium in Brasilia, et alibi gestarum, sub praefectura illustrissimi Comitis J. Mauritii, Nassauiae, etc. comitis, historia. Cui accesserunt Gulielmi Pisonis Medici tractatus 1. De aeribus, aquis & locis in Brasilia. 2. De arundine saccharifera. 3. De melle silvestri. 4. De radice altili mandihoca.
Kleve, Tobias Silberling, 1660. Small 8vo (15.5 x 10 cm). With frontispiece, portrait of Johan Maurits, coat of arms of Johan Maurits, 3 folding maps and 5 folding views, all engraved. Contemporary vellum. Full description

BAUHIN, Jean and Jean Henri CHERLER. Historia plantarum universalis.
Yverdon, 1650-1651. 3 volumes. Folio. With 3 engraved and 3 letterpress title-pages and 3577 woodcut illustrations in text. The first engraved title-page contains the portraits of the great botanists, with the portraits of Bauhin and Cherler below. Contemporary blind-tooled vellum. Full description

BOERHAAVE, Herman. Historia plantarum, quae in horto academico Lugduni-Batavorum crescunt cum earum charecteribus[!], & medicinalibus virtutibus.
London [printed in the Netherlands], "sumptibus Societatis" [the Royal Society?], 1738. 2 volumes bound as 1. Large 12mo. 18th-century calf, gold-tooled spine. Full description

BUCHHAVE, Rudolph. Observationes circa radicis gei urbani, sive caryophyllatae vires in febribus, praecipue intermittentibus aliisque morbis.
Copenhagen, Thiele, 1781. 8vo. With engraved folding plate of the Geum Urbanum. Contemporary half calf. Full description

COLONNA, Fabio. [In Greek: Phytobasanos] sive plantarum aliquot historia in qua describuntur diversi generis plantae veriores, ac magis facie, viribúsque respondentes antiquorum Theophrasti, Dioscoridis Plinii, Galeni, aliorúmque delineationibus, ab aliis hucusque non animadversae. ... etiam piscium aliquot, plantarúmque novarum historia eodem auctore.
Naples, Horatio Salviani, Jacobus Carlino and Antonius Pace, 1592. 4to. With Salviani's woodcut device on title-page, 37 full-page etched botanical and ichthyological illustrations on integral leaves (8 x 13 cm), 33 of plants & 4 of fish and other marine species, each in a border built up from cast fleurons and rules, dozens of woodcut decorated initials (4 series) and further decorations built up from cast fleurons. Set in roman types with the preliminaries in italic and several passages in Greek. Gold-tooled brown calf (ca. 1700?), sprinkled edges. Full description

COMMELIN, Caspar. Horti medici Amstelaedamensis plantarum usualium catalogus.
Amsterdam, [1724]. 12mo. With engraved frontispiece by Jan Goeree showing the gates to the Hortus Medicus and a woodcut Amsterdam coat of arms on the title-page. 18th-century boards covered with red paste-paper. Full description

COSTA, Cristóvão da (Cristóbal ACOSTA). Trattato ... della historia, natura, et virtu delle droghe medicinali, & altri semplici rarissimi, che vengono portati dalle Indie Orientali in Europa, con le figure delle piante ritratte, & disegnate dal vivo poste a' luoghi proprii. Nuovamente recato dalla Spanuola nella nostra lingua.
Venice, Francesco Ziletti, 1585. 4to. With 45 nearly full-page woodcuts of plants, 2 nearly full-page woodcuts of two Indian elephants. A few woodcuts of plants (leaves) have been simply coloured by a contemporary hand. Recased in early limp sheepskin parchment. New endpapers. Full description

DE BEUNIE, Joannes Baptista. Antwoord op de vraege welk zyn de profytelykste planten van dit land, ende welk is hun gebruyk zoo in de medicynen als in andere konsten.
With:
(2) DU RONDEAU, François. Mémoires sur la question: quelles sont les plantes les plus utiles des Pays-Bas, & que lest leur usage dans la medicine & dans les arts.
(3) DE BEUNIE, Joannes Baptista. Antwoord op de vraege welk is de beste ende onkostbaerste maniere van vlasse gaeren ende andere vegitabile stoffen swert te verwen, …
Brussels, Antonius d’Ours, 1772. 3 works in 1 volume. 4to. Modern blue paper wrappers. Full description

[GAVELLI, Niccolo]. Storia distinta, e curiosa del tabacco concernente la sua scoperta, la introduzione in Europa, e la maniere di coltivarlo,...
Pesaro, Niccolo Gavelli, 1758. 8vo. With the title-page in first issue with “copiosa” (for “curiosa”) corrected with a slip reading “cur” pasted over the first three letters. Contemporary gold-tooled calf. Full description