Natural History / Herbals & Medical Plants

ACOSTA, Christoval. 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

CLUSIUS, Carolus (Charles de l’ÉCLUSE). Exoticorum libri decem: quibus animalium, plantarum, aromatum.
[Leiden], Franciscus Raphelengius II (Plantin printing office), 1605. 3 parts containing 6 works in 1 edition. With a letterpress general title-page in an engraved architectural scrollwork border and more than 200 botanical and zoological woodcut illustrations in the text (including 1 full-page).
With: (2) CLUSIUS, Carolus. Curae posteriores.
[Leiden], Franciscus Raphelengius II (Plantin printing office), 1611. 2 parts in 1 edition. With a letterpress general title-page in an engraved architectural scrollwork border and 34 mostly botanical woodcut illustrations in the text. 2 editions in 1 volume. Folio. Portuguese black morocco (ca. 1850?), richly gold-tooled spine, gold-tooled boards, board edges and turn-ins (signed at the foot of the turn-in "M. Gomes"), gilt edges. 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. Gold-tooled brown calf (ca. 1700?). 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

[DRAWINGS - BOTANICAL]. HARST, Leendert Johannes van der. [Collection of 52 botanical watercolour drawings, mostly signed "v.d. H."].
[Utrecht], 1878-1879, 1893. Collection of 52 drawings, containing 46 watercolour drawings on wove and laid paper (most measuring ca. 31.5 x 20), with plant name, date and signature "v.d. H." added in manuscript, 1 double-page watercolour of grasses, 4 smaller sketches in pencil, and 2 pen and in ink drawings, one showing a cross-section of a live sponge, and the other a small caricature of gentleman (Van der Harst?) standing between animated plants and flowers, smelling a flower. Contemporary portfolio, made from 2 paperboards. Full description

NEES VON ESENBECK, Theodor Friedrich Ludwig. Plantae officinales oder Sammlung officineller Pflanzen.
Düsseldorf, Arnz and Company, [1821]-1833. 4 volumes. Folio. With lithographed title-pages for the plate- and supplement-volumes; in total 552 plates, nearly all hand-coloured. Contemporary red half sheepskin. Full description