95 - DODOENS (R.).

DODOENS (R.). A History of Plants containing a complete description of herbs—that is, their species, form, names, temperament, virtues, and effects—not only of those that grow in this country, but also of foreign ones used by physicians. Antwerp: Jean Loë, 1557. 6 parts and a supplement titled “Petit Recueil, containing a description of certain gums and liquors, derived from both trees and herbs […]” bound in 1 large quarto volume, red morocco, richly decorated ribbed spine, triple gilt fillet framing the covers, gilt roulette on the edges, wide gilt interior border, gilt edges (17th-century binding). [1] 11 unnumbered folios, 584 pp., 18 unnumbered folios (continuous pagination). The only edition of Charles de l’Escluse’s French translation of Dodoens’s *Cruÿdeboeck*. It is illustrated with a beautiful frontispiece and 798 in-text figures, all woodcuts. It contains the same woodcuts—most of which had already been used in Michael Isingrin’s octavo editions of Fuchs’s *De historia stirpium*—as well as 133 previously unpublished woodcuts. Dodoens was “the first of the great Flemish botanists” (Hunt, p. 77), and although his works were still organized according to the traditional Dioscoridean classification, he was the first to focus on the plants of the Netherlands. His work had a major influence in England, particularly thanks to Henry Lyte’s English translation of the present French version, first published in 1578. A fine copy in old morocco leather. Some minor wear or restoration, a few minor interior defects, including a stain on the frontispiece title page.