Lot 314
Sibbald, Sir Robert.
The Drambuie Collection Part II
Auction: 27 January 2006 at 10:00 GMT
Description
Scotia Illustrata sive prodromus historiae naturalis. Edinburgh: J. Kniblo, J. Solingen and J. Colmar for the Author, 1684, first edition, 3 parts in one volume, folio, woodcut device on title, 21 (of 22) engraved plates on 11 leaves, contemporary calf, spine gilt, without the engraved heraldic plate (as often), neatly rebacked retaining original spine
Footnote
Note: "The first comprehensive attempt to depict the fauna of Scotland." (Anker).
The physician, antiquary and naturalist Sir Robert Sibbald (1641-1722) was chiefly instrumental in founding the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. In 1682 he was appointed physician to Charles II and, at the instigation of his patron, the Earl of Perth, Geographer of Scotland. Scotia Illustrata, his best known and most elaborate work, consists of three parts. The third part, De Plantis Scotiae tam indigenis quam Hortensibus, includes a short chapter on the Edinburgh physic garden, the first botanical garden in Scotland (and the second in the British Isles after Oxford), which owed its inception to Sibbald and Andrew Balfour.
Each of the three parts has its own title-page dated 1684. Plates numbered 9 and 11 appear on a single leaf, and there is no plate numbered 10. Wing S3727; Nissen 3847; Anker 471
Provenance: Robert Davidson, bookplate