Lot 82
Alpinus, Prosper.
Rare Books, Manuscripts & Photographs
Auction: 16 January 2008 at 11:00 GMT
Description
De plantis Aegyptis liber...De balsamo, dialogvs [etc.]. Venice: Francesco Franceschi, 1592. First edition, 4to., ff. [iv] 80 [viii], woodcut printer's device on main title [repeated on second], many woodcuts of plants, mostly full-page and in good clean impression, woodcut initials and ornaments, later half vellum, slight marginal foxing, 4 ll. with marginal repair at upper outer corner affecting only page numbers
Footnote
Note: First edition of the first work, and the second of the Dialogue on Balsam, which had appeared separately in 1591. Alpinus combined a medical training with a deep interest in botany, and resolved to travel in search of the vegetable sources of balm or balsam. 'De plantis Aegiptis' discusses and illustrates c.50 species of Egyptian flora, 23 of them never previously described by any European writer and all of which Alpinus had personally examined. These latter include the coffee plant, which had only once before even been referred to in a printed book; and the description and drawing of the papyrus and cotton plants are the first ever to be printed.
BM STC It. p. 20. Adams A 803. Wellcome 234. Harvard It. C16th. Books 17