Description:
Paris, Simon le Moyne, 1635.4to [226 x 165 mm] of (8) ll. 238 pp. including 68 full-page plates, (1) l. of privilege, lower white margin of the title restored not affecting the text. Full shipskin, spines ribbed and decorated, red morocco lettering-piece, red edges. 18th century binding.
First edition of the first book on the flora of Canada, one of the earliest herbaria in north America. Its importance was recognized by Linnaeus, who still consulted it for his classification work some hundred years after its publication.
Hunt, R.M.M. Botanical books, 227. Hunt 227; Nissen, BBI 406; Pritzel 1894; Stafleu & Cowan 1233.
Imbued with the renaissance herbalist tradition, Canadensium Plantarum Historia is already distinguished by its modern classification: The book contains the very first descriptions of 78 plants of the Canadian flora by the Parisian botanist and physician Jacques-Philippe Cornut (1606-1651).
Cornut was a French botanist and physician who never visited North America, but instead received… Read More