Flore Medicale by Chaumeton, Chamberet and Poiret - 1814-20: Flore du Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicales

Very good copy of the complete first edition of this classic of Enlightenment medical botany

Seven volumes in eight, edited by Francois-Pierre Chaumeton, Jean-Louis Marie Poiret and Jean-Baptiste de Chamberet.

With 425 hand-coloured stipple engravings by Pierre Jean Francois Turpin and Anne-Ernestine Panckoucke

Engraved by Lambert Jr., Boutelou, Mme. Benoit, Bignant, Mlle. Coignet, Mlle. Cornu, Dien, Dubois, Forget, Gautier, Giraud, Goulot, Guyard, Mlle. Louvier, Massard, Phelipeau, Plee, Poulet, Rebel and Victor.

Francois-Pierre Chaumeton (1775-1819) was a French physician and botanist. While working as a military surgeon with the French Army, he studied botany at Strasbourg in 1805 and later moved to Paris to continue his work as a botanical writer and editor.

Pierre Jean Francois Turpin (1775-1840) was one of the greatest botanical artists of the Napoleonic era, along with Redoute and Bessa. When serving in the French army in Haiti in 1794, Turpin met botanist Pierre Antoine Poiteau and switched careers. His skill as an artist was recognized by botanists such as Poiret, Humboldt, Duhamel du Monceau and Candolle. Turpin provided the majority of the plates for Flore Medicale.

Anne-Ernestine Panckoucke (1784-1860) was a French botanical artist. The wife of publisher Charles Louis Fleury Panckoucke, she studied flower painting under Pierre-Joseph Redoute and contributed 18 very fine illustrations to the Flore Medicale, including the orange, fig, apple, almond, strawberry, peanut, cherry and quince.

In original full calf leather bindings, rebacked with new spines with five raised bands, original leather title and volume labels reapplied, original boards scuffed and scratched, all book blocks solid. Interior with light foxing and age-toning to text and plates as usual, some small wormholes to endpapers, all plates with tissue guards. Plates with different degrees of scattered spotting, but still an attractive set.

Bookplate of Dr. Louis Capette, a surgeon, in volume 1, with manuscript note stating that the set was owned by his grandfather J. Capette (1815-1902). Bookplates of J. Capette and the "Experiment Station Library, HSPA" in all eight volumes.

A classic of botanical art.