Illustratio Systematis Sexualis Linnæi. An Illustration of the Sexual System of Linnaeus

London: Published and Sold by the Author at his House in Dorset Court near Parliament Street, 1777. 3 volumes. Folio. (20 1/2 x 14 inches). First edition. 104 engraved plates in both hand-colored and uncolored states plus 4 hand-colored engraved plates of botanical details. Engraved allegorical frontispiece, engraved title, preface, subscription list, explanation of classes. Each uncolored plate with an accompanying descriptive letterpress leaf. Unpaginated. Contemporary full calf with roll-tooled gilt foliate, gilt-patterned board edges, bindings uniform across set, seven raised bands forming eight compartments on a richly gilt-patterned spine, gilt-lettered red morocco lettering-piece in second compartment and brown morocco in third, all edges gilt and sprinkled red

Excellent example of Miller's prodigious Linnæan herbal with plates in two states. "An immense work . . . illustrated in a style of unprecedented elegance." [Lettsom]

"More beautiful and more accurate than any since the world began." - Linnæus Miller's esteemed illustrated botanical book on the sexual system of Linnæus was published in twenty parts from 1770 to 1777, with plates issued as completed from 1770 onward. Volume I holds a suite of 104 engraved plates in proof states before letters, all colored in a fine contemporary hand with penciled names at the bottom of each leaf, printed recto with blank versos. Volumes II and III have the same suite of 104 plates, with 53 in Volume II and 51 in Volume III, each with an engraved title and imprint, and each paired with a leaf of descriptive letterpress text. These plates are uncolored with botanical text in Latin and English. An additional four hand-colored engraved plates are at the rear of Volume III. 178 varieties of plant leaves are shown across a total of 212 plates. Miller issued the plates in two states: with letters on the uncolored plates for science, and without letters on the colored plates for aesthetics. The plants themselves were sourced from Dr. John Fothergill's (1712-1780) renowned garden in Essex. Fothergill was an enthusiastic supporter of Miller and served as the superintendent of his book, but refused Miller's attempt to dedicate the work to him, stating that dedications were a "species of literary pageantry." [Lettsom] The text's botanical information was initially overseen by Gowan Knight (1713-1772), the first Principal Librarian of the British Museum and a friend of Fothergill's. According to the list of subscribers, 106 copies were ordered by 83 individuals or institutions. Queen Charlotte subscribed for two copies, while the booksellers P. Elmsley and B. White each took ten. Once the subscriptions had been filled, there were evidently leftover sets of text and colored plates. Henrey records a copy of the work in the Natural History Museum Library with a new 1794 title-page, with R. Faulder as the publisher. This re-set title accompanies a suite of the colored plates made up from what appears to be "the surplus of the plates of the 1777 edition." [Henrey] Miller, born Müeller, was a botanical artist and engraver from Nuremberg who studied with Johann Christoph Weigel and M. Tyroff before moving to England in 1744. He would reside there for the rest of his life. Miller came to the attention of the Swedish biologist Linnæus, the father of modern taxonomy, through the British naturalist John Ellis (1710-1776). Linnæus himself was sent samples of Miller's work for approval and had nothing but praise for the artist. Miller would go on to publish Botanical Tables in 1785 with John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (1713-1792), who served as the Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1762 to 1763. More than a thousand of Miller's original drawings now reside at the Natural History Museum in London. [DNB]

Blunt, p.150. DNB. Dunthorne 207. ESTC T91594. Henrey III, 1153. Lettsom, The Memoirs of John Fothergill, p.106. Nissen BBI 1372. Plesch, p.336. Sitwell, Great Flower Books, p.120. Soulsby 667. Sprague, "John Sebastian Miller's 'Icones Novae'" in Journal of Botany, Vol. 74, pp. 208-209. Stafleu TL2 6482.