DALECHAMPS (Jacques). - Lot 17

DALECHAMPS (Jacques). Histoire générale des plantes, contenant XVIII livres également departis en deux tomes : Sortie Latine de la Bibliothèque de Me Jacques Dalechamps, puis faite Françoise par Me Jean des Moulins, Medecins tres-fameux de leur Siecle. Où sont pourtraites et descriptes infinies plantes, par les noms propres de diverses Nations, leurs especes, forme, origine, saison, temperament naturel, & vertus convenables à la Medecine. Lyon: heirs Guillaume Rouille, 1615. - 2 volumes in-folio, brown basane, gilt fillet framing the boards, ornate ribbed spine, speckled edges (period binding). First posthumous French edition of this important herbarium by the physician, humanist and botanist Jacques Delachamps (1513-1588), translated from the original Latin edition of 1586-1587 by Jean Des Moulins (1530-1622). According to Dezeimeris: "As a botanist, Dalechamps deserves to be cited among the authors who first brought together, in a methodical order, the plants known up to that time; he is one of those who showed the most sagacity in determining the species indicated by the ancients, and he himself made known some one hundred new species" ("Dictionnaire encyclopédique des sciences médicales", 1880, vol. 25, p. 365). The illustrations include over 2,700 figures of plants (fruits, vegetables, shrubs, mushrooms), woodcut in the text. At the end of each volume are tables of names (French, Latin, Greek, Arabic (in Latin alphabet), Italian, Spanish, German, Flemish, Bohemian and English). At the start of the second volume is an interesting list of plants used to treat oneself, followed by those used to "beautify the human body", those for "superfluous humours" and those "suitable for human nourishment". A copy in contemporary binding, from the library of Gabriel Mainssonnat (1690-1765), lawyer at the Presidial Court of Mâcon, whose armorial bookplate appears in the first volume. It later came into the possession of Claude Joudioux, master surgeon in the Beaujolais region, with his handwritten bookplate on the title, dated 1775. The copy also includes old notes giving the Latin names of most of the plants presented. It is also enriched by a 2-page in-8 manuscript on Dalechamps and small handwritten chips by the same hand scattered throughout the volumes. Bindings entirely rubbed, with numerous and sometimes heavy spotting. Covers of second volume missing. White endpaper of first volume partly loose. Folds and creases to title and last leaf of first volume. Minor worm damage and a few light tears on the inner edge of the same title. Discrete wormholes, not serious, but not affecting the text. Scattered foxing. Some light dampening in the second volume. Provenance: Gabriel Mainssonnat, with heraldic bookplates and signatures. - Claude Joudioux, with handwritten bookplate.