Historia Botanica Practica:

£5,000 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

noble provenance The uncommon first edition of this important work, 'one of the most beautiful and important Italian herbals of the eighteenth century' (Heirs of Hippocrates 818), splendidly illustrated with 68 engraved plates depicting 544 species. This copy with distinguished provenance, the binding bearing the gilt arms of the German-born Danish politician and diplomat Adam Gottlob von Moltke (1710-1792), a favourite of King Frederick V of Denmark-Norway, as well as the bookplate of the prominent Swedish collector Christian Hammer (1818-1905). First edition; folio (42 x 26.5 cm); engraved half-title, vignette title, and 68 plates, bookplates, a little light spotting, mainly at the edges, and some mild spots of dampstain affecting late leaves; contemporary speckled calf rebacked with the original spine laid down, spine elaborately gilt in compartments with floral tools, red morocco label, heraldic crest to boards gilt, marbled endpapers, edges dyed red, free endpapers lacking, corners and edges of boards repaired Nissen BBI 1406; Hunt 1744; Heirs of Hippocrates 818.

• Binding: Hardcover

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