JACQUIN, Nikolaus Joseph von.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Miscellanea Austriaca ad botanicam, chemiam et historiam naturalem spectantia, cum figuris partim coloratis. First edition of this profusely illustrated collection of botanical articles by Jacquin and his friends and colleagues. The highly detailed and beautifully coloured illustrations show plants, flowers, fungi, lichens, and a few insects, including previously undescribed species.The plates were based on drawings by Jacquin (1727-1817) and engraved by Jakob Adam (1748-1811), a Viennese artist known for his small portraits of the royal family. Among the most relevant articles by Jacquin's friends, Hunt highlights "Plantae rariores Carinthiacae" ("The rarer plants of Carinthia"), by Franz Xaver von Wulfen, who carried out extensive fieldwork in the Eastern Alps. The genus "Wulfenia" was baptised in this work by Jacquin in Wulfen's honour.Jacquin was a Dutch botanist who spent much of his career in Vienna, teaching at the university and serving as director of the botanical garden. He worked for five years on a royal commission collecting natural history specimens in the West Indies and Central America, and later published numerous illustrated botanical works.According to the bibliographies, Volume I was not issued before 1779 and Volume II probably late in 1781 or 1782. The series was continued in four additional volumes and a supplement issued as Collectanea austriaca from 1786 through 1796.Provenance: Stephen C. Massey, acquired from Randall House, Santa Barbara, 1989.

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