Phytographia Curiosa, Exhibens Arborum, Fruticum, Herbarum & Florum Icones.

£4,500 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

First Latin edition, presumed third issue. A good copy only, sold with all faults. 'The illustrations are remarkable for their elegance and originality' (Oak Spring Flora 45). This is perhaps the most handsome and influential botanical of its day, with its near-dreamlike depiction of plants suspended above cityscapes and other backgrounds. Munting (1626-1683), was a Dutch botanist and botanical artist, the son of Henricus Munting (1583-1658). He studied under his father and at the universities of Franeker, Utrecht and Leiden, also spending two years in France where he obtained an M.D. degree in Angers. Returning to Groningen in 1651, he joined the staff at the Rijkshogeschool Groningen, which eventually became the University of Groningen. Here he taught for 24 years as professor of botany and chemistry. On his father's death he assumed management of the Hortus Botanicus Groninganus, from 1658 to 1683. His botanist friends sent him seeds from the Dutch East- and West Indies, Africa and the Americas. His daughter, Hester, died after eating Deadly Nightshade from the Garden. Munting subsequently developed a particular interest in the medicinal uses of plants. The present work, Munting's best known, was first published in Dutch as Naauwkeurige Beschryving Der Aardgewassen (1696). Illustrated were trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses of temperate zones, with some tropical and subtropical plants that had been introduced to the Netherlands. First Latin edition, presumed third issue;

• Binding: Hardcover

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