BONELLI, Giorgio (1742-1782), Niccoò MARTELLI, Liberto and Costantino SABBATI. Hortus Romanus. Rome: Pauli Junchi for Jean Bouchard and Jean-Jospeh Gravier, 1772-1793. 8 volumes, large 2° (550 x 390mm). Half-titles, titles in red and black with hand-coloured engraved vignettes. Double-page etched garden-plan Prospectus Horti Romani printed in green, portrait of Pope Clement XIV printed in blue, 4 portraits of Cardinals, ornamental engraved initials, 800 HAND-COLOURED ENGRAVED PLATES of plants and flowers, most by Maddelana Bouchard after Cesare Ubertini and Liberato and Constantino Sabbati. (Some general light spotting, staining or browning to text and plates, small marginal tears to plate 10 in vol. II and plate 15 in vol. VI.) Contemporary Italian red-stained half vellum, spines gilt (scuffed, spines fading, vols. II and V with later endpapers, vol. I without free-endpapers), the set contained, two volumes per box, in four modern black morocco drop-back boxes, with gilt titles and volume numbers on the spines. Provenance : Early sequential shelf-marks on front pastedowns. VERY RARE FIRST EDITION, COLOURED ISSUE, OF ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BOTANICAL WORKS PRODUCED IN 18TH-CENTURY ITALY. SELDOM FOUND COMPLETE. The last three volumes are often missing (British Library copy lacks vol. VIII, the Library of Congress and Hunt Library copies both lack vols. VI-VIII). Nissen cites the prospectus in the University of Heidelberg copy: 300 copies to be printed of which only a few were to be coloured. The actual total number published was almost certainly less. Only one copy of the eight-volume set has appeared at auction since 1975 (the Plesch-de Belder copy, sold in June 1975 [lacking plate 59 and the title of vol. 4], again in 1985 [with title and plate supplied] and more recently Christie's New York, June 1997). The only set recorded as complete appears to be that of the Arnold Arboretum, Massachusetts. Bonelli, physician and professor of medicine in Rome, contributed only a short text following Tournefort's principles of plant identification to vol.I, the remaining volumes were edited by N. Martinelli (professor of botany in Rome), according to the Linnean binomial system, from text and specimens provided by Liberato and Constantino Sabbati. Cleveland Collections 509 (lacks vols.VII-VIII); Dunthorne 45; Great Flower Books p. 51; Hunt 629 (lacks vols. VI-VIII); Nissen BBI 200; Stafleu & Cowan 634. (8)
BONELLI, Giorgio (1742-1782), Niccoò MARTELLI, Liberto and Costantino SABBATI. Hortus Romanus. Rome: Pauli Junchi for Jean Bouchard and Jean-Jospeh Gravier, 1772-1793. 8 volumes, large 2° (550 x 390mm). Half-titles, titles in red and black with hand-coloured engraved vignettes. Double-page etched garden-plan Prospectus Horti Romani printed in green, portrait of Pope Clement XIV printed in blue, 4 portraits of Cardinals, ornamental engraved initials, 800 HAND-COLOURED ENGRAVED PLATES of plants and flowers, most by Maddelana Bouchard after Cesare Ubertini and Liberato and Constantino Sabbati. (Some general light spotting, staining or browning to text and plates, small marginal tears to plate 10 in vol. II and plate 15 in vol. VI.) Contemporary Italian red-stained half vellum, spines gilt (scuffed, spines fading, vols. II and V with later endpapers, vol. I without free-endpapers), the set contained, two volumes per box, in four modern black morocco drop-back boxes, with gilt titles and volume numbers on the spines. Provenance : Early sequential shelf-marks on front pastedowns. VERY RARE FIRST EDITION, COLOURED ISSUE, OF ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BOTANICAL WORKS PRODUCED IN 18TH-CENTURY ITALY. SELDOM FOUND COMPLETE. The last three volumes are often missing (British Library copy lacks vol. VIII, the Library of Congress and Hunt Library copies both lack vols. VI-VIII). Nissen cites the prospectus in the University of Heidelberg copy: 300 copies to be printed of which only a few were to be coloured. The actual total number published was almost certainly less. Only one copy of the eight-volume set has appeared at auction since 1975 (the Plesch-de Belder copy, sold in June 1975 [lacking plate 59 and the title of vol. 4], again in 1985 [with title and plate supplied] and more recently Christie's New York, June 1997). The only set recorded as complete appears to be that of the Arnold Arboretum, Massachusetts. Bonelli, physician and professor of medicine in Rome, contributed only a short text following Tournefort's principles of plant identification to vol.I, the remaining volumes were edited by N. Martinelli (professor of botany in Rome), according to the Linnean binomial system, from text and specimens provided by Liberato and Constantino Sabbati. Cleveland Collections 509 (lacks vols.VII-VIII); Dunthorne 45; Great Flower Books p. 51; Hunt 629 (lacks vols. VI-VIII); Nissen BBI 200; Stafleu & Cowan 634. (8)
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
