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CONTANT, Paul (c.1570-1632) and Jacques CONTANT. Les Oeuvres … Divisées en cinq Traictez. 1. Les Commentaires sur Dioscoride. 2. Le Second Eden. 3. Exagoge mirabilium naturae e gazophylacio. 4. Synopsis plantarum cum ethymologiis. 5. Le Jardin & Cabinet Poëtique. Poitiers: Julian Thoereau and window of Antoine Mesnier, 1628.
First edition of a marvelous and rare French Wunderkammer book. Part five, Le Jardin et Cabinet poëtique, had previously appeared in 1609 as the first ever French book to describe a Wunderkammer, but the other parts are all here printed for the first time. The authors, Paul Contant and his father Jacques, were Huguenot apothecaries and collectors who assembled one of the first French cabinets of curiosities. This innovative work includes a commentary of Dioscorides (begun by his father and completed by Paul), a poem on Eden as a "wonder garden," and a catalogue of the Contant cabinet and botanical garden, all with elaborate and emblematic illustrations. Paul, in verse in this volume, describes his collections as a chapter "in the book of the world." In addition to both living and preserved plant, animal, and mineral specimens, the cabinet included fossils and archaeological artefacts from not only Europe and the Mediterranean, but "was particularly strong in ethnographic material from North America" (Fearrington). An important witness to both the content and display of early modern museums. Oak Spring Herbaria 31; see Fearrington, Rooms of Wonder, 6.
Five parts in one, folio (331 x 218mm). General title printed in red and black with engraved armorial. Engraved titles to four of five parts, 11 plates on 7 sheets, engraving of Cedar of Lebanon in text (browning, some spots). Dark green yapped morocco by Rene Aussourd, edges gilt (spine sunfaded, upper yapp splitting).