BLACKWELL, Elizabeth (c.1700-1758). Herbarium Blackwellianum emendatum et auctum id est Elisabethae Blackwell Collectio Stirpium quae in Pharmocopoliis ad Medicum usum asservantur. Edited by Christoph Trew [and others]. Nuremberg: Christian de...

BLACKWELL, Elizabeth (c.1700-1758). Herbarium Blackwellianum emendatum et auctum id est Elisabethae Blackwell Collectio Stirpium quae in Pharmocopoliis ad Medicum usum asservantur. Edited by Christoph Trew [and others]. Nuremberg: Christian de Launoy, vol. V: heirs of Christian de Launoy, vol. VI: J.J. Fleischmann], 1757-1754-1773.

The expanded German edition of Elizabeth Blackwell's A Curious Herbal, with superb plates by Nikolaus Eisenberger (1707-1773) divided into six 'centuria.' Christoph Trew (1695-1769) was the inspiration behind the project, writing the substantially expanded text for the first 90 plates; the text was then continued by Georg Rudolph Bohmer (1723-1803) and Ernst Gottlob Bose (1709-1773), both leading botanists from Leipzig, under the editorship of Christian Gottlieb Ludwig (1709-1773), who was himself assisted by F.A.G. Knolle in the production of the text to the final volume. Eisenberger worked exclusively from his own paintings, including just over 100 completely new images, as well as reworked versions of Blackwell's plates with added details of flower parts and fruits. The production history was complex, so that it is impossible to define a bibliographically 'ideal' copy, and there is no standard collation. The title-page of vol. I in the present set has a publication date of 1757 which matches complete 'publisher's' copies, as distinct from 'subscribers' copies with a date of 1747. Cleveland 444; Great Flower Books (1990) p. 75; Nissen BBI 169; Pritzel 812; Stafleu 546; Wellcome II, p. 174.

6 volumes, folio (355 x 232mm). Parallel titles and text in German and Latin. 6 hand-coloured engraved frontispieces, heightened in gold, 615 fine hand-coloured engraved plates, all but the last few by N.F. Eisenberger, manuscript index inserted in vol. VI (occasional soiling, staining or spotting, repair to corner of pl. 45 in vol. I, engraved title to vol. II with expertly repaired tear without loss, pl. 337 in vol. IV torn and more clumsily repaired, a few other very minor marginal tears). 20th-century cloth-backed marbled-paper covered boards, morocco gilt spine labels (extremities faintly rubbed).

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