Beschreibung:

COLONNA, Fabio. Minus cognitarum stirpium aliquot, ac etiam rariorum nostro coelo orientium Ekphrasis... item de Aquatilibus aliisque nonnullis Animalibus -- De Purpura ab Animali tetaceo fusa. Rome: Jacob Mascardi, 1616. 4 parts in one volume, 4 o (217 x 155 mm). 3 engraved titles with putti and the Colonna arms, engraved portrait, 152 full-page etchings, of which 131 of plants, the remainder of shells, marine life, insects and a hippopotamus, each with etched caption in Latin and Greek, set within type ornament borders. (Lacks half title?, third part with engraving on H1 in contemporary reprinting pasted over illustration, scattered light foxing, a few short marginal tears.) 19th-century Italian vellum, spine gilt, with gilt lettered red and green morocco spine labels, gilt edges. Provenance : Massachusetts Horticultural Society, presented by Albert C. Burrage (bookplate, dated 1935). FIRST COLLECTED EDITION. Second edition of parts 1-2, First Edition of the Pars Altera and De Purpura. "In discussing the illustrations, the two works [this and the presiding lot] my be considered together, for the plates of 1616 show no appreciable advance upon those made for the Phytobasanos in 1592. They are execuded in pure etching... Moreover, they are botanically accurate, with separate details of flowers and fruit frequently shown" (Blunt & Stearn). Blunt and Stearn, pp. 100-101; Brunet II, 172-3; Nissen BBI 385; Pritzel 1823; De Purpura : Nissen ZBI 927.