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DODART, Denis (1634-1707)
Memoires pour servir a l'histoire des plantes. Paris: De L'Imprimerie Royale, 1676
This is one of the first publications of the Académie des sciences and a monument to the typographic, artistic and scientific skills assembled under the aegis of the Academy by Louis XIV’s far-sighted and energetic minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683). Perhaps the finest botanical engravings ever produced and 'one of the great books in the history of botanical illustration, where all the technical resources of engraving were utilized in presenting the plants as accurately as possible' (Hunt). The engraved frontispiece shows a meeting of the Academy in the Royal Library at Versailles, with Louis XIV (1638-1715) and Colbert present. Hunt 343.
Folio (565 x 411mm). Printed title with armorial vignette, engraved head- and tailpiece, engraved initial, text in French, 39 unnumbered very fine full-sheet engraved plates, captioned in Latin and French, accompanied by leaf of text, 28 engravings after Nicolas Robert and 11 engravings after Abraham Bosse engraved frontispiece of the Académie Royale des Sciences by and after Sebastien Le Clerc and printed by Goyton (some light spotting, finger-soiling and faint browning, mostly confined to margins). Contemporary French red morocco with the arms of Louis XIV in gilt, within wide matching foliate borders, spine gilt in seven compartments with crowned monograms, marbled endpapers, gilt edges (lightly rubbed).
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