Beschreibung:

LOBEL, Matthias de (1538-1616). Plantarum seu Stirpium Historia, ... Cui annexum est adversariorum volumen [-- Pierre PENA (c.1535-1605) and M. de LOBEL. Nova stirpium adversaria ]. Antwerp: Christopher Plantin, 1576.
LOBEL, Matthias de (1538-1616). Plantarum seu Stirpium Historia, ... Cui annexum est adversariorum volumen [-- Pierre PENA (c.1535-1605) and M. de LOBEL. Nova stirpium adversaria ]. Antwerp: Christopher Plantin, 1576. 2 parts in one volume, 2° (299 x 198mm). Part i with title with woodcut architectural border incorporating Plantin device. Full-page woodcut arms of the author by Ahasuerus van Londerseel on A3v. 1,467 woodcut botanical illustrations by Antonii van Leest, Gerard Janssen van Kampen, et al. [ Cleveland count], and 3 pasted-in illustrations on R3r, R4v and m4v. Woodcut initials and letterpress tables in the text. A2r with 8-line initial and catchword 'praeci-'. Part ii title with woodcut architectural border. 310 woodcut illustrations [ Cleveland count], 2 pasted-in illustrations on X6v and Ll2v, and 3 slips with woodcut illustrations tipped onto the margins of A6r, C5r, N3v. Without unsigned leaf following Pp6, found in some copies. (Occasional light spotting, colour-marking from edges or damp-marking, some variable browning, unobtrusive worming in early quires of first work, mainly marginal; pt i: title with short tears, trimmed with small loss, early reinforcements on verso at upper and lower edges, reattached with adhesive tape, Aa2 trimmed at foot slightly affecting text and image, Aa3 torn with marginal loss; pt ii: title creased causing short neatly-repaired tear at head, blank verso of 5*4 laid down onto following blank flyleaf.) Contemporary semi-flexible vellum tooled in silver, covers with central strapwork lozenge, panelled with double-rules with cornerpieces, blind-ruled borders, yapp fore-edges, spine in compartments, titled in manuscript at head, red edges gauffered in gilt (vellum a little marked, scuffed and cockled, minor chipping and rubbing, silver-tooling oxidised, lacking ties, splitting on hinges). Provenance : erased ownership inscriptions weakening paper and causing small tear on first title -- occasional early annotations -- traces of erased inkstamps on 5*2v and 5*4v of second work. FIRST EDITION OF LOBEL'S STIRPIUM OBSERVATIONES AND THE SECOND, ENLARGED ISSUE OF NOVA STIRPIUM ADVERSARIA . Henrey observes of the first edition of Lobel's Nova stirpium adversaria that, 'the chief importance of this herbal lies in its system of classification which is better than that used by any contemporary botanist. The arrangement is based mainly on difference of leaf character, the monocotyledons being placed together at the beginning of the work, thereby foreshadowing their separation from the dicotyledons' (I, p. 28). On these grounds, it may be considered 'one of the milestones of modern botany ... L'Obel was one of the great pre-Linnaean botanists' (DSB VIII, p. 435). The work was first published in London by Thomas Purfoot in 1570-1571; Plantin bought 800 sets of sheets from Purfoot and substituted a new title-page and 36 supplementary leaves, comprising the appendix, Rondelet's Formulae aliquot remediorum , and the indices. Amongst the 5 additional illustrations pasted in by Plantin is 'THE FIRST PUBLISHED ILLUSTRATION OF NICOTIANA TABACUM' (Hunt). The resulting work was then issued with a companion volume, Pena and Lobel's Plantarum seu Stirpium Historia . Adams L-1382 and P-616; Arnold Arboretum p. 437; Cleveland Collections 114-115; Hunt 126-127; NLM/Durling 2829; Nissen BBI 1218; Pritzel 5548; Stafleu and Cowan 4907; Voet 1578, variant B; Wellcome I, 3828.