Flora: Overo Cultura Di Fiori de Ferrari Battista, Giovanni - 1638

Roma: Pier Ant Facciotti, 1638. Small thick quarto, pp (12), 520, [26], illustrated with an engraved title page, an engraved frontispiece (though here bound in after the preliminary pages) and 45 plates (of 46 - lacking the plate which occupied pages 55/56), some age-toning and slight foxing throughout, the plates a bit more browned but without the intense browning often found in this book, overall quite tight internally, one preliminary page and pages 395-398 protruding slightly and a little chipped and frayed at the margins, full vellum binding (probably original), rather used and marked but quite sound and firm, the upper and lower cover a bit warped and bowed, the front hinge cracked but firm and showing traces of old glue. The first Italian edition. [Ferrari 1584 - 1655), was an Italian Jesuit and professor in Rome, and a botanist. He devoted himself till 1632 to the study and cultivation of ornamental plants, and published De Florum Cultura, which was illustrated with copperplates by, amongst others, Anna Maria Vaiani, possibly the first female copper-engraver. The first book deals with the design and maintenance of the garden and garden equipment. The second book provides descriptions of the different flowers, while the third book deals with the culture of these flowers. The fourth book, continues with a treatise on the use and beauty of the flower species, including their different varieties and mutations. The plants featured in Ferrari's research came from Cardinal Francesco Barberini's private botanical garden, the Horti Barberini, a garden which was under the care of Ferrari. Several Cape bulbs are illustrated for the first time - most notably Haemanthus coccinea, but also Amaryllis bella-donna, Brunsvigia orientalis and Ferraria crispa. Hunt Library Catalogue rather downbeat in its comment - "The fame rests more on the quality of the engraved plates than on their contribution to botanical knowledge". Perhaps so, but horticulturally I feel this is a fundamental work for its period. Nissen BBI 620; Pritzel 2877]. Vellum. Good.