De Florum Cultura Libri IV

Rome: Stephanus Paulinus, 1633., 1633. small 4to. pp. 5 p.l., 522, [15]index. engraved title & 46 engraved plates, all included in pagination. 2 woodcut initials. contemporary vellum (some light to moderate foxing, some plates & leaves lightly embrowned, small wormholes in spine – spine expertly relined, new endpapers). label on verso of engraved title of the Society of Jesus, Grenoble. First Edition of this beautifully illustrated work on flowers and horticulture, dedicated by the author to Francesco Barberini, Italian cardinal, founder of the celebrated Barberini Library, and librarian of the Vatican. Among the plates are seven fine allegorical engravings by J.F.Greuter, and Claude Mellan, after drawings by Pietro Berettini da Cortona, Guido Reni, and Andrea Sacchi, several showing garden designs (parterres), gardening equipment and vases, and the majority, depicting various species of flowers and floral arrangements, attributed to Anna M.Vaiani. Ferrari was in charge of the luxurious Barberini gardens on the Quirinale in Rome, and his work contains listings, descriptions, and illustrations of the many species of flowers cultivated there including rare exotics: Egyptian papyrus, tulips, irises, peonies, tamarind, passion flowers, jasmines, large ‘Canadian’ strawberries, tuberose, amaryllis, belladona, lilies, roses, &c. The work is also of interest for the information it provides on Italian seventeenth-century taste and method in flower arrangements, on the origin of the Roman custom, which still exists, of making mosaics of flowers for Church festivals, on the fashion for crystallizing flowers in sugar, on the method of distilling essences, which were used as scents and as flavourings for refreshments, and on garden design of the period. Ferrari discusses Francesco Caetani’s method of arranging flowers to create the effect of a coloured carpet at different seasons of the year (the plan on p. 217 shows Caetani’s famous garden near Cisterna), provides illustrations of specimen designs for parterres, and advises following Caetani’s method of keeping carefully drawn-up lists of all bulbs and other plants growing in them. (See Masson, Italian Gardens, London: 1966, pp. 182-84)Hunt I 222. Nissen BBI 620. Pritzel 2877.. 1st Edition.