Iac. Cornuti doctoris medici parisiensis Canadensium plantarum, aliarúmque nondum editarum Historia. Cui adiectum est ad calcem Enchiridion botanicum parisiense, Continens Indicem Plantarum, quæ in Pagis, Siluis, Pratis, & Montosis iuxta Parisios locis nascuntur
THE FIRST CANADIAN FLORA
THE ESTERHÁZY-GALÁNTHA COPY
Paris: Simon Le Moyne, 1635. First edition.
Quarto (9 1/8” x 6 11/16”, 232mm x 169mm): ã4 ê4 A-Gg4 [$3 signed; –ã3, A2, A3, B1, C3, K3, M3, S3]. 128 leaves, pp. [16] (title, blank, 4pp. dedication, 4pp. to the reader, 4pp. contents, 2pp. laudatory verses) 1-72 79 80 77 78 75 76 73 74 81-96 103 104 101 102 99 100 97 98 105-238, [2] (privilege, errata). With 68 engraved plates integral to the text.
Bound in contemporary vellum. On the spine, traces of manuscript titling at the head, and a pasted paper label (“1574,” likely an accession number) to the tail.
Wear at the spine, with patches of splitting and loss. Front joint strengthened. Mild even peripheral tanning, and the very rare spot of foxing. Slightest worming to the fore-edge from the title-leaf through A4 (mostly two tiny tracks, not affecting the text). Armorial bookplate of Schloss Nordkirchen to the front paste-down. Ink notation “T i” in an old hand to the title-page.
From the explorations of Champlain in the early XVIIc, knowledge of Canada (to the French mind, extending as far south as the Gulf of Mexico) and its seemingly infinite natural wealth and complexity flowed into France, encouraging colonization. The present work (to p. 214) is the first comprehensive account of the flora of Canada (and of the French territory in the modern United States), assembled by Jacques-Philippe Cornut (1606–1651) and illustrated, it is thought, by Pierre Vallet (ca. 1575–1657). Cornut never crossed the Atlantic, but instead describes specimens propagated in the gardens of Henri IV, tended by Jean Robin (with whom Vallet published the Jardin du Roy tres chrestien Henry·IV in 1608) and his son Vespasien. Consequently Cornut himself is not always aware of the source of the plants he describes, and scholars have investigated this to learn about the true explorations of the French, which were sometimes exaggerated or confabulated.[1] Pringle’s article explores plausible sources for these specimens (going right back into the early XVIc), including, perhaps, non-French explorers such as John Smith via John Tradescant.
In all some thirty-eight species from the New World (apparently seven can only have been from the modern U.S.) are described, as are five (all bulbs) from South Africa. The Historia is a crucial landmark of natural history exploration, as well as, in its latter part, the first recorded flora of the region of Paris. These twenty-four pages — the Enchiridion botanicum parisense (“Enchiridion” from the Greek meaning “in the hand:” botanical handbook of Paris) — are described in Hunt as “a pioneer contribution to plant ecology.” Together these two parts make the work an essential early essay of botany.
The armorial bookplate bears the arms of Count Nikolaus Franz Esterházy-Galántha (1804–1885) and his wife Maria von Plettenberg-Mietingen (1809–1861). The Schloss Nordkirchen designation on the bookplate fixes the time from 1833 (their marriage) to perhaps 1885, if the bookplate were used after the countess’s death. Their son (Nikolaus Paul/Miklós Pál) inherited Nordkirchen upon his mother’s death, since it belonged to the Plettenberg branch proper. The count and countess refurbished their library around 1850, and so this book might have come into their collection then.
Alden-Landis 635/37; Harrisse 59; Hunt 227; JCB3 II:255; Nissen, BBI 406; Pritzel 1894; Sabin 16809.
[1] See James S. Pringle, “How ‘Canadian’ is Cornut’s Canadensium plantarum historia? A phytogeographic and historical analysis” in Canadian Horticultural History I.4 (1988), pp. 190–209.
Item #JLR0729
Price: $14,000