P. Bellonii Cenomani de arboribus coniferis, resiniferis, aliis quoque nonnullis sempiterna fronde virentibus, cum earundem iconibus ad viuum expressis. Item de melle cedrino, Cedria, Agarico, Resinis, & iis quæ ex coniferis proficiscuntur. Ad illustrissimum dominum Franciscum Oliuarium, Franciæ Cancellarium, virum amplissimum
Paris: Gilles Corrozet, 1553. First edition.
Quarto (7 ¾” x 5 7/8”, 198mm x 149mm): ã4 ẽ4 A-H4 [$3 signed; -ã1]. 40 leaves, foll. [8] (title, privilege, 3pp. dedication, 3pp. preface, contents, 6pp. index, blank) 1-32. With eight woodcut illustrations integral with the text.
Bound in modern stiff marbled paper wrappers.
Moderately and evenly tanned. Worming A1-G1, both to the gutter and to the fore, albeit largely affecting side-notes. Corrozet’s printer’s device upside-down to the title-page.
Pierre Belon du Mans (the protégé of the Bishop of Le Mans (Latin “Cenomanus”), whence the sobriquet; 1517–1564) is the father of comparative anatomy in the modern era. He was skilled not only in biology but in attaching himself to powerful patrons; as apothecary to Cardinal François de Tournon he traveled in the eastern Mediterranean 1546–1549. There he will have been exposed to the evergreen trees for which the Holy Land is famed. These trees (notably Thuja, arborvitae) were also brought to France from North America. In the present slim volume, Belon defines the “conifer” (literally “cone-bearer”) as a class for the first time.
The importance of Coniferae — Belon illustrates the cedar, spruce, pine, pinaster (maritime pine), larch (a deciduous conifer), sapinus (probably silver fir), fir and cypress — and their products to culture and commerce would be difficult to overstate. The various products of colophony (made principally from conifer sap) are used in nearly every field: pitch, used for caulking ships (and the etymon of “pitchers” — jugs and ball-tossers alike); turpentine, the essential solvent in oil painting; rosin, used to make bows grip and vibrate instruments’ strings; resin, used in mummification, the production of medicine, varnishing, flavoring wine (retsina) and the production of amber. Firs, pines and spruces were essential sources for shipbuilding timber (especially masts).
The publication of the work, as was typical of mid-XVIc French books of this sort, was split among three publishers: Gilles Corrozet (as here; remarkably, the printer’s mark is upside-down; could this be a rare “first issue?”), Gauillaume Cavellat and Benoît Prevost. None has precedence.
Adams B555; Nissen, BBI 131 (without imprint).
Item #JLR0863
Price: $5,500