Hortus Cliffortianus

Hortus Cliffortianus Plantas exhibens quas In Hortis tam Vivis quam Siccis, Hartecampi in Hollandia, coluit vir nobilissimus & generosissimus Georgius Clifford juris utriusque doctor, Reductis Varietatibus ad Species, Speciebus ad Genera, Generibus ad Classes, Adjectis Locis Plantarum natalibus Differentiisque Specierum. Cum tabulis æneis. Auctore Carolo Linnæo, Med. Doct. & Ac. Imp. N. C. Soc.

Hardcover. Zustand: Very good. First. THE TIXALL-FAIRHAVEN COPY OF "THE CENTRAL VOLUME IN BOTANICAL LITERATURE" First edition. Amsterdam: [no publisher,] 1737 (but 1738). Folio (16 ¼" x 9 13/16", 412mm x 249mm). [Full collation available.] With 37 etched-engraved plates by Wandelaar: an allegorical frontispiece and 36 botanical plates (of which 20 are after Ehret). THE TIXALL-FAIRHAVEN COPY OF "THE CENTRAL VOLUME IN BOTANICAL LITERATURE" First edition. Amsterdam: [no publisher,] 1737 (but 1738). Folio (16 ¼" x 9 13/16", 412mm x 249mm). [Full collation available.] With 37 etched-engraved plates by Wandelaar: an allegorical frontispiece and 36 botanical plates (of which 20 are after Ehret). Bound in contemporary mottled calf. On the spine, six raised bands. Title gilt to red morocco in the second panel. Gilt roll to the edges of the boards. All edges of the text-block sprinkled red. Small losses to the head- and tail-pieces. Rubbing to the extremities, with some wear to the fore-corners. Mildly foxed throughout, with a passage of tanning at Ffffff1-2. Damp-stain to the lower edge of Ggggg1-Iiiiii2 (not affecting the text). Book-label of Tixall Library, and the armorial bookplate of Henry Rogers Broughton, 2nd Baron Fairhaven, to the front paste-down. Carl Linné (von Linné from his ennoblement in 1761; Latinized Carolus Linnæus, 1707-1778) was the ultimate taxonomist, the father of modern natural science, princeps botanicorum (prince of botanists). Against a national patchwork of descriptions of living things -- often but not always in Latin, and usually in full sentences describing the qualities of the creature -- Linnaeus perfected the system of binomial nomenclature. With two Latin words, scientists could communicate internationally and be assured that they were referring to the same creature; this allowed the collaboration and rapid development that made the XVIIIc the greatest in the development of biological knowledge. The present work is Linnaeus's first published account of plants from around the world, demonstrating that they all could be described using the system he laid out in his twelve-page Systema naturæ (1735). The work is based on the botanical holdings of George Clifford III (1685-1760), an Anglo-Dutch banker who had risen to a directorship of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). His summer estate at Hartekamp benefitted from his global connections, and his gardens came to include four hothouses to cultivate his exotic specimens -- per the title, both living and dried -- including the first banana tree grown indoors. Clifford brought on the young naturalist to apply the binomial system to his holdings. The work is important (the Hunt catalogue calls it "the central volume in botanical literature") not only for being the first widespread application of the system to plants but also for being so richly illustrated with engravings by Jan Wandelaar (1690-1759), including a richly allegorical frontispiece: Apollo (with, it is said, the face of Linnaeus) casting off the veil of ignorance from Mother Earth. Twenty of the thirty-six engravings are after the greatest of all XVIIIc botanical illustrators: Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708-1770). W.T. Stearn, the great XXc botanist, claims that the Hortus Cliffortianus "marks the beginning of a new era in botanical illustration and foreshadows the golden century of great flower-book production which extended from about 1760-1860" (apud Hunt). The label of the library at Tixall in Staffordshire points to the Hon. Thomas Clifford (1732-1787) and by descent to Sir Frederick Augustus Talbot Constable, 3rd Baronet of Constable Burton, in whose sale at Sotheby's London the present item was offered on 6 November 1899. Henry Rogers Broughton (1900-1973) amassed one of the great collections of natural history books and art. The present volume was bought from the first part of his sale (Sotheby's London, 18 May 2022, lot 139). Hunt 504; Nissen, BBI 1215; Pritzel 5408; Sitwell, Great Flower Books p. 115; Stafleu-Cowan 4719. Artikel-Nr. JLR0383

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