Rheede | Hortus indicus malabaricus, Amsterdam, 1678-1693, 12 parts in 6 volumes, contemporary armorial vellum

Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede tot Drakenstein, Johannes Casearius and Arnoldus Syen

Hortus Indicus Malabaricus, continens Regni Malabarici apud Indos celeberrimi omnis generis plantas rariores... Amsterdam: (widow of) Joannes van Someren and (heirs of) Joachim van Dyck (and Hendrik and the widow of Dirk Boom), 1678-1703 [i.e. 1693]

12 volumes in 6, folio (leaf size 371 x 250mm.), all leaves on guards, additional engraved titles in parts 1 and 3, woodcut initials and tailpieces, engraved illustrations in preface, 780 engraved plates (mostly double-page) numbered 57+56+64+61+60+61+59+51+87+94+65+79 (totalling 794), 14 plates with more than one number on the sheet, plates 60-61 in part 3 transposed, contemporary Dutch vellum, gilt arms on covers, green morocco lettering-pieces (somewhat faded), red edges, plate 18 in part 2 misbound after plate 8, start of part 2 with slight damp-staining, small creases in plate 27 (part 3), plate 56 (part 7), plates 11 and 27 (part 11), plates 45 (part 7) and 52 (part 10) detached and slightly frayed, plate 50 (part 8) with slight staining, a few single-page plates shaved at fore-edges, plate 36 (part 10) remargined at fore-edge, bindings very slightly soiled and rubbed

FIRST EDITION of this comprehensive survey of the plants of southwest India. Rheede (1636-1691) was a colonial administrator of the Dutch East India Company in Malabar where he organised a detailed survey of the native plants, in particularly those of economic or medical significance, which was undertaken by a considerable number of Dutch botanists and physicians as well as local healers and scholars; one of the main sources for the text was a work owned by the physician Itti Achudan from Kerala, whose contributions to the text were translated from his original Malayalam into Latin. The plants are all given their local names in Sanskrit and Malayalam as well as Arabic and Latin.

The book records not just species that have since become extinct but also the local medical practices, with details of the diseases that a plant may cure and the relevant dosage. It is generally considered an accurate record and representation of the local flora.

LITERATURE:

Cleveland Herbal 267; Nissen BBI 1625; STCN 841195595

PROVENANCE:

Johann Jobst Schmidtmair von Schwarzenbruck (presumably the son of the man of this name, who lived 1611-1647), arms on bindings; Rolle (of Bicton Hall), armorial bookplate, sale of the library of Lord Clinton, removed from Bicton, Devonshire, sale, Sotheby's, 2-3 July 1946, lot 524, £82, to Quaritch