Hernández, Francisco (1514-1587).

folio (330 x 218mm.), [16], 916, [2 (unsigned additional leaf of text)], 917-950, [2 (Amico Lectori and Index Tabularum Phytosophicarum)], [22 (indices, vocabulary, errata, etc.)]; 90, 5, [1 (errata)] pp., title printed in red and black, illustration: engraved allegorical vignette on title, engraved additional title (Rerum medicarum Novae Hispaniae thesaurus), approximately 800 woodcuts of plants, animals, birds, insects etc. in text, engraved music (four staves) in text (p.717), binding: contemporary sprinkled calf, spine in compartments with raised bands gilt, without gathering a2 (2 page index; see footnote), I6 torn (without loss), a few leaves with wormholes, some leaves with light spotting or browning, spine ends slightly torn and with a little worming

Nissen BBI 861 and ZBI 1908a; Palau 113538; cf. Hunt 247; Sabin 31516

first published latin edition. "a monument of industry and erudition, the more remarkable as being the first on the subject, and even today it still holds its place as a book of the highest authority" (Hunt).

Hernández, physician to Philip II of Spain, was sent in 1570 to Mexico to study the flora and fauna and to prepare an inventory of the natural products of New Spain. His researches remained unpublished at his death in 1587 and his successor as royal physician, Nardo Antonio Recchi, was entrusted to prepare for the press a suitable abridgement of the mass of materials left by Hernández. Recchi died before he was able to complete the work, but his efforts led to the unillustrated publication, in Mexico City in 1615, of the first book on plants published in the Americas. The present Latin translation, prepared in Rome by the Accademia dei Lincei and richly illustrated with fine botanical woodcuts throughout, was printed in 1628 but very few copies had been distributed when its patron, Prince Federico Cesi, died, leaving the project bankrupt. Publication was revived due to the efforts of Francesco Stelluti and the original sheets were reissued in 1648, 1649, and 1651. Though only a small part of all that he had written, it was here at last that Hernández's work received the recognition that it deserved. Bibliographically, the present volume belongs to the first (published) edition, third issue; however, it retains the three original dedications to Cardinal Barberini which were cancelled in some copies.

This copy contains the unsigned and unpaginated leaf bound between pages 916 and 917 (text headed "Append. ad pag. 917" and on the verso, "Append. ad pag. 918") and is without a two leaf index (gathering a2), which is occasionally found at the end of part 1, but was clearly intended to be replaced by the more complete index that is present. Also, page 110 is correctly numbered, with other errors in pagination being uncorrected.