Piso, Willem (1611-1678) and Georg Marggraf (1610-1644).

Estimate

3,000 - 4,000 GBP

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Description

Historia naturalis Brasiliae auspicio et beneficio... I. Mauritii Com. Nassau. Leiden: Franciscus Hackius; Amsterdam: Louis Elzevir, 1648

2 parts in one volume, folio (395 x 253mm.), [10], 122, [2]; [8], 293, [7]pp., illustration: engraved frontispiece, numerous woodcut illustrations in text, woodcut initials, head- and tail-pieces, binding: contemporary vellum, binding soiled

Literature

Borba de Moraes p. 675; Nissen BBI 1533; Sabin 63028; Willems 1068

Catalogue Note

first edition. Described by Borba de Moraes as the most important seventeenth-century scientific work completed in Brazil, this work was written by Piso, physician to the Count of Nassau, and the naturalist Marggraf.

Piso's De medicina Brasiliensi details the herbs of Brazil and their healing powers, local diseases and poisonous reptiles. Marggraf's Historia rerum naturalium Brasiliae describes the plants, trees, animals, insects, marine life and shellfish of Brazil.