Candolle, Augustin Pyramus de

Plantarum succulentarum historia, ou Histoire naturelle des plantes grasses. Paris: Didot, 1799 –[1805]



2 volumes bound in 1, 4to (13 1/8 x 9 ¾ in.; 333 x 248 mm). 121 stipple-engraved plates, printed in colors and hand-finished after Pierre Joseph Redouté & Henri Joseph Redouté, with tissue guards, 2 letterpress titles, descriptions of each plate, and list of plates to each volume; scattered light marginal spotting. Contemporary olive straight-grain morocco, gilt-ruled in a panel design with stylized floral roll-tools in blind in the frames, and gold-stamped floral corners around central panel, spine richly gilt, edges gilt;  joints, edges and corners rubbed, a few scrapes.

M. Russell (signature on title)

Dunthorne 241; Hunt, Redouteana, 6; Nissen BBI 321; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 983

Redouté's first major work as an illustrator, the first major botanical work to rely on color-printed plates. The project was initiated by Charles-Louis l'Héritier de Brutelle (1746-1800). When Redouté began work on the drawings, the young Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle was drafted to write the descriptions of each species.

The original edition was published in 28 fascicles between 1799 and 1805 containing 180 plates, at which point publication stopped. Guillemin resumed the work in a quarto edition with another three fascicles containing 19 plates. There is tremendous variation in the contents of different copies. Stafleu & Cowan write: "There are hardly any identical copies. Very often plates are lacking, but ... a huge number of 'variants' exist."