A.P. de Candolle and P.-J. Redouté | Plantarum succulentarum historia, Paris, 1799, 2 vols, contemporary red morocco

Augustin Pyramus de Candolle and Pierre-Joseph Redouté

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

2 volumes, 4to (335 x 249mm.), 121 stipple-engraved plates, printed in colours and hand-finished after Pierre-Joseph Redouté and Henri-Joseph Redouté, 2 letterpress titles, descriptions of each plate, and list of plates to each volume, contemporary manuscript corrections pasted in lists of plates in both volumes, contemporary red morocco gilt, gilt edges, brown endpapers, scattered spotting, extremities browned, binding rubbed

Renowned for being Redouté's first major work as an illustrator, this was also the first major botanical work to rely on colour-printed plates. The project was initiated by Charles-Louis l'Heritier 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."

LITERATURE:

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

PROVENANCE:

Noted in the Bakeham House library inventory, 1937