Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland | Monographie des melastomacées [with rhexies], Paris, 1816-23, 2 vols in 1

Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland

Monographie des melastomacées... melastomes [with ...rhexies]. Paris: Librairie Grecque-Latine-Allemande, 1816-1823

2 volumes in one, folio (530 x 335mm.), text in Latin and French, 120 (60 + 60) stipple-engraved plates, printed in colour and finished by hand, contemporary brown calf-edged boards, spine with raised bands in eight compartments, sprinkled edges, pink endpapers, spotting, rebacked retaining original spine, hinges splitting

This bilingual text, complete with coloured plates of flowering plants, in a fine binding, continues Humboldt and Bonpland's famous series of their international botanical research.

LITERATURE:

Great Flower Books, p. 51; Stafleu TL2 3142

PROVENANCE:

George Wilbraham (1779–1852), MP, FRS, of Delamere, Cheshire, armorial bookplate; sold by Bernard Quaritch, pencil collation to rear endpaper