[Castelli] | Exactissima descriptio...plantarum... in Horto Farnesiano, 1625, with Collaert's Florilegium, [1590]

Pietro Castelli and Adriaen Collaert

Two works on flowers bound in one volume, comprising:

[Castelli, Pietro]. Exactissima descriptio rariorum quarundam plantarum quae continentur Romae in Horto Farnesiano. Rome: Giacomo Mascardi, 1625, text and illustrations all cut out and inlaid, engraved title-page, woodcut initials, typographical head- and tailpieces, engraved and woodcut illustrations, preliminaries misbound

Collaert, Adriaen. Florilegium ab Hadriano Collaert caelatum, et a Philip Gallaeo editum. [Antwerp, circa 1590], 4to, engraved title-page, 24 engraved plates, each 180 x 128mm., all cut out and inlaid

2 works in one volume, folio (365 x 252mm.), later half calf, spine gilt in compartments

Castelli's work on the plants in the Farnese Gardens in Rome was published under the pseudonym Tobia Aldini of Cesena.

Collaert's collection of floral plates is an early example of engravings of flowers in their own right and the first published use of the word "Florilegium". The second plate depicts Jesus and a woman in a formal garden of parterres, and the third shows a vase full of flowers, an early instance in art of a vase being the main subject of an image. The remaining plates show loosely associated groups of flowers, including roses, thistles, pinks, lilies, irises and marigolds.

LITERATURE:

Castelli: Hunt 208; Nissen BBI 13

Collaert: Hunt 159; Nissen BBI 383