Crispin van de Pass | Hortus floridus, 1614, with an original watercolour on vellum by Pass bound in

Crispin van de Pass

Hortus floridus in quo rariorum et minus vulgarium florum icones ad vivam veramque formam accuratissime delineatae. Arnhem (and Utrecht): Apud Ioannum Janssonium, 1614

5 parts in one volume, oblong 4to (185 x 280mm.), allegorical title, allegorical plate, and bible quotation, all engraved, 2 engraved plates of gardens, 174 engraved botanical plates, ADDITIONAL WATERCOLOUR ON VELLUM OF A TULIP BY PASS BOUND IN after part one plate 33, contemporary brown panelled calf gilt, upper cover detached

"Blunt calls this the most celebrated and influential of the early florilegia, and one of the finest" (Hunt), and An Oak Spring Flora considers it "the most popular florilegium ever published". The work was issued in a number of states between 1614 and 1617, and "it is almost impossible to find any two that are identical" (Oak Spring).

LITERATURE:

Cleveland Herbal 160; Hunt 199; Nissen BBI 1494; An Oak Spring Flora 12

PROVENANCE:

Thomas Wentworth (1693-1750), later 1st Marquess of Rockingham, St John’s College, Cambridge, signature dated 1712; William Charles de Meuron, 7th Earl Fitzwilliam, Wentworth Woodhouse, armorial bookplate