Joseph Roques | Plantes usuelles, indigènes et exotiques, Paris, 1802, 2 volumes, contemporary green half morocco

Books from the Library of Henry Rogers Broughton, 2nd Baron Fairhaven

Joseph Roques

Plantes usuelles, indigènes et exotiques, Dessinées et coloriées d'après nature, avec la description de leurs caractères distinctifs et de leurs propriétés médicales... seconde édition. Paris: for the author and for Madame veuve Hocquart, 1809

Second edition, 2 volumes, small 4to (242 x 179mm.), 133 hand-coloured engraved plates (including half-title with wreath surrounded by serpents), contemporary green half morocco, spines with raised bands in five compartments, gilt edges, yellow endpapers, extremities slightly rubbed, spines slightly sunned

The second edition of this collection of descriptions, histories, and medicinal uses for a variety of plants, both indigenous to France and native to other regions. Joseph R. Roques (1772–1850) was a French botanist and physician, serving in military hospitals before becoming one of the most important botanists of his period. He is most well-known for his Phytographie médicale, histoire des substances héroiques et des poisons tirés du règne végétal, and this finely preserved edition of his Plantes usuelles, indigènes et exotiques adds to his corpus of publications on materia medica, for which he combined his knowledge of medecine and botany. 

PROVENANCE:

Charles Lawrence, armorial bookplates

LITERATURE:

Nissen BBI 1674; Stafleu TL2 9496