JACQUIN, NICOLAUS JOSEPH - [ONE OF 3 HAND-COLOURED COPIES ?]
Selectarum Stirpium Americanorum Historia, in qua ad Linnæanum Systema determinatæ descriptæque sistuntur Plantæ illæ, quas in Insulis Martinica, Jamaica, Dominigo, aliisque, et in Vicinæ continentis Parte, observavit rariores; adjectis Iconibus in solo natali delineatis.
Vindobonæ (Wien), Ex Officina Krausiana, 1763. Folio. Bound in one fine cont. full mottled calf, spine divided in 7 compartments by 6 raised bands. Gilt title in leather. Compartments richly gilt. Spine ends professionally restored. Professionally re-backed preserving the entire back. Internally fine, only a few scattered brownspots. A frontispiece is mentioned by Sabin, but not by Nissen, Pritzel, Graesse and Brunet, and it is not present here. Large engraved title-vignette and 2 engraved vignettes in the text. (8),VIII,(5),284 pp. + Indexes and Explicatio Tabularum (14) pp. and 184 fine engraved plates in original hand-colouring. (Plates signed: jacquin del.) Plates are numbered I-CLXXXIII (183), No. 37 double numb. as listed in the Index, 6 plates are folded in double folio, all.
¶ Extremely scarce first edition of Jacquin's first major work. According to Graesse, Pritzel and Sabin only 3 copies with the plates hand-coloured were produced (Pritzel: "Hujus libri tria tantum sunt exemplaria tabulis coloratis, omnia Vienna." - Graesse: "Il existe 3 ex. avec Fig. col." - Sabin: "Copies with coloured plates are very scarce..." and then citing Graesse). The work is one of the absolutely first detailed accounts of American Botany, describing ab. 60 new West Indian species. The work constitutes the results of Jacquin's travels to the West Indies and South America, initiated by Francis I for the purpose of enlarging the imperial natural history collections. The visit took place during the years 1754-59.
As a botanist Jacquin was the most important of the younger contemporaries of Linnaeus, and he was the first writer in Germany to utilize to any large extent Linnaeus' system of binary nomenclature, and his descriptions are still valid today as the first extensive modern taxation of American plants. The work should not be confused with the later work of Jacquin (1780) with the same title as this has "Adjectis Iconibus ad Authoris Archetypa pictis." and contains 264 hand-drawn water-colour illustrations and is only issued in 12-18 copies. The present work is the first, the plates are engraved and only a few copies are hand-coloured, drawn by Jacquin himself and engraved under his direction. (See Sitwell p. 105).
Graesse III: 444. - Nissen ZBI: 979. - Brunet p. 489. - Sabin No 35521. - Pritzel No 4362. (Sabin states 184 plates, which is correct, the other bibliographers only 183, and all collations from the above bibliographies are incorrect).
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