Illustrated Botanical Work on the Grasses and Herbs of Bologna

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MONTI, Giuseppe.

Catalogi stirpium agri Bononiensis prodromus.

Bologna, Constantine Pisarro, 1719.

Quarto (20.6 x 14.6 cm). [28], 66, [8] pp., with 2 engraved plates of plants and 1 folding illustrated table of plants. Bound in contemporary half calf over speckled paper boards, leather corners and titling piece; worn; edges stained in red. Bookplate of the Royal Botanical Garden in Mannheim, with its cancelled library stamp on title-page. Internally excellent.

First edition of this illustrated botanical work on the grasses and herbs cultivated in the vicinity of Bologna. The work follows the best tradition of 18^th-century botany in which theoretical insights were gained not so much from the discovery of new species, but rather from the thoughtful ordering and comparison of known specimens in botanical museums, where they could be studied analytically. The work has an important theoretical component, proposing three new classes of grasses to be added to the two previously established by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort and John Ray. These are based on the detailed botanical descriptions of 21 indigenous species of herbs and 11 more of other grasses.

Giuseppe Monti (1682-1760) was professor of natural history at the University of Bologna and director of its botanical museum, whose holdings he greatly enlarged by means of his own collecting expeditions. He wrote several other botanical works on local plant life.

* Pritzel 6394; NBG XXXVI.298.

Price: $675.00