The copy est “printed on fine paper“.
The famous gardeners’ dictionary presenting “many unknown plants“.
Brussels, 1786-1789.
Chazelles – Miller. Gardeners’ and Farmers’ Dictionary, by Philip Miller: Translated fromAEnglish on the VIIIè edition; With a large number of Additions of different genera, by Messrs. President De Chazelles, the Counsellor Holandre, &c. Newedition, Inwhich a very large number of places in the Paris edition have been corrected, to make the Translation French conform to the Original English; &moreover, names have been added AEnglish des plants, & several new Notes.
In Brussels, at Benoit le Francq, Printer-bookseller; Madeleine street, 1786-1789.
8 volumes in-8 of: I/ 1 engraved frontispiece, L pp., (1) f., 543 pp., 8 plates numbered outside the text; II/ (2) ff., 697 pp., 3 pp.; III/ (2) ff., 597 pp., 2 plates; IV/ (2) ff., 574 pp.; V/ (2) ff., 592 pp., 2 plates; VI/ 533 pp., 8 plates; VII/ (2) ff., 544 pp., 2 plates; VIII/ (2) ff., 244 pp., 86 pp., 184 pp., 3 plates outside the text.
Full marbled Havana calf, smooth spine painted black, gold fillet on the cuts, speckled edges, title and volume pieces in orange morocco. Period binding.
214 x 125 mm.
Rare Brussels edition adorned with an allegorical frontispiece and 25 plates outside the text.
The copy is printed on fine paper.
The author of the main work, Philip Miller (1691-1771), a famous English gardener who deserves a place among the botanists of the 18th century due to his intelligence and erudition, was born in 1691. He succeeded his father in 1722 as the superintendent of the Chelsê Physic Garden of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, and under his direction, this rich establishment soon became the most magnificent in Europe for foreign plants. Thanks to his efforts, a large number of exotic plants were successfully acclimatized in England; and his numerous and widesprêd connections with the most renowned botanists, both in Europe and in the Indies, grêtly contributed to sprêding botanical discoveries. He first became known through some memoirs inserted in the Philosophical Transactions, but his Gardeners’ Dictionary, published in 1731, often reprinted and always with considerable additions, sêled his reputation. Linnaeus said that this book would be the dictionary of botanists, rather than that of gardeners. The author had the uncommon good fortune to issue the eighth edition, thirty-seven yêrs later. In the êrlier editions, he followed only the methods of Ray and Tournefort; but in the 1768 edition, he employed the principles and nomenclature of Linnaeus, of whom he eventually became one of the most zêlous admirers. He did not maintain less gratitude for the lessons he received from Ray, his first master; in his later yêrs, he prided himself on being the last botanist who could boast of having seen this grêt naturalist, and he never cited him without showing visible emotion on his face. Miller was a member of the Royal Society of London, the Botanical Society of Florence, etc.; he died at Chelsê on December 18, 1771.
The eighth volume contains, apart from the important chapter on wine, illustrated with 3 plates (presses), detailed catalogs of the names of trees (French, Latin, and English) as well as a calendar covering the work to be done during the yêr.
Laurent-Marie de Chazelles translated Miller’s dictionary and added many unknown plants.
