A Paris, Chez H.L. Guérin & L.F Delatour, rue Saint Jacques, à Saint Thomas d’Aquin, 1758.
Avec approbation et privilège du Roi.
2 volumes 4to: I/ (3) ll, lxviii pp., 307 pp., 28 plates; II/ (2) ll., iii pp., 432 pp., 22 folding plates. Full marbled fawn calf, richly decorated ribbed spines, red morocco lettering-pieces, red mottled edges. Contemporary binding.
255 x 194 mm.
First edition illustrated with 50 engraved plates out of text of the first major work by Duhamel du Monceau (1700-1782), famous French botanist and agronomist.
“Living near the Jardin des Plantes, he took lessons from Dufay and Bernard de Jussieu. As he was rich, he could easily cultivate his two favourite sciences, botany and arboriculture, either in Paris or on his land in the Gâtinais.
As a naval inspector, Duhamel had been led to research everything to do with the cultivation and conservation of wood for shipbuilding. He then turned his attention to plants and shrubs that could withstand the French climate. This is how he introduced a large number of American species to Europe.
The species and varieties listed by Duhamel, of which there are more than 1,000, are arranged in alphabetical order according to their generic Latin name. The author based his work on Tournefort’s nomenclature. It is to be regretted that he did not adopt the nomenclature of Linnaeus, whose Species Plantarum had appeared 2 years earlier; but perhaps Duhamel was not enough of a classifier to understand the transcendent merit of the latter work.”
La Physique Des Arbres; 1758, 2 Volumes 4to is Duhamel’s masterpiece; in it he has brought together everything that Malphighi, Grew, Hales and Bonnet had said before him on this subject, as well as his own observations and remarks. The great merit of this work lies in the details concerning the structure, anatomy and physiology of plants.
The first volume deals with the anatomy of trees, buds, flowers and fruit, seeds, the growth of trees, tree diseases, etc…
A very fine copy preserved in its beautiful contemporary bindings in marbled fawn calf.
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