DE HISTORIA ET CAUSIS PLANTARUM; libri IX translated by Theodoros Gaza fl 1400-1475 edited by Giorgio Merula d.1494
148316243Treviso: Bartholomaeus Confalonerius 2 Feb 1483. First edition in Latin later issued in Greek with the Aldine Aristotle editions of 1497 and 1498. Folio 153 leaves lacks the front blank and 2 leaves of text supplied in clean facsimile. 28.4'x9.2 cm. Bound in later cloth backed boards some marginal waterstaining contemporary Italian marginalia some trimmed close throughout with a full page of contemporary notes on the verso of the final leaf. HC 15491; BMC VI 894; BM-Ital 668; Klebs 958.1; Garrison 1929 12; Castiglioni 1947 181-182; Stillwell T132; Goff T-155; Pritzel 9184;Osler 263; Stillwell The Awakening . 72; Procter 648; Dibner Heralds of Science 18; Norman 266. Rare this had not been to auction since December of 1967 when it sold for $75000 until it sold for $55200 at the Haskell Norman sale 3/18/1998. Stillwell notes that this is the earliest scientific botany. A study of about 5 plants described according to a rather primitive classification which held however until the mid-sixteenth century. Its ninth section on the medicinal properties of plants"the earliest extant herbal except for fragments of a Greek herbal c. 35 B.C."is believed to have been added somewhat after Theophrastus's time. Known as the founder of scientific botany Theophrastus was born in Lesbos and was Aristotle's most highly regarded student and succeeded Aristotle as head of the Lyceum in Athens. He was a prolific writer yet only these two works survive as major works. His De Historia Plantarum described and classifies several hundred plants while the De Causis Plantarum is a work of etiology: exploring a number of topics including generation seeds and the effects of cultivation on wild species. The Historia divides plants into four main divisions: trees shrubs undershrubs and herbs. The translation is by Theodoros Gaza a Greek who became a leading figure in the Italian Renaissance. This translation was commissioned by Pope Nicholas V 1448-1455 a patron of scholars who wished to set up a library that included Greek texts in Latin. Bartholomaeus Confalonerius 2 Feb unknown books
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