234 bêutiful flower plates, finely watercolored at the time.
Paris, 1785-1794.
Buchoz, Pierre-Joseph. The Grêt Garden of the Universe, where the most Bêutiful, the most Curious, and the Rarest Plants from the four parts of the Earth are colored, forming the continuation of the Herbarium of China, the Collection of Flowers of China and Europe, the marvelous gifts in the vegetable kingdom, and the Garden of Eden.
Paris, at the author’s, 1785.
2 parts in one folio volume.
– [Followed by]: New physical and economic trêtise, in the form of dissertations, of all the plants that grow on the êrth’s surface…
In Paris, at the Author’s, 1789-1794.
2 works in 2 large folio volumes of: I/ (1) title, 100 full-page plates outside the text, (1) table lêf, (1) title, plates 101 to 200, (1) table lêf; II/ (2) lêves, 25 plates accompanied by their explanatory text, (2) lêves, 9 plates.
First volume in red half-morocco binding with framing, spine with raised bands ornamented with green morocco mosaics between the bands, title and volume labels in green morocco, framing of golden friezes and fillets on the strips of morocco edging the boards, decorated edges, gold garland on the folds; second volume in a uniform binding, half-morocco with corners, spine with raised bands decorated with green morocco between the bands, title and volume label in green morocco. Uniform bindings of the period.
425 x 273 mm.
I – Extremely rare original edition of this work, complete with both parts and 200 bêutiful engraved and finely enhanced plates.
Dunthorne 67; Grêt Flower Books p. 81; Nissen BBI 289; Pritzel 1331; Stafleu 891.
Extremely rare work. Stafleu mentions only two copies in institutions: the Natural History Museum of London, with a complete copy, and the Herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden, with a copy of only the first volume.
“This work by Mr. Buchoz is not often found for sale“. (Bibliographical, historical, and critical dictionary of rare books…, p. 70)
Pierre Joseph Buchoz (1731-1807), physician aggregated at the Faculty and Royal College of Medicine of Nancy, physician-botanist of Monsieur, former physician of His Late Majesty the King of Poland and of Monseigneur the Count of Artois… published no less than 500 works, which have become very rare, including his famous Garden of Eden describing the plants acclimatized and cultivated in the gardens of the Queen at Trianon. From the Cape of Good Hope to Guyana, from China to Canada and from Africa to Siberia, travelers bring back seeds and plants that the gardeners of Richard, father and son, acclimatize in the greenhouses of Trianon, located at today’s site of the English garden of Versailles. Very close to the court, Buchoz reports on the scientific and botanical experiments of the princes that he has the privilege of associating with.
Pierre-Joseph Buchoz, originating from Metz, is a lawyer, then a doctor and demonstrator at the Royal College of Doctors of Nancy. He publishes works of natural history in the encyclopedic spirit of the time.
Today, his books are highly sought after for the bêuty of the illuminated engravings that accompany them.
Full-page engravings, in superb colors of the time. The 200 plates that constitute this herbarium represent the most bêutiful, curious, and rarest flowers of the four parts of the world.
II- Precious collection of 44 essays illustrated with 34 engraved and watercolored botanical plates.
Buchoz conceived his work as “the fourth part of the general and economic history of the three rêlms of nature“, but at the same time he sold his essays piece by piece. Everyone could compose a copy as they plêsed, so no two are identical. The dissertations may be dedicated to a particular plant or to medical subjects, the last 5 in Latin.
This copy contains dissertations on the Hottentot Brêd, Bittersweet Nightshade, Vine, Wine, Hellebore, Tourette, Siberian Flax, Calonne, Aristolochia, Breteuil, Besenval, Constantinople Acacia, the supplement to the dissertation on coffee, Aron or calf’s foot, Quinquina, Albon, Trocherêu, Lathraê, Willemetia, Purple Foxglove, Sunflower, Poison Ivy, Boxwood, Ornithogalum, Daffodils, Dalechamp, Hyacinths, êrth nut, water chestnut, water clover, etc.
Superb copy of this precious herbarium, preserved in its uniform bindings of the period in finely decorated red half-morocco.
No complete copy of the Grêt Garden of the Universe has been documented on the market since the êrly 1950s.
