Live auction - Lot 1118
[Natural history]
New Kreüterbuch [...].
Prague, G. Melantrich; Venice, V. Valgrisi, 1563]
€ 2.500 / 3.000
Place your (telephone) bidLive bidding (Drouot*) Live bidding (Invaluable*)
* 2% online commission in addition to our 28% commission
Lot description
Folio: [35 (of 38)]-574 (of 575) ff. (missing: title, portrait, 2 i and ii of the prelims, ff. 18, 457, 561-562, 571-575, ff. 17, 19, 20, 79 and more with missing (mostly) lower part, with significant text loss, professionaly restored and underl., some tears in the edges, f. 570 with tiny holes in the text, partly remargined, some staining and browning, some upper margins trimmed, half of f. 1 ii restored missing half of the text).
19th-c. vellum, gilt-decor. floral borders, gilt-decor. flat spine.
First German edition of this botanical benchmark of the 16th c. With more than 800 woodcuts in contemp. hand-colouring, considerably enlarged like the Czech ed. publ. a year earlier. These probably made by W. Meyerpeck from Freiberg named on f. 469. On that same f. we find the monogram GS, one of the "known" creators of the "Kreüterbuch" (Known and unknown creators of the illustrations for the Prague editions of Mattioli’s herbal (1562, 1563) by Jana Vlachová (Tvrzníková)). "The monogram GS is the most prominent and most common monogram
in the Herbář. [...] researchers have tried to determine the identity of the monogrammist of GS earlier. The names mentioned in connection with the Herbář included Georg Stirleyn [...] and especially Giorgio Liberale (who allegedly signed himself with the Czech version of his surname, Svoboda [...]. In foreign dictionaries the monogram has been attributed to Georg von Sichem [...] and the woodblock cutter Georg Scharffenberg […], who tend to be considered as one and the same person [...]". All later German editions were edited by Camerarius and provided with other illustrations. Despite the defects described, this is still an attractive and interesting copy.
Ref. VD16 XL-123. - Nissen (BBI) 1310. - Hunt 91. - Not in Durling, Bibl. Walleriana, Wellcome.
Prov. Mod. bookpl.