Descripción
1815-1825. 7 volumes (all published). Elephant Folio (530 x 345 mm). Half-title and general title to each volume, section titles to volumes I and VII, dedication to Nicolaus Jacquin, 714 engraved plates by Turpin, all but two (3 and 96) with find hand-color, the plates numbered to 700, including all "bis", "1"/"2" or "a"/"b" plates (332(1)/(2), 481(a)/(b), 483(a), 499(a)/(b), 514(b), 532(b), 547bis, 548(b), 562bis, 645bis, 647bis, 659bis, 660bis, and 688bis. Present are the cancel plates 216, 479 and 480, but the respective cancellanda were not bound-in. The plate numbering is not in order in several places but generally follows the text. Vol. I of our set is lacking the diagram showing the vegetation zones (never bound in). Pagination: [8], xlvi, 302; [8], 324; [8], 356; [8], 247 [1]; [8], 338; [8], 420, [2]; [8], 399 [1] pp. The set in magnificient and uniform binding of the mid 19th-century in red morocco; spines with 5 raised bands each, with gilt-lettering and rich gilt-tooling in compartments; board-margins, -edges and -turn-ins with rich gilt tooling, all book-block edges gilt, blue marbled endpapers (extremities very little rubbed, binding and joints sound and firm). Text with some scattered foxing, generally a bit stronger to first and final pages in each volume; the plates with only very little occasional spotting; the plate 527 with repaired burn(?) hole not affecting illustration. In all a crisp, clean and bright set. Provenance: Christopher Turnor (1809-1886), Stoke Rochford Library (armorial bookplate to front pastedowns); Henry Rogers Broughton, 2nd Baron Fairhaven (armorial bookplate to first free endpapers). [Visit our website to see all images!] ---- RARE FIRST EDITION, LARGE PAPER COPY, IN OUTSTANDING MOROCCO BINDINGS. All volumes are in the "vellum" edition with the (when appeared) fine hand-colored engravings. It constitutes one of a very small number of colored sets that were produced. It can well be regarded complete as only the three cancelled (erroneous) plates are absent. Our set conforms in number of plates with Sitwell who, as well as Stafleu-Cowan, does not mention the missing frontispiece diagram. Alexander von Humboldt's five-year voyage to America, which he undertook with his companion Aime Bonpland in the years 1799-1804 and which took the two explorers to the territory of the present-day states of Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Mexico, is considered one of the most important expeditions in history. With his research results, Alexander von Humboldt became the second, scientific discoverer of Latin America and at the same time the founder of modern scientific voyages of discovery. For Humboldt, botany was the gateway to the natural sciences. On his return to Europe, Humboldt almost immediately set about publishing his findings. The resulting work Le voyage aux regions equinoxiales du Nouveau Continent (The Voyage to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent) was published in 30 volumes (20 in folio and ten in large quarto) between 1807 and 1828. Five additional volumes by other authors were printed up to 1834. Employing around 50 artists, cartographers, naturalists and engravers and produced by a consortium of publishers, the project was principally funded by Humboldt himself with some grants from the French and Prussian government. It is said to have been the most expensive scientific book published at the time, which is why it is rarely found complete in public collections today. The work included theories that would come to influence scientific thought throughout the nineteenth century and serves as an important milestone in the scientific exploration and natural history of the Americas. Of the 30 volumes published, the folio volumes detailing plants, known as the Botanique, were among the most significant. The text of the plant-geographical volume, which was the first of the entire. . . - Visit our website for further reading and to see all the images!
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