Ludwig, Christian Gottllieb

Folio (14 3/4 x 9 3/4 ins.; 368 x 228 mm). 200 nature-printed plates colored either by hand or a combined color printing and hand-coloring process, with letterpress legends in Latin and German; some foxing and offsetting. Contemporary Dutch calf, gilt floral garland frames on panels, gilt floral ornament on spine; rubbed, spine fragile. 

Cave/Wakeman 10; Dunthorne 188; Fischer 8; Hunt/Stevenson 569; Nissen, BBI 1252; Stafleu/Cowan III, 5068

First and only edition. The complete series of two hundred nature-printed plates.

Ludwig's Ectypa and the final edition of Kniphof's Botanica in originali (1757-1767) were jointly "the eighteenth century's most valiant efforts at nature-printing" (Hunt/Stevenson).
Both were produced in the same shop, that of Trampe in Halle. As Kniphof's book was issued in black and white and the Ludwig only in color, the latter may be seen as the major colored nature-printed book of the eighteenth century. Published over four years in eight parts with a series of 25 plates in each, the plant took the place of the woodblock or engraved plate in the process of reproduction. With the specimens arranged and covered with a dark dust, the outlines formed on the paper were then colored either by hand or a combined color-printing and hand-coloring process. The specimens were delicate and could sustain only the smallest of print runs.