Regnault, Nicolas François, and Geneviève de Nangis Regnault

3 handcolored engraved titles, 1 engraved leaf "Introduction à la Botanique" printed recto and verso. Illustration: 472 handcolored engraved plates by or after the Regnaults (i.e., 3 plates of botanical details numbered I–III, 469 unnumbered plates [but plates in volumes I and II here numbered in ink in a contemporary hand 1–295]).

3 volumes, folio (19 x 13 3/4 in.; 483 x 349 mm). Binding: Contemporary near-uniform French mottled calf gilt, (volumes I and II uniform, volume III bound to match), covers with triple fillet borders, spines in seven compartments, volumes I and II with brown morocco lettering-pieces, volume III with green, remaining compartments with repeat decoration in gilt made up of various small tools around a central flower motif, edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Provenance: Maréchal Louis-Gabriel Suchet, duc d'Albuféra (bookplate from 1813 or later; Christie's London, 19 October 1999, lot 39).



Occasional minor soiling and staining, generally not affecting images.  Binding with some wear, rubbing.

Blunt, p. 171; Dunthorne 256; De Belder sale 295; Great Flower Books, p. 131; Nissen 1600; Plesch sale 634; Pritzel 7475; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 8810

Occasional minor soiling and staining, generally not affecting images. Binding with some wear, rubbing.
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"[P]erhaps the most impressive French botanical book of the period" (Blunt & Stearn). A fine large set with a distinguished provenance.

The authors concentrated on plants that were useful, initially limiting the work to plants with medicinal uses: "notre object a été de figurer les plantes dont les hommes recherchent le secours dans les maladies qui les affligent," but eventually including edible plants and others of a wider use to man. The vast majority of the plates were drawn from life and a significant number are printed in brown. All show the subject plant, with a section of the root and details of flowers and fruits, and underneath each image an identification by its common name in as many European languages as possible. The facing single page of text includes an identification of the plant according to the classification system of Linnæus, Tournefort and Adanson, a botanical description of the plant followed by its uses, then general comments including historical references. For plate 53 in volume I, the authors wrote of the potato, "Nous ne les choquerons point en disant que la culture de la Pomme de terre est peut etre le seul avantage dont les Européens soient redevables a la découverte de l'Amérique."

The present copy shows some variation (as usual) in the peripheral text. It does not include the three-page "Table des Noms" concluding with the "Privilège du Roi" dated 1780, but does include a one-page table of names of plants included in the "Supplément" (vol. III). The "advertissement" leaf is here issued as a sort of postscript, after the completion of the body of the main work; it does not include the additional printed leaf headed "La Botanique … ordre de la Distribution" (noted in Plesch copy).

This is from the library of Maréchal Suchet. Born in 1770 into a middle-class family in Lyons, he joined the grande nationale of Lyons as a cavalier in 1792. By 1798 he was général de brigade, and in 1801 he was inspecteur general d'infanterie. For his service in Spain he was created maréchal de France in 1811 and in January 1813 duc d'Albuféra. Napoleon remarked that if he had had two commanders of Suchet's caliber in Spain, he would have not only conquered the peninsula, but held it. He died in January 1826.