Vallet, Pierre

Etched architectural title-page framing a vista of a garden and incorporating figures of pioneering botanists Carolus Clusius and Matthias de L'Obel, 4 leaves of unpaginated text, ã² e², 2 historiated woodcut headpieces, 2 historiated woodcut initials. Illustration: Etched portrait plates of Vallet and Jean Robin, 73 fine etched plates, unnumbered, with engraved highlights and occasional stippling, of flowering plants after and by Vallet, fourth (petals of one tulip) and fifth (scape of a daylily) plates with traces of early color.

Folio (13 1/2 x 9 1/8 in.; 344 x 232 mm). Binding: Fine retrospective olive green morocco by Laurenchet, covers with a gilt French fillet border, spine gilt à la grotesque in six compartments, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Marbled board slipcase en suite with endpapers.



Preliminaries, including text leaves and portraits, with fore-edge corners repaired, a few very light scattered stains, and some short repaired marginal tears; portrait of Robin and first plate (Tulipa persica) with longer repaired tears into image; about five plates with slightly irregular margins; a very few marginal stains; some scattered rust-spots; first and last few plates with fore-edge corners repaired; lightly washed. Slipcase slightly worn.

Blunt, p. 99; Cleveland Collections 154; De Belder sale 370; Dunthorne 253; Hunt 187; Lack 14; Nissen 2039; An Oak Spring Flora 8; Plesch sale 783; Pritzel 9671

Preliminaries, including text leaves and portraits, with fore-edge corners repaired, a few very light scattered stains, and some short repaired marginal tears; portrait of Robin and first plate (Tulipa persica) with longer repaired tears into image; about five plates with slightly irregular margins; a very few marginal stains; some scattered rust-spots; first and last few plates with fore-edge corners repaired; lightly washed. Slipcase slightly worn.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

First edition of "the first important florilegium, … a work of great beauty" (Blunt). With Le Jardin du Roy, Pierre Vallet created an archetype that was followed by artists of florilegia—works depicting the flowers grown in a particular garden—throughout the seventeenth century. Indeed, Johann Theodor de Bry and Friderico Barbette, who each published a work titled Florilegium novum (in 1612 and 1641, respectively), actually copied a number of Vallet's illustrations for their own books.  Vallet—who is styled on the title page of as "brodeur ordinaire" to the court of Henri IV—dedicated his florilegium to Marie de' Medici, consort of Henri IV, and his plates were at least partially intended as patterns for floral embroidery by the ladies of the court. But the beauty and botanical accuracy of Vallet's etchings far surpassed the requirements of this somewhat mundane genesis.  

The plants that Vallet drew and etched were collected and cultivated by Jean Robin, director of the royal gardens at the Louvre Palace. Robin had introduced a number of exotic flowers from Spain and the archipelagos off the coast of Guinea, and a brief synopsis of these is given in the text.