Rousseau. La botanique de J.J. Rousseau. [1805], folio, a proof copy, the plates printed in colours and finished by hand

ROUSSEAU, JEAN JACQUES

La Botanique de J.J. Rousseau. Paris: Delachausée and Garnery, [1805]

FIRST EDITION, folio (543 x 350mm.), half-title, title with uncoloured stipple-engraved vignette, 65 stipple-engraved plates printed in colour and finished by hand, after Redouté, uncut, dark red half morocco, boards, spine gilt, occasional spotting, front free endpaper detached, a few minor repairs to endpapers, rubbed

A FINE COPY PRINTED IN COLOUR, WITH PLATES BEING PROOFS BEFORE LETTERS.

This illustrated edition of the text has always been prized for its plates after Redouté. He was introduced to the horticulturalist-botanist Jacques-Martin Cels, by his friend and amateur botanist Charles-Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle. Cels "held a sinecure post as receiver of certain indirect taxes under the old régine. Cels had belonged to the cercle of enlightened magistrates and writers around Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Redouté and Rousseau never met, but in 1805 Redouté illustrated with sixty-five of his finest botanical plates Rousseau's famous La Botanique" (Hunt).

LITERATURE:

Dunthorne 252; Great Flower Books, p. 134; Hunt, Redoutéana 16 ("lettered on the plate in French and with Latin binomials"; Nissen BBI 1688; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 9688 (listing 2 folio issues printed in 1805)

PROVENANCE:

M. de la Tour du Pin, book label