L'Heritier de Brutelle | Stirpes novae, aut minus cognitae, quas descriptionibus et iconibus illustravit. Paris, 1784-5

Charles-Louis L'Heritier de Brutelle

Stirpes novae, aut minus cognitae, quas descriptionibus et iconibus illustravit. Paris: P.-D. Pierres, 1784-1785

6 parts in one volume, folio (504 x 340mm.), 91 engraved plates (2 double-page), of which 54 after Redouté, nineteenth-century half calf, marbled boards, spine with raised bands in seven compartments, red morocco spine label, sprinkled edges, first gathering starting to split, some light spotting, light offsetting from plates, spine label becoming detached, slightly rubbed

"One of the more delightful flower books of the eighteenth century. L'Héritier de Brutelle was an amateur botanist of unusual abilities and resources. Luckily, he persuaded the young Redouté to make fifty-four drawings for his magnum opus. The book is splendid in its spacious descriptions, its charming exotic plates, its implications for taxonomic history; and fascinating as an imposing piece of eighteenth-century bookmaking, with its series of fascicles printed on broadsheets, its bibliographical algebra. It is in 'Stirpes novae' that Luxemburg-born Pierre Joseph Redouté (1759-1840) emerges as an extraordinary botanical artist. He had the great good luck to have the very fine Dutch artist Gerrit van Spaëndonck (1746-1822) as his master in drawing, and L'Héritier de Brutelle as his instructor in 'choses botaniques'"(Hunt).

Although the author had planned to publish more parts (with at least 120 plates), this fine botanical rarity remained unfinished. Prévost, Fossier, James Sowerby, Fréret, Aubriet, Bruguière, Jossigny and Henri Joseph Redouté were also involved in its creation.

LITERATURE:

Cat. Redouteana 1; Dunthorne, 246; Great Flower Books, 64; Nissen BBI, 1190; Hunt, 673; Huntia 2, pp. 29-58