INCUNABULA. THE PLESCH COPY OF HERBARIUS PATAVIE, FIRST EDITION, PASSAU 1485.

INCUNABULA. THE PLESCH COPY. Herbarius Patavie impressus anno domi[ni] &cetera. lxxxv. Passau, Johann Petri, 1485.

Small 4:o (about 185x134 mm.). 172 (of 174) leaves, 32 or 34 lines, collated as: (4, lacks title, present in old facsimile), i-cl (leaf i-viii supplied from another copy, or edition, there are three which are almost identical), (19, of 20, lacks last blank) ll 150 half-page botanical woodcuts, all coloured by an early hand (the first 8 from another copy or edition)
New brown full calf blind-tooled as a gothic binding, spine in six compartments, blind-tooled title in second and third compartment, printing date in fifth compartment. About 6 leaves repaired with loss of text (l. 15 is the worst), a few other minor defects repaired, partly close cut in upper margin with loss or partly loss of foliation. Some minor foxing or staining. Leaf xxix wrongly bound between leaves xxvi and xxvii, leaf lxxxix wrongly numbered lxxix, the figure on leaf xcvi is printed upside down. Bookplates of Arad Plesch and F. W. T. Hunger.. First edition. Rare.

Ref.:GW 12270; Plesch: Mille et un livres botaniques, 1973, p. 255; Anderson, An Illustrated History of the Herbals, 1977, pp. 82-88. L'herbier de Passau; Nissen 2300; Pritzel 10754; HC (add) 8445*; Johnston: The Cleveland Herbal, Botanical, and Horticultural Collections 9.

This is a reprint of Schoeffer's Herbarius latinus differing primarily in some of the German synonyms due to local differences in dialect and to the fact that the copies of many of the woodcuts are mirror images of the originals. This is the first dated work from Petri's press (Johnston). It is also the second book in Germany illustrated with woodcuts of plants.

Provenance: F. W. T. Hunger, the celebrated historian of botany, exhibited at the VI:th International Botanical Congress in Amsterdam 1935 as part of the Hunger collection of incunabulas (item nr 10), his sale Amsterdam 7 Nov. 1951, item 6; Arpad Plesch (his auction Sotheby's 1975 item 335); Olle Wallin (1934-2021), economist who began his professional career working for the Swedish commercial bank Svenska Handelsbanken, after which he was employed by the construction company Beijers, working under Anders Wall. His interest in books and nature was inspired by his parents, both avid book collectors and interested in natural history. Wallin began collecting seriously after moving to Stockholm in the 1970's, and frequently visited the many antiquarian book shops as well as attended the auctions. His line of work also required extensive travel, foremost to the European continent and the US, and he usually took the opportunity to combine the business trips with visits to leading antiquarian book sellers and auction houses. Many of the more important and valuable works in his collection were acquired on those occasions.

See text. Title old facsimile, lacks last blank leaf., leaf i-viii taken from another copy or edition.