CAMERARIUS Joachim Hortus medicus et philosophicus… Relié avec : THAL, J. Sylva Hercynia… Bound with: CAMERARIUS, Joachim. Icones… descriptiones term in horto quam in Sylvia Hercynia.

Stafleu and Cowan, Taxonomic Literature 14.006; Nissen, BBI 311; Pritzel, 1.440; Arents, Tobacco, part 2, n° 88, p.93.

First edition of this important work on botany. Magnificent color copy from the Camerarius library, certainly bound for him by Jacob Krause’s student, Caspar Meuser.

A German physician and son of a humanist and philologist of the same name, Joachim Camerarius the Younger (1534-1598) was born in Nuremberg and began his studies in Germany before traveling to Italy. He continued his studies at the universities of Padua and Bologna, where he obtained his doctorate in 1562. Camerarius published several early botanical works, such as Opuscula de re Rustica (1577) and Hortus medicus et philosophicus (1588). In the same year, he published his Icones praecipuarum stirpium with fantastic illustrations of various plant varieties. Renowned for his talents as a physician and botanist, Joachim Camerarius had laid out a private garden near Nuremberg, where he cultivated a large number of plants whose seeds had been sent to him from different countries. Hortus medicus et philosophicus is considered by some to be one of the most important botanical works of the 16th century. It is a kind of catalog of the plants in his garden, including the flowering American aloe (see Icones…, p. V), which appears to be depicted here for the first time.

“On leaf X3 occurs a passage which describes tobacco; there several comments showing its medical use in Germany at this period.” Arents.

Johann Thal’s (1548-1583) work studies the flora of Saxony, the Black Forest, and the Hartz Mountains.

The Icones… reproduces 56 of the plants described in previous works. Engraved on wood, this iconography is the work of Jost Amman J. Jung, Peterlin… Jost Amman (1539-1591) had already illustrated Camerarius’ De plantis Epitome, published in 1526 by the same printer. Born in Zurich, he worked in Nuremberg and used two techniques, etching mixed with engraving and wood engraving.

An exceptional and magnificent copy with plates in luxurious period colors from Camerarius’ library, bound in blue morocco leather with the Gundelach family coat of arms.

On the verso of the third flyleaf is an 18th-century handwritten note:

Ex-Bibliotheca Joachim Camerarii, Auctoris, codicem hunc eleganter conservatum, et nitide pictum conservatus sum pretio non vili. C.C. Schmiedel D. Med. Anat. et Bot. P.P.V. (“From the library of Joachim Camerarius, the author, this catalog, which I have preserved with distinction and superbly painted, and not at a low price. C.C. Schmiedel D. Med. Anat. et Bot. P.P.V.).

C.C. Schmiedel or Schmidel was an eminent German botanist, physician, and anatomist, born in Bayreuth in 1718 and died in 1792. A professor at the University of Erlangen, then physician to Charles Alexander, he published the first part of Conrad Gesner’s “Opera botanica” and part of the second (1751-1771).

This is therefore the author’s copy, famous for his large collection of botanical books and manuscripts.

In addition, on the front flyleaf, a sheet of paper has been covered with wax with a handwritten note from the period. It mentions a certain Casp. Wolfius. This is undoubtedly Kaspar Wolf, who was commissioned by Gesner (1515-1565) on the eve of his death to continue his work of publishing a kind of encyclopedia on plants (Opera Botanica).  Kaspar Wolf (c. 1532-1601), a former student of Gessner, had publicly announced his intention to edit his mentor’s botanical legacy. Wolf’s text, entitled “Promise” (Pollicitatio), is of paramount importance to the history of plants and has influenced the opinions of many researchers.

“Gessner died of the plague on December 13th 1565. His estate went to Caspar Wolf (1525–1601), who succeeded him as town physician. In March 1566 Wolf promised to finish Gessner’s “Historia plantarum” and also noted that he owned his predecessor’s library. He had bought the papers and books from Gessner for a fair price before the latter deceased, but unlike the libraries of Zwingli and Bullinger, we do not know the exact price Wolf payed for Gessner’s library. Unfortunately, it was too difficult and time-consuming for Wolf to revise and edit Gessner’s unfinished studies. Between 1566 and 1587 he published several of Gessner’s works, among them the “Epistolae medicinales” (Zürich 1577) and the “Physicarum meditationum annotationum et scholiorum libri”, containing the lectures on Natural History held at the Schola Tigurina in Zürich (Zürich 1586). Other works, especially the “Historia plantarum”, remained unfinished. In 1580 Wolf sold the botanical studies together with more than 1’500 illustrations of plants for 150 Gulden (ca. 300 pounds) – the same price he himself had paid to the heirs – and Gessner’s copies of Dioscorides (1th cent. AD), Pliny the Elder († 79 AD) and Theophrastus (370—about 285 BC) for 25 Gulden (ca. 50 pounds) to Joachim Camerarius the Younger (1534–1598), physician in Nuremberg. Gessner had corresponded with Camerarius since 1558. It was also Camerarius’ aim, to publish Gessner’s voluminous botanical work, but his intention was similarly hindered. After his death in 1598, Gessner’s botanical studies were owned by Ludwig Joachim Camerarius (1566–1642), then by Johann Georg Volkamer (1662–1744), and finally ended up in 1744 with Christoph Jacob Trew (1696–1769), town physician of Nuremberg, who entrusted the edition to Casimir Christoph Schmiedel (1718–1793) in Erlangen. Today two volumes with plant drawings as well as Gessner’s Pliny are still preserved at the University Library of Erlangen. Other plant drawings from Gessner’s “Historia plantarum” were bought from the University Library in Tartu (Estland), were also Gessner’s copy of his Theophrastus is kept. His Dioscorides is lost” (Brill, The History of Gessner’s Library).

Another prestigious provenance

The richly decorated German blue morocco binding is extremely interesting for its ornamental vocabulary. Some of the dies used are similar to those used for the magnificent bindings made by the most important German bookbinder of the Renaissance, Jakob Krause (1532(?)-1585) and his pupil Caspar Meuser (d. 1593). In 1573, Camerarius made Jacob Krause the godfather of his son Ludovicus, who is also mentioned in the note on the back of the binding. The central iron depicts a botanist or gardener holding flowers in his hands. It is not simply an ornamental iron but a coat of arms that we have been able to identify thanks to a handwritten liber amicorum featuring the same painted arms.

This very distinctive iron was used for their coat of arms by the Gundelach family, notably for Matthaus Gundelach (or Gundlach, born in 1566 in Grossalmerode; died in 1653 in Augsburg). Gundelach was a German painter and engraver at the court of Emperor Rudolf II. Born into a family of glassmakers in Grossalmerode in the Werra-Meissner district, the young artist arrived in Prague in 1593. Between 1609 and 1612, he worked as court painter to Rudolf II at Prague Castle, then, after the emperor’s death in 1612, he entered the service of the Fürstenberg family in Bohemia. Gundelach was admitted to the Augsburg Painters’ Guild in 1617.

A magnificent copy of this rare book.

The title page and the last two leaves of the Icones seem to come from a shorter copy.