Beschreibung:

BRY, Johann Theodor de (1561-1623). Florilegium renovatum et auctum: variorum maximeque rariorum germinum, forum ac plantarum . Frankfurt, M. Merian, 1641.
BRY, Johann Theodor de (1561-1623). Florilegium renovatum et auctum: variorum maximeque rariorum germinum, forum ac plantarum . Frankfurt, M. Merian, 1641. 2°-in-4s (301 x 200mm). Additional engraved title, double-page engraved plate of the garden of Johan Schwinden and 174 plates (4 double-page and 1 double-page and folding), ALL COLOURED IN A CONTEMPORARY HAND, with the engraved title vignette on printed title, initials and garden plan heightened in gold. (Engraved title, B1-3 and the double-page garden plate skilfully remargined, a little worming in lower margins of last few plates.) Contemporary Dutch calf panelled in gilt with arabesque centre ornament, gilt edges, recently expertly rebacked preserving original spine (extremities very lightly rubbed). Provenance : Robert de Belder (sold at Sotheby's 27th April 1987, lot 93). EXTREMELY FINE COPY WITH THE PUBLISHER'S ORIGINAL HANDCOLOURING. Matthaeus Merian, the elder (1593-1650) was de Bry's son-in-law. 18 years after de Bry's death, Merian produced this enlarged edition of his father-in-law's famous Florilegium novatum . Merian almost doubled the number of plates, depicting exotic flowers and plants growing in the gardens in and around Frankfurt. One of these, the garden of Johan Schwinden, is illustrated in a magnificent double-page plate. EARLY ISSUE, without plate 142 which was published in 1644, but with plate 50a 'Iris susiana major' (Hunt plate 51). This agrees with the copy in the LuEsther T. Mertz Library at the New York Botanical Garden. Hunt 237 ('Most copies seem to have variations in the plates'); Nissen BBI 274; Pritzel 1299 (note).