[Estampes pour servir l'histoire des plantes] by DODART, Denis (1634-1707), and Nicolas ROBERT (1614-1685) - 1786

Paris, 1786. 2 volumes, broadsheet. (21 7/16 x 15 7/16 inches). Engraved throughout, without title and text (as issued). Frontispiece of the first meeting of the "Académie royale des sciences" by and after Sebastien le Clerc, 319 engraved plates by Nicolas Robert, Abraham Bosse and Louis de Chatillon after Nicolas Robert and de Chatillon, with occasional engraved additions and alterations by Jean Marchant, all numbered in pencil, 16 without captions. Contemporary marbled calf gilt, covers with double-fillet borders and centrally-placed royal arms of Louis XVI of France, expertly rebacked to style, spines in eight compartments with raised bands, bands highlighted with roll-tool, red morocco lettering-piece in the second compartment, blue morocco lettering-piece in the third, the other compartments with decorative repeat pattern of large central flower spray tool surrounded by small tools and foliage corner-pieces rebacked, expert repairs to corners Provenance: Earls of Derby (Knowsley Hall, armorial bookplate) "The finest collection of flower engravings made during the seventeenth century" (Blunt). This very rare complete collection of engravings is by or after Nicolas Robert, the greatest botanical artist of the seventeenth century. Together, the plates form a valuable and unique record of plants in cultivation in the second half of that century."The Recueil des plantes was judged by the master flower painter Gerard van Spaendonck to be the most beautiful botanical work ever published" (Oak Spring Flora). Hunt writes that the plates to this work "rank among the best botanical engravings ever produced." The work was never formally published or offered for public sale. The present copy was given as a Royal gift in about 1786 and is bound in a binding bearing the French Royal arms. Notably, it includes the important frontispiece (not always present) by and after Sebastien Le Clerc, depicting Louis XIV visiting a meeting of the Académie Royale des Sciences. Subsequent to its gift in the 18th century, this copy entered the great natural history library of the Earls of Derby at Knowsley Hall. "Nicolas Robert (1614-85) must ever be remembered for three important contributions to botanical art: - for the famous Guirlande de Julie , for his flower paintings on vellum for Gaston, and Louis XIV; and for [the present work] - the finest collection of flower engravings made during the seventeenth century. Robert's name first occurs as an illustrator of a small book of etchings of flowers entitled Fiori Diversi (Rome: 1640). His father was an inn-keeper at Langres, and the circumstances in which the young man made the journey to Italy remain unknown; but he must already have made some reputation for himself, for the following year he was chosen to illustrate a book of unusual interest and importance, the Guirlande de Julie ... Before [the baron de] Sainte-Maure set out for the wars, he had given his fiancée [the witty, beautiful and virtuous Julie d'Angennes, daughter of Madame de Rambouillet], as a birthday gift, an album of flowers - the chef d'oeuvre de la galanterie known as the "Guirlande de Julie." In the making of it, Nicolas Robert had collaborated with Jarry, the greatest calligrapher of the day ... Overnight Robert found himself famous; shortly afterwards, when Gaston d'Orléans was seeking a painter to make a permanent record of his collection, his eye naturally fell upon the young painter of the celebrated Guirlande . To form a true impression of the diversity and brilliance of Robert's talent as a painter, it is necessary to study his work at the Muséum of the Jardin des Plantes ... Outline is reduced to a bare minimum, and, as in medieval illumination, the neutral tone of the shadows is often disregarded. Form and texture are suggested by an infinity of finely hatched strokes... At the time of Gaston's death in 1660, the collection filled five large folio volumes. The majority of the drawings are flowers, though there are also many birds and other objects of natural history. Appointed in 1664 to the post of 'peintre ordinaire de Sa Majesté pour la miniature,' Robert now continued in Paris and at Versailles the work he had begun at Blois ... It is believed to have been the great Scottish botanist Robert Morison (1620-1683), a Royalist in exile from 1650 to 1660, Superintendent of Gastons' gardens at Blois, who first persuaded Nicolas Robert to interest himself in scientific botanical illustration. In the years spent at Blois, the latter had learned to become more than a mere purveyor of floral beauty; it was fitting, therefore, when the newly founded Académie Royale des Sciences decided to publish a History of Plants, that he should be chosen as its chief illustrator" (Wilfred Blunt & William T. Stearn, The Art of Botanical Illustration , 1994, pp.118-121). "The original idea for this encyclopaedic undertaking was conceived by Perrault and the proposal was enthusiastically received by Colbert, minister to Louis XIV, although it appears to have actually begun to take shape when the botanist Denis Dodart (1634-1707) joined the Académie in 1673. His work, Mémoires pour servir à l'Histore des Plantes , which was intended to form the introductory volume to this series, appeared in 1675 and contained thirty-nine plates by Robert. In it Dodart lamented the fact that none of the engravings could be in colour, but at least, he assured the reader, all the illustrations in the new series would be drawn directly from life, the artist making every effort to present the plants in their actual dimensions ... Putting to one side his regular activity of flower painting on vellum in order to concentrate on this project, Robert managed to produce an enormous number of engravings [but at the time of his death the work was incomplete] ... Most of the engravings show the plants in flower, complete with their roots, and many are accompanied by enlarged drawings of certain details. This work was clearly the result of a close collaboration between the scientist and artist, both seeking to portray the plant as accurately as possible. The plates engraved by Robert are instantly distinguishable by the lightness of his touch and by the sensitive modulation of the various tones of grey and black in the leaves and flowers" (Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi, An Oak Spring Flora, 1997, pp. 168-170). Part of the original intention had been that the engravings should accompany text based on the latest chemical, medical and botanical analysis of the species depicted: this text was never published. The earliest issues of these engravings were printed in circa 1685, at about the time of Robert's death to provide an example of a "work in progress" to the Académie Royale des Sciences and include about 272 plates. In 1701, the complete work was printed containing 319 plates. In 1719, Jean Marchant added details of plant structures to the plates, based upon Tournefort and Vaillant, with occasional changes of plant names. Throughout the 18th century, very occasional collections of the plates were printed and given as gifts, with the numbers of plates in these collections varying greatly. In circa 1786, the "royal gift issue" was published [as the present copy], with the addition of the important frontispiece by Sebastien le Clerc and the full complement of 319 plates. In 1788, a second issue of this edition was published. All issues are of the utmost rarity. BM( NH ) IV, p.1515; Brunet IV.1325; Bultingaire Les Velins du Museum d'Histore Naturelle de Paris [n.d.]; Great Flower Books (1990) p.91; Hunt 'Flora Portrayed' (1985) p.21; Hunt 'Printmaking in the Service of Botany' (1986) 16; Laissus & Monseigny 'Les Plantes du Roi' in Revue d'histoire des sciences , XXII, fasc. 3,pp.193-2346; Nissen BBI 533 & 504; Rix The Art of the Plant World p.61; Tomasi An Oak Spring Flora 43.