Lot no. 14
BULLIARD (Jean-Baptiste François, dit Pierre).Flora parisiensis, ou descriptions et figures des plantes qui croissent aux environs de Paris, Avec les différens noms, classes, ordres et genres qui leur conviennent, rangés suivant la méthode sexuelle de M. Linné leurs parties caractéristiques, ports, propriétés, vertus et doses d'usage en Médecine, suivant les démonstrations de Botanique sui se fond au Jardin du Roy.Paris : P. Fr. Didot le Jeune, 1776-[1783]. - 6 volumes in-8, 198 x 122: (2 ff.), 32 pp. engraved title, (112 ff.), 114 plates, 1 engraved f.; (114 ff.), 113 plates; (136 ff.), 135 plates; (111 ff.), 110 plates; (115 ff.), 114 plates; (56 ff.), 52, 16 pp. 56 plates. First and only published edition of this remarkable botanical work by the botanist Pierre Bulliard (1742-1793), devoted to the plants of the Paris region.
In this work, Bulliard set himself a twofold objective: to bring together all the advantages of botany and to make this science accessible to everyone, particularly medical students. To achieve this, he adopted a pedagogical and practical approach.
The publication appeared in quires or issues from 1776 to 1783. The plates were arranged in alphabetical order, allowing readers to classify the plants according to their preferences. In total, a coloured engraved title and 642 coloured plates were published, including 2 for the Introduction à la botanique, all drawn and engraved by the author. The "Première table élémentaire des figures et de leurs noms" (First elementary table of figures and their names), part of the introduction, is also entirely engraved.
Each plate is accompanied by a description that follows Linnaeus' classification, with the genus, French name, Latin name and vulgar name. Bulliard pays particular attention to the popular names used by country folk, an initiative long overdue but never before achieved.
For medicinal virtues, he relied on the best medical works of his time, specifying plant preparations, doses and uses, in order to provide a practical guide, especially useful in rural areas where medical resources were scarce. In this way, he hoped to help distinguish between plants that were beneficial and those that were harmful to both humans and domestic animals.
This copy includes the first printed title, carefully reassembled, as well as all the essential text leaves: the introduction to botany, Linné's classes and orders, the French table, the errata, the "Exposition du système sexuel du chevalier Linné" - which indicates the order in which plants should be classified - and the rare "Nouvelle table du Flora Parisiensis".
As is often the case with this edition, the title of the last volume is missing, as are the two leaves of approval and privilege in the first volume.
A precious copy by the magistrate, agronomist, writer and politician Charles-Gilbert, vicomte Morel de Vindé (1759-1842). Rather than following the Linnaean order adopted by Bulliard, Morel de Vindé chose to rearrange the plates according to the classification proposed by Lamarck in his Flore française (1778).
To do this, he designed handwritten title pages, numbered the plates accordingly, and added a "Table of concordance" to compare Bulliard's order with Lamarck's, which he chose for his copy.
He explains this at the end of the last volume in this autograph note: "On all the plates of the six volumes there are 2 numbers, one at the top and the other at the bottom of the plate. The number at the bottom is the serial number that Bulliard had adopted, in accordance with Lynnée's system developed by classes, page 38 of the tables in Bulliard's 6th volume. These same order numbers are repeated in the new table of French names which concludes this 6th volume. But the linear order adopted by Bulliard not having suited me under the report of the herborisation which I made with the assistance of the 1st edition of the French Flora of Lamarck (1778), I arranged all these same plates, according to the order in which the dements of Lamarck bring the plants which they represent, and I placed at the top of these same plates, the nos of this new order from 1 to 640 ".
In addition to these notes and additions, there are handwritten corrections in some of the descriptions.
A very fine copy, very well preserved.
Old label of a private library at the top of the spines.
Provenance: Charles-Gilbert, viscount Morel de Vindé.
See original version (French) Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact organization
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