Christie’s New York Botanical Books Auction
Published June 4th, 2009
Christie’s New York sale of Important Botanical Books on June 24 featuring many of the most significant medicinal herbals and fine illustrated botanical books from the 15th through the 19th century. Over 200 works, including many of the most celebrated in the history of the field, document the development of the scientific and artistic studies of plants throughout these four centuries. What distinguishes these works from other scientific books are the quantity, and John Hill, The Vegetable System, London, 1773-1786 Estimate: $200,000-300,000 outstanding quality, of illustrations they contain, from the earliest woodcut illustrations of the 15th century to the many extensive of hand-colored illustrations of the 18th and 19th centuries. The present collection comprehensively reveals the development of the simultaneous pursuit of artistic representation and scientific accuracy.
The sale features the earliest printed herbal to include a series of plant illustrations: the Herbarium Apulei, Rome, circa 1481-82 (estimate: $50,000-70,000). This is the only copy to appear at auction since an imperfect copy was sold in 1955. This book was one of the most widely used, and most practical, remedy books of the middle ages. It describes 131 plants, giving a multitude of prescriptions for maladies, ranging from madness, paralysis, dysentery, fertility, stomach ache and ulcers, to antidotes for various poisons. Of similar rarity is Macer Floridus’s De viribus herbarum carmen, Milan, 1482 (estimate: $30,000-50,000). Though not illustrated, it is considered the first printed herbal, with poems describing the medicinal and dietary properties of 77 herbs.
