Phytographia Curiosa, Exhibens Arborum, Fruticum, Herbarum & Florum Icones.

First Latin edition, presumed third issue. A good copy only, sold with all faults. 'The illustrations are remarkable for their elegance and originality' (Oak Spring Flora 45). This is perhaps the most handsome and influential botanical of its day, with its near-dreamlike depiction of plants suspended above cityscapes and other backgrounds.

Munting (1626-1683), was a Dutch botanist and botanical artist, the son of Henricus Munting (1583-1658). He studied under his father and at the universities of Franeker, Utrecht and Leiden, also spending two years in France where he obtained an M.D. degree in Angers. Returning to Groningen in 1651, he joined the staff at the Rijkshogeschool Groningen, which eventually became the University of Groningen. Here he taught for 24 years as professor of botany and chemistry. On his father's death he assumed management of the Hortus Botanicus Groninganus, from 1658 to 1683. His botanist friends sent him seeds from the Dutch East- and West Indies, Africa and the Americas. His daughter, Hester, died after eating Deadly Nightshade from the Garden. Munting subsequently developed a particular interest in the medicinal uses of plants.

The present work, Munting's best known, was first published in Dutch as Naauwkeurige Beschryving Der Aardgewassen (1696). Illustrated were trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses of temperate zones, with some tropical and subtropical plants that had been introduced to the Netherlands.

First Latin edition, presumed third issue; two parts in one folio (39.2 x 25.4 cm); engraved title-page (used here as a frontispiece) and 245 engraved botanical plates inserted at rear, with allegorical vignette on title-page and two engraved headpieces on pp[iii] and 25 by Goeree, title-page printed in black and red, lacking half-title and dedication leaf, text somewhat toned, frontispiece repaired at inner margin, all inserted plates with small circular ink stamp of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society near the bottom (their bookplate is present on the front pastedown), plates twenty-five and twenty-six are trimmed smaller (as most likely supplied), some soiling and foxing to text and plates, prominent damp staining on plates 144 to 245, plate 32 has small marginal repairs, a few leaves with minor marginal worming, plates 1 - 48 with neat ink captions in an unknown hand; nineteenth-century quarter calf over marbled boards, spine ruled in gilt in compartments, black morocco lettering piece gilt, edge wear to binding (especially at spine and corners), upper board detached, lower board loose; [xxvi], 47, [1, blank] pp.

Nissen BBI 1429; Hunt 404.