BOCK, H.

De Stirpium, maxime earum, quae in Germania nostra nascuntur... His accesserunt a fronte praefationes duae: altera D. Conradi Gesneri... rei herbariae scriptorum, qui in hunc usque; diem

      scripserunt, catalogum complectens: altera ipsius Authoris, herbariae cognitiones laudes... Adiectus est Benedicti Textoris Segusiana de stirpium differentiis... Strassburg, Wendel Rihel, 1552. 4to (218 x 165 mm). pp. (lxviii), 1200, (64), with woodcut portrait of Bock on d10 recto and 568 woodcuts in the text. Contemporary blindstamped pigskin over bevelled wooden boards, with clasps (catches gone). A very fine copy of the first Latin edition, translated by David Kyber, with 38 new woodcuts which appear for the first time, and the first edition to include the Gesner and Tessier material. The first illustrated German edition of Bock, was published in 1546, and contained 468 woodcuts (enlarged to 530 in the 1551 edition) by David Kandel. Kandel for the most part based his woodcuts on those of Fuchs and Brunfels, but some one hundred are entirely original, and include several with charming genre scenes accompanying the plant depictions, many with his initials. Bock was one of the 'Fathers of German Botany', the triumvirate that included Brunfels and Fuchs. As a botanist Bock was their decided superior. He was not shackled to the classical authority of Dioscorides and Pliny, and therefore could recognise new plants without his perception being clouded by supposed classical precedents. He pioneered descriptive botany, giving a detailed developmental history of each plant in its stages of growth, and was the first to discuss plant communities, thus foreshadowing the science of ecology. Gesner's contribution to this edition comprises a preface to the work and a 50-page bibliography of botanical writers, constituting the first botanical bibliography. Tessier provided a commentary on Dioscorides. Provenance: Old ownership inscription at inside of frontcover, old oval stamp on verso of title 'Museum Rem. Faesch, Basil.', and old inscription on title, some old annotations in text. Durling 597; Hunt 66; Nissen BBI, 183; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 576.