De rosa et partibus eius : De succi rosarum temperatura, nec non De rosis Persicis, quas Alexandrinas vocant, libellus

Digital Facsimile

"The first edition of this landmark in botany, "the first book in Western literature to be exclusively to the rose".... De rosa et partibus eius (c. 1540) is an early work by the renowned Seville physician-botantist Nicolás Monardes (1493-1588), whose Dos libros (1565) later would become the first printed work on the botanical and medicinal discoveries made in the Americas."--Martayan Lan Rare Books, bookseller, datasheet.

"While scattered discussions of the botanical-medicinal properties of the rose had appeared since antiquity, and the vast symbolism of the flower long pervaded literary culture (from the Bible, to medieval romance, to Shakespeare, Blake, Gertrude Stein, etc., etc.), "there were few works dealing exclusively with the rose prior to 1800".... Monardes in De rosa et partibus eius compiles references from classical to modern authors and adds information from his own experience (the botanical garden he cultivated in Seville would come to gain considerable renown). While Monardes gives special attention to medicinal preparations of the plant ... he also gives space to the physical, olfactory and aesthetic properties of the flower in its various varieties)...."--Martayan Lan Rare Books, bookseller, datasheet.

"Appended to the De rosa et partibus eius, apparently as an afterthought, is Monardes' important early work on citrus fruits: this is a letter in which Monardes "pointed out the hybrid character of the citrus, a fact not proved up to the end of the twentieth century."--Martayan Lan Rare Books, bookseller, datasheet.

"Monardes' letter on citrus fruit appears in the last leaves of the book. In a prefatory statement he notes that while De rosa et partibus eius was already in press, his printer, Domenicus de Robertis, contacted him to say that there would be several blank leaves at the end of the books's last quire and that Monardes thus should quickly find an additional text to fill out the work so that printing could continue.... This important letter, here headed "Nicholas Monard. Quadrae suo, S.P.", would in the 1564 (third) edition receive the more descriptive title "De citrus, avrantiis, ac limoniis.""--Martayan Lan Rare Books, bookseller, datasheet.

"The first edition of De rosa et partibus eius is undated on its title page but appeared c. 1540 from the Seville press of Domenicus de Robertis who is known to have been active from about 1539 to 1546."--Martayan Lan Rare Books, bookseller, datasheet.

Woodcut printer's device on title page and last page; woodcut initials.

Latin

Roses -- Early works to 1800; Botany -- Early works to 1800; Pharmacology -- Early works to 1800; Materia medica, Vegetable -- Early works to 1800; Citrus fruits -- Early works to 1800