Author: PASSE the Younger, Crispijn van de.
Title: Den blom-hof, inhoudende de rare oft ongemeene blommen die op den tegenwoordighen tijdt by de lief-hebbers in estimatie ghehouden werden. Ghedeelt naer de vier deelen des jaers ... Noch hier by ghevoecht de manier soomen dese bloemen naer haer eyghen coleuren ofte verven sal illumineren ofte afsetten ...Utrecht, for Crispijn van de Passe, 1614. 2 parts in 1 volume, the first in 4 sections. Oblong folio (ca. 18.5 x 26.5 cm). With a full-page plate of Flora embracing the cornucopia in a landscape with an epigram by Arnoldus Buchelius in a cartouche in the left hand corner, engraved by Simon van de Passe after Crispijn van de Passe, 2 different frontispieces (both appearing twice) of ideal gardens full of flowers, and 174 full-page engraved plates of flowers, fruits, fruit trees, and medicinal plants, mainly by Crispijn van de Passe the Younger, 3 by his brother Willem van de Passe. Later half calf, decorated paper sides, gold-tooled spine, and red sprinkled edges.
Description: [26] pp., [118] engraved ll.; [1], [1 blank] pp., [61] engraved ll.Very rare first Dutch edition of this famous book on horticulture, including beautifully engraved plates of flowers organised according to the season in which they bloom and frontispieces showing the ideal garden. The work was first published in Latin under the following title: Hortus floridus in quo rariorum & minus vulgarium florum icones ... (without text, published in Arnhem, by Jan Jansz. in 1614). The expertly engraved plates were also sold separately and were constantly updated and amended by adding various details (insects, other animals, or simply different numbers) to meet demand. While the present first Dutch edition contains short explanations of the plates on separate typographical leaves, the same information was only added to the Latin version of the work in its second edition (1616) - the corresponding text then appearing on the verso of each engraved plate. The text was written by Arnoldus Buchelius (or Aernout van Buchel, 1565-1641), a Dutch scholar and humanist from Utrecht who is now most known for specialising in genealogy and heraldry.This Dutch edition was soon followed by English and French editions. The Hortus floridus, including translations, was considered “without question the most popular florilegium ever published” (An Oak Spring Flora) and "Blunt calls this the most celebrated and influential of the early florilegia, and one of the finest” (Hunt).The emphasis of the plates is on the common garden flowers, with a preponderance of spring bulbs. The book was intended to provide inspiration for garden lovers who were invited to colour the black and white copperplate engravings themselves according to the colours they found in their own gardens. The introduction is enlarged with details on how to colour the plates. Many of the flowers shown are tulips, hyacinths, crocuses, and other bulb plants, mirroring the new enthusiasm and passion for bulbs, which eventually led to the tulip mania of the years 1636-37, when contract prices for some bulbs reached extraordinarily high levels leading to the first recorded speculative bubble in history.As the plates were printed, then modified and assembled at different times between 1614 and 1617, almost no two copies are the same - consisting of various numbers of plates, with different title pages and prefaces. Our copy seems to be a practically complete copy of the Dutch edition containing an unmatched number of plates, the only plate not present in this copy, which is sometimes included in others is the engraved plate (frontispiece) of the Latin quotation from Matthew, 6 “Cognoscite lilia …” in part 2. The four sections of part 1 include 113 plates of flowers, including the 99 that are called for in the preface, organised per season: spring: 41; summer: 20; autumn: 26; winter: 12. The extra plates are as follows: (1): an addition to spring with plate (4)2 (= second copy of plate 2 of summer), (2): 12 plates depicting tulips numbered 43-54, and (3): an addition to autumn: a plate depicting two metal cylinders for growing flowers (1 with a tulip), not found in any other copy consulted, but possibly called for by Nissen "Garten Instruments".The second part includes 61 plates depicting 120 numbered depictions of fruits, fruit trees, and medical plants. This part, included in most copies of the Latin edition and in some of the Dutch edition, had been published already by Crispijn van de Passe the Elder around 1600-1604 when he was in Cologne, in association with the publisher Hans Woutneel.The quality of the engravings is exceptionally fine and delicate, representing real masterpieces of horticultural art executed by a leading family of engravers and publishers in the first half of the Dutch Golden Age.With a 19th-century round stamp with double eagle and the initials "H.C.P.S.G." and a red stamp "Ex libris J. Visser, Rotterdam" on the title page, with the red ex libris stamp also on the divisional title page of the second part. Lacking the engraved plate (frontispiece) of the Latin quotation from Matthew, 6 “Cognoscite lilia …” in part 2. The binding is very slightly rubbed, the bottom outer corner of the back board is slightly damaged, the typographical leaves are slightly soiled, the head margin of the title page is cut short and restored with paper (lightly foxed), some very slight foxing and/or soiling throughout (mainly to the outer edges of the margins), some small marginal tears (some restored) in several leaves, plate 44 (spring) with a repaired tear, plate 43/44 in part 2 is repaired in the head margin. The verso of 45 plates show minute pricked holes in the leaf following the outlines of the depicted flowers and plants as a way of tracing the images on another leaf of paper or possibly another copperplate. Otherwise in good condition.l Franken (1881), no. 1346; Hunt, no. 199; Nissen, BBI, no. 1494; Oak Spring Flora, 12; Saunders, Picturing Plants, pp. 36-37; Savage, ‘The Hortus Floridus’, in: Transactions Bibiogr. Society, Second series, IV (1923), pp.181-206; Segal, Flowers and Nature (1990), pp. 165-166; Soultrait, 17th century, 226; STCN 308020359 (3 copies, incl. 1 incomplete); USTC 1022789 (4 copies, incl. 1 incomplete; 3 the same as STCN); cf. Veldman, Crispijn de Passe and his Progeny (1564-1670): a century of print production (2001), pp. 205-212.

Keywords: [04F65CFF5112] ART, ARCHITECTURE & PHOTOGRAPHY|[04F65CFF5112] ART, ARCHITECTURE & PHOTOGRAPHY -> [G91CNMP078RQ] Drawings, Prints & Watercolours|[5091845FC46C] NATURAL HISTORY|[5091845FC46C] NATURAL HISTORY -> [K7IC63G0P1WQ] Floras & Flowering Plants|