Flore Medicale, Vols. 1-4: Flore du Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicales

Very good copy of the first four volumes of the second edition of this classic of Enlightenment medical botany

4 volumes edited by Francois-Pierre Chaumeton, Jean-Louis Marie Poiret and Jean-Baptiste de Chamberet.

With 339 (of 360) hand-coloured stipple engravings by Pierre Jean Francois Turpin and Anne-Ernestine Panckoucke

Engraved by Lambert Jr., Boutelou, Mme. Benoit, Bignant, Mlle. Coignet, Mlle. Cornu, Dien, Dubois, Forget, Gautier, Giraud, Goulot, Guyard, Mlle. Louvier, Massard, Phelipeau, Plee, Poulet, Rebel and Victor.

Francois-Pierre Chaumeton (1775-1819) was a French physician and botanist. While working as a military surgeon with the French Army, he studied botany at Strasbourg in 1805 and later moved to Paris to continue his work as a botanical writer and editor.

Pierre Jean Francois Turpin (1775-1840) was one of the greatest botanical artists of the Napoleonic era, along with Redoute and Bessa. When serving in the French army in Haiti in 1794, Turpin met botanist Pierre Antoine Poiteau and switched careers. His skill as an artist was recognized by botanists such as Poiret, Humboldt, Duhamel du Monceau and Candolle. Turpin provided the majority of the plates for Flore Medicale.

Anne-Ernestine Panckoucke (1784-1860) was a French botanical artist. The wife of publisher Charles Louis Fleury Panckoucke, she studied flower painting under Pierre-Joseph Redoute and contributed 18 very fine illustrations to the Flore Medicale, including the orange, fig, apple, almond, strawberry, peanut, cherry and quince.

In original quarter leather bindings, red morocco spines with gilt titles, boards scuffed and scratched, hinges cracking, all book blocks solid. Interior very clean, text and plates without foxing, a few with small wormholes, all stipple-engraved plates bright and beautifully coloured.

A classic of botanical art.