RARIORUM AFRICANARUM PLANTARUM

First Edition: viii, 268 pages and a 2 page index, the work is divided into 10 sections with engraved title pages, each with a charming engraved vignette of Table Bay, 10 dedication leaves, 100 engraved plates, the first title page is printed in red and black, without the frontispiece portrait of Burmann which is present in very few copies, half dark brown leather with black paper sides - bound as a tight back the leather has been refurbished and the hinges strengthened, contents and plates crisp, a very good copy of the first and only edition of this primary source on South African flora.

Hunt, Catalogue of Botanical Books, Volume II, Part II, Printed Book 1701-1800, number 508: ‘According to Nissen, Burman drew 33 plants from the Codex Simon van der Stel, 24 from the Herbarium Witsenianum, and 92 from the Codex Witsenii; and the artist was the physician Hendrik Claudius of Breslau (see Nissen, text pp.87 and 237 and no.302). Simon van der Stel made an expedition to Namaqualand in 1685-86, Henrik Claudius accompanying him, and the drawings later came into the possession of Burgomaster Nikolaas Witsen of Amsterdam. The Dutch were the first to describe plants of the Cape of Good Hope. The ten title pages are from the same setting, with changes only in decade numbers and dates.’