HORTUS ELTHAMENSIS SEU PLANTARUM RARIORUM QUAS IN HORTO SUO ELTHAMI IN CANTIO COLIUT....

1. First Edition: 2 volumes, folio (460 x 290 mm), I. 184, II. 185-437, (i addenda & corrigenda) pages, 325 engraved plates numbered I-CLXVII [1] CLLXVIII-CCCXXIV, attractively rebound in calf in period style, gilt decorated spines with red and green leather title labels (a previous catalogue note suggests this is the work of the master binder Bernard Middleton 1924-2019), half titles in each volume, main title page in volume I as called for, contents crisp, edges dyed red, a very good copy.

Johnston (Stanley H. Jr.) The Cleveland Herbal, Botanical, and Horticultural Collections, (1992) 374 (pages 342/3): 'Dillenius was a German botanist from Giessen who was brought to England by William Sherard (1659-1728), the celebrated English botanist and student of Tournefort and Hermann, to assist in arranging his horti sicci and with his compilation of his updated continuation  of C. Bauhin's Pinax. On William Sherard's death in 1728, he left his herbaria and botanical library to Oxford University along with 3000 pounds for the endowment of a professorship in botany, on condition that Dillenius be appointed to the first professorship for life.

'Unfortunately for Dillenius, the administration of the estate was left in the hands of Sherard's brother, James, a retired pharmacist, who used the delay in Dillenius's appointment to compel Dillenius to work in his garden at Eltham in Kent and complete the compilation of the present description of it, much of which was produced at Dillenius's expense. Dillenius finally became the first Sherardian Professor in 1734 and went on to become the first president  and co-founder of the Botanical Society.

'This is the first edition of what Miss Henrey calls "the most important book to be published in England during the eighteenth century on plant growing in a private garden."

'The illustrations were both drawn and engraved by Dillenius, and in some copies were coloured by him as well.'

Henrey (Blanche) British Botanical and Horticultural Literature before 1800, Volume II. page 265