CAMERARIUS (Joachim). Eklekta Georgika, sive opuscula... Lot 30

CAMERARIUS (Joachim). Eklekta Georgika, sive opuscula quædam de re rustica. Nuremberg, Paul Kaufmann, 1596. In-12, brown morocco, arms in the center, spine ribbed, decorated with a repeated gilt numeral and emblem (Binding of the period). 239 pp. Rare first edition of this collection of extracts from ancient texts on agriculture: it gathers first proverbs and sentences, then practical advice. After the letters of Alberti Lolius, of Aeneas Sylvius, and the poem of L. Bonamici, it ends with an interesting catalog of ancient and modern authors who wrote on this field. It is illustrated in fine with a large woodcut folding plate representing, in ancient bas-relief, a zodiacal allegory of the cycle of nature. Camerarius (1534-1598), philosopher and physician, founded the Academy of Medicine in Nuremberg; a passionate botanist, he created a garden of reference, with rare and precious species, and acquired the important botanical library of Gessner. He is the author of a magnificent and famous collection of 400 emblems inspired by natural history. A very precious copy bearing the arms and the cipher of President Jacques-Auguste de Thou (1553-1617) and Marie de Barbançon, his first wife (Olivier, pl. 216-5). Cumulating prestigious origins, it then belonged to : Étienne de Meaux (armorial bookplate Bibliotheca de Meaux), lord of Châtillon born in 1660, first president of the presidial of Mâcon - to A. L. Simon, specialist in gastronomy and oenology (n° 52 of his sale) - and to the collector Kilian Fritsch (ex-libris, 1993, n° 66). Discreet restorations to the binding, a cracked spine. Simon, Bacchica, II, 122 - Simon, Gastr., 279 - Oberlé, Bach, 66 (this copy).