Women, Herbology, Science, 1802 | Almanach der kruid-kunde

[Kraus, Johann Carl (1759-1826)]

Botany, History of Science, Women, 1802 | Almanach der kruid-kunde voor het jaar 1802. Tot onderrichting en vermaak voor het Schoone Geslacht, als ook voor die genen die de eerste beginselen der kruid, kunde beöfenen. Amsterdam, J.B. Elwe, [1803].

Name: Botany, History of Science, Women, 1802 | Almanach der kruid-kunde voor het jaar 1802. Tot onderrichting en vermaak voor het Schoone Geslacht, als ook voor die genen die de eerste beginselen der kruid, kunde beöfenen. Amsterdam, J.B. Elwe, [1803].
SKU: BB110136
Price: 325.00 EUR
Availability: InStock

12° (2) 76 (2) pp. Contemporary binding. Blue paper-wrapped boards with two engraved illustrations: two young women collecting flowers (front) and a greco-roman-style statue of the goddess Flora (back). With a manuscript signature of J.S.J. van Eys. Illustrated, hand-colored title page plus 10 hand-colored plates, as well as in-text woodcuts. Preface dated October 1803. A light stain on upper the upper edge of the front and back boards. Light scuffs on the wrappers. Otherwise, a good copy.

A beautifully illustrated, hand-colored first edition. This item the third volume in a four-part series of “herbal almanacs” dated to 1800, 1801, 1802, and 1803 (though publication years vary) targeted toward the “Schoone Geslacht” (“fair sex”)–that is, women. Published anonymously, the author is known to be Johann Carl Kraus (1759-1826), professor of medicine at Leiden University who also studied and published books about botany.

Though characterized as an almanac, the work is really an educational manual, published in yearly increments, on the foundations of botany and the Linnean system of plant taxonomy. This third volume focuses on seeds and fruit, building on the 1800 and 1801 volumes about flowers. The text is structured in three parts. First, a brief almanac identifies lunar cycles and a few saint’s days. Second, Kraus presents selected Linnean plant classes with illustrations. Third, he offers an overview of the properties of seeds and fruit with illustrations.

The manuscript note of ownership is likely Dutch noblewoman Johanna Susanna Jacoba van Eys (1817-1869), daughter of Jan Constantijn Nicolaas van Eys and Wilhelmina Kluppel.

BB110136

SKU: BB110136

The 1810 edition has revised text, fewer plates, and a different title (Eerste beginselen der kruid-kunde. Tot onderrichting en vermaak voor het schoone geslacht; als ook voor die genen die de eerste beginselen der kruid-kunde beoefenen).

Because plates are numbered sequentially across the series rather than within each volume, the third section of this work shows plates V and VI. Therefore, Plates I, II, III, and IV are not missing; they are in the 1800 and 1801 volumes.

€ 354,25 (€ 325,00 ex. btw)

In stock