Emanuel Sweert

Florilegium… tractans de variis floribus et aliis indicis plantis ad vivum delineatum in duabus partibus et quatuor linguis concinnatum. Frankfurt: A. Kempner [part 2, E. Kempner], 1612

FIRST EDITION, 2 parts in one volume, folio (361 x 250mm.), engraved allegorical title, engraved portrait of the author, 110 hand-coloured engraved plates, title heightened in gold, contemporary red morocco, the covers panelled in gilt with foliate centre- and corner-pieces, spine densely tooled gilt in seven compartments, lettered in one, title cut round and mounted, part 2 plate 40 possibly supplied from another copy

Emanuel Sweert, a Dutch florist, was at one time the Praefectus of the gardens of the Emperor Rudolf II, and it was at his behest that this enchanting work in red morocco gilt was produced. Althou𝐆gh it did not contain prices, it also served as a catalogue of plants offered for sale by Sweert at the Frankfurt fair. The plates, depicting some 560 plants and flowers are mostly copied from Vallet. The work is notable for the many fine plates of bulbous varieties, particularly tulips, burgeoning the craze of ‘Tulipomania’ that then swept Europe. Its popularity led to five subsequent editions.

LITERATURE:

Hunt, 196; Nissen BBI 1920; cf. An Oak Spring Flora 9

PROVENANCE:

Thomas Herbert, eighth Earl of Pembroke (1656-1733), first Lord of the Admiralty, president of the Royal Society, dedicatee of Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Thomas Greenhill’s Art of Embalming, and a prolific bibliophile, 𝐆shelf mark Pn.2. on verso of front🦋 free endpaper