Description
Jan Commelin's Hortus Medici
These fine hand-colored engravings are from Jan and Caspar Commelin's work Horti Medici Amstelodamensis rariorum tam Orientalis, quam Occidentalis Indiae, aliarumque peregrinarum plantarum... . Jan Commelin (1629-1692) was the director of the Amsterdam Physic Garden, known as the Hortus Medicus (later Hortus Botanicus) during a great expansion which witnessed the addition of numerous plants from the Dutch East Indies, West Indies, and South Africa. Those found at the Garden were often the first specimens of individual species in Europe. This work is an outstanding record of those plants. The engravings were made based on paintings by Johann and Maria Moninck and others.
‘From 1686 onward, water-colours were made of the exotic plants in the Hortus, resulting in the first eight volumes of the Moninck Atlas. This collection served as the main source [of illustrations]... for Commelin. The rapid expansion of the collection of the Hortus medicus soon made it one of the richest collections of exotic plants in Europe. Authors dealing with exotic botany frequently used the Commelin volumes as a major source of reference’ (Wijnands, The Botany of the Commelins). ‘The first volume, on the plants of the East and West Indies, was Jan Commelin’s most important contribution to botanical knowledge; it was brought out posthumously by his nephew Caspar. The second volume was by Caspar Commelin and contained an enlargement of some of the notes in Jan’s book, with further notes on African plants’ (Hunt).
They are on fine chain-linked paper that measures ~10" by 16".