Herbarius oft Cruydt-boeck Remberti Dodonaei volghens sijne laetste verbeteringhe : met biivoeghsels achter elck capitel, uyt verscheyden cruydt-beschrijvers. Item, in 't laetste een beschrijvinghe vande Indiaensche ghewassen, meest ghetrocken uyt de schriften van Carolus Clusius. Nu wederom van nieuws oversien ende verbetert

Leyden: Plantijnsche Druckerije van Françoys van Ravelingen, 1618. Folio. (13 5/8 x 8 3/8 inches). Engraved pictorial title, 1,470 woodcuts in text. Original vellum over wooden boards, with metal clasps, morocco label to spine

A splendid copy of the monumental Dutch herbal in its original binding in its second and enlarged edition with descriptions of newly recorded exotic plants.

The book is one of the great illustrated vernacular herbals of the Low Countries. Its approximately 1,470 woodcuts include European herbs, medicinal plants, mushrooms, fruit trees and other trees, together with a substantial final section devoted to "Indian" or exotic plants, drawn chiefly from Carolus Clusius. The appendix brought together American and East Indian material, including tobacco, tropical peppers, cacti, papyrus, fruits and nuts, reflecting the widening geographical scope of sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century botany. Second Dutch edition of the expanded Cruydt-Boeck, Dodoens' last and most comprehensive herbal should be distinguished from the earlier Cruydeboeck of 1554, which drew heavily on Leonhart Fuchs. This later Cruydt-Boeck follows the far more extensive Latin Stirpium Historiae Pemptades Sex Sive Libri XXX, first published by Plantin in 1583 and later revised. It presents Dodoens' developed effort to classify plants by affinities, properties and practical medical use. The 1618 edition is enlarged from the first Dutch edition of 1608. "This edition contains more woodcuts than the preceding as well as new descriptions of exotic plants taken from the works of Prosper Alpinus and Fabius Columna." (Menno Herzberger. Herbals...from the Hunger collection, 209). The present copy preserves the book in the original binding, an especially fitting survival for a large working herbal designed for regular consultation by physicians, apothecaries, gardeners and household readers.

Nissen BBI 518; Stafleu & Cowan 1491.