Porta, Giovanni Battista della | Phytognomonica, first edition, first issue

Porta, Giovanni Battista della

Phytognomonica. Naples: Horatio Salviani, 1588

Folio (332 x 222 mm). Title within woodcut border, portrait of the author on verso, historiated woodcut initials, woodcut head and tailpieces, woodcuts of plants and animals throughout, including index often lacking; closed tears to text in B3 and P4, pages 300 and 301 mispaginated, faint browning to a few leaves, light foxing primarily to margins, a few gatherings more heavily foxed, spotting and creasing to a few leaves, scattered small losses to margins. Contemporary limp vellum, gilt-lettered on spine, manuscript notes to upper pastedown crossed out; upper joint starting, light soiling.

First edition, first issue.

A tall copy of Porta’s treatise that further developed his doctrine of signatures, the theory that the external shape of a plant corresponds to its internal medicinal properties. The pseudoscience “led to some bizarre claims,” including that herbs growing in rock clefts could break up bladder stones and that plants that resembled flies and butterflies would promote fecundity (Norman).

REFERENCES

Norman 1724

PROVENANCE

Asta Libraria e Antiquaria, Firenze (dealer’s ticket) — Christie’s New York, lot 110, 19 December 2002, $7,170