Nova Genera et Species plantarum quas in peregrinatione orbis novi collegerunt, descripserunt ... Tomus primus [-septimus]. Voyage de Humboldt et Bonpland. Sixième partie, botanique by HUMBOLDT, Alexander von; BONPLAND, Aimé & KUNTH, Carl Sigismund (editor) - 1815

Paris: Librairie Grecque-Latine-Allemande, N.Maze, and Gide Fils, 1815. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Large Folio. 1815-1825. 7 volumes (all published). Elephant Folio (530 x 345 mm). Half-title and general title to each volume, section titles to volumes I and VII, dedication to Nicolaus Jacquin, 714 engraved plates by Turpin, all but two (3 and 96) with find hand-color, the plates numbered to 700, including all "bis", "1"/"2" or "a"/"b" plates (332(1)/(2), 481(a)/(b), 483(a), 499(a)/(b), 514(b), 532(b), 547bis, 548(b), 562bis, 645bis, 647bis, 659bis, 660bis, and 688bis. Present are the cancel plates 216, 479 and 480, but the respective cancellanda were not bound-in. The plate numbering is not in order in several places but generally follows the text. Vol. I of our set is lacking the diagram showing the vegetation zones (never bound in). Pagination: [8], xlvi, 302; [8], 324; [8], 356; [8], 247 [1]; [8], 338; [8], 420, [2]; [8], 399 [1] pp. The set in magnificient and uniform binding of the mid 19th-century in red morocco; spines with 5 raised bands each, with gilt-lettering and rich gilt-tooling in compartments; board-margins, -edges and -turn-ins with rich gilt tooling, all book-block edges gilt, blue marbled endpapers (extremities very little rubbed, binding and joints sound and firm). Text with some scattered foxing, generally a bit stronger to first and final pages in each volume; the plates with only very little occasional spotting; the plate 527 with repaired burn(?) hole not affecting illustration. In all a crisp, clean and bright set. Provenance: Christopher Turnor (1809-1886), Stoke Rochford Library (armorial bookplate to front pastedowns); Henry Rogers Broughton, 2nd Baron Fairhaven (armorial bookplate to first free endpapers). [Visit our website to see all images!] ----

RARE FIRST EDITION, LARGE PAPER COPY, IN OUTSTANDING MOROCCO BINDINGS. All volumes are in the "vellum" edition with the (when appeared) fine hand-colored engravings. It constitutes one of a very small number of colored sets that were produced. It can well be regarded complete as only the three cancelled (erroneous) plates are absent. Our set conforms in number of plates with Sitwell who, as well as Stafleu-Cowan, does not mention the missing frontispiece diagram.
Alexander von Humboldt's five-year voyage to America, which he undertook with his companion Aime Bonpland in the years 1799-1804 and which took the two explorers to the territory of the present-day states of Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Mexico, is considered one of the most important expeditions in history. With his research results, Alexander von Humboldt became the second, scientific discoverer of Latin America and at the same time the founder of modern scientific voyages of discovery. For Humboldt, botany was the gateway to the natural sciences. On his return to Europe, Humboldt almost immediately set about publishing his findings. The resulting work Le voyage aux regions equinoxiales du Nouveau Continent (The Voyage to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent) was published in 30 volumes (20 in folio and ten in large quarto) between 1807 and 1828. Five additional volumes by other authors were printed up to 1834. Employing around 50 artists, cartographers, naturalists and engravers and produced by a consortium of publishers, the project was principally funded by Humboldt himself with some grants from the French and Prussian government. It is said to have been the most expensive scientific book published at the time, which is why it is rarely found complete in public collections today. The work included theories that would come to influence scientific thought throughout the nineteenth century and serves as an important milestone in the scientific exploration and natural history of the Americas.
Of the 30 volumes published, the folio volumes detailing plants, known as the Botanique, were among the most significant. The text of the plant-geographical volume, which was the first of the entire travel work, was written by Humboldt himself. Humboldt had agreed with Bonpland that the latter should be responsible for writing the botanical parts. After the first deliveries of the Plantes equinoxiales and the Melastomacees had appeared quickly, the publication slowed down, because Bonpland could not fulfill the expectations placed in him by other commitments and simply because of the unique monumentality of the production (4,528 plants were listed with over 1,300 copperplate engravings commissioned to illustrate them). This period around 1810 also saw the separation of the publishing houses Cotta and Schoell, which until then had jointly published the volumes of the travel work (cf. Fiedler/Leitner p. 251). Humboldt subsequently commissioned the important Berlin botanist C. L. Willdenow to edit the herbarium and Bonpland's Journal botanique. However, after Willdenow's death in 1812, his student K. S. Kunth was recruited for this task. For the Nova genera Kunth, who also finished the interrupted works of the Plantes equinoxiales and the Melastomacees, finally became the editor and author. The work done by Kunth is still considered admirable and of outstanding importance. "It was Kunth who, at Humboldt's instigation, visited Bonpland in Le Havre in 1816, who was embarking for Buenos Aires, and implored him to hand over, if not the parts of the herbarium of the American voyage already stored on board and in his possession, then at least the Journal botanique (the six leather-bound volumes of the field diaries), without which Kunth would not have been able to continue the systematic recording and publication of the botanical yield of the voyage. In these field diaries Bonpland and Humboldt entered their daily descriptions of the plants (numbered from 1 to 4528) and animals observed in the field, together with preliminary determinations, "each entry beginning with a number, followed by a preliminary determination, a description, and usually an indication of the locality" (Lack). Unfortunately, however, the field books do not contain daily dates, latitude and longitude measurements, or any elevation data, so that assigning plants to specific locations and their elevation above sea level poses major problems to this day (cf. Moret).
Literature and references: J. H. Barnhart, Dates of the "Nova Genera" of Humboldt, Bonpland and Kunth, in Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 29, pp. 585-598; S. Sitwell, Great Flower Books 1700-1900, p. 109; Nissen BBI 954; Sabin 33761; Stafleu-Cowan TL2 3143; H. W. Lack, Alexander von Humboldt und die botanische Erforschung Amerikas. München, London, New York, 2018; P. Moret et al., Humboldt's Tableau Physique revisited. In: Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 116: 12889-12894, 2019. - Visit our website for further reading and to see all the images!