Philosophia botanica in qua explicantur fundamenta botanica cum definitionibus partium, exemplis terminorum, observationibus rariorum, adjectis figuri [with a possible variant frontispiece?] by Linnaeus (Linne, Linn), Carl von - 1751

Stockholmiae & Amstelodami: Kiesewetter, Godofr & Chatelain, Z, 1751. Latin text. Engraved frontispiece (But see notes below), octavo, title page, dedication page, lectori botanico page, 362 pages, 9 engraved plates, 2 full page engravings, a little age-toning, the occasional blemish or small mark, the title page is a bit creased and stained in the gutter margin and there is offsetting from the frontispiece. which is chipped and with a closed tear, repaired and mounted on a paper stub. Bound in possibly original marbled paper and more recent half calf, slightly worn. Soulsby 437. [The frontispiece is often lacking, but the one we have here is not the usual frontispiece ! It is possibly a little smaller than the page size, though this is not certain as it has been repaired and mounted; the offsetting to the title page, which is obviously of some antiquity, is definitely from the plate currently bound in. So - is it a variant, or has it been added by a previous owner ? Interestingly, I can only find one copy of this particular image online, in the Wellcome Collection, [R. Burgess, Portraits of doctors & scientists in the Wellcome Institute, London 1973, no. 1778.10 ; listed as by Gustav Lundberg].]. [It is "the first textbook of descriptive systematic botany and botanical Latin". It also contains Linnaeus's first published description of his binomial nomenclature. Philosophia Botanica represents a maturing of Linnaeus's thinking on botany and its theoretical foundations, being an elaboration of ideas first published in his Fundamenta Botanica (1736) and Critica Botanica (1737), and set out in a similar way as a series of stark and uncompromising principles (aphorismen). The book also establishes a basic botanical terminology.] RARE.. First Edition. Half Leather. Good.