PHYTOGNOMONICA IO. BAPTISTAE PORTAE OCTO LIBRIS CONTENTA; IN QUIBUS NOVA, FACILLIMAQUE AFFERTUT METHODUS, QUA PLANTARUM, ANIMALIUM, METALLORUM; RERUM DENIQUE OMNIUMEX PRIMA EXTIMæ FACIEI INSPECTIONE QUIUIS ABDITAS VIRES ASSEQUATUR. Accedunt ad haec confirmanda infinita propemodum selectiora secreta. Nunc primu?m ab innumeris mendis quibus passim Neapolitana editio scatebat, vindicata etc.

BOTANY - PORTA, GIAMBATTISTA DELLA. 1535?-1615.

Published by Francofurti, apud Ioannem Wechelum and Petrum Fischerum consortes., 1591

About this Item

Second Edition, 8vo. 7 x 5 inches, Title in red & black with with woodcut portrait on verso, [14] + 552 pages. Illustrated with 32 large woodcuts in the text. Bound in continental contemporary full panelled calf, with red title label. One or two leaves trimmed tightly in the index just affecting the running title, and one leaf of the prelims close on the fore-edge but no loss of text, otherwise a very fine clean copy. Thirty-two fine woodcut images of plants and animals distinguish this work on the signatures of plants, which was originally published in Naples in 1588. It is sometimes held that della Porta was the real originator of the botanical Doctrine of Signatures in any approximation to a scientific form. The theory was that Divine Providence had formed plants in such a way as to indicate the ailments they would cure, e.g. a walnut looked like the human brain, so would cure head ailments. The illustrations of the 'Phytognomonica' are helpful in interpreting Porta's view. The part of man's body which is healed by a particular herb, or the animal whose bites or stings can be cured by it, are represented in the same woodcut as the herb. The back view of a human head with a thick crop of hair is introduced into the block with the Maidenhair Fern, which is an ancient specific for baldness; a Pomegranate with its seeds exposed, and a plant of 'Toothwort,' with its hard, white scale-leaves, are represented in the same figure as a set of human teeth'. (Arber, Herbals p. 209) A scorpion completes a picture of plants with articulated seed vessels; a shoot of heliotrope is also included, since, to Porta's vivid imagination its curved flower spike recalled a scorpion's tail (Arber, Herbals pp. 251-2) Arber also notes the influence of this work on the herbalists of the next century, notably Johann Popp, William Cole and Nicholas Culpeper, all exponents of Paracelsus and Porta, in their theories of Astrological Botany. The woodcuts are of a very high quality and rare praised as such by Arber. NATURAL HISTORY/SCIENCE BOTANY NATURAL HISTORY/SCIENCE.

Seller Inventory # 20496

Bibliographic Details

• Title: PHYTOGNOMONICA IO. BAPTISTAE PORTAE OCTO LIBRIS CONTENTA; IN QUIBUS NOVA, FACILLIMAQUE AFFERTUT METHODUS, QUA PLANTARUM, ANIMALIUM, METALLORUM; RERUM DENIQUE OMNIUMEX PRIMA EXTIMæ FACIEI INSPECTIONE QUIUIS ABDITAS VIRES ASSEQUATUR. Accedunt ad haec confirmanda infinita propemodum selectiora secreta. Nunc primu?m ab innumeris mendis quibus passim Neapolitana editio scatebat, vindicata etc.
• Publisher: Francofurti, apud Ioannem Wechelum and Petrum Fischerum consortes.
• Publication Date: 1591