COLONNA, Fabio. Minus cognitarum stirpium aliquot ac etiam rariorum nostro coelo orientium ΕΚΦΡΑΣΙC. Qua non paucae ab antiquiorib. Theophrasto, Dioscoride Plinio Galeno alijsque descriptae declarantur ... Item De Aquatilibus, alisque animalibus quibusdam paucis Libellus. Rome: Guglielmo Facciotti. 1610.
[bound with:]
_. Minus cognitarum stirpium pars altera. In qua non tam novae plures platae… Rome: Giacomo Mascardi. 1616
[and with:]
_. Pupura, hoc est de purpura ab animali testaceo fusa, de hoc ipso Animali aliisque rarioribus testaceis quibusdam… Rome: Giacomo Mascardi. 1616.
Three works in one vol., small 4to. 17th-century vellum over boards, title in ink to spine, edges sprinkled red and blue, green silk page marker; pp. Minus: [8], 3-340, lxxiii, [7], with engraved title page and 114 full-page engraved illustrations (included in pagination); Pars altera: [14], 99, [1 (blank)], engraved title, portrait of the author, and 30 full-page illustrations (in pagination); Purpura: [8], 42, engraved title and 8 full-page illustrations (in pagination); all illustrations by Colonna and within type-set frames; woodcut initials, woodcut and typographic head-, and tailpieces; extremities lightly rubbed, boards a little soiled; light, variable spotting, occasional light offsetting and toning, Minus with pin wormholes to first 4 quires (occasionally touching a few letters) and light marginal dampstaining to upper edge of [*]1-D1; Pars altera with small loss to outer margin of title (not affecting printed area and neatly repaired); Purpura with small wormhole to lower margin of A1-D4 (partly repaired) and small paper flaw to D2 (all far from printed area); overall a very good, bright copy; library stamps “Bibl. SS Apostolorum Neapolis” to pp. 93 and lxxiii of Minus (see below); early ownership signature to first title; some early annotations and corrections in ink.
First complete edition (second edition of Part I; first editions of Parts II and III) of this illustrated work on botany and aquatic animals, notable for containing some of the earliest examples of botanical etching.
Fabio Colonna (1567-1650) belonged to a Neapolitan branch of the prominent Roman noble family. Trained as a lawyer, he turned to the study of medicine and botany in search of a cure for his epilepsy. Among the first members of the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, he corresponded extensively with several prominent figures of his day, including Galileo Galilei, Tommaso Campanella and Carolus Clusius. He also invented the “pentecontachordon”, a fifty-string keyboard instrument similar to a harpsichord.
Although ready by 1603, the publication of the Minus cognitarum was delayed until 1606 due to the difficulty of securing a publisher and preparing the 156 etched copperplates, each carefully designed by Colonna himself. This 1610 second edition is unrecorded in standard bibliographies. It is nearly identical to the first and third editions (1606 and 1616), save for minor variations in the title wording. As in the 1616 edition, the dedicatee is Marzio Colonna, rather than Cardinal Scipione Caffarelli-Borghese in the first edition. The first part, devoted to plants (340 pages), is followed by a treatise on aquatic animals (De aquatilibus aliisque animalibus, 73 pages) and an extensive index. Colonna’s work marked a departure from earlier herbals through the accuracy of its illustrations. Executed in pure etching (with no support from the burin), they depict in detail the structure and form of plants, often with separate views of flowers and fruits. He also included notes on the geographical origins of the specimens.
The second part of the book, Minus cognitarum pars altera, was first published in 1616 together with De purpura, a treatise on the purple dye extracted from shellfish. This second part enjoyed more success than the first; yet Colonna never recovered the 500 scudi he personally invested in the project – an expense that placed considerable strain on his already modest finances.
Provenance: From the library of the Theatines at Santi Apostoli in Naples. The church and monastery of Santi Apostoli served as the headquarters for the Theatine order from 1574 until the order’s suppression in the early nineteenth century. The library at Santi Apostoli was likely dispersed around that time.
The 1610 edition of the Minus cognitarum stirpium is very rare: OCLC records only one copy in the US (Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University) and no copies in the UK. OPAC SBN adds four copies in Italy.
Minus: Brunet II, 172-173 & Nissen BBI 385 (1606 and 1616 editions); Purpura: Nissen ZBI 927.
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