Decade di alberi curiosi ed eleganti piante by Giovanni Hill [John Hill] - 1786: delle Indie orientali e dell'America

Rare hand-coloured Italian edition of John Hill's Decade of Curious and Elegant Trees and Plants, 1773.

Decade di alberi curiosi ed eleganti piante delle Indie orientali e dell'America ultimamente fatte gia'note dal celebre Sig. Dottore Giovanni Hill

(A Decade of Curious and Elegant Trees and Plants from the East Indies and America lately made known by the famous Doctor John Hill).

With 10 fine copperplates coloured in the distinctive 18th-century style

Most of the plants from Asia, India and China, with just three from the Americas (Venus flytrap, Mexican waterlily and Peruvian lily).

The plates engraved by Giuseppe Bianchi after Cesare Majoli (or Maioli), reputedly based on original botanical illustrations by John Hill himself.

With a dedication to the astronomer and botanical collector Filippo Luigi Gilii by the artist Majoli, and introduction by the anonymous translator (believed to be the Argentine botanist Gaspar Juarez).

The ten plants and trees are:
Kamala tree or red kamala or kumkum tree, Mallotus philippensis. (As Cornucopian shrub, Copianthus indica) South and Southeast Asia
Peruvian lily or Inca lily, Alstromeria pelegrina. Peru
Elephant apple, Dillenia indica. China
Little tree plant or Mukkootti, Biophytum sensitivum (As Oxalis sensitiva). Nepal and India
Venus flytrap, Dionaea muscipula, vulnerable. North and South Carolinas, North America
Orchid tree or camel's foot, Bauhinia purpurea. Myanmar and Indian subcontinent
Candelabra tree, Ceropegia candelabrum. India and Sri Lanka
Yellow waterlily or Mexican waterlily, Nymphaea mexicana. (As yellow American water-lilly, Nymphaea nelumbo flava) Southern United States and Mexico.
Tropical pitcher plant or bandura, Nepenthes distillatoria. Sri Lanka
Champak, Magnolia champaca (As orange grape, Michelia champaca) South Asia and China

John Hill, c.1714-1775, was an English writer and botanist. After apprenticing as an apothecary, he later became botanist and plant collector to the Duke of Richmond and Lord Petre. In 1759 he started publishing his study of the Vegetable System which ran to 26 volumes with 1,600 engravings. He also wrote novels, plays and papers on natural history, medicine, astrology and geology.

Bound in marble-paper wraps with different patterns, paper spine mostly gone, book block fragile but holding, interior with some faint water stains to title page and other page edges, but all text plates bright, and the copperplate engravings with wide margins, deep crisp impressions, and vivid contemporary hand colour.

Very rare to find with hand-coloured plates.