Recueil des Vegetaux Utiles en Medecine. by LINNAEUS, Carolus (1707-1778)

Late 18th-early 19th-century. LINNAEUS, Carolus (1707-1778). Recueil des Vegetaux Utiles en Medecine. Late 18th-early 19th-century. Folio (14 2/8 x 9 2/8 inches). 170 pages of manuscript text, including tables and index listing 475 different specimens. 223 numbered pages of original botanical watercolours, many illustrating more than one specimen on paper watermarked with a heart containing the initials "RG" (7 pages blank, and many misbound). Late 19th-century half French morocco, title lettered in gilt on the spine (end-papers renewed, extremities scuffed). A FINE AND APPARENTLY ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT, following the order of, describing and illustrating the majority of the plants of Carolus Linnaeus' Materia Medica, Liber I. de Plantis, first published in Stockholm in 1749. Quite possibly by a member of the famous French Lestiboudois family of botanists (Jean-Baptiste, 1715-1804; François Joseph, 1759 – 1815; and Gaspard Thémistocle 1797–1876). Linnaeus' Materia medica of 1749 contains the Linnaean names of 535 medicinal plants, several of which were for the first time reduced to their proper genera and species. The current work represents an original attempt to classify herbs with known medicinal properties according to the Linnaean classification system. The plants listed are for the most part common in Western Europe, though some are found in Africa. Each plant has a note with a brief history of each plant, with references to its use in antiquity, and its Latin, French and occasionally German name..