Milestones of Science Books

JUNG, Joachim [JUNGIUS, Ioachim].

Opuscula botanico-physica.

Coburg: sumptibus ex typis Georgii Ottonis, typogr. Ducal. Priv. 1747.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #002364

4to (198 x 155 mm). [24] 183 [1] pp. Signatures: a-c4 A-Z4, 108 leaves. Errata on final page. Woodcut headpieces, woodcuts of three forms of tree growth on p. 169. Recent marbled boards, spine with gilt lettering piece, new endpapers. Text only little browned, very minor faint spotting. Provenance: library of Walter Pagel. A fine, clean and unmarked copy. ----

Dibner 23; Evans 82; Norman 1193; Pritzel 4524. - THE VERY RARE FIRST EDITION of this collection, inluding Jungius, Doxoscopiae physicae minores (first edition 1662) and Isagogae phytoscopia, first printed in Praecipuae Opiniones Physicae (1679); and Giuseppe degli Aromatari's Epistola de generatione plantarum ex seminibus first printed in his Disputatio de rabie contagiosa (1625). This collection reprints Jungius' seminal works in the history of botany. Jungius gave botany much of its present nomenclature and first clearly divided the subject into morphology, physiology and ecology. Linnaeus based his system of nomenclature on Jungius' work, via Ray's Historia plantarum (1686-1704). Accused of heresy, most of his writings were only published after his death. 'Some few treatises were published by his pupils, among them one entitled Isagoge phytoscopica (Handbook of Botanical Study). This work, comprising a volume of 46 quarto pages, must be regarded as one of the pioneering works in botany. It gives a concentrated account of the theory of botany, under the obvious influence of Cesalpino's, but without the latter's profitless Aristotelian speculations... The whole exposition, with its concise, vigorous sentences and its analyses of different parts of the plant drawn up in tabular form, is more reminiscent of Linnaeus' work than that of any other of the early botanists. Linnaeus, in fact, mentions Jung as his precursor as far as the drawing up of rules for the description of flowers is concerned and actually took up the characteristic description of plant-organs at the point where Jung had finished and certainly brought it up to a far higher standard.' (Nordenskiöld pp. 194-95). The edition also includes Giuseppe degli Aromatari's letter on the germination of plants from seeds. Jungius' published works were based on transcripts of lectures, edited shortly after his death and annotated by his students Martin Fogel and Johann Vaget. Presumably the rarity of the earlier publications meant that McLean Evans could only obtain the Opuscula to represent Jungius' 'epochal achievement', and Dibner as his 'herald'. Julius von Sachs, trs. Henry E. F. Garnsey, History of Botany (1890), pp. 58-63; Erik Nordenskiöld, trs. Leonard Bucknall Eyre, The History of Biology (1928); A. G. Morton, History of Botanical Science (1981) pp. 167-75. (R. Gaskell, Books from the Library of Walter Pagel, Pt. 2, 104).

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