Catalogus plantarum in horto regio parisiis ... [etc.].

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Author/Creator:

Lémery, Nicolas, 1645-1715.

Contributor:

Emery, G. E., former owner.

Miner, Lawrence W., 1860- former owner.

Laird, Marshall, former owner.

Jonathan A. Hill Endowed Fund.

Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

French

Latin

Subjects (All):

Jardin du roi (France)--Early works to 1800.

Jardin du roi (France).

Medicinal plants--Early works to 1800.

Medicinal plants.

Drugstores--France--History--Sources.

Drugstores.

History.

France.

Genre:

codices (bound manuscripts)

catalogs (documents)

lists (document genres)

Manuscripts, Latin.

Manuscripts, French.

Manuscripts, American.

Manuscripts, European.

Sources.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by the Ferguson family, probably England, late 17th or 18th century (inscriptions, p. v, 508).

Formerly owned by by G.E. Emery, London, probably 19th century (stamp, p. i).

Formerly owned by Lawrence W. Miner, New London, Connecticut (inscription dated 1905, p. v).

Formerly owned by Marshall Laird, biologist in Newfoundland and New Zealand (bookplate inside front cover).

Sold by Antiquariaat Forum (Netherlands), 2016.

Physical Description:

260 leaves : paper ; 115 x 82 mm bound to 120 x 95 mm

Production:

Paris, 1682.

Language Note:

Latin (catalogue of plants, p. 1-184, with English names added in the original hand) and French (catalogue of contents of apothecary shop, p. 491-506), with an early 20th-century list added in English (p. 188-218).

Biography/History:

French chemist and pharmacist from Rouen who worked as an apothecary in Paris from 1672 to 1683; lived in England from 1683 to 1684 due to French hostility to Protestants; and returned to Paris in 1684 and converted to Catholicism in 1686 after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.

Summary:

Catalogue of plants in the Jardin du Roi, originally a royal garden for medicinal plants in Paris now named the Jardin des Plantes, listing 1,864 species grouped by genus. An incomplete index at the front of the volume lists species alphabetically and leaves room for folio numbers that were never added. Both the index and the catalogue include English names added for some species. Beginning from the back of the volume upside down is a catalogue of the contents of Lémery's apothecary shop in September 1682, written as continuous text with entries separated by commas, but divided into categories of Les animaux (from animals); Bois et racines (from woods and roots); Sucs, gommes, resines (from juices, gums, and resins); Fruits, bayes, et semences (from fruits, berries, and seeds); and Mineraux (from minerals, including mummy wrapping and paper from China and Japan). In the blank pages in the middle, early 20th-century owner Lawrence W. Miner kept a list of household goods, mostly pieces of china, but also items in glass, wood, and metal.

Contents:

1. p.1-43: Herbae, frutices et arbores medicinales / [Nicolas Lémery]

2. p.49-184: Catalogus plantarum in horto regio parisiis, anno 1682 Junii 15 / [Nicolas Lémery]

3. p.188-218: [Catalogue of china, glass, and small wooden and metal accessories / Lawrence W. Miner]

4. p.491-506: Catalogue de tous les medicamens simples chez Monsieur Lemery apothecaire, a Paris Septembre 18, 1682 / [Nicolas Lémery].

Notes:

Ms. codex.

Title for manuscript from caption title for predominant work (p. 49).

Collation: Paper, 260 leaves; 1⁴ 2-4⁸ 5-8¹⁶ 9¹⁵ 10-13⁸ 14⁶ 15-26⁸ 27⁸(-7) 28⁴ 29⁸; gatherings 6-10 signed B-F in modern pencil, lower right first recto; paginated [i-viii], 1-33, [34-520 (34-35, 44-48, 185-187, 219-490 blank)]; contemporary pagination in ink, modern foliation in pencil, upper outer corners.

Script: Written in semicursive script, probably by Nicolas Lémery.

Binding: Contemporary (late 17th-century) parchment with broken headband; spine label, circa 1800 (Antiquariaat Forum): MSS, Apothecary Catalogue, Paris, 1682.

Origin: Written in Paris in 1682 (p. 49, 506).

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Jonathan A. Hill Endowed Fund.

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Fund.

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the B.H. Breslauer Foundation.

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 1782.

OCLC:

956740179