ACOSTA, Christoval.
Tractado de las drogas, y medicanas de las Indias Orientales, con sus Plantas debuxadas al bivo.
Burgos, Martin de Victoria, 1578.
Small quarto, title in architectural woodcut border incorporating the coat-of-arms of the city of Burgos, woodcut portrait of the author, and 44 full-page woodcuts of plants and two of elephants; discreet stamp in lower right margin of title; faint waterstain in upper margin of first few leaves; some leaves lightly browned, occasional marginal foxing; overall a good, fresh copy in contemporary limp vellum, the binding itself stained and loose but unsophisticated; quarter morocco case.
Drugs, herbs and spices of the East Indies: first edition of this influential herbal, important for disseminating botanical and pharmaceutical knowledge of recently discovered species from newly discovered lands, particularly in the East Indies. The handsome woodcuts, largely taken from drawings made by the author "in the field", illustrate many species from the East relatively unknown in Europe at the time, including ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, mace, aloes, tamarind, cloves and china root - all of which became increasingly important commodities on the trade routes. The depictions of the elephant are the earliest representations of the animal in a scientific (rather than an antiquarian or festival) publication (Lach).
A physician from Portuguese Mozambique, Acosta (c. 1515-1580) accompanied the Portuguese viceroy to Goa, and also travelled to Persia and China. His book was reprinted in Spanish in 1582 and 1596, and incorporated into the many botanical compilations by L'Ecluse and others which followed.
He makes some notable attempts at comparative botany, in which the characteristics of a species known in both Asia and America are contrasted. As Colmeiro and other authorities point out, some of Acosta's material derives directly from Orta's Colloquios dos Simples e Drogas he Cousas Medicinais da India (Goa, 1563), but Acosta has substantially clarified and augmented the earlier work, which anyway had no illustrations and was badly organised and poorly printed.
Durling, 1064; Garrison & Morton, 1819; Hunt, 130; Lach, I, pp. 194-5; Palau, 1962; Pritzel, 13; Sabin , 113; Stafleu & Cowan, 23.
Australian: $42,000 (Approx. US $37,968, Euro €27,825) Quote ref.
