[Beautiful convolute of 2 garden books] (1) De koninglycke hovenier

aanwyzende de middelen om boomen, bloemen en kruyden te zaayen, plantenn, aen queeken en voort teelen. Met konstige koperen platen verciert, Door D.H. Cause. Nooit voor dese gedruckt (...). Amsterdam, M. Doornick, n.d. (1676), (4),144,(1 intertitle),145-224 p., with the following 32 engravings: engraved title, 2 bird's eye perspectives of "Sainct Germain aen Laye" and Soestdijk Palace, 10 illustrations on 5 plates of fruits, 16 illustrations of flowers on 8 plates (in the style of De Passe) and 32 illustrations of flower garden designs on 16 plates, contemporary full vellum ("splitselband") with title in pen to spine, folio (quires in 4to).

As usual bound with: (2) Nederlantze Hesperides, dat is, oeffening en gebruik van de limoen- en oranje-boomen; gestelt na den aardt, en climaat der Nederlanden. Met kopere platen verçiert, door J. Commelyn. Ibid, idem, 1676, (4),47,(2) p., with the following 27 engravings: frontispiece, 20 plates of lime and orange species, 1 plate with "tobbens en potten" and 5 plates with interiors (4x) and an exterior of "winter-plaatsen". Ad 1 and 2: An attractive convolute with minor defects: occ. sl. browned/ foxed or sl. thumbed, minimal tears to fore edge. The turned vellum sl. starting, causing small tears to endpapers. Hunt 344 and 345; Nissen 339 and 390. Two of the most important Dutch botanical books from the 17th century, both in first edition. The first work describes more than 400 plants. The "Bericht voor den Boekbinder" calls for altogether 8 "vel figuren", which means 32 plates for these quires of 4 leaves. The engraved title has been bound separately in this copy, contrary to what the Bericht calls for: "De figuren (...) moeten niet van malkander gesneden, maar twee heele vellen in malkander gesteken worden". For the second work Nissen calls for 27 plates, but the binder's index indicates together with the plate titles that this concerns 27 illustrations on 26 plates. These plates reflect the growing interest at the time in the cultivation of citrus fruits in greenhouses, and also show the "winter-plaatsen" at the "Hoff" in Leiden, and those of Joan Roeters, Pieter de Wolff (2x) and Jan Commelyn (director of the Amsterdam botanical gardens) himself. (total 2 in one vol.)