
          114

Bry, Johann Theodor de (1561-1623?)

Florilegium novum, hoc est: Variorum maximeque rariorum florum
ac plantarum singularium unà cum suis radicibus & cepis, eicones
diligenter aere sculptae & ad vivum ut plurimum expressae. New
blumbuch darinnen allerhand schöne blumen vnd frembde gewächs,
mit ihren wurtzeln vnd zwiebeln, mehrer theils dem leben nach in
kupffer fleissig gestochen, zu sehen seind. [Oppenheim] 1612
[1612-18] Folio. (Arn. Arb.; Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.); Dept.
Agr.; Mo. Bot. Gard.)

The number of plates varies in different copies. Arnold Arboretum has
copy with 54 plates, all that were issued with the title date 1612.

Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.) Cat. 1:270, gives 85 plates, saying that the
unnumbered 7 following the 78 numbered, correspond to pl.79-84, and 137,
in later editions. This copy comprises the "Amplificatio ... Erweiterung
des blumbuchs ... Anno 1613", with pl.55—78, and unnumbered 7 plates.

Dept. Agr. copy has 141 plates, with the "Amplificatio ... 1613", as
above; and following it "Augmentatio ... Fernere erweiterung des blumbuchs
... Anno 1614". The plate with this heading is the first of 28 unnumbered
ones, followed by pl. 1-22, 112-116, and final unnumbered plate of a "Ficus
indica vel Opuntia marina", that flowered in the year 1618.

It is obvious that not all the plates following the one headed "Augmentatio ... 
1614" could have been published in that year, and from their arrangement 
it is impossible to guess how many of them properly belong to
the "Augmentatio."

A partial check of the Dept. Agr. copy with an edition of 1641, shows
all these plates there numbered consecutively from 1-141, but the later
ones considerably rearranged. The renumbering does not quite agree with
the Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.) statement that the unnumbered plates of the
"Amplificatio ... 1613" became pl.79-84, and 137. The latter is confirmed
in the 1641 edition, but the plate headed "Augmentatio ... 1614" becomes
no.81 , instead of no.85 or 86, as might be expected from the unnumbered
plates intervening between it and pl.78.

The plate of a plant flowering in 1618, is no.111 in the 1641 edition,
suggesting that others were contemporary with, or subsequent to it. This
also suggests to me that it may have been the first one of a series that
was issued in that year. No statement has been found of the correct number 
and date of plates of the "Augmentatio ... 1614", but it might have
consisted chiefly of that group of 28 unnumbered plates, which resemble
each other in style and execution but are rather inferior to the earlier
85 plates. There is no way to ascertain whether any of the unnumbered
plates of the Dept. Agr. copy are in the chronological order of issue,
and the renumbering of those plates in the edition of 1641 obviously does
not exactly follow that of their original issue.

The dates of the respective sections of the work are however, of some
interest, in that a good many newly introduced plants are figured, including 
some North American species not previously recorded in Europe.

(MFW---3/7/49)
        