Robert, Nicolas (cont.) 
Variae ac multiformes florum species expressae ad vivum 
et aeneis tabulis incisae ... Divers fleurs dessinles et 
gravies d’aprfes le naturel par N. Robert. Paris [1660?] 
30 pi. and engr. title. F®. (Brit. Ifus. Nat. Hist.; 
Lindley; Linn. Soc. London; Brit. Mus.?) 
Cat. Brit. tlus. Nat. Hist. 4:1712, supplies 
the bracketed date [1660?], which is followed by 
Cat. Lindley Lib. Linn. Soc. Cat. does not in¬ 
dicate the date. Another copy with bracketed 
date [1670] is given in Brit. I^us. Cat.; this 
appears to agree with entry in Jackson, Guide 
Lit. Bot., p.29, but is probably same as above. 
In 1923 Wheldon & Wesley, Illus. Cat., n.s., 6, 
item 111, offered a work v/ith above title, con¬ 
sisting of 70 copperplates and engraved title, 
with imprint: ”A Paris F. Poilly excudit rue 
St. Jacques & 1’image St. Benoist”, for v;hich 
the supposed date 1680 was given in brackets. 
Seguier, Bib. Bot., p.l68, also gives the im¬ 
print: ’Tarisiis, apud Fr. Poilly", for a col¬ 
lection of 31 plates without date. While there 
may have been more than one issue by F. Poilly, 
it is likely that all these Paris eds. are the 
same. None have a date, and all save one have 
31 plates (or 30 pi. 8c engr. t.-p.). It seems 
to liFW that the copy offered by Wheldon & V/esley 
v;ith 70 plates may have comprised, in addition 
to those actually by Robert, certain series of 
plates published by Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi 
(loannes lacobus de Rubeis) of Rome, who actu¬ 
ally reissued the "Variae ac multiformes flo¬ 
rum species" in 1665, and some of whose plates 
often occur in copies of the latter ed., q.v. 
Inasmuch as Rossi’s ed. is plainly dated 1665, 
the original ed. of Robert’s plates must have 
preceded it; hence the date [1660?] is provis¬ 
ionally accepted as that of the first issue. 
A further complication in regard to this work 
arises from the fact that Robert’s plates them¬ 
selves are not original, but are redrawn in re¬ 
verse from those of Francesco Curti, "Ad vivum 
exprimebat Franciscus Curtus", 32 plates with 
engraved t.-p. supposed to have been published 
at Bologna about 1640. See also in the pres¬ 
ent bibliography, Curti, Francesco. (MFV/) 
