Jean-Jacques ROUSSEAU (1712-1778). HERBIER compiled... Lot 109

Jean-Jacques ROUSSEAU (1712-1778). HERBIER compiled by Rousseau, with autograph manuscript and annotations, Echantillons de Plantes Sèches, [circa 1771-1773]; in-4 (27 x 21 cm.) consisting of 98 bifeuillets and an autograph notebook of 10 pages (and one blank leaf), in a portfolio consisting of two cardboard plates (the first bearing the title) with original old-pink cloth drawstrings; wrapped in striped cotton cloth and preserved in an antique elm burr veneered case (L. 44, W. 26.5, H. 19 cm). Precious herbarium composed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and given by him to the publisher Panckoucke. On the cover boards, Rousseau has drawn a frame in brown ink, formed by two fillets, one of which is wide; on the upper cover, he has inscribed the title: Echantillons de plantes sèches. Below, the inscription, signed Couret, reads: "Cet herbier fait par JJ. Rousseau was given to Mr. Pancoucke by himself and Mr. Pancoucke made me a present of it on June 28, 1781". This was the famous bookseller Charles-Joseph Panckoucke (1736-1798), who bought the Encyclopédie from Le Breton, and published the Encyclopédie méthodique. In 1766, he married Thérèse Couret de Villeneuve, daughter of printer and bookseller Martin Couret de Villeneuve (1717-1780), whose son Louis-Pierre Couret de Villeneuve (1749-1806) continued the business. It was to this brother-in-law that Panckoucke donated the herbarium. Indeed, Couret was also a botanist; in 1783, he published an Instruction sur l'ordre et l'arrangement du Jardin botanique établi au Jardin de la Ville d'Orléans, which was distributed free of charge to visitors; in 1799, he moved to Ghent, where he directed the Botanical Garden. The herbarium is preceded by an autograph catalog of the preserved plants, in a notebook made up of 3 bifeuillets, sewn together with yellow thread. The pages are ruled in red ink. The catalog is entitled: "Catalogue des plantes ci-jointes, cottées par leurs numeros correspondans". There are 100 numbered entries. Rousseau successively gives the plant's Latin name, with reference to Linné, the Latin description (generally after Tournefort), possibly another Latin name, and the French name, with reference to Barbeu du Bourg, sometimes with a commentary. Here are a few of these entries. "1. callitriche verna. Linn. sp.6. / Alsine aquis innalans foliis longiusculis J.B. III.789. / Stellaria aquatica C.B. Pin. 141. / Callitric du Printems. Barbeu du Bourg.2. p.355 / This aquatic plant, although very common, is not included in Tournefort's Institutions. [...] 13.dactylis glomerata. L.105 / Gramen spicatum folio aspero. Pin.3. / I cannot find this gramen in Tournefort's institutions, but he mentions it in his herborizations of the Paris area / Dactile peloté B.d.B.408. [47.Rosa eglanteria. L.703. / Rosa sylvestris, foliis odoratis. T.638. / Eglantier / This wild rose is not the gratecu, whose leaves are smooth on both sides and odorless, whereas those of this rose have a ruby underside and are fragrant. The English make much of it and place it in their gardens / 58.this plant is foreign and forms a new genus named by M.de Jussieu Aubletia, after M. Aublet, a zealous botanist. The genus is closely related to Verbena. [...] 95.Humulus Lupulus ♂. L.1457. / Lupulus foemina. T.535. /Hops./ This is the male or sterile individual that bears the stamens, which Tournefort, Bauhin and the other ancient Botanists misleadingly called the female individual."... Etc. The herbarium consists of 98 bifeuillets of laid paper, each ruled with a framing line in red ink on pages 1 and 3. At the top of the first page, Rousseau has noted the number of the plant and, in the upper right-hand corner, in small handwriting, the Latin name. In the center of the 2nd leaf, he fixed the plant with snatches of gilded paper; for the most part, he calligraphed the plant's Latin name above the bottom edge of the frame. Plates 12 (Poa bubosa) and 23 (Lysimachia tenella) are missing. 3 hollowed-out cardboards are used to regulate the thickness of the herbarium and prevent deformation and crushing of the plates. Small wormholes in the first few leaves. It was in 1762, when he had to take refuge in Switzerland after the condemnation of the Emile and found asylum in the village of Môtiers, that Rousseau began to devote himself passionately to botany; during his exile in England in 1766-1767, he was able to develop his knowledge with experienced amateur botanists, notably the Duchess of Portland. In 1768, he received a gift from the young Montpellier naturalist Joseph Dombey, a beautiful herbarium, which delighted him. From then on, he devoted