First Dutch edition, with approximately 435 more woodcuts than Plantin's Latin edition of 1576, of one of the greatest herbals. Besides the expected herbs, medical plants, etc., it illustrates and discusses mushrooms, a coconut, corals, petrified wood and what may be a fossil fern.
Matthias de Lobel (1538-1616), a Flemish botanist and physician, published his Stirpium adversaria nova in London in 1571, but greatly expanded it after his return to the Low Countries. Plantin bought 800 copies of the London edition and reissued it in 1576, cancelling a few leaves but printing extensive supplementary material to incorporate Lobel's further work. Lobel further expanded it for the present first edition in Dutch, evidently his own translation, giving the work its definitive form. The 1571 Latin edition had included about 275 woodcuts. Plantin acquired 120 of them, but also added many more for his editions, including many he had used for his editions of Dodoens and Clusius. The number of woodcuts therefore grew to about 1750 in the 1576 Latin edition and about 2185 in the present Dutch edition, but Plantin appears to have had some new blocks cut as well. Many blocks were cut by Antoon van Leest and Gerard Janssen van Kampen, after drawings by Pieter van der Borcht.
With a clear purple owner's stamp ("Jan Veth") and a clear (18th-century?) inscription ("Cost 2800") on the front pastedown and some additional inscriptions on the rectos of the blank flyleaves, engraved title-page and the back pastedown. With some occasional annotations in brown ink in the margins and some discrete additional manuscript shading to a few illustrations. The binding is somewhat soiled and the head and foot of the spine are slightly damaged, all without affecting the structural integrity of the binding. The margins of the preliminary leaves (including pastedown and flyleaves), final blank flyleaves and back pastedown are somewhat water stained and have been restored. Somewhat browned throughout, but the impressions of the woodcut illustrations remain clear. With some minor defects to several leaves, only occasionally slightly affecting the text. Otherwise in good condition. Arber, Herbals, p. 278; Belg. Typ. vol 1, 1974; Bibl. Belgica L119; BM NH (vol. 3) p. 1160; Carter & Vervliet 199; Nissen BBI 1219; Plesch, mille et un livres botaniques, p. 314; Stafleu & Cowan 4908; STCN 344385353 (5 copies); STCV 12914575 (9 copies, incl. 4 incomplete); Voet, the Plantin press, 1579; Wellcome 3829; WorldCat 833674408 (2 copies).