ARDENE, Jean-Paul Rome d'. Traité des Renoncules, dans lequel outre ce concerne ces fleurs, on trouvera des observations physiques, et plusieurs remarques utiles, soit pour l'Agriculture, soit pour le Jardinage. 10, 279, [5] pp. With a frontispiece and 6 plates. 8vo., 198 x 122 mm, bound in contemporary sprinkled French calf. Paris: Ph. N. Lottin, 1746.

First Edition of this detailed study of the Ranunculus flower, written by a precursor of Mendel. The work documents the history and cultivation of this medicinal plant, also called the Crowfoot; the common species with yellow flowers are popularly called Buttercups. The engraved frontispiece depicts a woman walking along a ranunculus-bordered path by a bay, carrying a basket of ranunculi, and a winged figure flying above with a trumpets and a banner. The six plates show Ranunculi (the last four are folding); these were executed by Benoit Audran II (1698-1772), a Paris engraver, and Nicholas Le Sueur (1691-1764), who was a member of the well-known Parisian family of artisans (see Thieme-Becker).

Jean-Paul Rome d'Ardene (1689-1769), priest and botanist, was Superior of the Collège de Marseille. Ardene left the ministry ca. 1750 to retire to the Chateau d'Ardene, diocese of Sisteron, where he created a botanical garden and devoted himself to the study of flowers. His Traité des Renoncules reached a third edition in 1763, and a German edition appeared at Nuremberg in 1754. Other works by him on flowers include the Traité des Oeillets, 1762, Traité des Tulipes, 1760, Traité sur la Connoissance et la Culture des Jacintes, 1759, and the Année-Champêtre, 1769. Fine copy, joints slightly worn.

Plesch p. 128. Hunt 526. Lindley, p. 10.