Malabar spinach - Ceylon spinach
Title: „Basella rubra, caule, et foliis purpureis“
Decorative depiction of this tasty leaf vegetable, widely used in in South East Asian cuisine.
Original coloured copper engraving by Maddalena Bouchard, on heavy paper with wide margins, Tab. 98 from „Hortus Romanus“, Rome 1775.
Sheet size: 55 x 39,2 cm; Print size: 36 x22 cm
Beautiful print and colours; minor creases and some small stains in the wide margins, altogether in very good condition.
€ 480,-
From the very rare botanical work "Hortus Romanus", published in eight volumes by Giorgio Bonelli in Rome between 1772 and 1793. Only a small number of copies was printed - probably not even the planned 300 - and just a handful originally coloured. Most of the depictions were engraved - and a few also coloured by Maddalena Bouchard herself, after drawings by C. Ubertini.