[Recueil de plantes gravées par ordre du roi Louis XIV]
By: [drawn and engraved by Nicolas Robert]
Contributors: Bosse, Abraham, 1602-1676; Châtillon, Louis de, 1639-1734; Pam, Albert, former owner; Le Clerc, Sébastien, 1637-1714; Dodart, Denis, 1634-1707; John Innes Institute. Library; Académie royale des sciences (France)
Publisher: de l'Imprimerie Royale
Published: 1788
Place of publication: Paris
Language: fre
Subjects: Botany; Pictorial works; Flowers in art
Other titles: Robert Icones plantarum
Notes: [v. 1]. [3] p., [168] leaves of plates -- [v. 2]. [151] leaves of plates.

Title and imprint from Sitwell and Blunt, Great flower books, 1700-1900.

Engraved by Nicolas Robert, Abraham Bosse, and Louis de Châtillon.

Of the 319 completed plates, 39 were used to illustrate Denis Dodart's Memoires pour servir à l'histoire des plantes (1675), intended as an introductory volume to a comprehensive illustrated history of plants planned by the Académie Royale des Sciences. Further production was suspended, and not until 1701 were the 319 plates issued, but without letterpress. In approximately 1786, a royal gift issue was published, with a frontispiece. Another issue was published in 1788. Cf. Sitwell and Blunt, p. 29.

The frontispiece, by Sebastien le Clerc, shows Louis XIV accompanied by his minister M. de Colbert visiting his Cabinet d'histoire naturelle. This engraving appeared first in 1671 as the frontispiece to Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire naturelle des animaux (Paris: Imprimerie royale, 1671).

Minor alterations and botanical details were added to the plates after publication of the 1701 ed. Cf. Blunt, Art of botanical illustration.

Blunt. Art of botanical illustration p. 111-112.

Sitwell. Great flower books p. 55.