The historical library has recently acquired the work of Jacques Barrelier:
Plantae per Galliam, Hispaniam et Italiam observatae, iconibus aeneis exhibitae. Cura et studio Antonii de Jussieu. Paris: Apud. Stephanum Ganeau, 1714.
Jacques Barrelier was an important 17th-century physician and botanist. He was born in Paris in 1606 and obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1634. He belonged to the Dominican Order and carried out study trips to Provence, Languedoc, and Spain. He lived in Rome for 23 years, where he created a botanical garden and dedicated himself to the description of the plant species he collected during his travels. In 1672, he returned to Paris, where he died a year later.
Barrelier’s work was destroyed in a fire; only his plates survived, which were later used by Antoine de Jussieu to publish this work. The first volume is dedicated to the description of species, many of them unknown at the time, and the second contains 1,327 engravings.