ALDINUS, Tobias (1570-1662) and Pietro CASTELLI (c. 1575-1656). Exactissima descriptio rariorum quarundam plantarum, que continentur Rome in horto Farnesiano, Rome, 1625, engraved plates, modern calf. FIRST EDITION.

ALDINUS, Tobias (1570-1662) and Pietro CASTELLI (c. 1575-1656).  Exactissima descriptio rariorum quarundam plantarum, que continentur Rome in horto Farnesiano. Rome: Typis Iacobi Mascardi, 1625. Folio (340 x 230mm). Fine engraved architectural title with seated figures of Theophrastus and Dioscorides surmounted by the coat-of-arms of the Farnese family in a baroque cartouche, foliate initials and typographical ornaments, text within ruled borders throughout, 22 fine full-page engraved botanical illustrations (lacks all before title [i.e. blanks], marginal repair to title and third leaf and a few leaves at the end, including index, H1 torn and repaired without loss, a few leaves with holes affecting ruled borders, a few leaves very lightly browned, some light mainly marginal spotting and staining). Modern half calf and marbled boards, new endpapers (spine lightly rubbed). FIRST EDITION of this rare catalogue and description of the plants in the garden of Cardinal Farnese on the Palatine Hill in Rome. Both Hunt and Nissen assign the work solely to Aldini; others, however, including the Greek scholar and keeper of the Vatican library Leone Allacci, attribute it to Pietro Castelli, whose name appears in a laudatory poem at the beginning as "Castello-Petrus" and also, in acrostic form in the same poem, spelling out "Petrus Castellus Romanus". Not in Brunet; Graesse I, 65; Hunt 208; Nissen BBI 13; Pritzel 1590; Seguier p. 34.