Hill, J., The vegetable system. Or, the internal structure and the life of herbs; their parts, and nourishment, explained; their classes, orders, genera, and species, ascertained, and described; in a method altogether new: comprehending an artificial index, and a natural system. With figures of all the plants .. The whole from nature only. 26 in 13 volumes. With 1544 colored copperplates (among them 2 doublets). London, self-published 1761-75. Splendid folio bindings in contemp. brown calf with broad triple gilt fillet ornamental borders with gilt-tooled monogram "ARK" in corners, with four floral gilt-tooled borders in between as well as gilt spine, spine renewed in the old style. Folio.

Nissen 886. - Sitwell/Blunt p. 100. - De Belder 150. - Plesch Coll. 348. - Henrey II, 103-108 and III, 832. - Pritzel 4070. - One of the greatest and most comprehensive botanic publications of the 18th century in a clean and untrimmed copy, extremely rare in this completeness . "Hill's magnum opus" (Henry) is "extremely rare in complete colored condition" (Plesch). - All vols. published in first edition, except for vols. I and XXI, which are at hand in second edition, however, most in later runs (cf. collation).
"The most extensive botanical publication in England in the eighteenth century and a celebrated rarity in its complete state. 'The Vegetable system is of great importance because it gives for the first time in the vernacular a comprehensive treatment of the plant kingdom, on a lavish scale and with colored illustrations, adopting the Linnaean generic names and introducing binary nomenclature' (Stafleu). The first volume was still pre-Linnaean, but from volume II onward the Linnaean binomials were used. Numerous species were described for the first time, most being recently introduced exotics" (De Belder) - Linnaeus on Hill’s monumental work: "I fainted at the sight of Hill's great work .. with the most beautiful plates of plants on each alternate page, but I could weep when I saw such costly work without botanical science" (from Henrey p. 108)
Collation: Nissen calls for 1534 plates for al vols., Henry mentions 1541, Sitwell/Blunt counts1546 plates. In this work 6 plates are wanting, however, 2 additional plates (doublets) are bound in. - Plates at hand: I (1775): 21. - II (1761): 90. - III (1772): 51. - IV (1772): 46. - V (1763): 53. - VI (1764): 62. - VII (1772): 61. - VIII (1765): 60. - IX (1765): 58. - X (1772): 60. - XI (1773): 60. - XII (1767): 71. - XIII (1773): 71. - XIV (1773): 60. - XV (1773): 61. - XVI (1773): 61. - XVII (1773): 60. - XVIII (1773): 60. - XIX (1773): 60. - XX (1773): 59. - XXI (1775): 60. - XXII (1773): 60. - XXIII (1773): 60. - XXIV (1774): 59. - XXV (1774): 60. - XXVI (1775): 60. - This copy is largely in line with the copy mentioned by Sitwell/Blunt, with the following exceptions: Vol. II with 2 further unnumb. plates; vol. VII additionally with plate 11bis; vol. VIII plate 11 twice paginated, plate 53 lacking; vol. IX illu. 23 and 24 on 1 plate, plate 36 wanting; vol. XX wanting plate 48; vol. XXII illu. 22 and 23 on 1 plate; vol. XXIII plate 2 replaced by plate 2 from vol. XXI; vol. XXIV lacking plate 11; vol. XXV plate 28 replaced by plate 26 from vol. XXI.
Condition: Slightly discolored in places, slightly foxed at beginning and end (illustrations almost unaffected), text untrimmed (resulting in browned edges), ca. 10 plates and text ll. with brownish spots (on 1 plate in image, on 9 in upper margin), 1 plate stronger affected by waterstain, 1 text l. with restored tear, 1 title with rebacked tear, few plates with slight offset. Spine and endpapers renewed, edges restored, few coverings of boards somewhat brittle (2 with traces of scraping) and with slight scratches. All in all unusually well-preserved copy, rare in this comprehensiveness.