(Language of Flowers)DUBOS, E. Constant.   LES FLEURS, IDYLLES, SUIVIES DE POÉSIES DIVERSES;       Paris: Chez P.E. Janet,   1817.          A lovely little work on floral symbolism, illustrated with hand-colored plates and published in the diminutive format typical of the French gift books and almanach des dames of this period. A version without color plates first appeared in 1808. It was a precusor to the popular genre of books on the language of flowers. As noted by Jack Goody (THE CULTURE OF FLOWERS, pp. 234-5): "Books aiming to elucidate a language specifically of flowers appeared in Paris not long after the end of Napoleonic wars, at a time when interest in new botanical discoveries ran high... and when the urban retail market was rapidly expanding, especially in 'la mode' and in 'nouveautés'." That Dubos' earlier work was highly suited to that new taste must have been apparent to the Parisian publisher Janet, who had long specialized in ladies' almanacs and decorative gift books. He reissued it, this time in a new smaller format and embellished with color plates, to capitalize on the new fashion. The text of the volume "consists of fifteen poems (idylles) on various flowers starting wih the rosebud and ending with the immortelle (everlasting), together with a note on each poem offering horticultural and historical information as well as references to other poets. (Goody, pg. 235)" The anonymous hand-colored plates are an interesting study. Aside from being extremely pretty, they could serve as examples of period flower arrangement and of taste in vases and containers. Two plates show plants growing from the ground or landscape, but the rest show arrangements of two flowers in a decorative vase or cache-pot set upon a table or pedestal with brass or gold ornamentation. Second edition, first published in 1808 without the colored plates.   12mo (12.5 x 8 cm); xxii + 243 + (1) pp. + 9 hand-colored engraved plates with guard sheets.   Dunthorne 97 (this edition, noting a similarity to Bessa's illustrations for Malo); Gumachian 2282.          Original ivory moiré patterned paper over boards, a.e.g. some minor foxing and some soiling to preliminary and rear pages, but largely unblemished; color plates fresh and bright; in matching ivory moiré slipcase moderately scuffed and hand-soiled. $550.00

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