It has been a vision of the Library to share with the general public some of the rare manuscripts and printed works that have been the cornerstone of Mrs. Mellon's passion for creating the Oak Spring Garden Library.
Click here to view the De Geest Manuscript
JARDIN DE RARES ET CURIEUX FLEURS FAICTES PR. FRANCOIS DE GEEST DE LEOVARDE EN FRISE - [Holland], circa 1660
Manuscript comprises title-page; pencil and ink wash drawing of an Italian garden corner by Adam Pynacker (Dutch, 1622-1673); 101 bodycolors on vellum (some with pencil), all tipped-in, each with protective paper leaf and each measuring about 11 ½ x 7 ½ inches. The drawings contain several flowers and they are identified in manuscript. Bound in 18th century Dutch marbled calf with gilt panels and large center ornaments incorporating the letters GH; a.e.g.; spine richly gilt in seven compartments and lettered: ‘Bloem Boeck Door P. F. Geest.’
Click here to view the Duhamel Images
Duhamel du Monceau, Henri Louis (1700-1782) - TRAITE DES ARBRES FRUITIERS; CONTENANT LEUR FIGURE, LEUR DESCRIPTION, LEUR CULTURE, &C. PAR M. DUHAMEL DU MONCEAU, DE L’ACADEMIE ROYALE DES SCIENCES, DE LA SOCIETE ROYALE DE LONDRES; DES ACADEMICS DE PETERSBOURG, DE PALERME, & DE L’INSTITUT DE BOLOGNE; HONRAIRE DE LA SOCIETE D’EDIMBOURG, & DE L’ACADEMIE DE MARINE; ASSOCIE A PLUSIEURS SOCIETES D’AGRICULTURE; INSPECTEUR GENERAL DE LA MARINE. TOME PREMIER [-TOME SECOND]. Paris: Chez Saillant, Libraire, rue Saint Jean de Beauvais. Desaint, Libraire, rue du Foin. Avec Approbation et Privilege du Roi.
Click here to view the Loudon Manuscript
LOUDON, JOHN CLAUDIUS (1783-1843)
SKETCHES OF THE ALTERCATIONS AND ADDITIONS PROPOSED TO BE MADE ON BARNBARROW HOUSE. THE PROPERTY & RESIDINCE OF ROBERT… AGNEW ESQR. LONDON 8TH APRIL 1806
London, 1806 and circa 1820-1841
Oblong manuscript comprises title-page in ink; 24 pen and ink, wash, and watercolor drawings (mounted to leaves) measuring between 4 x 6 inches to 13 ¼ x 20 ½ inches; folded manuscript leaves in paper sleeve pasted to rear paste-down endpaper. In quarter polished brown calf and marbled paper over boards; spine gilt. Spine height: 13 ¾ inches.
Click here to view the Smith Manuscript
THE FRUITS OF THE LIMA MARKET. BY MRS.. D.E. SMITH, BETWEEN THE YEARS 1850 & ’’53
Peru, 1850-1853
Manuscript comprises: title-page in pencil; 30 watercolors all measuring approximately 14 ¾ x 21 1/8 inches (one is a folding leaf measuring 30 ½ x 20 ¼ inches)bearing botanical names in pencil; three blank leaves. Each drawing has been mounted onto a leaf with a manuscript label bottom center, presumably in the hand of the artist, identifying the fruit and the height of the tree. Bookplate: “Crewe Hall/Inferior Sequor Nec.” Bound in three-quarter green morocco and green cloth. Spine tooled in gilt. Spine height: 21 inches.
Click here to see the video of this manuscript complete with Peruvian music.
Oak Spring Garden Library Volumes
Click here for a preview of An Oak Spring Sylva
(Purchase here)
An Oak Spring Sylva is the first of a series of catalogues describing selections of the rare books, manuscripts, works of art, and related artifacts in the Oak Spring Garden Library, a collection fromed by Rachel Lambert Mellon.
This publication, discusses books and manuscripts on trees, is the smallest volume of the series, describing nearly fifty books, manuscripts, or drawings, from a tiny 1555 book on oaks to early nineteenth-century advice on large-scale tree-planting, a range including both great books, like Evelyn's Sylva, Duhamel's Traite des Arbres, and Michaux's North American Sylva, and more modest ones, like Marshall's American Grove, which helped introduce the riches of American forests to European gardens in the eighteenth century. Each description makes clear the background of each book and its relationship to others, while a generous number of illustrations in color and black and white help to give an impression of their contents.
Click here for a preview of An Oak Spring Pomona
(Purchase here)
An Oak Spring Pomona is the second book in the series.
The Pomona describes one hundred books and manuscripts about fruit, with illustrations taken from some of the most beautiful books on the subject, as well as from original drawings and paintings. The earliest book described is Bussato's Giardino di Agricoltura of 1592, the latest The Herefordshire Pomona, and encyclopedia of apples and pears from the 1870s. In between there is a gathering of fruit books large and small: La Quintinie's Instruction pour les Jardins Fruitiers, first published in 1690 and translated by John Evelyn three years later, Duhamel's Traite des Arbres Fruitiers, and nearly fifty others from France and Britain, among them Brookshaw's giant Pomona Britannica and a handful of pocket-sized books of directions for grafting and cultivating the best varieties available.
Click here for a preview of An Oak Spring Flora
(Purchase here)
An Oak Spring Flora is the third book in the series.
This authoritative and magnificently illustrated presentation of the art of flower depiction in the West is the third volume in a series of catalogues that describe the rare-in some cases unique-books, manuscripts, and other works of art conserved at Oak Spring Garden Library, a collection formed over many years by Rachel Lambert Mellon. The author, Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi, has selected more than one hundred items from Oak Spring's extensive holdings, which include superb manuscript florilegia, botanical prints, books of instruction of every kind, still-life and vanitas paintings, and various ornamental ceramics and textiles. Among them are examples by some of the greatest names ever to have worked in either scientific or decorative botanical art-Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, Georg Dionysius Ehret, Nicolas Robert, and Pierre Joseph Redoute.
Click here for a preview of An Oak Spring Herbaria
(Purchase here)
An Oak Spring Herbaria is the fourth book in the series.
by Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi
This authoritative and magnificently illustrated book on herbals is the fourth volume in a remarkable series of catalogues that describes rare books, manuscripts, and other works of art conserved at the Oak Spring Garden Library, Upperville, Virginia, a collection formed over many years by Rachel Lambert Mellon. Previously published volumes include An Oak Spring Sylva on trees, An Oak Spring Pomona on fruit, and An Oak Spring Flora on flowers.
For An Oak Spring Herbaria, the author has selected sixty-three works from the Library’s extensive collections. The volume is thematically organized and arranged into the following chapters : ‘Late Medieval Herbals’; ‘The Great Age of Renaissance Botany’; ‘Herbals and Plants from Distant Lands’; ‘Herbals by Herbalists, Pharmacists, and Physicians’; ‘Herbals of the Botanical Gardens and Private Gardens of Europe’; ‘Curious and Strange Herbals’; ‘Dried Specimens and Nature Printing’; and ‘American Herbals.’
