Enquiry into Plants

It seems to me that I am performing a task not useless to those curious about Nature by submitting, from the celebrated Moldenhawer, a review of the editions of Theophrastus's On Plants; as well as the Commentaries and Translations, published separately or unpublished, and of which any mention occurs anywhere.

I.

THEOPHRASTUS, On the History of Plants, ten books. — With the addition of the Books on the Causes of Plants and the metaphysical problems and mechanical problems of Aristotle, and the metaphysical problems of Alexander of Aphrodisias (all in Greek). At the end: Printed at Venice in the house of Aldus Manutius, on the Calends of June, 1497 [M.III.D]. folio. So that it constitutes the fourth volume of the first Aldine edition of Aristotle. But this volume is often torn into two volumes, so that the first contains the History of Plants and the books on the Causes of Plants: hence, those to whom only this volume has fallen, cite the Aldine edition without a date. Some cite the year in which it was begun (1495), others the year in which it was finished (1498), for this edition of Aristotle and Theophrastus.

Prefixed is the letter of Aldus Manutius to Prince Alberto Pio, in which he declares that he used [the best] copies. This edition is the princeps and the foundation of all the others, which Oporinus augmented with various readings and conjectures, Heinsius corrected, and Bodaeus accumulated with his own and others' conjectures.