Johann (Jean)Bauhin (1541-1613) Historia Plantarum Universalis...
Ebroduni: [s.l.], 1650-51
and
Caspar (Gaspard) Bauhin (1560-1624) Pinax Theatri Botanici Caspari Bauhini...
Basileae Helvet.: Sumptibus et Typis Ludovici Regis, 1623
Rousseau's regard for the Bauhins
The books featured here by Jean and Caspar Bauhin were both influential in Rousseau's study of botany. It is known that he owned Caspar Bauhin's Pinax Theatri, of which he said that it "is still today the guide of all those who want to work on this material and consult the ancient authors." (Cook, "Introduction," 95) Rousseau owned Jean Bauhin's three-volume work, and it was extremely important to him. Rousseau copied several lines of this book in his unpublished writings, and had high praise for both pre-Linnaean botanists. He wrote: "These two men undertook, each in his way, a universal history of plants... This work became absolutely necessary so that we could profit from the observations of each of them; because without this it was almost impossible to follow and distinguish clearly each plant in the face of so many different names (CW, 95)."