Sebastien Vaillant's Flora of Paris, Botanicon Parisiense, 1727

Abstract

ABSTRACT A pathetic story in the preface of Botanicon Parisiense, reproduced in most biographies of Sebastien Vaillant and of his friend William Sherard, that Vaillant, in failing health, asked Herman Boerhaave to publish his work, is inconsistent with other statements in the preface. Sherard's correspondence in the library of the Royal Society shows the history of the work from 1718 until its publication in 1727 and reveals the story of Vaillant's alleged request as an untruth demanded by his closet friend, the physician and botanist Danty D'Isnard.