Subject: History of America. Botany. Travels.
Publication: Madrid, Royal Academy of Sciences, 1952.
Physical description: Folio 28 cm. Volume I: XLIV pages, 526 pages. Volume II: 244 pages, 20 láminas. Binding in period Dutch leather with nerves and gilt on the spine.
Conservation: Very good condition, preserves dust jackets, first volume lacking the plate that decorates the dust jacket.
Notes: This work is the second edition, amended and completed, of the original “Relación histórica...” by Hipólito Ruiz, first published by the Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales de Madrid. The 1952 edition, by Jaime Jaramillo-Arango, is of particular importance as it incorporates unpublished material from Ruiz's original manuscript, which Jaramillo-Arango found and copied in the Botanical Department of the British Museum. The work documents the transcendental botanical expedition of Hipólito Ruiz, José Pavón and others to the Viceroyalty of Peru and Chile between 1777 and 1788, one of the most ambitious scientific enterprises of the Spanish Enlightenment, dedicated to the study and collection of the flora and fauna of the region. It is an invaluable testimony to the history of botany, science and travel in the 18th century.
Jaime Jaramillo-Arango (1897-1962): was a prominent Colombian physician, surgeon, diplomat, civil servant and politician. He was born in Manizales, Colombia, on January 17, 1897 and died in Bogotá on July 30, 1962.