Description

Ludwig MITTLER.

[Pocket Book for Cactus Lovers, Based on New Experiences, Cultivation and Overview of the Cactus Plants Found in German Trade]

Leipzig: Ludwig Schreck – Publisher; Friedrich Andrä – Printer, 1841.

This pioneering study on cacti was the third German-language book on the topic, following Friedrich Ludwig Finckh’s “Die Cactus, ihre Beschreibung, Cultur und Vermehrung” (1832) and Jakob Ernst von Reider’s “Beschreibung und Kultur der Azaleen, Cactus, Camellien u. Calla aethiopica” (1834).

Author Ludwig Mittler focuses on species that were present in Germany at the time, providing information about various sellers on page 20. The book contains a single illustration—a hand-painted copper engraving on the frontispiece—featuring the old man cactus (Cephalocereus senilis), a species of cactus native to Hidalgo and Veracruz in central Mexico.

In 1844, the second part of the work was published, which included Mittler’s new discoveries; this continuation was not planned in 1841.

The Note on Rarity

This book is extremely rare, likely produced in a limited edition commissioned by the author, each copy featuring a hand-coloured frontispiece. It was already noted as a “rarity” in 1892 (Monatsschrift für Kakteenkunde, 1892, p. 47).

Approximately six examples have been identified in German libraries, although it is unclear whether all contain the illustration. Additional copies are held at Stockholm University, Biblioteca Civica Bertoliana Palazzo San Giacomo – Vicenza (which references an illustration), and TU Zentralbibliothek Zürich. The Israel National Library lists both volumes but provides a collation only for the second volume.

References: OCLC 15539677; Cf.: Urs Eggli, Sukkulentengärten – Geschichten einer Faszination, Avonia, Year 35, Supplement, 2017.