.jpg?w=1)
Details
Mark Catesby (1682-1749)
Piscium Serpentum Insectorum aliorumque nonnullorum animalium nec non plantarum quarundam imagines quas... Catesby in posteriore parte... illius operis... descripsit, additis vero imaginibus piscium, tam nostratium quam aliarum regionum auxerunt vivisque coloribus pictas ediderunt Nic. Fred. Eisenberger et Georgius Lichtensteger, in Latin and German. Nuremberg: Johann Joseph Fleischmann, 1750. 2° (484 x 342mm). Title in Latin and German, parallel texts in two columns in Latin and German. 72 fine hand-coloured plates after Catesby and Georg Dionysius Ehret. (Plate 61, after Ehret, shaved into plate area, with slight loss to image area along lower margin, 10mm. repaired tear to same margin, light marginal soiling to title and first plate, 40mm. paper fault tear to third plate.) Contemporary German half sheep (neatly rebacked and cornered).
FIRST ISSUE OF THE FIRST GERMAN EDITION OF CATESBY'S MASTERPIECE, WITH FINE CONTEMPORARY HAND-COLOURING OF THE PLATES. Catesby is now considered to have been the most important early naturalist working in the Americas. Born in Suffolk on 24 March 1682, little else is known of his early life, and the 'earliest period of Mark Catesby's life to which there is any published reference concerns his first trip to America in 1712 [when he was based in Williamsburg, Virginia] ... Catesby was well connected in America through his association with the Governor of Virginia and his ... brother-in-law, Dr. William Cocke, the Secretary of State. He spent some time also at Windsor, the seat of Major Woodford, who had married Catesby's niece ... In 1719 he returned to England but regretted that he had not devoted more time to natural history, for as soon as he was home he at once began to plan to return to the colonies' (E.G.Allen The History of American Ornithology before Audubon pp.470-471). He gathered together an impressive collection of patrons who were willing to back his second expedition, and in April 1722 Catesby left for America. This second expedition was almost entirely devoted to collecting and recording the natural history of the region, and he despatched an almost continous flow of specimens from the places he visited. After his return in 1726 Catesby concentrated on the publication of his account of the natural history of the area: the work was eventually published between 1730 and 1743 (with an Appendix appearing in 1747).
The present work bears witness to the popularity that the work enjoyed: the original English/French text edition was insufficient to meet demand and the present German/Latin text with re-engraved plates was published. From a careful examination of this and the second issue published in 1777 it appears that the present first issue was published with 72 plates, accompanying text and a covering title. Sometime afterwards, an additional 38 plates, the 9 supplemental plates and all the accompanying text were printed (plates LXXXIII onwards show differences in their numbering and titles which suggest a later date and the pagination of the text employs different type). For the 1777 issue a new title was printed, and a preface and indices were added. Cf.Hunt 486 (109 plates); Nissen BBI 337 (109 plates); Nissen ZBI (32-84 plates); Sabin 11515 (72 plates).
Piscium Serpentum Insectorum aliorumque nonnullorum animalium nec non plantarum quarundam imagines quas... Catesby in posteriore parte... illius operis... descripsit, additis vero imaginibus piscium, tam nostratium quam aliarum regionum auxerunt vivisque coloribus pictas ediderunt Nic. Fred. Eisenberger et Georgius Lichtensteger, in Latin and German. Nuremberg: Johann Joseph Fleischmann, 1750. 2° (484 x 342mm). Title in Latin and German, parallel texts in two columns in Latin and German. 72 fine hand-coloured plates after Catesby and Georg Dionysius Ehret. (Plate 61, after Ehret, shaved into plate area, with slight loss to image area along lower margin, 10mm. repaired tear to same margin, light marginal soiling to title and first plate, 40mm. paper fault tear to third plate.) Contemporary German half sheep (neatly rebacked and cornered).
FIRST ISSUE OF THE FIRST GERMAN EDITION OF CATESBY'S MASTERPIECE, WITH FINE CONTEMPORARY HAND-COLOURING OF THE PLATES. Catesby is now considered to have been the most important early naturalist working in the Americas. Born in Suffolk on 24 March 1682, little else is known of his early life, and the 'earliest period of Mark Catesby's life to which there is any published reference concerns his first trip to America in 1712 [when he was based in Williamsburg, Virginia] ... Catesby was well connected in America through his association with the Governor of Virginia and his ... brother-in-law, Dr. William Cocke, the Secretary of State. He spent some time also at Windsor, the seat of Major Woodford, who had married Catesby's niece ... In 1719 he returned to England but regretted that he had not devoted more time to natural history, for as soon as he was home he at once began to plan to return to the colonies' (E.G.Allen The History of American Ornithology before Audubon pp.470-471). He gathered together an impressive collection of patrons who were willing to back his second expedition, and in April 1722 Catesby left for America. This second expedition was almost entirely devoted to collecting and recording the natural history of the region, and he despatched an almost continous flow of specimens from the places he visited. After his return in 1726 Catesby concentrated on the publication of his account of the natural history of the area: the work was eventually published between 1730 and 1743 (with an Appendix appearing in 1747).
The present work bears witness to the popularity that the work enjoyed: the original English/French text edition was insufficient to meet demand and the present German/Latin text with re-engraved plates was published. From a careful examination of this and the second issue published in 1777 it appears that the present first issue was published with 72 plates, accompanying text and a covering title. Sometime afterwards, an additional 38 plates, the 9 supplemental plates and all the accompanying text were printed (plates LXXXIII onwards show differences in their numbering and titles which suggest a later date and the pagination of the text employs different type). For the 1777 issue a new title was printed, and a preface and indices were added. Cf.Hunt 486 (109 plates); Nissen BBI 337 (109 plates); Nissen ZBI (32-84 plates); Sabin 11515 (72 plates).
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.