SPALOWSKY, Joachim Johann Nepomuk Anton (1752-1797). Prodromus in systema historicum testaceorum.  Vorschmack einer vollständingen systematischen Geschichte der Schalthiergehäuse. Vienna: Widow of Ignaz Alberti, 1795.
SPALOWSKY, Joachim Johann Nepomuk Anton (1752-1797). Prodromus in systema historicum testaceorum. Vorschmack einer vollständingen systematischen Geschichte der Schalthiergehäuse. Vienna: Widow of Ignaz Alberti, 1795.

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SPALOWSKY, Joachim Johann Nepomuk Anton (1752-1797). Prodromus in systema historicum testaceorum. Vorschmack einer vollständingen systematischen Geschichte der Schalthiergehäuse. Vienna: Widow of Ignaz Alberti, 1795.


2o (408 x 265 mm). Engraved frontispiece and 13 plates all finely hand-colored by a contemporary artist. (Without the 3 leaf dedication.) Contemporary calf, gilt spine (rebacked, original spine laid down). Provenance: acquired from Irving Zucker Art Books, 1973.

FIRST EDITION, one of 25 copies, intended as a prospectus for a much larger work which Spalowsky never realized. The Prodromus in systema historicum testaceorum includes 115 hand-colored life-size species, "the hand-colored plates capture the iridescent quality of the shells has never been surpassed" (Hofer). Spalowsky is known as the official physician to the Bürgerliches Regiment of Vienna and the author of other books on natural history, all of which are scarce. He has been described as "a veritable polymath" (Kabat) on account of his diverse publications ranging from poisonous plants, mammals, conchology, and birds through to economics and numismatics. "Spalowsky's treatise on conchology, is among the rarest of published books on mollusks and other shelled organisms" (Kabat). According to American Book Prices Current no other copy has sold at auction in at least 35 years. "The Philip Hofer Bequest" 56; see Alan R Kabat "J.J.N.A. Spalowsky (1752-97) and the Prodromus in Systema Historicum Testaceorum (1795)" in Archives of Natural History (1996) 23 (2): 245-54.

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