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Details
MOSES HARRIS (1730-c.1788)
The Aurelian: or, Natural History of English Insects; namely, Moths and Butterflies. London: J. Robson, 1778 [but plates watermarked 1794]. 2° (460 x 285mm272 mm). English title only, double-column text in English and French, hand-coloured engraved diagrammatic key-plate and 44 hand-coloured engraved plates numbered I-XLIV, by and after Harris. (Lacking frontispiece, French title, e2 list of terms, a few small stains, primarily to text leaves.) Contemporary red morocco (rebacked, extremities rubbed).
'ONE OF THE MOST OUTSTANDING AUTHORS OF ENTOMOLOGICAL LITERATURE DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY' (Lisney). Harris drew from live specimens and his plates are among the most beautiful of their kind, showing dorsal and ventral views of all the subjects, together with various stages of development (egg, caterpillar, chrysalis), each with their preferred food. First published in 1766, the Aurelian went through many editions. This has led to a complex bibliography, and, as Lisney notes, it 'frequently occur[s] as made-up copies' of which this is probably one. The text collates as per the second edition, but in this copy, the plates are watermarked with the later date of 1794, pls. I, III, V, XXXIV, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XLII-XLIV are without dedication, pl. II is not mounted, and pl. III has a reversed plate number. Lisney 233-235; Nissen ZBI 1835.
The Aurelian: or, Natural History of English Insects; namely, Moths and Butterflies. London: J. Robson, 1778 [but plates watermarked 1794]. 2° (460 x 285mm272 mm). English title only, double-column text in English and French, hand-coloured engraved diagrammatic key-plate and 44 hand-coloured engraved plates numbered I-XLIV, by and after Harris. (Lacking frontispiece, French title, e2 list of terms, a few small stains, primarily to text leaves.) Contemporary red morocco (rebacked, extremities rubbed).
'ONE OF THE MOST OUTSTANDING AUTHORS OF ENTOMOLOGICAL LITERATURE DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY' (Lisney). Harris drew from live specimens and his plates are among the most beautiful of their kind, showing dorsal and ventral views of all the subjects, together with various stages of development (egg, caterpillar, chrysalis), each with their preferred food. First published in 1766, the Aurelian went through many editions. This has led to a complex bibliography, and, as Lisney notes, it 'frequently occur[s] as made-up copies' of which this is probably one. The text collates as per the second edition, but in this copy, the plates are watermarked with the later date of 1794, pls. I, III, V, XXXIV, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XLII-XLIV are without dedication, pl. II is not mounted, and pl. III has a reversed plate number. Lisney 233-235; Nissen ZBI 1835.
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