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By "one of the most important founders of comparative anatomy"

PALLAS, Peter Simon.
Spicilegia Zoologica quibus novae imprimis et obscurae animalium species iconibus, descriptionibus atque commentariis illustrantur.

13 full page engraved plates.

13 full page engraved plates.

13 full page engraved plates.

13 full page engraved plates.

13 full page engraved plates.



Berlin, Gottl. August. Lange, 1767. 4 parts in 1 vol. 4to. Contemporary three quarter vellum, marbled covers. 13 full page engraved plates. (6), 3-44; 32; 35; 23 pp.

Original edition of the 4 first parts of Pallas' well-known Specilegia zoologica. In 1774 the first 10 parts were published as vol.1: 'Continens quadrupwedum, avium, amphibiorum, piscium, insectorum, molluscorum, aliorumque marinorum (with 43 plates).
Peter Simon Pallas (1741-1811) was a very famous German Zoologist, botanist and above all traveller. He studied at Halle, Göttingen and Leiden, where he submitted his doctoral thesis in 1760. In 1761 he went to England to study the natural history collections and to make geological observations. In 1763 he settled in The Hague, where in 1766 he published his acclaimed Elenchus zoophytorum and Miscellanes zoologica. He soon attracted the attention of Catherine II of Russia and he was invited to St. Petersburg, where he was appointed professor of natural history at the Imperial Academy of Sciences in 1767. At the request of Catherine, he was very quickly placed in charge of the academy expedition into Russia and Siberia (1768-1774) which expedition made him famous for his observations on the mammoth and rhinoceros fossils found in the Siberian ice.
The present work, published in Berlin on his way from The Hague to St. Petersburg (the preface in dated Berlin, 30 April 1767), includes the descriptions of several vertebrates, new to science, which he had discovered in the Dutch museum collections, all with their own title-page, all dated 1767:
Fasc. 1: De antilopibus generatim (On antelopes); p. 3-44, with 3 plates engraved by C.B. Glassbach after A. Schouman.
Fasc. 2: Aper Aethiopicus (On the African wild boar); p. 1-32, with 3 plates engraved by C.B. Glassbach after A. Schouman of a boar, the Cavia Capensis and of details of the stomachs of these animals.
Fasc. 3: Vespertiliones in genera (On bats); p. 1-35, with 4 plates by C.B. Glassbach after J.B. Hopfer of bats and the skeletons of bats.
Fasc. 4: Grus Psophia (on the Crane); p. 1-23, with 3 plates engraved by C.B. Glassbach after A. Schouman of a Crane, a 'Numida' and two skulls of a crane.
The famous naturalist Albrecht von Haller characterized the author of these Specilegia as "one of the most important founders of comparative anatomy".

Good copy.
Wood, p. 511; Nissen 3071; Allg. Deutsche Biogr. 25, p. 81-98.

Related Subjects: 18th Century  Illustrated Books  Natural History  Zoology 

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