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Rare first edition of the finest collection of microscopical observations ever produced and published at the instigation of Boerhaave

SWAMMERDAM, Jan.
Biblia Naturae; sive Historia Insectorum, in Classes certas redacta, nec non exemplis, et Anatomico variorum animalculorum examine, aeneisque Tabulis Illustrata. Insertis numerosis rariorum naturae observationibus. Omnia in Lingua Batava.. Acc. Praefatio, in qua vitam auctoris descripsit H. Boerhaave.. Latinam versionem adscripsit H.D. Gaubius.

With Latin and Dutch titles printed in red and black, with engraved vignette on titles, and numerous illustrations of insects and insect anatomy on 53 full-page engraved plates by J. van der Spyk after the author.

With Latin and Dutch titles printed in red and black, with engraved vignette on titles, and numerous illustrations of insects and insect anatomy on 53 full-page engraved plates by J. van der Spyk after the author.

With Latin and Dutch titles printed in red and black, with engraved vignette on titles, and numerous illustrations of insects and insect anatomy on 53 full-page engraved plates by J. van der Spyk after the author.

With Latin and Dutch titles printed in red and black, with engraved vignette on titles, and numerous illustrations of insects and insect anatomy on 53 full-page engraved plates by J. van der Spyk after the author.

With Latin and Dutch titles printed in red and black, with engraved vignette on titles, and numerous illustrations of insects and insect anatomy on 53 full-page engraved plates by J. van der Spyk after the author.



Leyden, Isaak Severinus, Boudewijn Vander Aa & Pieter Vander Aa, 1737-1738. 2 vols. Folio. Contemporary vellum with author and title in ink on spine. With Latin and Dutch titles printed in red and black, with engraved vignette on titles, and numerous illustrations of insects and insect anatomy on 53 full-page engraved plates by J. van der Spyk after the author. (62), 364, (4), 367-910, 36, 124 pp.

First edition, bilingual, in Latin and Dutch, of the first systematic classification of insects, based on the author's minute dissections and microscopic observations. Jan Swammerdam (Amsterdam 1637-1680), was the most important among the earliest scientists to study insect anatomy, and many of his observations were of great importance to modern biology. Even when his Magnus Opus, the "Biblia Naturae", was published more than half a century after the author's death, the work was still novel and unsurpassed. So Swammerdam describes on page 839 his experiments on frog's legs, where he obtained muscular contractions by using silver and copper wire, an experiment done in 1658, more then a century before Galvani's experiments of a similar nature.
The reason why Swammerdam never published the results of his long years of patient research was that at the end of his life he became a melancholic and a follower of the mystic beliefs of Antoinette de Bourignon. Swammerdam left all his papers to his friend and protector Thévenot at Paris, and it was only in 1727 that the great Boerhaave learned about their whereabouts and was able to buy them through the intermediary of the Paris painter Joubert and the Paris anatomist Duvernay. Recognizing their importance Boerhaave arranged the manuscripts for publication, asked Gaubius for a Latin translation, and added a biography of the author. It was Boerhaave who gave the work the imposing title "Bible of Nature". Of special interest also are the fine and accurate illustrations.

Fine large paper copy.- (Top of spine of volume 1 has a crack of 5 cm).
Nissen, Zool., 4055; Wood 1758 (Engl. ed.); Hagen p. 209; Dibner 191, with illustration; Wheeler Gift Cat. 291, with illustration; Brunet V, 599; Graesse VI, 532.

Related Subjects: 18th Century  Dutch  Illustrated Books  Microscopy  Natural History 

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