HISTORIAE ANIMALIUM liber IIII

Very rare first edition. 1558. Fish encyclopedia with 700 woodcuts in the text. HISTORIAE ANIMALIUM liber IIII qui est de PISCIUM & AQUATILIUM animantium natura. Cum iconibus singulorum ad vivum expressis. Continentur in hoc volumine, Gulielmi Rondeletii & Petri Belonii Cenomani de aquatilium singulis Scripta. Very rare first edition. Zürich, Christof Froschauer, 1558. Folio (389 x 238 mm), pp. 40, 1297, with printer's device on title page. Over 700 woodcuts in the text (Nissen, 1951). Engraved headpieces. Contemporary German blindstamped pigskin over wooden boards, roll-tool panels of prophets and bible scenes, intact brass clasps and catches. Some marginal dust-soiling and occasional marginal spotting, otherwise in mint condition. Inscriptions on title page: Christophero Arnoldo Artini Med. Doctor, me sibi & gratae posteriati comparavit; .emit D. Johann Macholt: & other early illegible inscriptions.The book was exposed at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht (2004), at the Amos Andersons Konstmuseum, Helsingfors (2004), and as part of the Linnaeus exhibition at the University Library of the University of Amsterdam (2007). A complete copy of the rare FIRST EDITION in an impressive contemporary binding. The present volume on fish and aquatic animals constitutes a fundamental part of the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner’s monumental encyclopaedia of animals, entitled Historiae Animalium. Thoroughly educated with the financial aid of scholarships generously provided by key players in the Swiss reformation, most notably the prominent theologians Huldrych Zwingli and Heinrich Bullinger, Gessner achieved great academic distinction. He became first the professor of Greek at Lausanne and was later appointed as the professor of medicine at Zürich, whilst simultaneously maintaining an active medical practice as an official town physician. He wrote prolifically on a wide variety of scholarly subjects, but the Historiae Animalia was by far his most influential and most popular publication. In this work, which remained one of the most widely read books on natural history until the mid-eighteenth century, Gessner attempted to systematically bring together all that was known about the animal kingdom in his day and to add to this as much new information as possible. The book is widely considered the first truly systematic treatise of the Renaissance era and the very basis of modern zoology. It was extremely well-received across Europe and was reprinted in rapidly succeeding editions during the following two centuries. Gessner was explicitly mentioned by Peter Artedi and Carl Linnaeus, as well as many earlier ichthyologists, as a pioneering researcher who directly influenced their own scientific work. In fact, no systematic study of animals on the same comprehensive level appeared until the publication by Georges Cuvier in the early nineteenth century, who famously nicknamed Gessner ‘the German Pliny’.  Interestingly, this specific volume on fish and aquatic animals is fundamentally different in style and significantly more systematic than Gessner’s other three volumes. Due to a relative lack of comprehensive literature on fish from the classical era, Gessner was forced to base this volume primarily on contemporary research and first-hand empirical observation. As a result, although the individual species are described in a standard alphabetical order, the descriptions themselves place a massive emphasis on the actual physical appearance of the species and consistently provide references to wider groups of morphologically similar fish. This specific morphology-based organisation is entirely independent from the physical organisation of the book. By focusing on physical characteristics, local habitats, and behaviors, Gessner provided a definitive template for future generations of marine biologists. This book is part of a collection of illustrated rare fish books. You can contact the seller if you are interested in the collection.…