[Rarebooks] FS: 1st of Buonanni's classic on snails & shells w/110 plates. Rome: 1681

[Karmbooks at aol.com]

(NATURAL HISTORY)   Buonanni, Filippo. RICREATIONE DELL’OCCHIO E DELLA MENTE 
NELL’ OFFERUATION’ DELLE CHIOCCIOLE, Proposta a’ Curiosi delle Opere della 
Natura. Con Quattrocento, e Cinquanta Figure di Testacei Diversi... Rome: Il 
Varesi. 1681. First edition. 4to. (16),384,(16)pp. Index. Illustrated with 6 
engraved titles and 110 full page copper engraved plates (illustrating 450 shells &
 snails). 19th century polished brown calf over marbled boards. Text with 
some minor pinhole worming. First engraved title a bit trimmed at top. Pencil 
notes (easily erasable) in margins of engraved plates.     $4,500.00 (trade 
discount allowed)
First edition of Buonanni’s (1638-1725) study of shells and snails “a work 
valuable for its many illustrations of shells, he explicitly affirmed his 
belief in the spontaneous generation of mollusks and rekindled the controversy over 
generation that had flared in 1671 between Kircher and Francesco Redi” 
(D.S.B.). A very scarce book; many copies are recorded with a plate count of 109. 
Nissen, DIE ZOOLOGISCHE BUCHILLUSTRATION #753 (109 plates plus 6 eng. titles); 
BM NATURAL HISTORY CATALOGUE Vol. I, p. 286 (109 plates plus 6 eng. Titles).

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