[Rarebooks] FS: 1st ed. of Buonanni's opus 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.
“The first book dealing exclusively with shells.” (Dance. SHELLS AND
SHELL COLLECTING, p. 65) “A work valuable for its many illustrations of
shells, Buonanni 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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