[Rarebooks] FS: 1st ed. of Buonanni's illustrated study of snails & shells. Rome: 1681

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(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.	$3,750.00 (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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