Forum Rare Books

Beautiful 1483 Venice edition of Pliny's celebrated encyclopaedic work

PLINIUS SECUNDUS, Gaius (PLINY the elder) [and Philippus BEROALDUS (editor)]. Historia naturalis.
Venice, Reynaldus de Noviomago, 6 June 1483. Small folio. With the initials and book numbers alternatingly painted in red and blue. 17th-century blind-tooled sheepskin, red sprinkled edges. [355] ll. Full description

€ 65,000

Anthropology & Ethnography Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 15th century Faunas & General Zoology Geography Greek & Roman Classics Herbals & Medical Botany Mineralogy & Gems

Pliny's “Historia naturalis”, edited by Caesarius, friend of Erasmus

PLINIUS SECUNDUS, Gaius. Naturalis historiae opus ... (Colophon: Cologne, Eucharius Cervicornus, 1524). Folio. With both the title page and part-title in a decorated woodcut border in four pieces, further with decorated woodcut initials, and woodcut head- and tailpieces. Late 16th of early 17th-century gold tooled calf, with a red morocco title label on the spine, lettered in gold. [16], 311, [60] ll. Full description

€ 22,500

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Astronomy & Cosmography Faunas & General Zoology Geology Greek & Roman Classics Herbals & Medical Botany Mineralogy & Gems

A scientific study of the natural history of Norway, including its sea monsters

PONTOPPIDAN, Erich. The natural history of Norway ...
London, printed for A. Linde, 1755. 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With a large folding engraved map of Norway by Johann Baptist Homann, and 28 engraved plates depicting minerals, shells, fishes, birds, mammals, plants, and the inhabitants of Norway. Contemporary gold- and blind-tooled calf, with gold-tooled corner edges of the boards, gold-tooled turn-ins and marbled edges. XXIV, 206; VIII, 291, [12] pp. Full description

€ 5,850

Earth Sciences Faunas & General Zoology Fishery & Whaling Floras & General Botany Marine Biology & Oceanography Scandinavia

Catalogue of the famous Portland Museum, with many objects collected during Cook's Pacific voyages,
with manuscript prices and purchasers

[PORTLAND MUSEUM]. [LIGHTFOOT, John]. A catalogue of the Portland Museum lately the property of the Duchess Dowager of Portland, deceased: which will be sold by auction ...
With: (2) A catalogue of a very valuable collection of cameos, intaglios, and precious stones, and other curiosities; being part of a late much celebrated cabinet, many out of the Arundel collection; which will be sold by auction ...
[London, Skinner and Co., 1786]. 2 works in 1 volume. 4to. With full-page engraved frontispiece showing the interior of the Portland Museum with numerous objects from its collection. Contemporary gold-tooled vellum. VIII, "194" [= 192]; 6 pp. Full description

€ 18,500

Anthropology & Ethnography Art & Art History Auction Catalogues & Bookselling Faunas & General Zoology Mineralogy & Gems Museums & Wunderkammer Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Pacific

"One of the most noted Italian books on hunting" (Schwerdt)

RAIMONDI, Eugenio. Delle caccie ... libri quattro ...
(Colophon: Naples, Lazaro Scoriggio, 1626). 4to. With an engraved title-page and 13 full-page engraved illustrations (plus 8 repeats) on integral leaves. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [56], 635, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 5,000

Amphibians & Reptiles Birds - Ornithology Falconry, Fishing & Hunting Faunas & General Zoology

German textbook on zoology, printed in Pottsville, Pennsylvania

REUBELT, John Adam. Kurzgefaßtes Handbuch der Naturgeschichte. Enthaltend wissenschaftliche und populäre Beschreibungen von dem Menschen, den Säugethieren, Vögeln, Amphibien, Fischen, Weich- und Gliederthieren.
Pottsville [Pennsylvania], C.W. Günther and the author, 1848. 8vo. With numerous woodcuts in text, depicting men and animals. Contemporary black half sheepskin. 392 pp. Full description

€ 375

Amphibians & Reptiles Birds - Ornithology Faunas & General Zoology Mammals North America School & Textbooks

Rare work with the complete series of 127 attractive animal plates

RIDINGER, Johann Elias. [Naturhistorisches Original-Thierwerk].
[Augsburg, Engelbrecht, 1825]. Oblong folio. With 127 numbered engraved plates including frontispiece incorporating a small portrait of Johann Elias Ridinger (1698-1767) in profile on a base with his name and profession, surrounded by animals, and plates showing all kinds of animals classified in 9 (of 10) sections. Lacking the title-page and part of the text, but with all plates complete. Contemporary diced half calf, gold-tooled spine, marbled sides. 28 pp. plus 127 plates. Full description

€ 12,500

Faunas & General Zoology Prints & Print Series

Important 17th-century illustrated description of the Antilles

[ROCHEFORT, Charles de]. Histoire naturelle et morale des Iles Antilles de l'Amérique ...
Rotterdam, Arnout Leers, 1658. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With an engraved title-page, a woodcut printer's device on the typographical title-page, a full-page portrait of Amproux, 43 engraved plates in the text of all kinds of plants, trees, animals and costumes from the Antilles. Further with a divisional title-page for the second part, and woodcut decorated initials, head- and tailpieces throughout. Contemporary gold-tooled marbled calf, with a red morocco title-label lettered in gold, gold-tooled board edges, marbled edges, marbled endpapers, and a bright pink reading ribbon. [1], [1 blank], [12], 527, [12], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 8,500

Anthropology & Ethnography Caribbean Islands Faunas & General Zoology Floras & General Botany Language & Linguistics Middle America

The complete scientific reports from the private German expedition to the Arctic Ocean in 1898

RÖMER, Fritz and Fritz SCHAUDINN (editors). Fauna Arctica. Eine Zusammenstellung der arktischen Tierformen, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Spitzbergen-Gebietes auf Grund der Ergebnisse der Deutschen Expedition in das Nördliche Eismeer im Jahre 1898. Herausgegeben von F. Römer und F. Schaudinn.
Jena, G. Fischer, 1902-1933. 6 volumes. Large 4to (36 x 28 cm). With 2 photogravure portraits (of both editors), 8 lithographed maps, 49 (a few chromo-) lithographed plates and 609 figures in the text. Contemporary half cloth (volumes II-IV & VI) & wrappers (volumes I and V). Full description

€ 1,350

Arctic & Antarctic Faunas & General Zoology Marine Biology & Oceanography Shells & other Invertebrates

The frogs and toads of Germany in the manner of Maria Sybilla Merian

RÖSEL VON ROSENHOF, August Johann. Historia naturalis ranarum nostratium in qua omnes earum proprietates, praesertim quae ad generationem ipsarum pertinent, fusius enarrantur. | Die natürliche Historie der Frösche hiesigen Landes worinnen alle Eigenschaften derselben, sonderlich aber ihre Fortpflanzung, umständlich beschrieben werden.
Nuremberg, Johann Joseph Fleischmann, [1753]-1758. 2 parts in 1 volume. Royal folio (48 x 33 cm). With hand-coloured engraved frontispiece and 2 sets of the 24 engraved plates. Each of the 24 plates is present twice: beautifully hand-coloured with the figures still unnumbered, and in black and white with the figures numbered (and key letters added) but with Rösel's name erased. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spine. [2], VIII, [6], 116 pp. Full description