Lot 52C email save

CATESBY, Mark (1682-1749). Piscium Serpentum Insec

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Nuremberg: Johann Joseph Fleischmann, 1750. Folio (435 x 325 mm). Title and parallel two column text in Latin and German. 58 fine hand-colored engraved plates by Eisenberger and Lichtensteger after Catesby. Contemporary German half sheep over speckled brown paper-covered boards, spine in seven compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second. Condition: diminishing dampstain to upper edge from title through plate VI and from plates LVI-LVIII, plate XLVII loosely inserted and supplied from another copy, plate XLVIII with 140mm. tear from bottom edge into the image area, plate LVIII with vertical creasing and tears to lower blank margin; covers lightly scuffed, spine with small chips and tears to head and foot of spine, with some loss at head. Provenance: inked note to rear endpaper in Russian recording the purchase of the present copy for 5 roubles in St. Petersburg from the bookseller Matveya Mitrophanova on 21 August, 1777. a finely-colored selection from the first issue of the first german edition of catesby's masterspiece, with the plates re-engraved. This selection, clearly as issued, concentrates on the fish (31 plates), crustaceans (6), turtles (3) and snakes (18). Catesby first arrived in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1712, and spent seven years in the colony, collecting natural history specimens from the mainland and the West Indies, and sending them back to England. His collecting was rather haphazard during this first period and he was more systematic during his second journey to the Americas in 1722. He received encouragment and support during this period from the Royal Society and naturalist/collectors such as Sir Hans Sloane. The most famous result of his travels was his Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, the first published account of the flora and fauna of North America, which was published in London between 1731 and 1743. The present work stands as a testament to the popularity that Catesby's masterpiece enjoyed: the original English/French text edition was insufficient to meet demand and the present German/Latin text with re-engraved plates was published. The standard reference works have difficulty in agreeing on the correct make up of this first issue of the German edition: plates counts vary, but it seems that the correct total for this first issue is probably 72 (with explanatory text). Sometime later, an additional 38 plates, the 9 supplemental plates and all the accompanying text were printed. For the 1777 issue a new title was printed, and a preface and indices were added. Cf. Nissen BBI 337 (109 plates); cf. Nissen ZBI (32-84 plates); cf. Sabin 11515 (72 plates).

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