Beschreibung
The Hague: Pieter Gosse, 1726. First edition in French, third Latin edition. Folio (20 ¼" x 14 1/8", 515mm x 359mm). [Full collation available.] With 72 hand-colored engraved plates as well as engraved vignettes to the title-pages. Bound in later (1962?) half blue morocco over blue cloth. On the spine, six raised bands. Title gilt to the second panel, author gilt to the fourth. All edges of the text-block glazed red. Scuffed, with some sunning to the spine. Peripheral tanning throughout, with some leaf-edges friable and chipped. Mild foxing throughout. Lacking the two-page dedication, two-page Latin preface and two-page French preface (*1, **2). With an octagonal paper ticket, printed "Mura, England" and completed in graphite manuscript "O.R.22 R2" to the upper fore-corner of the front paste-down. Armorial bookplate of the City of Liverpool Public Libraries to the verso of the front free end-paper and their ink-stamp to the recto of the Latin title and the verso of the French. Their reference-library bookplate (completed in ink manuscript; Class: "Cf 48" and Bound "D+W 6/62" to the recto of the rear free end-paper. Blind-stamps (generally quite discreet) of the library to each plate. Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) came from a distinguished Swiss-German family; her father was Matthäus Merian and her grandfather Johann Theodor de Bry. In 1685, Merian moved with her two daughters and her mother into a Labadist community at Waltha Castle. She was so inspired by the Wunderkammer of Cornelis van Sommelsdijck, who had been general of Surinam (Dutch Guiana or Suriname), at the castle, that she sailed for South America with her younger daughter Dorothea. There she studied, drew and collected specimens for nearly two years, focusing intently on the metamorphoses of insects there. Upon her return, she worked to publish the first edition of the Dissertatio (1705). Working with her daughters Dorothea and Johanna, she colored the plates -- and even took counter-proof impressions, providing only the faintest printed linework and preserving the original orientation of her water-colors. Merian suffered a stroke in 1715 but continued to work until her death in 1717, even coloring some sheets in preparation for an envisioned revised second edition. Johanna, her elder daughter, emigrated to Surinam in 1711 and sent back additional material to be worked into twelve new plates. That revised edition appeared two years after Maria Sibylla's death. The present item is the first translation of the work into French (parallel with the Latin), expanding its readership considerably. Mura was a stationer who made gummed labels for both dealers and collectors; perhaps this was an early shelf-mark used by Liverpool? Both Liverpool Public Library bookplates were designed by Stephen Gooden (1892-1955) in 1944; he also made bookplates for Geoffrey Keynes, Stephen and George Courtauld, Royal Library Windsor, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, and Lord Fairhaven. Hunt 467; Nissen, BBI 1341; Pritzel 6105. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers JLR0572
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