Thesaurus imaginum piscium testaceorum.

Rumpf, Georg Eberhard. Thesaurus imaginum piscium testaceorum; quales sunt cancri, echini, echinometra, stellae marinae, etc. ut & cochlearum quibus accedunt conchylia denique mineralia. Leiden, Pieter vander Aa, 1711. Folio. Engraved title + engraved author s portrait + title in red and black with large allegorical vignette + [1]f dedicatory address to the reader with large engraved allegorical headpiece + 15 + [1 blank]p of illustration index with large engraved vignette at beginning and end + 60 numbered engraved plates with over 600 illustrations on rectos + 8p of name indexes in Latin, Ambonese Malay, and Dutch with engraved headpiece on first page. Contemporary marbled calf; spine decorated in gilt with morocco title label; corners scuffed. First Latin edition of the celebrated Cabinet of Rarities of Ambon by Georg Eberhard Rumpf (1628-1702), an outstanding German botanist who worked for the Dutch East India Company on the island of Ambon devoting his life to the study of natural history in the Moluccas in the Indian ocean. The beautiful book constitutes the first comprehensive work on South Pacific molluscs, with substantial content on minerals and other specimens of natural history. The exquisite plates show crustacea, including lobsters and crabs, exotic shells, animals, fish, birds, fossils, and minerals. Most of the illustrations were based on drawings by the celebrated Frankfurt artist Maria Sybilla Merian (1647-1717), now preserved in the archives of the Academy of Sciences at St Petersburg. The engraved title represents the interior of a palatial wunderkammer with connoisseurs appraising specimens on a table being brought to them by servants from large cabinets. The portrait shows the blind author sitting at a table working from touch, feeling shells and plants with his hands surrounded by books and dried exhibits. Rumpf lost his eyesight at the age of 42. The book was first published in Dutch in 1705 as 'Amboinsche Rariteitkamer'. The first great history on tropical marine life, especially shells of the Molucca Islands in the Indian Archipelago. Remarkable for its detailed observations of living animals, habitats, and fisheries (Beekman, The Ambonese Curiosity Cabinet (1999); Dance, A history of Shell Collecting, pp26-27; Wilson, Mineral Collections 1530-1799,pp191-222. Bookplate of Juan del Olmo, a priest in Palencia pasted in blank title margin. Inner blank margin of engraved title discoloured in places, a small wormhole running through outer edges of top margin, occasional traces of usage in corners, otherwise a very good copy with excellent impressions of the plates.…