Rumph Georg Eberhard (1 results)

Amsterdam, François Halma, boekverkoper in Konstantijn de Grote, 1705, (first edition), in-folio, 41,5 cm x 26,8 cm, half title + engraved title + title printed in red & black with engraved vignette + (28)(dedication, preface, table of contents) + engraved portrait + 340 pp + (43)(index), with 5 large engraved vignettes, and 60 full page copper engravings, some of them engraved by Maria Sibylla Merian. Bound in contemporary full vellum, raised back with manuscript title in ink, binding with some slight general soiling, a marginal tear in plate XII and pp.125, plate 29 bound upside down, some small spots in the margin of a few plates at the end but a very fine large paper copy of the first edition of this admirable and epoch making work on conchology. Rumphius a Dutch naturalist born in Hanau (Germany) was employed by the VOC (Dutch East India Company). He spent most of his life on the Island of Amboyna (Ambon). He did not live to see the appearance of his book which met with great difficulties before being published. The author had gone blind and almost all his original notes had been destroyed. He originated most of the names of the common Pacific shells as we know them today and was the first to report on the fatal bites of cone shells. He thus fully deserves the honorary title ''Plinius Indicus'' which adorns the title page of his magnum opus.