Natural History / Insects & Spiders

HILL, John. A general natural history: or, new and accurate descriptions of the animals, vegetables, and minerals, of the different parts of the world; with their virtues and uses, as far as hitherto certainly known, in medicine and mechanics: ...
London, Printed for Thomas Osborne, 1748-1752. 3 volumes. Folio. With 56 hand-coloured plates (16 on plants, 28 on animals and 12 on fossils, some signed by B. Cole) and in volume 3 also 1 folding table.Contemporary green morocco, richly gold-tooled spines with red morocco labels, gold-tooled frames on the boards, marbled endpapers. Volumes misnumbered on the spines (vols. 1-3 labeled 3, 1 and 2 respectively). [12], 1-228, 333-592, *457-*592, 593-654, [6]; XXVI, 642; [7], [1 blank]; [8], 584, [4]; pp. Full description

LACORDAIRE, Jean Théodore. Introduction à l'entomologie comprenant les principes généraux de l'anatomie et de la physiologie des insectes, ...
Paris, Librairie Encyclopédique de Roret, 1834-1838. 2 text volumes and 1 atlas volume. 8vo. With 24 engraved plates of insects and their anatomy (3 hand-coloured) in the seperate atlas volume. Contemporary half calf. [4], IX, [1 blank], 463, [1 blank]; [4], [1 blank], 681, [3]; [4], 16 pp. Full description

LEDERMÜLLER, Martin Frobenius and J.C. HARREPETER (translator). Versuch, beÿ angehender Frühlings-Zeit die Vergrößerungs Werckzeuge zum nützlich u[nd] angenehmen Zeitvertreib anzuwenden. Von dem Verfasser der Mikroskopischen Gemüths u[nd] Augen Ergözung. | Essai d'employer les instruments microscopiques avec utilité et plaisir dans la saison du printems par l'auteur des amusements microscopiques tant des yeux que de l'esprit.
Nuremberg, A.L. Wirsing, 1764. Folio. With an engraved hand-coloured title-page and 12 full-page hand-coloured engraved plates, numbered I-XII (bound VII-XII, I-VI). Contemporary blue-ish grey paper boards, with a large white paper title-label on the front board with in manuscript "Amusements Microscopiques par Harrepeter. 1764" and with the manuscript title ("Mikroscope") on the spine. 48 pp. Full description

MABILLE, Paul. Histoire naturelle des Lépidoptères de Madagascar.
Paris, l'Imprimerie Nationale, 1885-1887. 2 volumes (text & atlas). Large 4to (32 x 25 cm). With 63 aquatint plates printed in brown and black. Later brown half morocco. [4], V, [1 blank], 364 pp. Full description

MCLACHLAN, Robert. A monographic revision and synopsis of the Trichoptera of the European fauna.
London, John van Voorst; Berlin, Friedländer (colophon: printed by Napier, London), 1874-1880. Royal 8vo (25 x 17.5 cm). With 59 lithographed plates. Contemporary half calf. [2], IV, 523, [1 blank], CIII, [1] pp. Full description

MERIAN, Maria Sybilla. Over de voortteeling en wonderbaerlyke veranderingen der Surinaemsche insecten ...
Amsterdam, Johannes van Oosterwyk, 1719. Imperial folio (53 x 38 cm). With an engraved frontispiece, drawn and engraved by Frederik Ottens (representing the author in her youth seated at a table with flowers and insects, assisted by 6 putti, while a large decorated arch reveals a tropical landscape in the background with buildings and 2 men stand conversing while Merian, nearby on her knees, is catching a butterfly with a net), and 72 etched counterproofs, numbered I-LXXII in the facing letterpress descriptions (not numbered in the plates themselves). Further with Van Oosterwyks engraved device (a bearded man sitting on the forest floor playing a lyre, with motto, "vigilanter et quieté"), a large engraved headpiece above the dedication, incorporating the arms of the dedicatee, Balthazar Scott, 3 woodcut decorated initials (2 series) and a woodcut factotum. The frontispiece, publishers device and dedication headpiece and illustration plates coloured by contemporary hands, probably by Merians daughters. The frontispiece, title-page (lettering and the divice), and the dedication (both the arms and the lettering) highlighted in gold. Further with 4 woodcut decorated initials (3 series). Gold-tooled vellum (early 1800s), sewn on 8 supports, each board with a large arabesque centrepiece (15.5 x 12.5 cm) with flowers and foliage, with an empty central oval, 2 frames made from 2 different rolls (the inner 9 mm and the outer 10 mm, the latter edged inside with a sawtooth roll), the inner frame with a built-up cornerpiece inside and a crown (26 x 33 mm) outside each corner, the spine with each of the upper 4 and lower 4 compartments containing a built-up centrepiece and 4 cornerpieces, the larger central compartment with 3 lines of text reading up the spine, partly illegible, but probably reading "M S MERIAEN|VERANDERINGEN DER|INSECTEN" and across the head and foot a roll with crossed, dotted diagonal lines. With a built-up armorial centrepiece, apparently preserved from the books first binding in gold-tooled red goatskin morocco, on-laid on the front board near the centre of the fore-edge: a large cartouche (16 x 10.5 cm) with an oval centre (6 x 5 cm), with, around the oval inside the cartouche, floral and interlaced decorations, foliage and 5-pointed stars, and inside the oval the blind-tooled Cervantes coat of arms (37 x 26 mm: 2 stags - though here without antlers - the upper standing and the lower grazing, above "EX ANTIQUIS", with a gold-tooled bishops cross and hat, the hat with 6 + 6 tassels). Further with gilt edges, headbands in green and beige (around a double vellum strip). The work is kept in a modern, custom-made case (half red morocco and marbled paper sides, with the title lettered in gold on the spine). [8], 72 pp. plus frontispiece and 72 plates. Full description

MÖLLER, Christian Heinrich. Lexicon Entomologicum, oder entomologisches Wörterbuch, in welchem alle in diese Wissenschaft einschlagende Begriffe und die in den Linneischen und Fabrizischen Schriften vorkommende Terminologien überstezt, erklärt und mit Beyspielen, nach beyden Systemen, erläutert werden.
Erfurt, Georg Adam Keyser, 1795. 8vo. Contemporary blue boards. XVI, 704 pp. Full description

PERCHERON, A. Bibliographie Entomologique, comprenant l'indication par ordre alphabétique 1. Des ouvrages entomologiques publiés en France et à l'étranger, depuis les temps les plus réculés jusques et y compris l'année 1834; 2. Des monographies et mémoires contenus dans les recueils, journaux et collections académiques françaises et étrangères.
Paris, J.B. Baillière, 1837. 2 volumes bound in 1.. 8vo. Contemporary half calf, spine with gilt lettering. XII, 326; [4], 376 pp. Full description

RANOUW, Willem van. Kabinet der natuurlyke historien, wetenschappen, konsten en handwerken, geopent met de maanden January en February 1719. Verciert en opgeheldert met kopere plaaten.
Including: MEERSCH, Pieter van der. Register tot alle de deelen van het kabinet ... van W. v. Ranouw.
Amsterdam, Hendrik Strik; Zacharia Moelé and Johannes de Ruiter; Balthasar Lakeman, 1730; 1719-1727; 1732. 21 parts in 9 volumes. 8vo. With an identical engraved allegorical frontispiece in volumes 1-8, different woodcut vignettes on the title-pages and 49 numbered engraved maps and plates, all but one folding. Contemporary vellum, manuscript title on the spines. [16], 176, [2], 552, [8]; [4], 564, [8]; [8], 562, [6]; 570, [6]; 570; [9]; [8], 176, [2], 191-380, [2], 563, [6]; [8], 183, [1], 1-192, 1-192, [8]; [16], 176, 1-191, [1], [20], 1-151, [1]; [12], 690 pp. Full description

RATZEBURG, Julius Theodor Christian (Edgar Bourée de CORBERON, transl.). Les hylophtires et leurs ennemis, ou description et iconographie des insectes les plus nuisibles aux forèts, ainsi que des autres animaux causant des dégâts dans les bois, avec une méthode pour apprendre à les détruire et à ménager ceux qui leur font la guerre.
Nordhansen, Leipzig, B.G.H. Schmidt, 1842. Large 8vo. With 4 folding tables, 2 woodcuts in text and 6 full-page engraved plates, one with useful insects and five with harmful insects, all six hand-coloured by the publisher. Original green publisher's printed paper wrappers over stiff boards. XXXIV, 246 pp. Full description