Rare first and only edition of Crispin Jernfelds doctoral thesis on pygmies, defended on 28 May 1681 under the presidency of prof. Johannes Bildberg (1646-1717), Prof. of Mathematics since 1677 at the University of Uppsala. Crispin Jernfeld (1660-1695) became Professor of Theology at the University of Tartu, the national university of Estonia, in 1690; in 1692 he was Rector of the University.
The term pygmy has long been used to refer to what we now know are several different indigenous tribes living in Central Africa, already in classical antiquity subject of widespread speculation and mystification, Jernfeld tries to summarize all that was known of these peoples at the end of the 17th century on the basis of an extensive study of the mainly classical literature. With owners entry of "Magr. Krutenius" on the title-page, meaning Magister Johan Krutenius (d. 1694), conrector in Upsala, Magister in 1682. Title-page somewhat soiled. Hogg, Cat. Scandinavian books, B588; Lidén I, 69.