First bilingual French-German edition, illustrated with 71 plates and a fortification table.
Contemporary full ivory vellum binding. Smooth spine decorated with triple blind fillets, title and author in pen. Boards framed with triple blind fillets; traces of clasps. All edges blue. Six small contemporary leather bookmarks. Bavarian bookplate of the period.
Spine split with a small loss along its entire length. One joint slightly cracked (1.5cm). A small ink stain on the second board. Pages uniformly and lightly browned. Front pastedown affected by bookworm damage.
The rare first edition of this pamphlet.
Stitched pamphlet, unbound.
The commission of agriculture and arts was founded in 1794 and Parmentier was from its creation an eminent and influential member. The potato was soon perceived, thanks to Parmentier, as a means to combat famine and food shortages, whether for humans or animals.
NB: This work is available at the bookshop on request within 48 hours.
First edition, rare.
Contemporary full blond calf bindings, mottled. Smooth spines decorated with urn tools and fillets. Red morocco lettering-pieces and green morocco volume labels, the latter additionally bearing the letters AB, NZ... Rich border of palmettes and frieze on the covers, with on the upper cover: Prix des Ecoles Académiques; and on the lower cover: Lille 1812. Rubbing. Some corners bumped. A handsome and highly decorative set.
First edition. Rare.
Half tan sheep bindings, smooth spines decorated with double gilt fillets showing some rubbing traces, two lower headcaps affected by small lacks due in one case to slight worm damage not affecting the text at all, and brown stains, upper headcap of volume 2 abraded, gilt names of a previous owner at foot, one joint of volume 3 cracked at head, marbled paper boards, later but 19thcentury bindings. Rare and handsome copy almost entirely free from foxing.
Swedish entomologist and military officer who studied under Linnaeus. The Insects of Sweden (Insecta suecica) forms his most important contribution to the discipline; his insect collection was very extensive.
Volumes 1 and 4 each contain, bound at rear, manuscript notes and annotations covering 5½ pages, in a fine and close hand, certainly by the first owner of the work: A. Godart whose name appears at the foot of each volume.
First edition, quite rare; a counterfeit edition appeared on the same date in Amsterdam.
Contemporary full glazed and marbled blonde calf binding. Decorated smooth spines. Red morocco title and volume labels. A small lack at head of volume I. Five corners slightly bumped. Rubbing. Good copy.
Without doubt Bonnet's most ambitious and remarkable study which earned him the designation of father of modern biology. This work of theoretical biology drawing its source from multi-disciplinary reflection and its postulate from Leibniz (the immortality of the soul) claims that the Earth periodically suffers universal catastrophes which destroy almost all life and that the survivors each time rise one degree on the evolutionary scale. Bonnet was the first to use the term evolution in a biological context. The work also prefigures experimental psychology. There would exist in each being germs which pre-exist it and ensure the survival of the species, Bonnet's thesis announcing the theories and discoveries of genes. It was blindness that in Bonnet put a stop to experimentation and engaged him on the path of philosophical reflection.
