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ANNOTATED COPY, WITH AUTHOR'S PORTRAIT
HERMANN, Johann. Observationes Zoologicae quibus novae complures, aliaeque animalium
species describuntur et illustrantur. Opus posthumum edidit Fridericus Ludovicus Hammer ... pars prior [all published].
Strasbourg, Paris, Armand Koenig (printed by Fischer), 1804. 4to. With a stipple-engraved frontispiece portrait of the author by Christophe GUÉRIN. With extensive annotations. Mid-nineteenth-century red half cloth, "papier tourniquet" sides, spanish-marbled endpapers.
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Uncommon first and only edition, edited for posthumous publication by F.L. Hammer, of a classified set of detailed descriptions of vertebrates, intended as the first part of a larger work left unfinished. It covers mammals, birds, amphibians and fish, sometimes devoting four pages to a single species. Hermann (1738-1800), professor of medicine at Strasbourg University, based it largely on his own collections, which formed the core of the Musée Zoologique in Strasbourg after his death. The portrait by Guérn (1758-1831) is finely executed.
With extensive scholarly annotations in the margins and on a loosely inserted slip, and the name "M. Edwards" gold-tooled at the foot of the spine, perhaps the French zoologist Henri Milne-Edwards (1800-1885). Although rebound, perhaps in the 1840s, the binder took great care to preserve the annotations, folding in the fore-edge of a few leaves so that they would not be shaved. With occasional minor foxing, but otherwise in fine condition. Binding very good. A detailed vertebrate zoology, with a portrait of the author.
