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BEAUTIFUL MANUSCRIPT OF ENTOMOLOGICAL FAUNA OF ESTONIA AND LIVONIA
FROM THE LIBRARY OF ALEXANDER I OF RUSSIA

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[MANUSCRIPT - ENTOMOLOGY - BALTIC]. [DRÜMPELMANN, Ernst Wilhelm (attributed to)]. Sammlung Lief- und Ehstlands Insecten. Erste und zweite Klasse.
With: Sammlung Lief- und Ehstlands Insekten. Vierte fünfte sechste und siebente Klasse.
[Livonia, between 1794-1802]. 2 volumes (of 3). Royal 4to (29.1 x 23.6 & 28.1 x 25.3 cm). Manuscript on paper (mostly laid paper with watermark of Jan Kool and wove paper of J. Whatman, both nearly all dated 1794) . With 2 calligraphic manuscript title-pages on a watercolour cartouche decorated with floral garlands, and over 500 watercolour drawings of insect on 39 leaves (with tissue guards and smaller leaves with names in German and Latin). Contemporary (matching) silk boards, with small vignette on the front boards and gilt edges; probably from the library of czar Alexander I of Russia.

Orders and Information € 32000

Beautifully illustrated manuscript of the entomological fauna of Estonia and Livonia, almost certainly written and drawn by Ernst Wilhelm Drümpelmann (1758-1830), physician in Riga, the capital of Latvia. The present volumes contain all orders of insects, except for the third class of Lepidoptera, included in a separate volume, auctioned by Christies in 2008.
The extraordinary quality of both text and illustrations, rule out most other zoologists, making Drümpelmann a likely candidate, as he was the author (together with Ernst Wilhelm Friebe) of the rare first illustrated local fauna of the Baltic, titled "Getreue Abbildungen und naturhistorische Beschreibung des Thierreichs aus den nördlichen Provinzen Russlands", published between 1807 and 1811. The strongest argument however, we find in Drümpelmann's autobiography Beschreibung meiner Reisen und der merkwürdigen Begebenheiten meines Lebens (1813), where he states that he made an illustrated entomological manuscript and donated it to Czar Alexander I, who was known for his interest in the Baltic region.
Boards somewhat rubbed, some limited thumbing, otherwise a very interesting and attractive entomological manuscript.