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FIRST SCHOLARLY ACCOUNT OF THE ORANGUTAN
CAMPER, Pieter. Natuurkundige Verhandelingen van Petrus Camper over den Orang Outang; en eenige andere aap-soorten. Over den Rhinoceros met den dubbelen horen; en over het Rendier.
Amsterdam, P. Meijer and G. Warnars, 1782. 3 works in 1 volume. 4to. With 2 half-titles, 9 folding plates. Contemporary marbled calf, spine gilt.
| Orders and Information | € 1850 |
Rare. The first scholarly account of the orangutan, especially interesting for Camper's description of the speech organs. Pieter Camper (1722-1789), called by Goethe "ein Meteor von Geist, Wissenschaft, Talent und Thätigkeit," belonged to the most prominent European scientists of his day. He wrote extensively on anatomy, surgery, and obstetrics. His accurate dissections of the orangutan, rhinoceros, and reindeer were the basis for the present treatises. Camper was also an artist and made the drawings of the different body parts for the present plates himself.
Ex-libris on inside front cover; apart from small corrosion hole on p. 159, good, clean copy of this important work.
