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Natural History / Birds / Ornithology

Rare early edition of a popular book of botanical, mineralogical and zoological wonders,
with a large woodcut of the author among his books

ALBERTUS MAGNUS (pseudo). Liber secretorum ... De virtutibus herbarum: & animalium quorundam. Eiusdemq[ue] liber De mirabilibus mundi: & etiam de quibusdam effectibus causatis a quibusdam animalibus &c.
(Colophon: Venice, Johan Baptist Sessa, 12 February 1502). Small 4to (21 x 15.5 cm). With a large woodcut portrait of the author at his desk. Gold-tooled maroon morocco (ca. 1870/90?) for James Carnegie, 9th Earl of Southesk (1827-1905), gilt edges. 16 ll. Full description
€ 12,500
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Second edition (1 year after the first, both very rare) of a classic on falconry and hawking by King Henri IV’s falconer

ARCUSSIA, Charles d'. La fauconnerie ... Divisee en trois livres. Avec une briefve instruction pour traitter les autours, sur la fin de l'oeuvre, ...
Paris, Jean Houzé, 1599. 8vo. With Houzé's woodcut device, 6 full-page engravings of birds of prey (12.5 x 8.5 cm) plus 3 (of 5) repeats and all on integral leaves. Red goatskin morocco, signed in the foot of the front turn-in by M[arcel] GODILLOT (active as bookbinder 1938-1975), with wide gold-tooled turn-ins and gold fillets on board edge. 272, [8] pp. Full description
€ 18,000
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First edition of one of the most important natural history books of the Renaissance

BELON, Pierre. L'Histoire de la nature des oyseaux, avec leurs descriptions, & naifs portaicts retirez du naturel: escrite en sept livres.
Paris, Guillaume Cavellat (colophon: printed by Benoit Prévost), 1555. 7 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With a woodcut portrait on the back of the title-page (apparently of the dedicatee King Henri II, though copied in other books as a portrait of the author), large woodcuts of the skeletons of a man and a bird on pp. 40-41, plus 158 woodcuts (157 birds, 1 bat) in text. Contemporary blind- and gold-tooled calf (rebacked, with the original backstrip laid down). [28], 381, [1], [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 29,500
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First general systematic treatise on comparative anatomy

BLASIUS, Gerard. Anatome animalium, terrestrium variorum, volatilium, aquatilium, serpentum, insectorum, ovorumque, structuram naturalem ex veterum, recentiorum, propriisque observationibus proponens, figuris variis illustrata.
Amsterdam, J. van Someren, 1681. 4to. With engraved frontispiece by Jan Luyken, and 60 numbered and 5 unnumbered engraved plates. Contemporary vellum. [8], 496 pp. Full description
€ 1,250
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Seven revised ornithological offprints by Napoleon's nephew

BONAPARTE, Charles Lucien. [Collection of revised ornithological offprints from Comptes rendus].
Including:
Coup d'oeil sur l'ordre des pigeons. Paris, 1855.
Tableaux synoptiques de l'ordre des hérons. Paris, 1855.
Catalogue des genres et sous-genres d'oiseaux contenus dans le Muséum Brittanique. Paris, 1855.
Note sur les oiseaux des Iles Marquises, et particulièrement sur le genre nouveau Serresius. Paris, 1855.
Tableaux paralléliques de l'ordre des gallinacés. Paris, 1856.
Excursions dans les divers musées d'Allemagne, de Hollande et de Belgique, et tableaux paralléliques de l'ordre des échassiers. Paris, 1856.
Ornithologie fossile servant d'introduction au tableau comparatif des ineptes et des autruches. Paris, 1856.
Paris, Mallet-Bachelier, 1855-1856. 4to. 7 parts in 1 volume. With a collective title-page for several of the offprints: Tableaux paralléliques des oiseaux praecoces ou autophages. Gallinacés, échassiers, palmipèdes et rudipennes (Paris, 1856) and all first leaves of the quires signed with a "B", indicating a revised offprint. Modern half morocco. Full description
€ 3,500
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The avifauna of Dauphiné, with 72 lithographed plates

BOUTEILLE, Hippolyte and M. de LABATIE. Ornithologie du Dauphiné ou description des oiseaux observés dans les départements de l'Isère, de la Drome, des Hautes-Alpes et les contrées voisines.
Grenoble, for the author and "les principaux libraires de la ville", by F. Allier, 1843[-1844]. 2 volumes. 8vo. With 72 lithographed plates by C. Pégeron after Victor Desirée Cassien, and a large folding table. Contemporary half sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. 416; 358, [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 900
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The avifauna of Dauphiné, with 72 lithographed plates on china paper

BOUTEILLE, Hippolyte and M. de LABATIE. Ornithologie du Dauphiné ou description des oiseaux observés dans les départements de l'Isère, de la Drome, des Hautes-Alpes et les contrées voisines.
Grenoble, for the author and "les principaux libraires de la ville", by F. Allier, 1843[-1844]. 2 volumes bound as 1. Royal 8vo (27 x 18.5 cm). With 72 mounted lithographed plates by C. Pégeron after Victor Desirée Cassien, printed on china paper, and a large folding table. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spine. 416; 358, [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 2,750
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First edition of Brodtmann's zoological series containing 144 lithographed plates, seldom found complete

BRODTMANN, Karl Joseph. Naturhistorische Bilder-Gallerie aus dem Thierreiche.
[Zurich or Schaffhausen?], Brodtmann, [1816 and later] (title-page of the "ersten Heft": Lindau, 1816). Heft 1-33 including the supplements, bound in 1 volume. Large folio (46 x 38 cm). With a lithographed title-page and 144 lithographs drawn by Brodtmann himself showing humans, other mammals, reptiles and amphibians, birds, insects, etc. 19th-century brown marbled paper over boards. [8] (title and index) ll.; 36 (Heft 1-18); 16 (Heft 26-33); 6 (Heft 19-21); 10 (Heft 22-25); 4 (Supplement) pp. Full description
€ 18,500
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Rare, finely hand-coloured set of Buffon’s Histoire naturelle in its rarest and most luxurious form

BUFFON, Georges-Louis Leclerc de. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du cabinet du roi. Nouvelle édition.
Dordrecht, Abraham Blussé, 1766-1799. 38 parts in 21 volumes. Large 4to. With more than 1100 hand-coloured engraved plates, 10 maps, 1 folding engraved table, and an engraved portrait of Buffon (by Houbraken, with an extra-added uncoloured portrait pasted on the verso). Contemporary, uniform half tanned sheepskin. Full description
€ 125,000
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