RÖSEL VON ROSENHOF, August Johann; Christian Friedrich Carl KLEEMANN (transl.).
De natuurlyke historie der insecten.
Haarlem and Amsterdam, C.H. Bohn and H. de Wit (vols. 2-4: C.H. Bohn (and son) and H. Gartman), [1765-1788]. 4 volumes (the fourth in 2 parts). Large 4to (27.5 x 21.5 cm). With 3 hand-coloured engraved frontispieces, an engraved author's portrait and 359 hand-coloured engraved plates on 288 leaves, protected by tissue guards. Modern half sheepskin(?) with red 19th-century gold-tooled spine-labels. Nearly wholly untrimmed. [24], 568, [8]; [10], 580, [8]; [2], 573, [6]; [10], XXXI, [1], [4], 220; [4], XXVI, 260 pp.
€ 15,000
First Dutch edition of one of the finest works on insects ever produced. The Dutch edition is in many ways preferable over the original German, being on better paper and the plates coloured with much more care. The German original was published in Nuremberg in 1746-1792 as Der monatlich-herausgegeben Insecten-Belustiging. The translator was Rösel's son-in-law, C.F.C. Kleeman, who added considerable supplementary material. It is also said that the plates in this edition were personally hand-coloured by Kleeman and his wife.
Most of the works is devoted to butterflies, but it does not limit itself to insects: the third and fourth volumes also treat lobsters, scorpions, polyps and spiders.
Many of the tissue guards with Latin names added in manuscript, in a 19th-century hand. Lacks 2 half-titles, 3 part-titles and a "Voorrede", otherwise in good condition. Bindings rubbed, but still in good condition. A beautifully illustrated work on insects with wide margins. Hagen II, p. 84; Landwehr, Col. Plates 161; Nissen, ZBI 3467.
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