First edition of a beautiful, complete set of an important scientific work on insects, with 70 contemporary hand-coloured plates. It describes the Cicadidea and Heteroptera found in all parts of the world, especially in Suriname, Indonesia, South Africa and the Coromandel coast. It is the first serious scientific work ever published on insects of the order of Hemiptera. The illustrations, which show more than 450 insects in great detail, form the main part of the work and are accompanied by descriptions in Dutch and French.
These 2 volumes were written by entomologist Casper Stoll (ca. 1725-1793/95) and were later followed by a work about grasshoppers. They were originally published in monthly installments. The present works are commonly bound together. In the present copy, they are preceded by the rare cancelled title-page, with the year 1780, and the general introduction. Stoll was the first entomologist to devote himself to Hemiptera and used Linnaeus' classification to categorise them. His work was lauded for its accuracy and beauty of colouring.
The illustrations were likely made by Jan Christiaan Sepp (1739-1811), who also published the work. He was an artist, entomologist and publisher who specialised in natural history works. He produced some of the finest Dutch natural history colour-plate books of the 18th century.
With a small label mounted on the front pastedown ("CP II"), a contemporary ownership inscription on the verso of the first flyleaf ("Leilaimlle(?), 1790"), an inscription on the recto of the back flyleaf ("44 (?) en blanc. à 44 le fasciculo (?) 12") and numerous small annotations in the indices of both volumes. The corners of the boards are bumped and the leather on the spine and boards has been somewhat scraped and rubbed, the joints have been profesionally restored at the head and foot, the front endpapers have been reinforced in the gutter with Japanese paper. Overall in very good condition. Horn-Schenkling, 21554; Nissen, ZBI, 3999 and 4000; STCN 184649447 (11 copies).