VÉRANY, Jean Baptiste.
Mollusques Méditeranéens première partie. Céphalopodes de la Méditerranée.
Genoa, imprimerie des Sourds-Muets, [1847]-1851. Large 4to (35.5 x 27.5 cm). With 45 (numbered as 41) lithographed plates (44 chromolithographed), by Armanino after Verany. Unbound, uncut and deckles intact, with separate uncut original tinted lithographed wrappers. In modern cloth box. XVI, 132 pp.
€ 7,500
First and only edition of a beautifully illustrated work on the cephalopods of the Mediterranean by the famous French naturalist Jean Baptiste Vérany (1800-1865), this copy with the plates printed on heavy coated paper. It's the first and only published part of a larger series on the molluscs of Mediterranean Mollusques Méditeranéens.
This copy has 45 lithographed plates instead of the usual 43 and includes in addition to the 41 numbered plates, three "bis" plates (7, 12 and 13) and a variant of plate 39, with a few different details. The plates are printed on heavy coated paper, instead of the normal paper of other copies, which makes the illustrations stand out very well.
Text foxed, the first plate with a few minor spots and the separate wrappers with a few small tears. Very good copy of a beautifully illustrated work. BMC NH, p. 2203 (41 plates); Brunet V, col. 1128 (43 plates); Nissen, ZBI 4246 (43 plates); cf. Fredj & Meinardi, l'Ange & l'orchidée, pp. 44-47.
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