Historiæ naturalis De exanguibus aquaticis libri iv. Cum figuris Æneis. Joannes Jonstonus Med. D. concinnavit WITH Theatri universalis animalium pars quarta sive historiæ naturalis de exanguibus aquaticis libri iv. Cum Enumeratione Morborum quibus Medicamina ed his Animalibus petuntur, ac Notitia Animalium, ex quibus vicissim Remedia præstantissima possunt capi, cura Henrici Ruysch, M.D.
[Historiæ naturalis]: Amsterdam: Johannis Jacobi Schipperi, 1657.
[Theatri universalis animalium]: Amsterdam: R. & G. Wetstenios, 1718.
Historiæ naturalis: folio in 4s (14 13/16” x 9 ¼”, 375mm x 236mm): a–f4 g6 [$3 signed; +g4; e2 signed “d2”]. 30 leaves, pp. 1–2 3–58 [2] (index, instructions for the binder). With an engraved vignette and 20 copperplate engravings.
Bound in quarter blue cloth over pebbled red buckram. On the spine, date, author, and title gilt to black lettering piece.
Excerpted and bound to stand alone from Historiae Naturalis de Quadrupetibus... de Piscibus et Cetis... .de Exanguibus Aquaticis; ...de Avibus...; de Insectis... de Serpentibus. Lettering piece lifting away from the spine. Light spotting to the margins of the leaves. XXc ink stamp of Richard I. Johnson to the recto of the flyleaf and title-leaf.
Theatri universalis animalium: folio in 4s (14 5/8” x 9 1/8”, 370mm x 233mm): A2 a–f4 g6 [$3 signed; –A1; +G4]. 32 leaves, pp. [2] (title, blank) 1–2 3–58 [2] (index, instructions for the binder). With an engraved vignette and 20 copperplate engravings.
Bound in quarter green buckram over grey card. Date, author, and title gilt to spine.
Excerpted and bound to stand alone from Hendrik Ruysch’s Theatrum universale omnium animalium piscium, avium, quadrupedum, exanguium, aquaticorum, insectorum, et angium [sic]… Light soiling to the boards. Deep but even toning to the text leaves and plates. Occasional paper flaws, primarily at the margins and edges. XXc ink stamp of Richard I. Johnson to the recto of the title-leaf.
The first installment of Polish-Scottish physician John Jonston’s (1603–1675) Historiæ naturalis was released in 1650 and by the time the series reached its conclusion in 1657, it was already recognized as a standard reference of encyclopedic zoology. Jonston spent his childhood in Poland before completing his education at Cambridge, where he studied botany and medicine. He was a devoted disciple of Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605), whose work he heavily drew from when drafting his own (he is chiefly referred to as a a skilled “compiler” by bibliographers). Matthaeus Merian the younger executed the vast majority of the copperplate engravings, which would be extensively reprinted and copied by fellow engravers for the next century. Hendrik Ruysch’s (1663–1727) 1718 edition is one such copy. A fellow physician, Ruysch updated and revised Jonston’s work for an XVIIIc audience. Ruysch was the son of the renowned Dutch anatomist, Frederik Ruysch, and had unbridled access to his father’s internationally famous collection of medical curiosities, which housed countless preserved specimens and became a tourist attraction for those visiting Amsterdam. The father-son duo had significantly advanced preservation techniques, so much so that when Tsar Peter the Great paid a visit, he was so moved by the sight of an embalmed young boy that he fell to his knees and kissed him. The Tsar later purchased the entire collection and relocated it to St. Petersburg, where it remains to this day.
The present examples are both book IV of the series, chronicling marine invertebrates. Other installations would focus on fish, quadrupeds, birds, and insects, and serpents, but these men of science would occasionally feature mythical creatures alongside the observable ones (some of which no doubt seemed equally improbable to XVII and XVIIIc Europeans). In conversation with one another, the Jonston and Ruysch editions dictate a century of pre-Linnaean attempts to meaningfully classify the natural world; the volumes illustrate both the triumphs and follies of Baroque scientific inquiry that Systema Naturæ would build upon and concretize, issuing in the Enlightenment.
Richard I. Johnson (1925-2020) was a long time Research Associate at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, having started as a volunteer while still in high school. He published his first scientific article at the age of 16, beginning his life as a gentleman scholar. Though never conferred a doctorate, Johnson produced more than 50 papers on malacology and was widely recognized as a scholarly authority. Over six decades, Johnson assembled perhaps the largest private collection of books and journals on mollusks, including titles seldom found even in research libraries. The first part of his library collection was sold at Bonhams New York in October of 2020, and Litchfield Auctions handled the second session two months later.
BHL 120172; Johnston Cleveland Collections 233; Nissen ZBI 2134 (Johnston) & 2137 (Ruysch)
Cataloged by G.R. Murdock
Item #GRM0070
Price: $5,125