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RONDELET, GUILLAUME.
Libri de piscibus marinis.
2 woodcut portraits
of the author and over 400 text illustrations. [16], 583, [25]; [12], 242, [10] pages. 2 volumes
in one. Folio, 342x213 mm, 17th-century vellum boards with spine title and floral decora-
tion in ink, recased, endpapers renewed, front joint partly cracked; varying toning or
browning, occasional marginal soiling and dampstaining, early underscoring and cropped
marginalia, scattered ink blots, Volume 1 title foxed with upper outer corner off affecting
end of second line of text, paper corrosion in lower outer corner of title and next 2 leaves,
conspicuous dampstaining in outer margin of several leaves at end of Volume 2.
Lyons: Matthias Bonhomme, 1554-55
[4,000/6,000]
FIRST EDITION
of Rondelet’s massive treatise on aquatic life, “which covered far more species
than any earlier work in that field. Despite its theoretical limitation, it laid the foundations for
later ichthyological research and was the standard reference work for over a century . . . the book
covers the whole of freshwater as well as marine zoology, and it is not restricted to fish” (DSB).
“The work is especially valuable for its accurate treatment of Mediterranean species, and for pro-
viding what are apparently the first zoological accounts of the manatee and sperm whale”
(Norman). Alden 554/54; DSB XI, 528; Garrison-Morton 282; Norman 1848; Nissen
ZBI 3474.