Memorie appartenenti alla storia naturale della real accademia delle Scienze di Parigi recate in italiana favella. ...

Memorie appartenenti alla storia naturale della real accademia delle Scienze di Parigi recate in italiana favella. - Venice: Pietro Bassaglia e Antonio Bettanin, 1748. A fine copy of this scientific-encyclopedic work complete with all the folding engraved plates. Various volumes are dedicated to anatomy: entire chapters study blood circulation in adults and fetuses, the heart, the lungs, the pancreas, the brain and the hearing system; others describe serious illnesses such as tumors, wound, ulcers and fractures. Other books are dedicated to "monstrous fetuses in animals", to birds and insects, quadrupeds and rectiles. The final books are about botany, fishes, fossils and volcanoes. Single volumes can sometimes be found on the market but the complete work was never offered at auction (RBH). 13 volumes, 4to (269 x 202mm). Half titles with the contents of each volume, engraved frontispiece, red and black title in vol. I, titles with engraved vignettes, engraved arms and initials, complete with the 472 plates - in vol. XII the plates are nut numbered subsequently (vol. XIII with stain to half-title and title, just a few occasional wormholes). Uniformly bound in contemporary vellum (all volumes but vol. XIII), gilt spines with gilt titles on elegant spine labels, speckled edges (occasional small loss to spine labels and light staining). Provenance: Biblioteca Terzi.