Davila, Pedro Francisco and Jean-Baptiste Louis Romé de l’Isle | Catalogue systématique et raisonné des curiosités de la nature et de l'art

Davila, Pedro Francisco and Jean-Baptiste Louis Romé de l’Isle

Catalogue systématique et raisonné des curiosités de la nature et de l'art, qui composent le cabinet de M. Davila. Paris: Briasson, 1767

3 volumes, 8vo (197 x 122 mm). 30 plates, five folding, by Marie-Thérèse Reboul, C. Bresse, or Caresme; occasional pale spots and faint toning, a few of the usual short tears to plates around the folds, annotated prices in the margins, library stamp on title. Brown mottled calf, gilt tooled spines with five raised bands, red and green morocco spine labels, all edges stained red; worn, with a few surface losses to calf at spines and edges, some chipped spine ends and corners, cracked or starting joints and hinges, nevertheless a sound set.

First edition of Pedro Francisco Davila’s important auction catalog for his natural history collection, written in part by the young Romé de l’Isle.

Davila was born wealthy in Guyaquil, Peru (now Ecuador) and, soon after arriving in Paris in 1748, began voraciously collecting both artwork and natural history specimens. After nearly twenty acquisitive years, his collection had become the largest of its kind in France - the catalog describes 8,096 minerals, 5,253 shells, 600 preserved animals, 402 books, 12,000 prints and engravings, and 1,741 original artworks, among other categories. Though he had hoped that King Carlos III of Spain would buy the collection outright and use it to establish an institution, the purchase was eventually declined, and Davila was forced to auction everything to pay his creditors. The sale, undoubtedly one of the major auctions of the 18^th century, aided by this well-printed and widely circulated catalogue, brought in 800,000 Spanish Reales. With the proceeds, Davila was able to repay his creditors, move to Madrid, and immediately begin another collection. In 1771, his second collection, a more carefully selected group specializing in minerals, became the foundational collection of the Royal Gallery of Natural History in Madrid, where Davila was appointed the institution’s first director. It is now part of the National Museum of Natural Sciences.

“This catalog is far more than a mere listing of items, in fact each object is more or less adequately described and sometimes fully, causing some critics of this work to call it ‘outstanding’ and ‘useful’… The first volume is devoted to products of the sea… the second volume lists earths, stones, and minerals… volume three is in two parts, the first on fossils… while the second part is on art objects… [and] lists Davila’s books” (Sinkankas, 1594). Romé de l’Isle, in the second volume, wrote a detailed catalog of the mineralogical specimens, in which stresses the importance of crystalline form in mineralogical description.

REFERENCES

Schuh (2008), Vol. I, 1311; Sinkankas, 1594

PROVENANCE

Catholic Missionary Society Library (ink stamp on title)