Scheuchzer, Johann Jakob | Specimen lithographiae helveticae curiosae...

Scheuchzer, Johann Jakob

Specimen lithographiae helveticae curiosae, quo lapides ex figuratis helveticis selectissimi aeri incisi sistuntur et describuntur. Zurich: Typis Davidis Gessneri, 1702

8vo (170 x 98 mm). Woodcut vignette on title, 7 folding engraved plates, woodcut initials and tailpiece; a few stray spots, some light browning to margins but overall clean. Contemporary paper-covered boards, manuscript title to spine, edges sprinkled red; lightly soiled, extremities lightly bumped, rebacked in the 19th century with vellum. 

Scheuchzer, a distinguished Swiss geologist, alpine explorer, and naturalist, was described as the “founder of European paleontology” (DSB). In this volume, he described figured stones as “sports or jest of Nature,” while he later adopted the opinion that these stones are instead relics of the biblical deluge. The present volume is “a useful catalog of the names which up to his time had been given to the figured stones” (Schuh).

REFERENCE

Scheuchzer in Dictionary of Scientific Biography; Schuh 4288

PROVENANCE

The Earls of Macclesfield (armorial bookplate; Sotheby’s London, 16 March 2004, lot 92)