Swammerdam, Jan | "The overthrow of the idea of metamorphosis"

Swammerdam, Jan

Historia insectorum generalis, ofte Algemeene Verhandeling van de Bloedeloose Dierkens… Utrecht: Meinards van Dreunen, 1669

4to (200 x 150 mm). Half-title, folding letterpress table, 13 engraved folding plates, ornamental head-, tailpieces, and initials; plates toned and foxed, marginal hole to A4, paper flaw to K1, loss to bottom of T1, none affecting text, signature X3 misprinted as Y3, tiny hole to b4 affecting two words, browning to margins, a few stray spots, light foxing. Contemporary speckled vellum, gilt-lettered spine label; corners slightly bumped.

First edition.

Swammerdam’s powerful exploration of insects was “devoted to the overthrow of the idea of metamorphosis.” His main argument was anti-Aristotelian—that rather than “a sudden and total change from one kind of creature to another, comparable to the alchemical transmutation of a base metal into gold,” insects develop gradually through epigenesis in the same way as other animals (DSB).

REFERENCES

Dictionary of Scientific Biography (Swammerdam); Nissen ZBI 4052

PROVENANCE

The Earls of Macclesfield (armorial bookplate; armorial stamp in blind to first three leaves; Sotheby’s London, 16 March 2004, “The Library of the Earls of Macclesfield removed from Shirburn Castle, Part 1: Natural History,” lot 104)