Merian and Rabel | Histoire générale des insectes de Surinam et de toute l'Europe, 1771, 3 volumes

MERIAN, MARIA SYBILLA, AND DANIEL RABEL

Histoire générale des insectes de Surinam et de toute l’Europe… en deux parties…troisieme edition, revue,corrigée, & considérablement augmentée… A laquelle en a joint une troisieme partie qui traite des plus bellesfleurs. Paris: L.C. Desnos, 1771

3 parts in 3 volumes, folio (490 x 310mm.), part 1, 'Des Plantes de Surinam': engraved additional title, 72 hand-coloured engraved plates; part 2, 'Des Plantes de l'Europe': 185 hand-coloured engraved plates on 47 leaves; part 3, 'Des Plantes Bulbeuse, Liliacées, Caryophyllées': 69 hand-coloured engraved plates after Rabel, contemporary mottled calf gilt, triple gilt fillet borders on covers, spines tooled gilt in 8 compartments, lettered in 2, gilt turn-ins and edges, the pineapple plate folded at edge, vol. 2 F¹ with a repaired tear in the text, slightly rubbed with very minor repairs

A FINE SERIES OF IMPORTANT ENTOMOLOGICAL AND BOTANICAL PLATES OF THE SEVENTENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES.

This rare combined edition gathers Merian’s two major works, together with Rabel’s depictions of the most spectacular flowering plants of the 17th century. The plates to Merian’s works (including the twelve additional plates for Insectes de Surinam by her daughter) appear to have been purchased at auction by Desnos, to which he added the suite of plates by Rabel, which is effectively a fourth, revised edition of his classic Theatrum florae. This last part includes all 69 plates that were present in the first three editions of Rabel's work.

LITERATURE:

Nissen BBI 1341 and 1342; see note to Hunt 483