Georg Wolfgang Knorr | Deliciae naturae selectae. Dordrecht, 1771, illustrated "cabinets of wonders"

Georg Wolfgang Knorr

Deliciae naturae selectae, of Uitgeleezen kabinet van Natuurlyke zeldzaamheden. Dordrecht: Abraham Blussé en Zoon, 1771

First Dutch edition, number 83 of 99 copies for subscribers,2 volumes bound in one, folio, 530 x 355mm., validated by the signature of notary P.J. van Steenbergen, Dordrecht, additional engraved title page with delicately hand-coloured allegorical frame, 92 hand-coloured engraved plates, contemporary Dutch mottled calf, gilt, covers with elaborate floral borders, central arabesque, raised bands, spine gilt in compartments, without the portrait called for by Nissen, but hardly ever seen, corners repaired, cupper joint with slight wear

With plates from the first edition printed at Nuremberg in 1751-67, this monumental work documents the “Cabinets of Wonders” of some of the leading naturalists of the day. Popular from the mid-sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, “Wunderkammern” were private collections of exotic items--animal, vegetable, and mineral specimens as well as manmade objects--that can be considered precursors to the modern museum.

Books like the present one were intended to make these treasures available to a wider audience. For his “Selected Delights of Nature", German palaeontologist, painter, engraver, and art dealer Georg Knorr (1705-1761) made use of his personal collection, as well as those of his scientific circle, for a work he began in 1751 and worked on until his death in 1761, after which it was completed by his heirs. He drew heavily on the extensive collection of wealthy Nuremberg physician and naturalist Christoph Jacob Trew (1695-1769), as indicated by the wording “Ex. Museo Excell. D.D. Chris. Jac. Trew” at the bottom of a number of plates.

Landwehr notes that “the Dutch edition of this work, one of the few books published with numbered copies, contains really magnificent plates”.

REFERENCES: Landwehr 97; Nissen ZBI 2229;

PROVENANCE: Baron Maximilian Speck von Sternburg (1776-1856, wool merchant and art collector), ownership inscription dated 1830