BONAPARTE, Charles L. J. Laurent (1803-1857)

Iconografia della fauna italica per le quattro classi degli animali vertebrati. Tomo III : Pesci.

Salviucci, Roma, 1832. First and only Edition. Folio (38 x 29 cm), 278 pages and 78 hand-coloured lithographed plates. The plates contain the images of 181 fish species, all finely finished by hand and often heightened with silver and gold. They were drawn by Alex. Capalti, Petrus Quatrocchi and Carolus Ruspi. The lithography is by Battistelli, Rosi, Santarella and Wieller. Contemporary binding in dark blue half morocco. Five raised bands on spines and gilt lettering. The second compartment reads Car. L. Bonaparte Iconografia Fauna Italica and the third compartment reads Tomo III - Pesci. Dark blue marbled pastedowns, front and end papers. Some minor light foxing at margins of papers, boards slightly rubbed. Weigt: 5.8 kg.

Front board bears a dedication in gilt lettering: Les enfants DU PRINCE CHARLES LUCIEN BONAPARTE au docteur PROSPER PIETRA - SANTA . A prestigious copy of this monumental work.

Charles-Lucien Bonaparte was the eldest son of Lucien Bonaparte, a brother of Napoleon. He was a scholar of high repute and member of many scientific academies of Europe and America. He published several works on natural history, mainly on birds. The Iconografia della fauna italica consists of three volumes: volume 1 on mammals and birds,volume 2 on reptiles, and volume 3 on fishes. All together 1104 pages and 180 hand-coloured lithographed plates. The volume on fishes is abundantly well illustrated. Each Willughby, 1743) image of a fish species is accompanied by an extensive description and a long list of references of Renaissance ichthyologists (Belon 1553, Salviani 1554-1558, Gessner 1558) and modern ichthyologists (van Schonevelde 1624, Jonston 1660, Willughby (1743), Lacepede 1798-1803).

Price: € 9000