First edition, an attractive copy in contemporary calf, of the most important work on fossils of the eighteenth century.

Georg Wolfgang Knorr (1705-1761) trained an an engraver and 'was introduced to natural history engraving when, while still an apprentice, he worked on the plates for Johann Scheuchzer's popular Physica Sacra (1731-35). In the 1750s, Knorr began issuing his own sumptuous folios' (Ashworth, 'Georg Wolfgang Knorr: Scientist of the Day', Linda Hall Library, 2020).

'The detail and accuracy [of the present work]... not only made possible zoological classification but firmly established the distinction between fossils of organic origin and sports of nature' (Dictionary of Scientific Biography 7:412). The plates were largely made from drawings after samples supplied by the owners of cabinets such as J. C. Gmelinus, pharmacist in Turingen; Johann Gessner, professor in Bern; Collison, Knoerr, Trew, and others. Some 58 plates feature fossils found at the famous quarries of Solenhofen.

First edition; 5 vols bound in 4, folio (420 x 260 mm); 2 engraved portraits & 273 hand-coloured plates of which 15 are folding, bookplates to front pastedowns, library stamps of Biblioteca Cavaglià-Cossato, contemporary manuscript notes in the lower margins of nearly all the plates, a handful of pages with closed tears; contemporary speckled calf, wide gilt floral border in double gilt fillets, gilt turn-ins, brown endpapers, all edges gilt, joints split at head and tail of all vols. with vol. I particularly weak, a very good set.

Brunet III 682; Nissen ZBI 2232.