The plates from the first and only edition of an early work on fossilised invertebrates by the German naturalist and draftsman Wilhelm Gottleib Tilesius von Tilenau (1769-1857), finely hand-coloured and rare in commerce.

Tilesius studied natural history and medicine at the University of Leipzig, later joining the faculty, and he also trained with Goethe's art instructor, Adam Friedrich Oeser. 'His considerable talent for drawing led him to publish successful illustrations of rare animals and plants, which caused a sensation' (Deutsche Biographie). Tilesius took part in the Russian circumnavigation aboard the Nadezhda between 1803 and 1806, undertaking studies on Infusoria, microscopic organisms found in seawater, that were 'instrumental in establishing modern plankton research' (Strasser, Explorations and Entanglements: Germans in Pacific Worlds).

The present work primarily concerns the extinct marine arthropods known as trilobites, though other species, such as barnacles, limpets, crinoids, and anemones, are included, and all the lithographs are after drawings by the author.

First edition; folio plate volume (33 x 26 cm); 8 hand-coloured lithographs, a few light spots, edges of plates curled, stitched into the original blue paper wrappers, the stitching professionally redone by Bainbridge Conservation, wrappers a little marked and creased.

Nissen ZBI 4140.