FIRST COLOURED COPY OF
SWAMMERDAM’S HISTORIA INSECTORUM GENERALIS
We recently obtained the following
book:
Swammerdam, J., 1669 (1st ed.).
Historia Insectorum Generalis, ofte Algemeene
Verhandeling van de Bloedeloose Dierkens; [26], 168, 48 p., 13 (12 folded)
hand coloured engraved plates, 2 vignettes, 1 folded table, contemporary (or
slightly later) half vellum with marbled boards (boards somewhat worn). One
small hole in first blank end paper (repaired). Some plates browned. Some very
slight scattered foxing (mostly in first few pages). Library stamp at rear of
title-page ''Grosherzogliche Bibliothek Neustrelitz'' (with discard stamp
dated 1950). This copy includes pages 11-12 of the ‘’second part’’, which is
like a title-page for his chapter on insect classification, and is according
to Schierbeeck (1946: page 228) often missing.
Jan Swammerdam
(1637-1680) studied medicine at Leiden University and developed an interest in
biological research, especially in physiology and entomology. Although
Swammerdam died at a very early age, he certainly is one of the most important
Dutch scientists of the 17th century.
Together with Ephemeri
vita of afbeeldingh van ‘s Menschen Leven… (1675), the Historia Insectorum
Generalis is the only entomological work by Swammerdam that was published
during his lifetime.
A work of great
scientific merit. In this work Swammerdam laid the foundation of modern
insect-classification, which still rests to a great extent upon the
developmental history of insects. He also proved wrong almost everything then
believed about insects. Since Aristotle, the theory on insects was based on
three suppositions, insects lack internal anatomy, they originate by
spontaneous generation and they develop by metamorphosis. The idea of
metamorphosis was that a sudden and total change from one kind of creature
into another.
The above works by
Swammerdam demonstrate his mastery to observe, describe and depict (with the
primitive means available at his time) the most complicated details of the,
often minute, animals he investigated.
I am quite happy to be able to offer
the very rare first edition (in Dutch) of this book which is considered,
together with the works of Redi and Malpighi, to be the starting point of
modern entomology and microscopy. The first edition was written in Dutch;
there were later editions in French (1682, 1685) and Latin (1685, 1693, 1733 &
1755).
This copy has all 13 plates, the two
vignettes and three capitals hand coloured. No coloured
copies of this book are known. At least Landwehr does not mention it in his
book ''Studies in Dutch books with coloured plates
published 1662-1875: Natural history, topography and travel, costumes and
uniforms''. And further research in library and sale catalogues did not reveal
any reference to coloured copies of this book. In fact very few copies of the
first edition have been offered the last 20 years, and it seems rarer than
later French and Latin editions.
In this particular case I believe
that the colouring was done 76 years after the
appearance of the book, as underneath the first plate there is the following
inscription in an old hand, and in the same yellow colour
as the plate border: 1745 No. 5 (see photograph). The meaning of ‘’No. 5’’ is
not clear. So if in strict sense the colouring is not contemporary, it is
certainly not recent as it was done 264 years ago.
DECEMBER 2007 -
REMOVAL TO BRITTANY (FRANCE)
I will
officially move from the Netherlands to Brittany on December 15 (2007). From
that date I will be exclusively working from my new address: Porzh
Hervé, 22780 Loguivy Plougras, Brittany, France.
Any
e-mails sent to the Netherlands will not be lost, but will take more time to
reach me as they will be forwarded to me as soon as possible (which is not
always the same day).
I am
now based in the rural countryside were the pace of life is slower (so is my
PC - no ADSL!). Here I hope to put on sale the remaining several
thousand titles that are still to be added to my database. An important
advantage is the increase of space to store my books.
The
first catalogue issued from my new premises will be one on Botany with over
850 titles. The one after will be a new Malacology catalogue. Next year,
when all the books are here and I am firmly settled, I hope to be of even
better assistance to you and I will hope to find you just that book that
isn't for sale anywhere else!
With
best (bibliophile) wishes,
Hermann Strack
An
unexpected find
From
14 to 19 June 2005 I made a small trip to Hay on Wye (UK) in the company of
three good friends Frans de Jong, Erwin Kompanje and Frans Slieker. Hay on Wye,
being the UK capital of books with about 34 bookshops, is a beautiful little
village which is set in an equally beautiful surrounding landscape. Of course
we were there primarily for books, but although some books were bought in the
first couple of days, nothing exceptional was found.
One
of the last days we visited some of the more distant shops outside the village.
We entered one of these shops and I was quite disappointed as the walls were
lined with bookcases full of cheap pocket books. But as we got to the back of
the shop we found a pile of Discovery Expedition reports that were interesting.
Suddenly
Erwin came to me and said: ‘’Look through the window at that shed outside,
it is packed with books!”. So we took a closer look and indeed, the shed was
filled with older natural history books and journals. We were intrigued. What
is this pile of 3 meters wide, 2.5 meters deep and at least 1.5 meters
high, doing in a doorless shed with a tin roof?
A
talk with the owner revealed that it was actually ‘’overstock’’ from
the well known Natural History book dealers Wheldon & Wesley. When this
company moved from Lytton Lodge near London to their new smaller premises they
could no longer store this part of their stock. Subsequently it was sold and the new
owner went over with a local truck (used for cattle transport), brought all of
the books and piled them in a shed. There they remained practically dormant for several years.
Meanwhile, after 164 years in the business, Wheldon & Wesley ceased
trading in 2004.
I
was now to decide if I would buy this pile of books or not. A first look
through the piles proved interesting enough, and logistic problems (moving the
greater part of 11 cubic meters of old paper to The Netherlands) I thought of
as a challenge. So finally I decided to acquire the entire lot.
We
took about one box of good and interesting items back with us, and I started
making plans to bring the entire stock home.
More
books than we could handle
Together
with Frans Slieker I returned to Hay on Wye at the end of July. We had planned
two whole days to sort all the books and put them in cardboard boxes.
Meanwhile we decided to discard the part which was commercially not interesting. The
idea was to
load my van with about 40 boxes, the rest would be piled on five pallets for a transport company to bring
the lot over to the Netherlands.
Although
we worked hard enough, we only managed to work ourselves through half of the
pile. We had to come back again!
Last
Journey
In
the meantime I used some of the material for a malacology catalogue which was
issued in September 2005. Practically all of the Wheldon & Wesley material
included in this catalogue was sold, which was encouraging.
Frans Slieker and I had to go back now to finish the job. And so we did at
the end of October. This time we planned an extra day, and stayed for
three days.
We
filled my van with another 40 boxes, and the rest was piled on five pallets which
were brought to the Netherlands by a Dutch transport company. They arrived on
the 10th of November.
What
we found
The
condition of the books of course was not very desirable, but considering where
they were housed in one could perhaps call it astonishingly good. Many piles
were put directly on the floor, and the first 10-20 cm of books were totally
useless as they were badly damaged by moist. All pages stuck together to form
a solid clump of paper, blackened by growth of fungus. Some of the books
on the outer sides of the pile had suffered as well, but everything within the
pile was quite well preserved...... except for a few rat nests here and there.
Luckily
the first layer of books mostly consisted of large and useless library
reference books [there were good reference books as well, among which a
complete copy of the original edition of the Library of the British Museum (Natural
History)].
I was quite saddened to find a collection of good 19th century
entomology reprints and books with hand coloured plates reduced to useless
paper pulp.
But
still at the end at least 220 boxes with useful material were brought back.
The
Bizarre
There
were some bizarre things among the many books, reprints and journals found.
The
following pictures are not for the faint hearted: prudish people and small
children would better not look at them.
First
we found a collection of original paintings of monkey bottoms, made by Frances
Woodhall in the 1930’s. But the two Mandrill bottoms made by Kay Leclerc
could be almost considered improbable abstract art (now in the private
collection of monkey bottom paintings of H.L. Strack). I could not find any
reference to these pictures, and would be very interested if someone could give me some information about what kind of research was involved and
whether these plates were published.
Furthermore
there is the lithograph of the ‘’Male Generative Organ of the Sumatran
Rhinoceros’’ (as the author W.A. Forbes in 1881 gently names it). It was
published in the famous journal ‘’Transactions of the Zoological Society
of London’’. This extraordinary organ looks like it will spread its wings
and fly away! This item is still for sale by the way.......
And
than (and I will stop this chapter here, being at risk that my customers will
think I am a pervert of some kind) there is a French paper published 1883,
titled ‘’Observations sur le tablier des femmes hottentotes’’ by the
famous French explorers and scientists F. Péron and C.A. Lesueur.
They
start their paper as follows: ‘’Si l’existence du tablier des femmes
hotentotes est un des phénomènes les plus curieux de la physiologie de
l’espèce humaine, l’opposition des voyageurs à cet égard en est un
autre non moins singulier peut-être’’.
Their
paper is followed by a paper by Dr. Raphaël Blanchard on the same
morphological phenomenon found in female bushmen, and who
made a more thorough and well illustrated study. Those who are not acquainted
with the French meaning for the word tablier (in the sense used here) may make
a lucky guess.
And
less bizarre
Of
course there were many more ‘’normal’’ items found, of which some
quite interesting. There were old cash books from the Wheldon & Wesley
firm, old letters of scientists found in reprints, and a lot of interesting 19th
century papers many with coloured plates and some 18th century ones
and even one 17th century paper on grasshoppers.
Peculiar
were also some of the original copper plates used for Swann & Wetmore’s
‘’A Monograph of the Birds of Prey’’. They were found together with
piles of loose plates from the same work. They will be sold separately
together with a copy of the plate they represent. In the same category were
the many piles of plates and text issues of Dresser’s monumental work
‘’Eggs of the Birds of Europe’’ of which we made a good selection but
had to throw away more than half.
Many
journals including the Bulletin of the Zoological Society of London and the
Journal of the Linnean Society were retrieved, all these still have to be sorted out.
The same applies to the two pallets with boxes containing books and journals on botany.
Present
was also the largest nature-printed iconography of plants ever published. The
‘’Herbier
de la Flore Française. Procédé de reproduction dit Phytoxygraphique’’
by Cusin & Ansberque. All
together 25 volumes were published with 4763 plates. The plates are reproductions
of actual specimens and give a ghost-like ephemerical appearance of the plants.
The flower details are separately drawn at the bottom of the plates and mostly
handcoloured. Copies of this work are very rare and seldom offered for sale.
Unfortunately only about 15 of the 25 volumes were present, a few more were in a very bad condition.
One
of the more interesting items found in the W&W pile were two pencil
sketches. One of a duck and one of a dove which were both signed H. Schlegel
and dated 1848.
Dr.
Chris Smeenk of the National Natural History Museum in Leiden was studying the
Schlegel family’s history, and was told that I had the two plates. I
showed him the plates and indeed they were made by Hermann Schlegel
(1804-1884) a great ornithologist and former director of the Leiden
Museum.
Smeenk
thought they could be early sketches for the bird part of the famous Fauna
Japonica, and comparing the sketches with the printed plates we soon found
that it was indeed so. The sketches are of
Columba (Turtur) gelastis figured on plate LXb and published in 1848,
and of Anas formosa figured on plate LXXXIIc which was issued in 1850.
The
first 20 plates of the Fauna Japonica were drawn by Joseph Wolf all the others
were presumably drawn by Schlegel himself, but until now there was no proof of
that.
Both
sketches are now in the collection of the Leiden Museum........
Recently
I used some of the W&W material to supplement a catalogue on marine
mammals, terrestrial mammals and herpetology, all of which were well received.
Next will be catalogues on Fishes and Birds (due early 2006).
2 DECEMBER 2005 -
ACQUISITION OF THE CETACEA LIBRARY OF DR. E.J.O. KOMPANJE
I recently acquired
the library of Dr. E.J.O. Kompanje. Dr. Kompanje has been studying cetacea
for many years and has published papers on the pathology of several species
and historical papers on cetacea strandings on the Dutch coast. As his
interests have shifted to other fields, he preferred that others might
benefit of the books he amassed during many years. His comprehensive
collection of books and papers has been the basis for a specialists
catalogue on Marine Mammals which was just issued. In this catalogue
Kompanje's library was supplemented with titles from the Wheldon &
Wesley overstock recently acquired in England (a separate news bulletin will
soon appear).
