ROESEL VAN ROSENHOF, A.J.

De Natuurlyke Historie der Insecten; Voorzien met naar 't Leven getekende en gekoleurde Plaaten.

Eur 15,000 / USD 16,500
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Volgens eigen ondervinding beschreeven, ... Met zeer nutte en fraaie Aanmerkingen verrykt, door C.F. Kleemann. Uit den echten Hoogduitschen Druk ... vertaald. Haarlem en Amsterdam, C.H. Bohn en H. de Wit, (1764-1768). 4 volumes. Large-4to (265 x 210mm). With 3 hand-coloured engraved frontispieces, 1 engraved portrait of Rösel and 359 (3 folded) hand-coloured engraved plates (printed on 288 leaves). Contemporary red morocco, richly gilt decorated spines with green gilt lettered labels, sides with gilt borders, gilt edges.

The colouring of the present sumptuously bound copy is the best we have ever seen of this book

A splendid uniformly bound copy in red morocco of one of the most beautiful entomological publications. This Dutch edition is more attractive than the original German edition, which was published in Nuremberg from 1746-1792. The Dutch edition is printed on almost twice as large, much thicker, paper, and has far better colouring. The translation was made by C. Kleemann, the son-in-law of the author. He added new material and the excellent colouring of the plates is by him and his wife Katharina Barbara Roesel von Rosenhof. Kleemann also published a "Vervolg" with 26 plates, which was never finished and which is not present as almost always.

"Roesel, who studied at first with his father and then with his uncle Wilhelm, an animal painter in Merseburg, later became a pupil of the famous Preisler in Nuremberg. After living in Copenhagen from 1726 to 1728 he returned to Nuremberg for good, and there, besides painting portraits and drawings, he applied himself in particular to the study of nature. He collected insects, their eggs and larvae, studied the process of hatching, pupation, and emergence, and painted all this in a most meticulous way, as Kleeman tells us. His manuscripts, with 406 illustrations, are now in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich. Roesel also made the engravings of his drawings ..." (Nissen, Bestiaries). The colouring of the present sumptuously bound copy is the best we have ever seen of this book.

Provenance: Bookplate of Graf Krockow-Rumbske and armorial bookplate of Henry Rogers Broughton.

Nissen ZBI, 3467; Landwehr 161.