PETERS, W. C.H.

Naturwissenschaftliche Reise nach Mossambique... in den Jahren 1842 bis 1848 ausgeführt.

Eur 8,500 / USD 8,900
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Berlin, Georg Reimer, 1852-1882. 6 parts bound in 10 volumes. 4to (330 x 240mm) & folio (470 x 330mm). With 210 (54 fine handcoloured) lithographed or engraved plates. Later half cloth, paper label on spines (4 vols in port-folio).

a model faunal work for its day, comprehensive, authoritative, and well illustrated

The text of the Amphibia section is supplied in reprint. Apart from the supplied reprint pages (pp. 191) a complete set of this rare and early pioneering work on the natural history of Mozambique. Our set includes the rare ornithological plates from the section on birds, a section which according the Nissen and the BM Natural History catalogue was never published. Wilhelm Peters (1815-1883) was the assistant of Johannes Müller, the great anatomist and was later appointed director of the Berlin Zoological Museum.
"Soon Peters began to plan what was to become the major event of his life, an exploration of Mozambique, which had the enthusiastic support of Müller and of Alexander von Humboldt, then also at Berlin. Peters departed in September 1842, travelling on a Portuguese convict ship first to Angola and finally (June 1843) to Mozambique. There he managed to explore the entire coastal region and also spent nearly a year up the Zambesi River deep in the interior.... The collections he made were enormous and were written up, mainly by himself... a model faunal work for its day, comprehensive, authoritative, and well illustrated" (Adler, 'Contributions to the history of herpetology', p. 37).

The set comprises:
[Mammals] Zoologie I. Säugethiere. Berlin 1852. Folio. pp. xvi, 202, with 46 (35 handcoloured) lithographed or engraved plates.
[Birds] Zoologie II. Vögel. Berlin n.d. 4to. 15 handcoloured lithographed plates. No text was published.
[Amphibians] Zoologie III. Amphibien. Berlin 1882. Folio. With 33 lithographed plates. Text supplied in reprint.
[River Fish] Zoologie IV. Flussfische. Berlin 1868. 2 vols (text & atlas). 4to & folio. pp. xii, 116, with 20 (1 handcoloured) engraved plates.
[Insects] Zoologie V. Insecten und Myriapoden. Berlin 1862. 2 vols (text & atlas). 4to & folio. pp. xxi, 566, with 35 (3 handcoloured) engraved plates.
[Botany] Botanik. Berlin 1862-64. 2 vols. 4to. pp. xxii, iv, 584, with 61 lithographed plates.

BM(NH)IV, p. 1555; Nissen ZBI, 3139; Stafleu & Cowan 7759.