De natuurlyke historie der versteeningen, of Uitvoerige afbeelding en beschryving van de versteende zaaken, die tot heden op den aardbodem zyn ontdekt [...].

3 parts in 4 vol., folio: [4]-xiv-64, [4]-1/184, [2]-185/484, [4]-236 pp.; 273 pl. (some very min. browning).

Later quarter calf, gilt-orn. spine with raised bands. Uncut copy.

Very rare Dutch edition of the German original "Naturgeschichte der Versteinerungen" (Nürnberg 1768-1773) by the Nürnberg collector and artist Georg Wolfgang Knorr (1705-1761). The first vol. was written by Knorr himself and the other 3 were prepared after the death of Knorr by professor Walch of Jena. The 2nd vol. is almost entirely devoted to fossil shells. The work portrays and describes a.o. fossils in the cabinets of famous collectors such as Walch at Jena, Adam Hildebrand at Naumberg, etc. as well as the large collection of Casimir Schmidel. "It is hardly possible to exaggerate the beauty and fidelity of the representations of the fossils in his [Knorr] plates. No such illustrations had ever before appeared, and they have hardly been surpassed since. By delicate lines on the copper plates the most minute intricacies of structure are reproduced, and by thin washes of colour the tints of the original specimens are represented [...] (Geikie, Founders of Geology, pp. 101-102). "The extraordinary quality of the plates, representing the eighteenth-century continuation of the tradition of Dürer, led to an expansion of the work by Walsch [...] the detail and accuracy of Knorr's engravings not only made possible zoological classification but firmly established the distinction between fossils of organic and sports of nature" (DSB). Ill. with an engr. double-page hand-coloured plate "Marmer-Groeve na by Solnhofen" and 272 hand-coloured or colour-printed engraved pl.
Ref. Nissen (ZBI) 2233. - Landwehr 95.