Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles de quadrupèdes : où l'on rétablit les caractères de plusieurs espèces d'animaux que les révolutions du globe paroissent avoir détruites

Abstract

First edition of a work which laid the foundation to vertebrate paleontology; The plates have a number of different illustrators and engravers. Some of the illustrators include Mlle. Balzac, N. Boullemier, De Wailly, Devilliers, Hüet, Laurillard, and Mary Morland; some of the engravers include: Canu, Cloquet, Couet, Coutant, Daréna, Dien, Lecerf, and Sauvage; Errors in paging; Includes bibliographical references; t. 1. Le discours préliminaire et la géographie minéralogique des environs de Paris / [written by Cuvier in collaboration with A. Brongniart] -- t. 2. Les pachydermes des couches meubles et des terrains d'alluvion -- t. 3. Les os fossiles des environs de Paris -- t. 4. Les ruminans, les onguiculés et les reptiles fossiles; Horblit, H.D. Grolier 100 science books; Smith, J.C. Georges Cuvier; Nissen, C. Zoologische Buchillustration; Dibner Library. Heralds of Science (1980 ed.); extracted picklist; SCDIRB and SCNHRB have one copy each; SCDIRB copy is imperfect: Pages 33-38, t. 4, IIIe partie, mémoire, are wanting. One of the four plates for mémoire VII, t. 3, is wanting; plate IV, t. 4, IVe partie, mémoire VI and plate I, t. 4, Ve partie, mémoire II are wanting. An extra copy of the sheet with p. 1-2 and 7-8, t. 4, IIIe partie, mémoire I is bound in; in the same mémoire, an extra copy of the leaf with p. 41-42 is also bound in. A plate with handwritten description, "Decad. IX, pl. IX" in t. 4, is partially cut away, and might have been an extra illustration added by a former owner; SCDIRB copy is identified as formerly belonging to H.-M. Ducrotay de Blainville on the front free endpaper of t. 1. There are extensive old ms. notes in pencil and ink throughout the set that are attributed to de Blainville; SCDIRB copy of t. 4 has inserted items at end of volume: a sheet of handwritten notes ([1] p.) about the "Megasauros", bound in just before an extract of M. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire's Description de deux crocodiles qui existent dans le Nil, comparés au crocodile de Saint-Dominique (20 p., [1] leaf of plates); SCDIRB copy has bookplate: Burndy Library ... gift of Bern Dibner; SCDIRB copy has later blind- and gilt-tooled red morocco leather bindings with raised bands, marbled endpapers, and green silk ribbon page markers. The binding is signed: Ottman-Duplanil; SCNHRB copy is imperfect: p. 73-80 of Essai sur la géographie mineralogique des environs de Paris (t. 1) are wanting; SCNHRB copy has "Office Library of the Smithsonian Institution" stamps, with accession no. 5113; SCNHRB copy has brown buckram bindings of the U. S. National Museum, with gilt-lettered spines and faux-marbled endpapers. The text and plate leaves have been closely cropped, affecting some of the plates