[MAUPERTUIS, Pierre Louis Moreau de (1698-1759). Venus Physique. [With 3 other works bound in.]

[MAUPERTUIS, Pierre Louis Moreau de (1698-1759)].  Venus Physique. [No place: no publisher, 1745. 2 parts [although pagination continuous]. Typographical ornament at the head of each part [bound after:]  Hyacinth Théodor BARON (1707-87).  Ritus usus et laudeabiles facultatis medicinæ Parisiensis consuetudines. Paris: Typis G. F. Quillau, 1751 [and the same author’s:]  Statuta facultatis medicinæ Parisiensis. Paris: Typis G. F. Quillau, 1751. Woodcut devices on titles, headpieces and initials (some light spotting and browning, a few darker spots). Together 3 works in one volume, small 8vo (142 x 80mm). Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt with raised bands, red edges (spine repaired with loss of one lettering-piece, rubbed). Provenance: modern inscriptions to front free endpaper; some pencil annotation; from the Collection of Peter and Margarethe Braune. FIRST EDITION of the first-named work. "Maupertuis's remarkable work on embryology and genetics. It is divided into two parts: 'Dissertation sur l' Origine des Hommes et des Animaux' and 'Dissertation sur l' Origine des Noirs'. The first part was originally published a year earlier under the title 'Dissertation Physique à l' Occasion du Nègre Blanc' and was written after an albino Negro appeared in Paris. A scientist, philosopher, and original thinker, Maupertuis was years ahead of his time in many aspects of biology, particularly embryology and genetics. His arguments against the then-prevailing theory of pre-formation and for epigenesis were so close to the idea of evolution that he is a true forerunner of Darwin and Mendel. His theories and observations are contained in this work, which he may have had published anonymously to avoid repercussions from Church authorities" (Heirs of Hippocrates). Barbier IV, 922; Bib. Osleriana 3350; Garrison-Morton 215.2; Heirs of Hippocrates 536; cf. Waller 6354 (references for first-named work only).