RONDELET, Guillaume (1507-66). Libri de piscibus marinis, Lyon, 1554, [?]volume one only (of 2), folio, woodcut illustrations, initials and ornaments, modern old-style vellum gilt. FIRST EDITION. Sold not subject to return.

RONDELET, Guillaume (1507-66).  Libri de piscibus marinis, in quibus veræ piscium effigies expressæ sunt. Quæ in tota piscium historia contineantur, indicat elenchus pagina nona et decima. Postremò accesserunt indices necessarij. Lyon: Apud Matthiam Bonhomme, 1554. [?]Volume One only (of 2), folio (328 x 180mm). Woodcut printer's device on title, woodcut portrait of the author in baroque frame, initials and ornaments, woodcut illustrations by Georges Reverdi (lacks all before title, many repaired wormtracks mainly to margins or blank corners, but occasionally with loss to text and illustration, [N6v] with erroneous catchword, but with signatures and pagination continuous, with the same circumstances at [V2v]; occasional spotting, staining and browning, a few darker spots). Attractively bound in modern (1947) Spanish old-style vellum gilt by EMILIO BRUGALLA (see note), red edges, uncut, new endpapers. Provenance: From the Collection of Peter and Margarethe Braune. FIRST EDITION of this seminal work on marine 'ichthyology', and "an accurate account of his investigation of Mediterranean fishes and marine animals" (Garrison-Morton), although many of the illustrations are clearly speculative and sometimes even comical or satirical in intent (see, for instance, the bizarre, and literal, monk fish on p.494 ("De Pisce Episcopi habitu", illustrated). The book also includes, unusually for a scientific treatise, instructions on how to cook seafood. Although there is no indication given in the present copy, both Brunet and Garrison-Morton's maintain that this must be the first volume of a 2-volume work, with the second volume being published in 1555 with the title "Universæ aquatilium historiæ pars altera, cum veris ipsorum imaginibus". The present volume comprises "Libers" I-XVIII, with the final text leaf [DD4] numbered 583 and with colophon ("Lugduni, Excudebat Matthias Bonhomme", verso blank), followed by the index Ee[1]-[Ee6], Ff[1]-[Ff6] in 2 parts ("Index rerum cognitu necessariarum, quae toto opere sparsæ sunt" and "Piscium nomina et index"), concluding, unambiguously, with "Finis" and a duplicate colophon on [Ff6], the verso blank. The three copies in the British Library are recorded as having one volume of 1554 and make no mention of a second. Perhaps the second volume could more properly be considered a supplement? Whatever it is, it is absent here. (The first French edition, published in 1558, has 2 volumes, each with a portrait of the author.) The book is beset with errors of pagination: for instance, p.307 is misnumbered 207, p.309 is misnumbered 303, p.315 is misnumbered 355, p.329 is misnumbered 292, p.438 is misnumbered 483 and p.449 is misnumbered 460. The binding of this copy is by Emilio Brugalla (1902-85), considered one of the leading Spanish bookbinders and restorers of the 20th-century. Adams R-746; Baudrier Bibliographie lyonnaise 746; Brunet IV, 120 (calling for a second vol. dated 1555 and titled "... et universæ aquatilium historiæ pars altera"); Garrison-Morton 282 (similarly calling for a second vol.): "Libri de piscibus marinis. (Universae aquatilium pars altera.) 2 vols. ... 1554-55. Rondelet wrote this book with the idea of verifying Aristotle, but in it he described many forms of fishes for the first time."; Nissen ZBI 3474; Norman 1848; Osler 3821; Wood p.541. Sold not subject to return.