SYMBOLAE PHYSICAE SEU ICONES ET DESCRIPTIONES...QUAE EX ITINERE AFRICAM BOREALEM ET ASIAM OCCIDENTALEM

by Ehrenberg, Christian Gottfried, and Wilhelm Friedrich Hemprich:

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Book Description

Berlin. 1828-1900.. Seventeen parts bound in four volumes. An extremely rare complete set with 156 plates (many handcolored - see below for details and full collation) by Schmidt, F. Bürde, Pohlka, and others, after Müller, and by and after B. Wienker and S. Weber. Folio. Bound in modern half morocco by James Brockman. An important treatise on vertebrate and invertebrate zoology. It contains chapters on mammals and birds by Ehrenberg, and, in a later supplement, additional matter on the same subjects by P. Matschie; reptiles by G. Tornier, and fish by F. Hilgendorf. The third volume is devoted to insects. The book collates as follows: Volume 1: PARS ZOOLOGICA I. Unsigned title, 4 unsigned leaves of dedication, 4 leaves signed 1-4, unsigned part title "Mammalium Decas I. Continuata explicatio," unsigned explanatory leaf in Latin & German text dated 1829. MAMMALIUM...DECAS PRIMA...1828. Original printed wrappers bound in. a-ll in single leaves, nine handcolored lithographs, one handcolored engraving. MAMMALIUM...DECAS SECUNDA...1830. Original printed wrappers bound in. a-rr in single leaves, ten handcolored lithographs. AVIUM...DECAS PRIMA...1828: front printed wrapper, a-b2, c-gg in single leaves, ten handcolored lithographs. AVIUM…DECAS SECUNDA...1829. Original printed wrappers bound in, ten handcolored lithographs. Volume 2: ANIMALIA EVERTEBRATA EXCLUSIS INSECTIS...SERIES PRIMA CUM TABULARUM DECADE PRIMA 1831. Front printed wrapper, unsigned half title, a-i2, k1, a2, b1, a-b2, a-c2, al2, m1, a-c2, rear printed wrapper. ANIMALIA EVERTEBRATA INDEX DECADIS PRIMAE 1828. Front printed wrapper, three handcolored aquatints, seven handcolored etchings. ICONES ADHUC INEDITAE...ZOOLOGICA 1899. Front printed wrapper, unsigned title, unsigned foreword, pp.1-17 (18). ZOOTOMICORUM...DECAS PRIMA...1828. Original printed wrappers bound in. Twenty-two plates (nine of mammals, one of a bird, three of fish, four of reptiles, one of mollusca, four of phytozoa), comprising seventeen lithographs (of which three handcolored), and five engraved plates (of which two are handcolored). PISCIUM...DECAS PRIMA...1828. Original printed wrappers bound in, ten plates comprising seven handcolored lithographs and three handcolored engravings. Volume 3: INSECTORUM...DECAS PRIMA [-DECAS QUINTA]...1829-1845. Original front and rear printed wrappers bound in excepting those for Decas V which are provided in excellent facsimile, 93 text leaves, fifty handcolored engraved plates. Volume 4: ICONES ADHUC INEDITAE...BOTANICA...1900. Unsigned title, unsigned foreword, pp.1-65 (66), fourteen plates comprising ten etched plates (all but one handcolored), and four handcolored lithographs. PLANTARUM COTYLEDONEARUM...DECAS PRIMA...1828. Original printed wrappers bound in, seven handcolored lithograph and three handcolored etchings. Berlin. 1828- 1900. Extremely rare in this complete form. An on- line survey of library holdings suggests that the following institutions may have complete copies: UK = British Library, Bodleian, Cambridge; North America = Alberta, McGill, Academy Natural Science, AMNH, University of Kansas (with other possibles at Harvard, Berkeley, Smithsonian, University of Michigan & Brown University); Europe = CISC (Spain), Rome, Gottingen, Staatsbibliothek Berlin, Austrian National Library (with other possibles at Freiburg, Leipzig, Stuttgart, Tubingen, Rostock & Munich); R.o.W. = Australian National Library. We have not been able to verify any of these holdings, and it is distinctly possible that many, if not all, may well be incomplete. The Avium Decas Secunda seems to be the part most frequently wanting (Bradley Martin had the Decas Prima only - it made $3300 in his sale in 1989); and the botanical section is also frequently lacking in institutional copies. There is an auction record for a supposed “complete” copy: Sotheby's, May 15, 1978, lot 116, sold for £1,600 to Asher, but this only had 147 plates and seems to have lacked the Avium Decas Secunda. Nissen 1247 gives an unsatisfactory collation mentioning only 122 plates; BM (NH) II:515 is nearer the mark but has 146 plates only, lacking the Avium Decas Secunda. A definitive account of the insects is given in Dr. Baker's article C.G. EHRENBERG AND W.F. HEMPRICH'S TRAVELS 1820-1825 AND THE INSECTA OF THE SYMBOLAE PHYSICAE, 1997. The text for this section was by Johann Christoph Klug, 1775-1856. "From 1820 to 1825 [Ehrenberg] and his friend Wilhelm Hemprich travelled along the Nile and collected in the Libyan Desert, Mount Sinai, the cedar woods of Lebanon and the Red Sea up to Abyssinia. They sent home 114 boxes filled with 46,000 plant and 34,000 animal specimens...the explorers often found themselves caught between warring tribes...By the time it ended three-quarters of the expedition members had died, including Hemprich...[Ehrenberg] was made professor at Berlin University and given an institute to assist him in completing 800 copperplates for his SYMBOLAE PHYSICAE. However because of his extremely exact textual research, he was only able to finish 80..." - Jahn, pp.17-18 (in THE LINNEAN Ehrenburg issue, 1998). McGILL/WOOD 330.

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