Physiologie des Corps Organisés, ou examen analytique dés animaux & des végétaux comparés ensemble à dessein de démontrer la chaîne de continuité qui unit les différens Regnes de la Nature

Bouillon [now Belgium]: aux dépens de la Société Typographique. Very Good. 1775. First French Edition. Hardcover. 2 p.l., xii, 13-340 pages; Marbled paper-covered boards with a spine of tan leather with a pressed vertical grain, flat spine with title lettered in gilt centered between two gilt ornaments, pale yellow endpapers. Folding engraved plate (depicting 11 subjects). Minor tide marks on the title page, otherwise an excellent, clean copy. First edition with a French text -- "Édition Françoise du livre publié en Latin à Manheim, sous le titre de Physiologie des mousses." Written by the noted Belgian physician, and botanist Noël Martin Joseph Necker -- the personal physician to the court of the Electoral Palatinate in Mannheim. The ruler of Necker's time, Prince Charles Theodore won praise from the subjects of the Electorate Palatinate by founding an academy of science, building up the museums' collections (especially Necker's botanical specimens) and supporting the arts, especially music. (His Mannheim court orchestra, under conductor Johann Stamitz, was considered one of the finest in its time. Young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart applied for a position in that orchestra in 1777. For the record, Mozart's application was ill-timed, as the court was preparing to move to Munich, but Charles Theodore did not fail to notice his talent, and commissioned the opera "Idemeneo" in 1780. Even Mozart was gratified by Charles Theodore's estatic response to his musical commission: "No music has ever made such an impression on me. It is magnificent.") The golden age in the court at Mannheim was not to last. In 1777, Maximilian III Joseph of Bavaria died and Charles Theodore became also Elector and Duke of Bavaria and moved to Munich. For reasons which have very little to do with Noël Martin Joseph de Necker, Charles Theodore's attempt to swap some of his new territory led to the War of the Bavarian Succession. This French edition of Necker's important text was printed in Bouillon, another place where change was soon to come. For nearly a thousand years, Bouillon was the seat of a duchy was prized for its strategic location as "the key to the Ardennes" (so called by the great military architect and strategist Vauban). It remained a quasi-independent protectorate, like Monaco, until 1795, when the Republican Army annexed it to France. After the defeat of Napoleon, Bouillon was awarded to the Netherlands in the 1815 Treaty of Paris. It has been part of Belgium since the Revolution of 1830. Necker, as a botanist, was one of the great observers and classifiers of the mosses -- (Bryophyta). The moss genus 'Neckera,' and its family, the 'Neckeraceae' were named in his honour. His name will remain part of botanical nomenclature for the foreseeable future, as the International Plant Names Index (IPNI) has registered the abbreviation "Neck" for standard citations. Indeed, the mosses are front and center in this French edition -- (Article I - p. [13] to 42 - "De la propagation & de la fertilité des mousses.") Necker also made significant observations in the study of fungi on which he wrote the 'Traité sur la mycitologie ou Discours sur les champignons en général', in 1774. See OCLC Number: 4703866 (19 locations, 12 in the USA). .