Pipa D'America [Common Surinam toad]: Atlante Zoologico Popolare

Naples:: Napoli Presso,, 1863-79.. First Edition. Fine. Fine original hand-colored lithograph by Raimondo Petraroja after drawing by A. di Lorenzo. Folio. Sheet: 16 3/8 x 11 3/4 inches. Image size: 10 x 9 inches. Sheet: 16 3/8 x 11 3/4 inches. Image size: 10 x 9 inches. Publisher's blind stamp lower center under caption, as issued. Archivally double matted in sage green/gilt French mat sized to 16 x 20 inches.An whimsical scene displaying the reproductive habits of the female Common Surinam toad or star-fingered toad. Set on leafy shore in pursuit of a fluttering butterfly overhead multiple fully-formed toads emerge from honeycombed crevices on the mother's back. While little is known of the artist or lithographer, the editor Giovanni Boschi (1863-79), biographer of the famed French Naturalist Georges Louis LeClerc, Comte de Buffon, was clearly inspired by Buffon's encyclopedic knowledge and imaginative presentation of the natural world as well as the work of artists such as John James Audubon in the creation of his own naturalists' compendium; a massive 8 volume popular zoological atlas; a work compiled from the most recent works of Italian and foreign zoology; all set in their native surroundings.  Single sheet matted in rag board