Tentamen Methodi Ostracologicae sive Dispositio Naturalis Conchlidum et Concharum in suas Classes, Genera et Species

Leiden: George Jacob Wishoff, 1753. First edition.. Page edges a bit darkened, some light foxing and browning to the text, a very good copy in an attractive binding.. Pp. (10), 177, (35), 44, 16, (2); 12 full-page folding copper-plate engravings.  Title page is lettered in red and black.  Publisher’s original full brown two-color leather in panels, rebacked with new leather spine with five raised bands and red leather spine label letter in gilt, marbled endpapers renewed, sm 4to (250 x 200 mm).  This work provides a detailed classification of shells and shell fossils, drawing on the work of other scientists, especially George Rumpf and Filippo Klein.  The volume also includes a section on the formation and coloring of shells followed by a commentary in Pliny's writings about shells.  See also BMNH II, p. 992 and Nissen ZBI 2211.  Discrete stamp of “Richard I. Johnson” to the title page.  Mr. Johnson (1925-2020) was a long time Research Associate at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology.  He published his first scientific article in 1941, at the age of 16, beginning his life as a gentleman scholar, an amateur with a worldwide scholarly reputation who produced more than 50 papers about malacology.  He served in the U.S. Army in World War II, before returning to Massachusetts and graduating from Harvard in 1951.  Over six decades Johnson assembled perhaps the largest private collection of books and journals on molluscs, including titles seldom found even in research libraries.  Also includes small name stamp of Zoologisk Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark on the front endpaper.